Petroleos Mexicanos has received bids from private companies to revamp its Salamanca and Tula refineries.
The revamps are part of Pemex's broader plans to reconfigure its refineries to process more heavy Maya crude and to produce more diesel and high-octane gasoline. Work on each refinery is expected to take 2 years.
Earlier this year, Pemex voided the original bidding round for the two upgrade projects, citing a lack of competitive offers (OGJ, Mar. 15, 1999, Newsletter). It then cited a need for more time to allow a larger group of companies to participate in the bidding. Pemex reopened the bidding in late May (OGJ, June 7, 1999, p. 27).
The companies bidding for the work on the Salamanca refinery, in Guanajuato state, are: a combine of Mexico's ICA and Fluor Daniel Inc.; Mexico's Bufete Industrial; Samsung Engineering Corp.; Enron Engineering & Construction; the Mexican combine T?cnicas Reunidas SA-Dragados-CCC; and a combine of South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction Ltd. and Argentina's Techint SA.
Bufete Industrial, Samsung, South Korea's LG International Group, Japan's Toyo Engineering Corp., Enron Engineering & Construction, T?cnicas Reunidas-Dragados-CCC, and Hyundai-Techint are bidding for the revamp of the Tula refinery, in Hidalgo state.
Pemex will decide which bids pass technical qualification by Sept. 20 and plans to unveil the winning bids Sept. 28.
Pemex has already begun revamps at its Cadereyta and Ciudad Madero refineries and is expected to announce bidding rounds for work at the Minatitl n and Salina Cruz refineries later this year.
When all the revamps are completed, Pemex will have the capacity to process an additional 647,000 b/d of Maya crude.
The overall program is expected to be completed in 31 months and involves construction of 11 new units at each refinery, including a coker, gas oil hydrodesulfurizer, butane isomerizing unit, alkylation plant, hydrogen plant, and a sulfur plant, among others.
