Colombia Propilco begins production at splitter

13 December 2007 22:11  [Source: ICIS news]

CARACAS (ICIS news)--Propilco has begun production at a new propane/propylene splitter that is intended to reduce the  Colombian polypropylene (PP) producer's dependence on imported raw materials, a company source said on Thursday.

"Propilco is the only producer in Latin America that doesn't have any domestic supply," said company president Orlando Cabrales. "But with this [production] we're expecting to produce 30% of our needs," he said.

The new unit, located in Cartagena, has the capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes/year of polymer-grade propylene (PGP), began operating in October, said Cabrales.

The splitter is used to separate propane and refinery-grade propylene (RGP) that it receives from refineries in Cartagena and Barrancabermeja and purify RGP into PGP. The propylene is then used to produce PP resins, while the propane is sent back to the refinery, said Cabrales. 

Installing the unit is just one step of a larger project to expand the producer's capacity to both meet growing internal demand and export excess supplies into the international market.

By 2009, Latin America's third-largest maker of PP expects to increase capacity to 500,000 tonnes/year from its current 380,000 tonnes, said Cabrales.

Propilco's expansion is also an important facet of the Colombian government's concerted effort to develop an integrated petrochemical industry.

"This is an important advance toward the integration of a petrochemical supply chain in Colombia," said Cabrales in Spanish to El Universal, a local newspaper. "Around the world, this sector's most important players are consolidating and [Colombia] is sacrificing value by exporting basic products and importing intermediate products within the supply chain."

Last month, President Alvaro Uribe broke ground on what is to be a cluster of petrochemical and plastics companies in the industrial zone of Mamonal in the Caribbean port of Cartagena.

The idea of the new industrial park is to provide transformers with easy access to port facilities and resins suppliers such as Propilco and Petco. Ecopetrol and its partner Swiss-trading house Glencore will supply the cluster with raw materials from its Cartagena refinery.

By: Jasmina Kelemen
+1 713 525 2653

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