Bolivia’s Bulo Bulo ammonia and urea plant restarted production on Sept. 6 after an almost 22-month hiatus. The plant is targeted to produce 44,000 mt of urea this month, according to a BNAmericas report, citing the plant’s operator, state-run oil and gas company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB).
YPFB’s Industrialization Manager Henry Lapaca reported that the Bulo Bulo facility, located in Bolivia’s central Cochabamba province, is producing 1,470 mt/d of urea, and is working at a 70 percent capacity utilization.
The oil and gas company estimates the plant will produce 590,000 mt of urea by September next year, according to a separate BNAmericas report this week.
Bulo Bulo is Bolivia’s only nitrogen fertilizer production facility. It has a nameplate capacity of 2,100 mt/d of granular urea.
According to the initial BNAmericas report, citing YPFB’s Manager of Derived and Industrialized Products Gabriela Delgadillo, of the September output, around 7 percent will go to the domestic market, while the balance will go to foreign markets.
Bulo Bulo urea has previously been exported to five countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Delgadillo said the company is working to recover from “the loss of credibility” in markets given the length of time production has been stopped. However, the executive said some 10,000 mt of urea already is awarded to the Brazilian market, and the contract for the sale – with a previous Brazilian customer – is in the process of being signed.
Bolivia exported 305,040 mt of urea in 2019 and 21,769 mt in 2020, according to Trade Data Monitor statistics. The 2020 export volumes are understood to have come from inventory.
In the domestic market, before the plant stoppage, YPFB had succeeded in replacing imports of urea, but now faces the challenge of displacing those imports, according to the report, citing Delgadillo. He estimates the sale of up 150,000 mt of urea from Bulo Bulo during the remainder of 2021. Of that volume, around 125,000 mt is targeted for export sale, while the balance will go to the domestic market.
As noted earlier, in the 12 months to September 2022, YPFB is targeting to produce 590,000 mt of urea. Of the targeted output, some 46,000 mt is expected to be sold domestically, while about 544,000 mt will be exported. Brazil is expected to be the recipient of over 70 percent of the export volume and Argentina around 23 percent, with the remaining volume expected to be sold to Paraguay and Peru, according to the company’s plans.
The Bulo Bulo plant began operations in September 2017, but has suffered a series of operational problems since start-up.
This latest production stoppage – arguably the most serious and far-reaching – began in November 2019 (GM Jan. 31, 2020). According to comments in March 2021 by YPFB Executive President Wilson Zelaya, the shutdown of operations at the plant was not done according to proper procedures, and resulted in some damage to equipment. He said an adequate hibernation of the plant was not undertaken, nor was proper maintenance performed during the 12 months and more to date of its shutdown (GM March 26, p. 35).
Many blamed the alleged use of unqualified personnel for the damage at the plant amid the country’s political crisis in November 2019, which saw the resignation of controversial President Evo Morales and the assumption to the presidential role of Jeanine Áñequalz Chávez, which also was not without controversy.
After a landslide win for the Movement for Socialism the following year and the installment of new President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora on Nov. 8, 2020, work began on rehabilitating and reactivating the Bulo Bulo plant.
A probe at government level was launched in March into the alleged mishandling of the Bulo Bulo facility. However, little has been heard about its findings to date. According to the BNAmericas report this week, “the economic injury” to the Bolivian state exceeds $428 million.