Colombia’s Ecopetrol halts LDPE unit

29 August 2007 21:08  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Colombia’s Ecopetrol halted production at one of its two low-density polyethylene units on Wednesday to perform programmed maintenance ahead of the strong demand season, a company source said.

The Poly-2 unit has a nameplate production capacity of 104 tonnes/day (3,120 tonnes/month). It was expected to restart by 19 September at the earliest, said the source.

The remaining Poly-1 unit was operating normally. It has a nameplate production capacity of 63 tonnes/day (1,890 tonnes/month). This unit had undergone maintenance procedures a few weeks earlier.

Ecopetrol has made provisions to assure its clients will have enough material to continue their activities without interruptions, and it is prepared to import some volumes if the completion of the turnaround is delayed, the source said.

With production averaging about 4,000 tonnes/month, Colombia does not make enough LDPE to supply the domestic market, and it is frequently reinforced with imports from Mexico and the US Gulf.

Other grades are also supplied by Venezuela, but the volumes are not significant, the source said.

By: George Martin
+1 713 525 2653

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