Extra-Heavy Crude Oil Processing Plant
| Client | Operadora Cerro Negro, S.A. |
|---|---|
| Location | Jose/Venezuela |
| Completion | 2001 |
| Scope | EPC |
| Capacity | 158,000 BPSD |
With the support of Marubeni Corporation, JGC organized a joint venture with a subsidiary in the Netherlands, JGC Dolce Engineering, and major engineering firms in Venezuela, Jantesa and Vepica. This joint venture landed a contract in 1998 with Operadora Cerro Negro (joint venture between Petroleos de Venezuela, Veba Oil, an oil refining company in Germany, and Exxon Mobil Corporation, a major oil company) for EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) of a major extra-heavy crude oil refining plant. The plant was completed in 2001.
This project aimed to make effective use of the extra-heavy crude oil from Orinoco of which Venezuela boasts huge reserves, but is difficult to handle because of its high viscosity. It aimed to do so by diluting the oil with naphtha and producing synthetic oil from it.
The synthetic oil produced is exported to Exxon Mobil in the U.S., and oil refineries owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, and Veba Oil of Germany.
At the time, Venezuela was geographically and culturally extremely and strongly oriented toward the U.S., so the market revolved around U.S. contractors. JGC won the fierce competition from powerful engineering rivals throughout the world to land the contract for this project, and complete it, securing a strong presence in the Venezuelan market.
