Japan's JGC, France's Technip shortlisted for Aruba refinery overhaul -sources

November 29, 2016 11:17 PM
CARACAS/HOUSTON - Two consortia including Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp and French oil services company Technip have been shortlisted to undertake a roughly $680 million overhaul of Aruba's refinery, according to three sources close to the deal.
 
The Caribbean island's refinery was leased by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's U.S. unit Citgo Petroleum earlier this year, along with a storage terminal that has been used by Citgo in recent months.
 
The refurbishing project will take at least 18 months to fully restart the refinery and adjust its units to process up to 209,000 barrels per day (bpd) of extra-heavy oil. The contract is expected to be awarded in coming days, the sources in Caracas and Houston said.
 
One of the shortlisted groups is made up of Spain's Pentech and JGC Corp, while the other consists of Venezuela's Tecnoconsult, Venezuela's Y&V Group, and Technip.
 
Four other groups bid unsuccessfully for the project, according to a document seen by Reuters.
 
PDVSA, Technip, and JGC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
 
The refinery's previous operator, Valero Energy, idled the complex in 2012 because of low profit margins.
 
The planned overhaul entails turning the refinery's crude distillation units into crude upgraders. These would be capable of converting Venezuelan diluted crude oil (DCO) into some 90,000 bpd of a medium crude of 22 API degrees of density, according to a Citgo document seen by Reuters earlier this year.
 
The upgraded crude will be refined at Citgo's facilities in the U.S. Gulf Coast, while a portion of the refined products will go to Venezuela, the document showed.
 
Even though PDVSA's financial condition is weak amid low crude prices and Venezuela's steep recession, its subsidiary Citgo enjoyed some relief last year due to higher refining margins, which would allow it to direct a portion of its profit to Aruba.
 
Still, Citgo Petroleum asked its parent company to provide initial funding of $100 million, although PDVSA has not transferred the funds so far, according to a PDVSA source.
 
Bidders were also asked to include financing in their proposals. Details of the credit scheme have not been revealed.
 
Reuters
 

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