EP Petroecuador continues with the process of eliminating environmental liabilities from the Esmeraldas Refinery

This Petroecuador release was published using machine translation.

Esmeraldas, July 12, 2020

Technical staff of the Suez - Ecuambiente Consortium continue with the previous work for the export of hazardous waste from the Esmeraldas Refinery, which consists of 3,000 tons of spent caustic soda, spent diethanolamine, dielectric oil with PCB'S and electrical transformers with PCBs, which remain stored. in the cellars of the refining center and which will be sent to Europe for final processing.

Technical staff of the contracting company, until June 29, carried out the transfer of at least 2,147, 71 tons of spent soda and the labeling of 2,126.90 tons of the same waste, which means a physical advance of 82.51% of this activity. Likewise, the transfer process of approximately 77.3 tons of diethanolamine (DEA) was carried out, which represents an advance of 92.02%.

These products are transferred to ISO standard tanks, which serve to safely store this type of product as they prevent leaks into the environment, thus mitigating any source of contamination at the Esmeraldas Refinery.

While these activities continue, the Petroecuador Public Company, and with the constant support of the Ministry of the Environment and Water (MAAE), manages cross-border permits for the transport and export of this type of industrial waste to France and Belgium for final disposal.

The export of these wastes was delayed due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, which prevented permits from being obtained in the different countries of transit and delayed the initial schedule.

The contract with the Suez - Ecuambiente Consortium began on July 19, 2019 and contemplates the export of more than 3,000 tons of industrial waste, with an investment of USD 7.5 million.

The treatment to be carried out in Europe consists of the incineration of the soda at high temperatures, to ensure the total destruction of the substances and to avoid the formation of secondary compounds harmful to the environment. This type of plants have emission treatment systems, thus ensuring that the gases resulting from the destruction of the waste are purified prior to their emission into the atmosphere. To end this procedure, the contracting company issues final destruction destruction certificates, which are approved by the competent authority, which in this case is the MAAE.

Spent Caustic Soda is a corrosive liquid substance that occurs in gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) treatment operations. In Ecuador there is no technology for the final management of this type of waste, so this waste must be exported to specialized plants abroad for final disposal.

As part of its environmental responsibility policy, EP Petroecuador has a Waste Management Plan for the Esmeraldas Refinery, which involves monitoring and permanent controls on stored waste, to prevent environmental contamination from occurring.