Page 15 - LatAmOil Week 42

LatAmOil US VIRGIN ISL ANDS LatAmOil

The Limetree Bay refinery, which has a design following year. In the interim, the plant was used
capacity of 350,000 bpd, was previously owned mostly as a storage and transhipment facility.
by Hovensa, a joint venture set up by Hess, Initially, Limetree Bay Ventures said it
a US-based independent, and Venezuela’s intended to bring 200,000 bpd of capacity back
national oil company (NOC) PdVSA. online by December 2019. It failed to meet that
Hovensa shut the refinery down in 2012 deadline, though, and then encountered addi-
and then declared bankruptcy in 2015 before tional delays in 2020 as a result of the coronavi-
agreeing to sell it to Limetree Bay Ventures the rus (COVID-19) pandemic. ™

VENEZUEL A
Washington authorises Eni to unload

Venezuelan crude from listing FSO

ITALY’S Eni said earlier this week that it had
secured US authorisation for the unloading of
heavy crude oil from the Nabarima, a floating
storage and off-loading (FSO) vessel moored in
the Gulf of Paria between Venezuela and Trini-
dad and Tobago.
In a statement dated October 19, Eni
reported that Venezuela’s national oil company
(NOC) PdVSA would use one of its tankers, a
Panama-registered Aframax known as the Icaro,
to relieve the Nabarima. The FSO is loaded with
about 1.3mn barrels of heavy crude from Coro-
coro, a field assigned to an Eni-PdVSA joint ven- Tipco’s plant in Malaysia depends on Venezuelan crude (Photo: Tipco)
ture known as PetroSucre.
The vessel has been listing sharply for some Officials in Washington have now green-
time, raising concerns about the possibility of an lighted the Italian major’s plan.
oil spill in the Gulf of Paria. “Eni is ready to perform the activities to
A Trinidadian environmental group, Fish- ensure the safe offloading of the Nabarima FSO
ermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), said in a offshore Venezuela, using state-of-the-art solu-
statement on October 16 that it had used a drone tions,” the statement said. “The company will be
to examine and photograph the Nabarima. The able to proceed only after approval of its plan by
resulting photographs “showed the vessel tilt- PdVSA (majority shareholder and operator in
ing at 25 to 30 degrees and increasing,” FFOS PetroSucre) and upon formal assurance by the
said. “Its anchor chains are taut, under extreme competent US authorities that the mentioned
pressure.” activities bring no sanctions risk either for Eni
For its part, Eni has been trying to keep the [or] its contractors.”
vessel stable while waiting for the US govern- After Eni issued its statement, Reuters said,
ment, which has imposed sanctions on Ven- citing data from Refinitiv Eikon, that the Icaro
ezuela’s oil sector (both in general and with had approached the Nabarima on October 20.
respect to specific components such as PdVSA As of press time, no further information about
and tankers such as the Icaro), to authorise the unloading operation, which will involve
unloading operations. ship-to-ship (STS) transfer, was available. ™

GUYANA
KOTUG to support Stabroek project

NETHERLANDS-BASED KOTUG Interna- The contract, which marks the firm’s entrance
tional has been awarded a long-term contract into the South American market, was awarded
to provide offshore terminal towage support for by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana, a
operations in Guyana. subsidiary of the US super-major ExxonMobil.

Week 42 22•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15