Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 01 2022

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OCP had originally been scheduled to come storage space to continue operations without
back on stream in early January, it said, but access to SOTE. As a result, Ecuador’s oil output
changed plans because it was able to wrap up plummeted to a low of 36,106 bpd as of Decem-
work on its ninth bypass line more quickly than ber 25, down by 92% on the January-November
expected. average of 471,000 bpd, according to official data
Petroecuador suspended flows of crude oil sources. Meanwhile, the country’s two refineries
and petroleum products through SOTE, OCP – the 40,000 bpd Libertad plant and the 110,000
and its own Shushufindi-Quito petroleum prod- Las Esmeraldas plant – also suspended process-
uct pipeline on December 12. It declared force ing operations.
majeure on all contracts related to the opera- Ecuador’s government has not yet said when
tions of these pipelines on that date, explaining it expects to lift the declaration of force majeure
that it could not operate these systems safely and resume exports. Officials in Quito told
until it dealt with the threat of soil erosion. Argus Media on December 31 that they would
Immediately after the declaration of force wait to do so until refinery throughput and
majeure, the NOC started to curtail production exports had returned to normal levels, along
at several fields because it did not have enough with production. ™

Sycar secures supply deal for

Jambeli LNG with Colon LNG

SYCAR, a US-based project development com- may be the Machala TPP, a 130-MW natural
pany, revealed late last month that it had secured gas-burning power station in Bajo Alto near the
a source of LNG for the import terminal it port. Meanwhile, the US-based company has
intends to build at Bajo Alto, a sheltered port in also said it wants to build a truck filling station at
Ecuador’s southern El Oro province. the port so that it can deliver LNG to local trans-
In a statement, the firm said it had signed a portation companies. This may help it uphold
supply agreement with Colon LNG Marketing, the agreement it has signed with Air Flow USA
a joint venture between a subsidiary of US-based to make LNG deliveries using intermodal con-
AES and France’s TotalEnergies. The deal pro- tainers in Ecuador.
vides for the venture, which makes use of AES The Jambeli LNG terminal will consist pri-
Panama’s Costa Norte LNG terminal, to serve marily of a floating storage and regasification
as a supplier for Sycar’s planned Jambeli LNG unit (FSRU) vessel that will be stationed in the
facility in Ecuador. Jambeli Canal in 11-metre-deep water in the
As of press time, Sycar had not yet divulged port of Bajo Alto. The FSRU will pipe gas to
the exact terms of its agreement with Colon shore for delivery to local buyers, and Sycar may
LNG Marketing. According to other sources, also build an onshore storage depot near the ter-
the Costa Norte LNG terminal is capable of minal so that it can supply larger volumes of gas
handling about 1.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) of to the local market. ™
LNG and directs about half of that amount to an
on-site thermal power plant (TPP) with a gen-
erating capacity of 381 MW. Colon LNG Mar-
keting makes the remaining volumes available
for trade on the open market, and the terminal’s
storage facilities can hold 180,000 cubic metres.
Despite the lack of detail, Sycar did indicate
that it expected to receive enough LNG from
Colon LNG Marketing to begin delivering fuel
to industrial customers in Ecuador. It did not
name any buyers but said that the supply agree-
ment would help it build up its business and sup-
port the continued development of the Jambeli
LNG project.
According to previous reports, one of the
first companies to buy Sycar’s LNG in Ecuador Fuel for Jambeli LNG will pass through the Costa Norte LNG terminal (Image: AES)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 06•January•2022