Colombia's largest oil research center prepares for energy transition
Actions
Colombia's largest oil research center prepares for energy transition
Jan 7, 2021
In line with the new challenges of the hydrocarbon industry, the Colombian Petroleum Institute (ICP), the main research and technological development center of Ecopetrol begins a new era in which it will deepen research aimed at energy diversification, optimization in the use of water and the reduction of the carbon footprint of the company's operations and products, among other fronts of work.
The announcement is made within the framework of the celebration of its 35 years as a technological arm of Ecopetrol, as a source of solutions for the oil industry and as a lever for the development of the country's science and technology system.
In more than 20,000 m2, the ICP based in Piedecuesta (Santander), is one of the four main centers of innovation and technology in oil, gas and alternative energy sources in Latin America, and the strongest in technologies for the exploitation of heavy crude oil. In the last decade investment in research and technological development studies amounted to US$105 million.
The more than 15 technologies developed by the ICP to facilitate the production and refining of heavy crude, generated benefits to Ecopetrol for US$950 million in the last decade, and also allowed to reduce about 662,000 tons of CO2 equivalent, which is equivalent to the planting of about 25 million trees.
The ICP also developed an important industrial secret of Ecopetrol: a complete biostratigraphic collection (microfossils), which has been key to guiding the drilling of exploratory wells in areas of complex geography, and has been used in more than 40 exploratory wells in recent years, in areas of high uncertainty, such as the Piedemonte Llanero.
In this new phase, the ICP will support Ecopetrol in adapting to the energy transition and reducing the carbon footprint of its operations, through the use of emerging CO2 capture technologies; and research to determine carbon capture indicators in native species and technical support to CO2 capture projects in natural sinks in Colombia.
It will also develop high performance non-combustible products, with application in daily life, from residual molecules of petroleum, supported by Materials Science and nanotechnology.
To advance quickly in these developments, the ICP knit research networks with universities, research centers and companies of technological base of regional, national and international, as well as with Colombian innovators that are linked to the initiatives to ensure Colombia's most biodiverse, productive, and equitable; on the basis of the science, technology and innovation, as recommended by the "Misión de Sabios".
Behind these achievements is a human team made up of 222 professionals trained at the highest level, 26 of them with PhDs, as well as a technological infrastructure with more than 40 experimental areas and more than 2,600 high-tech teams, several of them exclusive in Colombia and Latin America.
