Petrochemicals

The Bequiven refinery and petrochemical complex is a massive integrated downstream project comprising an oil refinery, an ethylene production unit, and a 34 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) petrochemical port on the east coast of Venezuela.

The estimated investment for the first phase of the project is approximately $3.6bn. The construction works were started in December 2016 while the mechanical completion was achieved in December 2019.

The refinery port, which is claimed to be the biggest such port facility in Venezuela, commenced operation by unloading the first crude shipment in May 2020, while the refinery and petrochemical processing operations are scheduled for commissioning by July 2020.

The Bequiven refinery and petrochemical facility will process 10 million tonnes (Mt) of crude and produce 800,000 tonnes (t) of ethylene a year.

The Bequiven refinery includes a 10Mtpa capacity atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, a light carbon recovery unit of 2Mtpa capacity, a 4.2Mtpa residue fluid catalytic cracking unit, a 4.4Mtpa residue desulphurisation unit, a 2Mtpa hydrocracking unit, and a 2Mtpa diesel hydrogenation unit.

The fluid catalytic cracking unit uses catalysts to break large distillation fractions to lighter products. The desulphurisation unit removes sulphur from the distillation fractions, while the hydrocracker unit uses hydrogen and a catalyst to crack heavy distillate.

The petrochemical complex houses an ethylene steam cracking unit of 800 thousand tonnes per annum (Ktpa) capacity, a 400 Ktpa pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit, a 550 Ktpa polypropylene unit, a 350 Ktpa high-density polyethylene unit, and a coal-to-hydrogen unit.