Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 40 2019
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e complex includes a 4.45mn tonne per year (tpy) gas liquefaction plant, constructed by Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), and a marine ter- minal, which was built by a consortium known as CDB. ( is group consists of Italy’s Saipem, Luxemburg’s Jan de Nul and Brazil’s Odebrecht.)
e Pampa Melchorita complex also houses a storage depot that includes two 130,000 cubic metre tanks and a gas supply pipeline. e lat- ter handles gas from elds operated by Spain’s
Repsol and the Argentinian NOC YPF in the Cusco region. It is a 34-inch (860-mm) pipe that follows a 408-km route from Chiquintirca, a town in the Ayacucho region, to the gas lique- faction plant.
Equity in the Peru LNG project is split between Hunt Oil, with 50%; SK Energy (South Korea), with 20%; Royal Dutch Shell (UK-Neth- erlands), with 20%, and Marubeni (Japan), with 10%..
VENEZUELA
Sinovensa suspends blending operations, following Petropiar’s example
SINOVENSA, a joint venture between Vene- zuela’s national oil company (NOC) PdVSA and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), has reportedly suspended work at its crude blending plants in the Orinoco region.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity last week that the venture, also known as Petrosinovensa, had halted blending operations because its inventories were completely stocked.
Sinovensa took this step because its stocks were full as a result of the US government’s sanc- tions on PdVSA and Venezuela’s government, they said.
“Petrosinovensa’s blending facilities have been halted as inventories reached their maxi- mumlevel,”oneofthesourcesexplained.“ ey have been unable to market the oil.”
Until recently, the joint venture was combin- ing ultra-heavy crude from Orinoco elds with lighter grades to produce Merey, a heavy blend with a speci c gravity of about 16 degreees API that some Asian re nery operators use as feed- stock. But it lost its last remaining customer in August, when CNPC stopped importing Merey because of concerns about penalties under the
US sanctions regime.
Initially, Sinovensa responded to CNPC’s
move by cutting back on production. Reuters said it had viewed internal documents from PdVSA stating that the joint venture had turned out just 72,000 barrels per day of Merey blend in September, down from the planned level of 110,000 bpd.
Later, the joint venture also suspended work on an expansion project at the Jose plant, one of its blending facilities. Nevertheless, these meas- ures did not keep inventory levels in check. As a result, Sinovensa followed the example set earlier this year by Petropiar, another joint ven- ture that had been turning out Merey blend. Petropiar, owned by PdVSA and the US com- pany Chevron, halted blending operations in mid-September, owing to maxed-out invento- ries and a lack of export options.
PdVSA appears to be facing similar prob- lems. According to estimates from the data intelligence consultancy Kpler, the Venezuelan NOC’s stocks contained about 38.8mn barrels of crude oil as of the end of September, up by about 8.4% on the previous month’s gure of 35.8mn barrels.
CNPC was the last remaining customer for Sinovensa’s Merey blend. (Photo: Diario Primicia)
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 40 10•October•2019
