Technip has been awarded a lump sum contract for the Petrocarabobo upgrader, that will include the basic, front-end engineering design and the first phase of project management consultancy services. The upgrader will have the capacity to transform 200,000 barrels per day of heavy oil into lighter synthetic fuel and is being built in the Faja del Orinoco region of Venezuela for Petrocarabobo S.A., a joint venture formed by PDVSA and minority business partners Repsol, Petronar and ONGC.
The contract will be executed by Technip’s operating center in Rome, Italy in collaboration with PDVSA subsidiary Ingenieria y Construccion. The contract activities are expected to be complete in the first half of 2014.
The upgrader is the first project in Venezuela’s planned investment programs that will include several upgraders to be built in the region.