VEBA, PDVSA EYE ORINOCO UPGRADER

Germany's Veba Oel AG and Venezuela's state owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa) plan to build a $3 billion plant in Venezuela for upgrading extra heavy crude. Veba and Pdvsa signed an agreement in Caracas last week under which the two companies will conduct a feasibility study on constructing a plant capable of upgrading 80,000 b/d of extra heavy Orinoco belt crude into a lighter synthetic crude suitable for refining. The deal will strengthen German ties to Venezuelan oil supplies.

Feb. 25, 1991

2 min read

Germany's Veba Oel AG and Venezuela's state owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa) plan to build a $3 billion plant in Venezuela for upgrading extra heavy crude.

Veba and Pdvsa signed an agreement in Caracas last week under which the two companies will conduct a feasibility study on constructing a plant capable of upgrading 80,000 b/d of extra heavy Orinoco belt crude into a lighter synthetic crude suitable for refining.

The deal will strengthen German ties to Venezuelan oil supplies. Pdvsa and Veba since 1983 have been equal partners in the German refining/marketing company Ruhr Oel.

Pdvsa estimates the Orinoco belt contains a resource of about 270 billion bbl of bitumen and crude of 9.9 gravity or less.

In addition to the very low gravity, Orinoco crude and bitumen also has high concentrations of nickel, vanadium and other metals.

In the early 1970s, Pdvsa unit Lagoven SA started a 47 billion upgrading program to produce as much as 125,000 b/d of syncrude. That program was shelved in 1982 with declining oil prices.

Currently, Pdvsa is pressing a program to use Orinoco crude to make Orimulsion, an emulsion of heavy crude, water, and a surfactant marketed as a boiler fuel in competition with coal and fuel oil.