Bitumenes Orinoco S.A. (Bitor) has been producing at the top of its installed capacity, or 6.2 million tons of Orimulsion per year.
Current Bitor customers are located in Italy, China, Canada, Japan, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania and Barbados.
Bitor and China National Petroleum Corporation have signed agreements that involve supplying 4 million tons of Orimulsion over a 3-year period and carrying out preliminary studies leading to the creation of a joint venture to build an additional module at the Bitor plant dedicated to covering Chinese demand for this trademark fuel.
Earnings posted by Bitor during 2000 represented $60 million in additional revenue for parent company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). Bitor’s earnings came from exporting Orimulsion, a boiler fuel used mainly by power generation plants.
Orimulsion is made from bitumens from the Orinoco Belt using proprietary industrial conversion processes developed by Intevep, another PDVSA affiliate. Ever since it was first developed 10 years ago, the Orimulsion boiler fuel has increased its list of customers.
The projected growth potential for Orimulsion demand in Italy is 6.7 million tons per year (mt/y), in China 5.2 mt/y, in Canada and the United States 1.8 mt/y, while demand from Ireland, India and Southeast Asia is seen growing by 2.4 mt/y.
Production of Orimulsion and export volumes have risen since 1998, when production stood at 5,535,000 metric tons. The construction of a new Orimulsion production module would make it possible to double production to 12.4 mt/y by 2004.
The construction of additional production modules would continue to be the result of joint ventures made by this PDVSA affiliate and interested power companies from abroad. The estimated cost of building such a module is some $300 million.
The Orimulsion is currently being produced in the southern part of Anzoátegui and Monagas states, and is transported via a 310-kilometer pipeline to the Jose terminal, located in northern Anzoátegui State’s shores on the Caribbean. This is a facility that can handle tankers with dead weight of up to 300,000 tons.
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