VENEZUELA - Amuay (Judibana) Refinery.

The latest major upgrade at this 571,000 b/d refinery was the installation of a sulphur recovery unit in 1996, the third at the complex. Much of the upgrading at this refinery was done in the early 1990s and, when it was completed in October 1994, Amuay became a state-of-the-art facility. This expansion involved the addition of a 34,000 b/d delayed coker and a 445,000 tons/day coke combustion unit. The added deep conversion capacity boosted PDVSA's production of middle distillates and cut residual fuel output by 50,000 b/d. A new MTBE plant was brought on stream at Amuay in 1994.

A facility for the Amuay Flexicoker Disposal (DFAY), a new transportation system, started in September 1999. This can fill 200 heavy-duty sacks per day with coke and store until they are shipped to buyers abroad twice a month through the Guranao port in vessels that can handle anywhere from 4,000 to 7,000 tons per trip. DFAY uses a special pneumatic system to fill 2-ton sacks with coke, a procedure which helps reduce particle emissions and makes this byproduct much easier to market.

The DFAY facility opened up a new line of business, which kicked off with a first shipment of 2,371 of these "super bags", or the equivalent of 4,080 tons, sent to US clients on Sept. 11. The material is used by smelters for insulating electric-arc furnaces.

The Amuay plant came on stream in the early 1950s. It was upgraded during the late 1970s, with five new processes added: flexicoking, catalytic cracking, isomerisation, alkylation and crude light ends recovery. Lagoven owned and operated the plant until end-1997, when the company's downstream assets were absorbed by PDVSA M&M and its upstream operations were taken over by PDVSA E&P. Lagoven used to be the biggest oil producer and refiner in Venezuela as well as the biggest supplier to the domestic market.