Ecopetrol taps Wood for low-carbon fuels project at Barrancabermeja refinery
Majority state-owned Ecopetrol SA has let a contract to John Wood Group PLC to provide engineering works for a planned clean-fuels project at the operator’s 250,000-b/d Barrancabermeja refinery in Santander, Colombia.
As part of the June 19 contract, Wood will deliver detailed engineering design for associated upgrades as part of Ecopetrol’s Línea Base de Calidad de Combustibles (LBCC)—or fuel quality baseline—project, which is designed to improve the refinery’s quality of gasoline production, as well the site’s environmental performance, the service provider said.
Wood said its scope of work on the LBCC project will include redesigning existing processing infrastructure within the refinery to enable production of gasoline with notably reduced sulfur content complying with Colombia’s national targets for cleaner fuels, as well as ambitions to improve national air quality and health.
The proposed modifications at the refinery—which, as the nation’s main refining center, is responsible for producing more than 40% of domestically consumed fuels—will also play a critical role in the country achieving its energy transition targets of net-zero emissions by 2050, Wood and Ecopetrol said separately.
By 2030, Colombia’s energy plan calls for producing higher-octane gasoline with a reduced maximum-sulfur level of 10ppm accommodate entry of high-tech vehicles into the national market, as well as contribute to lower emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
The LBCC project specifically will ensure compliance with Colombia’s Ministries of Mines and Energy and Environment and Sustainable Development’s Resolution 40444 of 2023, which established a path to improving the national quality of diesel and gasoline to support increased environmental protection and improve health of Colombian citizens, Ecopetrol said in a Mar. 25 release.
LBCC project details
Officially approved by the company’s board in March 2025 at total investment of about $1.2 billion for allocation during the next few years, Barrancabermeja’s LBCC upgrading project will—alongside enabling output of lower-carbon gasoline—also equip the refinery to produce lower-emission hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
"This is a major project that will ensure the [Barrancabermeja] refinery continues to be the most sustainable in Latin America,” said Ricardo Roa Barragán, Ecopetrol’s chief executive officer and president.
“[The upgrading and revamp project will equip the refinery] to achieve greater production autonomy, produce cleaner [and] lighter gasoline, and support the [site’s] decarbonization [efforts in line with] the energy transition," Roa Barragán added.
Ecopetrol said internal calculations indicate Barrancabermeja’s LBCC project could reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 4.5 million tonnes/year (tpy)—equivalent to planting nearly 207 million trees annually—and help lower Colombia’s overall CO2-equivalent emissions by 5.3%.
The project additionally could reduce emissions of other pollutants such as nitrous oxide (NOx), sulfur oxide (SOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) by about 90,000 tpy, which equates to an emissions-reduction rate for these pollutants of about a 2.7% from current levels, according to the operator.
Alongside spurring economic growth in the region, Ecopetrol said its level of investment in the LBCC project combined with the technical, operational, and logistical complexities involved in the project will also help create new employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled workers on a regional and national basis.
Wood said it expects the Barrancabermeja refinery will begin first production of lower-sulfur gasoline from the LBCC project by 2030.
Ecopetrol previously undertook a series of major upgrades at Barrancabermeja valued at an overall investment of nearly $780 million in 2021 (OGJ Online, Feb. 19, 2021).
The operator also recently announced a series of energy transition-related projects it is studying for implementation at subsidiary Refinería de Cartagena SAS’s (Reficar) 210,000-b/d refinery in the Mamonal Industrial Zone on Cartagena Bay, south of Cartagena, on Colombia’s northern coast (OGJ Online, Dec. 3, 2024).
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
