Uruguay’s ANCAP lets contract for La Teja refinery

Uruguay's state oil company Administración Nacional de Combustibles Alcohol y Pórtland (ANCAP) has let a contract to KBR Inc. to provide technology for a new unit to be added as part of a strategic upgrading project at ANCAP’s 50,000-b/d Eduardo Acevedo Vázquez refining complex at La Teja, along the Bay of Montevideo.

As part of the contract, KBR will license its residual oil solvent extraction (ROSE) solvent deasphalting (SDA), as well as deliver basic engineering design, and proprietary equipment for the 6,000-b/d ROSE unit, the service provider said.

In addition to helping reduce the site’s environmental footprint, the ROSE unit will enable the refinery—Uruguay’s only—to produce a lighter, higher-grade product mix, as well as allow it greater flexibility in adjusting production slates to respond to changing market conditions, KBR said.

While further details regarding the La Teja upgrading project were not disclosed, ANCAP confirmed in its 2019 annual report to investors that it will carry out modifications and equipment upgrades designed to improve economics, efficiency, and environmental performance to main processing units at the refinery during the complex’s next planned maintenance shutdown, which is scheduled for 2023.

Already in the planning stages, the 2023 turnaround also will implement a project involving coprocessing cheaper, low-cost renewable feedstocks into fuel, ANCAP said.