By the OGJ Online Staff
LONDON, Sept. 14 -- Finland's power and engineering group Wartsila has been awarded a contract to provide pumps for a new trans-Andean pipeline in Ecuador.
Work has begun on the line, which will run 500 km from Lago Agrio to the marine terminal at Esmereldas on the Pacific coast. The Oleoducto Crudos Pesados Group (OCP) project was approved in July. The $1.1 billion line is expected to be on flow early in 2003.
The line will move crudes below 24° gravity that will be heated to 75° C. at four pump stations on the uphill side of the line, which will climb to 4,062 m above sea level. Lighter crudes will be shipped in the existing pipeline built in the 1970s, which reached capacity in 1990.
The new line will transport oil for YPF-Repsol SA, Occidental Petroleum Corp., Kerr McGee Corp., AGIP, Alberta Energy Co., and Perex.
Wartsila will provide 22 pumps varying from 3.1 Mw to 3.4 Mw, with final deliveries by April.