16/06 / 2016 ABEGAS
Petrobras intends to return to the market this year to re bid certain unfinished works of the Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro State (Comperj) in Itaboraí (RJ), which had their service interrupted over the past few months. The company’s expectation is to re bid the construction of the natural gas processing unit (UPGN) and utilities plants (steam and power generation units, wastewater treatment and water).
The information was passed on by technicians from the state company who participated in last week’s public hearing in the House of Representatives.
Work on UPGN has been stalled since October 2015. The QGIT Consortium (Queiroz Galvão, IESA and Tecna) was responsible for the service, but the contract was terminated by Petrobras in March. The original contract was of R$ 2 billion, of which R$ 400 million and R$ 500 million was disbursed. In all, 36% of the works of UPGN were executed.
The company now estimates a two-year delay in the completion of the processing units, originally planned for 2017, according to management reporting data of 2015. The first train of the refinery, with capacity to process 165,000 barrels / day, should only be ready in 2023.
The company’s strategy is to seek a partner for the completion of refinery and use own resources for the works of NGPUs for treating the natural gas from the pre-salt.
Completion of the Comperj, including UPGN, the central utility and the first train of the refinery, should require investments of US $ 5.3 billion. The estimate was presented by Congressman Otavio Leite (PSDB/RJ), author of the public hearing application requesting details of the progress at Comperj.
The calculation takes as a basis the information provided by technicians from the company at the hearing. According to the general manager of Comperj, Valter Shimura, Petrobras has invested U$ 14 billion since 2004 in the works of the refinery, which are 86% on schedule . Asked how much investment is needed to complete the project, the manager chose not to estimate and said the issue is strategic. In August of last year, the government officially stated that it would still be necessary to invest US $ 4.3 billion to complete the Comperj project.
The completion of the Route 3 project includes the construction of UPGN Comperj, the flow of the pipeline of pre-salt gas to the coast and the complementary treatment gas in Cabiúnas Terminal in Macaé (RJ), shall require US contributions $ 2 billion to $ 3 billion, said the general manager of Transformation Projects Implementation Physics Petrobras Gas, Frederick Doher.
Comperj , at the peak phase, employed about 35,000 workers, but today only 1,000 workers are on site. The project is practically paralyzed. According to Shimura, the annual cost for maintenance of the equipment already installed in Comperj is R$ 10 million to R$ 15 million.
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