Petrolera Ameriven, S.A. is engaged in the development of the Hamaca Extra Heavy Oil field, located in the Orinoco Oil Belt of southeastern Venezuela. The project is being developed in two phases, Development Phase and Commercial Phase. During the Development Phase, up to 45,000 bpd (barrels per day) extra heavy crude will be produced and diluted with a light crude oil to produce 83,300 bpd of Diluted Crude. This Diluted Crude will be transported from the central production facility at COB, in the Bare area, north of the Hamaca field, to PTO, an oil storage area north of El Tigre using an existing 30" pipeline.
Starting in January 2002, a 42"x157 km equity pipeline will be shared by both Hamaca and Cerro Negro projects for transportation of Diluted Crude from PTO to Jose. Since the Diluted Crude’s are different in composition, and their integrity needs to be maintained to enable proper performance of the Cerro Negro upgrader, a batched operation is envisaged. Up to 160,000 bpd of Cerro Negro, transported from Cerro Negro Central Production Facility to PTO via a 30"x150 km pipeline, will be batched with Hamaca Diluted Crude between PTO and Jose.
The Commercial Phase of the Hamaca project begins in the fourth quarter of 2003, when the Hamaca upgrader at Jose is commissioned. During this phase, field production will be increased to 190,000 bpd and an increased volume of 248,000 bpd of Diluted Crude, produced and transported to Jose. The same Diluted Crude transportation system, including use of the 42" equity pipeline between PTO and Jose will be utilized during this phase. In addition, Hamaca diluent will be changed from a 26-30" API light crude to naphtha produced by the upgrader.
Up to 64,000 bpd of Hamaca diluent will be transported from Jose to PTO via a 20" equity pipeline, which parallels the 42" Diluted Crude, pipeline. Similarly, this pipeline will transport up to 40,000 bpd of Cerro Negro diluent from Jose to PTO using a batched mode of operation. Beyond PTO, diluents will be transported to the respective upstream facilities using dedicated pipelines.