Ecopetrol eyes brand-new oil pipeline from Llano to Pacific
Ecopetrol is researching the economic usefulness of constructing a major brand-new pipeline to attach the heavy oil areas in Colombia's Llanos region with the Pacific Ocean, the firm's Vice President for Transport Alvaro Castaneda said Wednesday.
Talking with reporters after his talk at the Colombia Oil and also Gas meeting here, Castaneda claimed the pipeline would offer Colombian oil producers higher access to China and also other Asian markets. edta is currently performing an ecological impact research study that will be total in the second fifty percent of next year, but Castaneda rejected to predict when building and construction could begin.
He said the pipe would range from 900 to 1,200 kilometres in length, and be designed to deliver oil much more effectively to Asian customers. Presently, Colombia ships regarding 350,000 b/d of oil to the United States Gulf Coastline for refining, and a much smaller total up to China.
Castaneda said Ecopetrol would certainly be open to accepting companions in the construction of the line, which will certainly be pricey to build as it would need to go across three range of mountains to connect the Llanos in eastern Colombia with a Pacific port.
Currently, Colombia has just one export pipeline, Transandino, which attaches oil fields in Putumayo province in the south with the Pacific. Its capability is 50,000 b/d, as well as is being expanded to 85,000 b/d. But Colombia is looking at better accessibility to Eastern markets.
Casteneda claimed Ecopetrol is examining the possibility of putting the Pacific terminus of the line in among seven different places on the Pacific. Along with the two significant ports, Tumaco, the terminus of the Transandino line, and Buenaventura, where Colombia gets fine-tuned liquids, the business is considering places that are presently underdeveloped.
The vital component of this job will be to obtain approvals from the local neighborhoods that its building will influence, Castaneda claimed.
Independently, in a speech to the seminar, Jose Arata, head of state of heavy unrefined manufacturer Pacific Rubiales Power, said that a new Pacific pipeline is a huge part of the firm's future strategy. Pressing such an effort ahead to seek Eastern refining markets is Arata's belief that margins for heavy oil improved on the USGC will certainly diminish significantly in the next 2 years as brand-new pipes assist in the arrival of Canadian hefty crudes for refining.
Venezuelan Head Of State Hugo Chavez has in the past recommended to Colombian leaders that both nations companion a pipeline to the Pacific to open the Asian market for both countries oil.