Introduction and Technical Q&A about the Cartagena refinery

ABOUT THE REFINERY

With a design capacity to process 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day, the Cartagena refinery has a high conversion capacity and generates significant added value by transforming 97.5% of the crude it receives into valuable products for the market. These include ultra-low sulfur diesel, between 8 and 10 ppm (parts per million sulfur) and gasoline, between 40-60 ppm, clean fuels, more friendly to the environment, which meet the most demanding international standards. The remaining 2.5% converts it into products such as petcoque and sulfur, which are sold to the steel and fertilizer industries, respectively.

The Refinery is made up of 34 units in full operation and supplies the entire fuel market of the Colombian Caribbean coast and contributes to the national supply of fuels and exports some products. Within this products also are Diesel or ACPM, Jet A-1, virgin Nafta and high octane Nafta, Arotar, Propylene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

UPCOMING PROJECTS:

Ecopetrol's Investment Plan for 2020 includes the project to interconnect the original Unit of the Cartagena refinery with the modern complex built in the expansion.

This repowering of the original unit that has been suspended since 2013 will allow the Refinery to increase the load capacity from 150,000 bpd to an average of 200,000 bpd, which means that its production of clean fuels will increase in a 25%.

The investment will be divided between 2020 and 2021, providing USD $85 M in the first year and USD $65 M during the second, for a total estimate of USD $150 Million. In a press release, Ecopetrol indicated

that the "Investment Plan is aimed at maintaining the path of profitable and sustainable growth begun in recent years and advancing the energy transition with specific goals of decarbonisation, innovation, technology and digital, as well as strengthen the positive social and environmental impact in the territories where the Company operates ”.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE For the last 10 years, the company developed a key modernisation and expansion project which cost about USD 6.5 billion.

The delivery of the 16 new units by the builders to the enlistment teams took place from May 2014 and lasted until the start of commercial operations in October of the same year. Among the new units are the sulfur block, the butane block, the refinery gas, saturated gas, electricity and steam generation, the electrical interconnection, compressed air, the catalytic cracking unit and the Nafta hydrotreater, among others. This project brought as well environmental benefits allowing emission control with the highest international standards and the implementation of latest technology for dumping control and water management.

Within the 34 Cartagena refinery’s plants of processes and industrial services are:

- Hydroenergy and steam generation unit
- Drinking water unit
- HG Alkylation Unit
- Raw water treatment unit
- Hydrogen generating units
- Hydrocracking Unit
- Crude Distillation Unit
- Diesel Hydrotreating Units
- Butane Isomerization Unit
- Saturated Gas Unit
- Delayed Coking Unit
- Naphtha Hydrotreating Unit
- Catalytic Cracking Unit
- Water treatment unit
- Electric Interconnection Units
- TEA - Treatment of environmental emissions
- Remote Operation Center
- Sub 1 Main station
- Sulfur block
- Compressed air
- Cooling towers
- Product Storage Tanks
- LPG storage
- Evacuation of products