Private companies to construct Ecuador oil residue processing plants

Ecuador's Petroindustrial, a subsidiary of state oil company Petroecuador, issued guidelines for private companies interested in constructing oil residue processing plants, Petroecuador said. Ecuador is hoping to put up for bid the construction of these plants that would process an estimated total of 77,000 bpd of residue.
Petroecuador did not say when the bid would be launched, but it is interested in seeing what companies are interested and qualify for the process. The aim is for private firms to build, operate and administrate the plants and buy the residue from Petroecuador.
There are three refineries in Ecuador. Esmeraldas is the largest, refining 65 % of the nation's crude, followed by La Libertad and Shushufindi. Esmeraldas produces 45,000 bpd of residue, La Libertad 23,000 bpd and Shushufindi 9,000 bpd. Ecuador produced 11.2 mm barrels of crude in June, up 0.9 % compared with 11.1 mm in June 1999.