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LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

CFE plant accused of burning fuel oil

with excessively high sulphur content

MEXICO’S national electricity provider CFE because its feedstock consists largely of heavy
is in the spotlight for allegedly using petroleum crude that cannot easily refined into gasoline
products that do not meet national emissions and other light fuels. Mexican President Andres
standards at a thermal power plant (TPP) near Manuel Lopez Obrador has encouraged CFE to
the capital city. make more use of RFO at its power stations, on
According to internal documents viewed by the grounds that doing so will help the country
Reuters, CFE repeatedly and regularly burned become less dependent on imported fuels.
residual fuel oil (RFO) with a sulphur content of Shortly after the Reuters report was pub-
3.9% or more at the Tula TPP north of Mexico lished, a Mexican scientist – Mario Molina, a
City between 2016 and 2019. The documents, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in
which have not been made public, show that it 1995 for his research on the damage that freons
did so in violation of regulations that cap sul- cause to the Earth’s ozone layer – urged CFE to
phur content in RFO used for this purpose at stop using RFO as feedstock for electricity gen-
2%, the news agency said last week. eration. In an interview with the news agency,
The power provider also failed to uphold he said: “Fuel oil should be banned. Crude oil is
its obligation to report sulphur dioxide (SO2) obsolete, and even more so fuel oil, which also
emissions from the 1,500-MW TPP, Reuters has very serious problems related to air contam-
reported. CFE is legally obligated to submit data ination.” ™
on its emissions of this pollutant but has not
been doing so, it said.
As of press time, the state-owned company
had not responded to questions on the matter.
By contrast, Xochitl Galvez, a senator from
the National Action Party (PAN), was outspo-
ken in her criticism when contacted by Reuters.
“The CFE shouldn’t burn this fuel at 4%. The
rule establishes that it should be at 2%,” said
Galvez. The senator, who grew up near the Tula
TPP, has criticised Mexico’s current government
for its focus on fossil fuels.
The Tula plant is adjacent to a refinery owned
by Pemex, the national oil company (NOC).
This plant, along with other Pemex process-
ing facilities, turns out large amounts of RFO Pemex’s Tula refinery produces fuel oil for the Tula power plant (Photo: Grupo Cobra)

ECUADOR
PetroEcuador, OCP say efforts to mitigate

pipeline damage are moving forward

OFFICIALS in Ecuador have reported that which can handle up to 360,000 barrels per day
efforts to repair three pipeline networks dam- (bpd) of crude oil, and the Shushufindi-Quito
aged by floods, landslides and erosion in mid- petroleum product pipeline – to circumvent the
April are making progress. affected areas. The company finished a 1.75-km
According to María Elisa Soledispa, the bypass for SOTE in April and began work on a
country’s Deputy Minister of Hydrocarbons, second 1.1-km bypass in May, she was quoted as
state-owned PetroEcuador has already built saying by Mongabay. It has also built a 1.32-km
bypasses that allow two of these pipelines – the bypass for the Shushufindi-Quito network, as
Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE), well as a 1.8-km bypass, she said.

Week 32 13•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11