MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bolivian Fiscal Petroleum Reservoirs (YPFB) on Friday launched a public tender to hire an international company with a recognized track record in the petrochemical industry, to carry out the engineering of the "Propylene and Polypropylene Plants" project, said Bnamericas.
"This engineering consists in determining the necessary facilities to be built in these plants, as well as their auxiliary systems, so that this petrochemical complex has a production of 250,000 metric tons of polypropylene annually," said YPFB President Oscar Barriga Arteaga. The raw material that will be used by this petrochemical complex that will be located in the town of Palmar Chico (Yacuiba), 10 km north of the Carlos Villegas Plant, is propane from the liquid separator plant.
In the act of launching this tender, the president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Luis Alberto Sanchez, the president of YPFB, Oscar Barriga Arteaga and regional authorities of the Gran Chaco province of the department of Tarija.
At the end of this engineering, the final designs of the petrochemical complex will be carried out, which will allow us to continue with the following stages regarding the “Purchase of Machinery and Equipment” and “Construction and Assembly”.
The national industry may use polypropylene as a raw material for the manufacture of finished products, such as household appliances, auto parts and other products for daily use, which have a greater added value. This industry will allow generating development poles that will boost the economy not only by the industries but also by the services that they require for its operation.
The installation of industries in towns near the Propylene and Polypropylene Plants, such as Yacuiba, Villa Montes and Carapari, in addition to other regions of Bolivia, will allow the manufacture of finished products intended for both internal consumption and export.
At the moment, progress was made with Conceptual Engineering and product development processes (PDP). Likewise, an investment of more than USD2 billion is estimated, for which a loan from the Central Bank of Bolivia is available.
The project will be dedicated to the production of polymers to obtain soft and hard plastics. It will also allow adding value to natural gas and thus promoting the plastics processing industry to consolidate the petrochemical industry in Bolivia.
This YPFB release was published using machine translation.
MRC