Petroperú informed the market of the completion of the start-up maneuvers of the most important units of the New Talara Refinery (NRT) —Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) and flexicoking (FCK)—and, with it, the commissioning of its processing and auxiliary units, which will allow it to process up to 95,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
However, as in any highly complex process, reaching that maximum load will be progressive, he specified. Pedro Chirapresident of Petroperú, in dialogue with La República.
And it is of the 65,000 bpd that are processed today in the NRT, it will be in the next 10 days to reach 80,000 bpd; but the most important thing is the disaggregation of these fuels: 44,000 bpd of diesel, around 20,000 bpd of gasoline and the difference will be LPG and Turbo.
“The stabilization and production period of the FCC and the FCK will take a few days. Then, progressively, we will reach 95,000 bpd. We are talking, and it is in our interest to reach the maximum capacity of the plant in a month and a half, that is, by mid-October at the latest”, he indicated.
Effects of NRT
Processing better quality fuels on homeland will have two immediate effects, explained the head of Petroperú. The first of them is reduce the import of fuel and, as a consequence, an impact on prices at the level of the state company’s points of sale.
“We are working on a commercial strategy with the Petrored so that this decrease in costs for processing our products in the country is reflected in prices”, he noted.
important milestone
“I congratulate all the workers of Petroperú for having achieved this milestone,” said Humberto Campodónico, former president of Petroperú.
He remembered that the EBITDA of the Talara refinery has been estimated at US$520 million per year, including projections of Arthur D Little they give it US$470 million on average over the next 15 years.
“At this moment, the payment of Petroperú’s debts, both for bonds and for the syndicated loan with Cesce, total US$350 million per year. Although there is still an additional debt due to the financial closure, what can be seen is that the refinery is repaid; Therefore, it is not a white elephant, quite the opposite, ”he asserted.
Campodónico mentioned that these calculations are made with a refining margin of between US$8 and US$12 per barrel; however, currently that margin is above US$30 per barrel, which will give better cash flow.
The data
Margin. It is expected that, with Petroperú’s commercial actions, together with the maximum load goal of the NRT, the company regains market share. Today it has only 27%, when before it was 52%.
NRT assembly process in 14 months
The process of assembling the NRT units took 14 months, since in June 2022 the Primary Distillation Unit.
Pedro Chira stressed that the launch of energy megaprojects with similar characteristics (very few in the world) it takes between 18 and 24 months. “There were some contingencies that prevented us from even completing it earlier,” he remarked.
The FCK unit, licensed by American Exxon Mobileis present in only seven leading refineries in the world (the only one in South America), allowing it to carry out deep conversion operations.
The word
Approach. Pedro Chira, President of Petroperu
“We are entering Peru through this refinery in the era of state-of-the-art refining. For the first time we are producing low sulfur fuels in a unit of this complexity. It’s historic.”
Source: Larepublica
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