Oil refinery / Bitumen production plant

The original design of the distillation was made by Phillips Petroleum and ABB-Lumus. Stork-Comprimo made modifications on parts of the unit later. The plant has been in operation since 1990.

The unit is specifically designed to separate the heavy residues from sulphuric crude oil for the downstream production of various bitumen types.
The vacuum residues from the distillation (straight run) are used for the production of road bitumen, industrial grades, cut backs and emulsions.

Selected items have been changed to increase the design capacity, to improve the operation and efficiency during its 12 years of production.

Since August 2002 the unit is shut down due to changes in the production strategy of the owner.
The unit has been emptied and filled with light gas oil for conservation. Selected parts are kept hot with LP-steam to prevent corrosion.

Design Crude Oil: Laguna Venezuela
Throughput: max. 1600 MT / day

Due to the limited space in its actual position the unit has been designed very compact. The whole unit with pre-flash, atmospheric and vacuum distillation is installed on an area of approx. 50 x 50 m (2500 m²).

Only the overhead condenser of the atmospheric column is located outside of that plant area in the tank yard. (In a redesigned layout also this part can be implemented within the process plant area.)

Alternative Crude Oils: Heavy Gulf Crudes (Dubai, Kuwait, Iran Heavy)
Throughput: max. 840 MT / day