Bolivia’s state-owned oil and gas company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), expects the restart of operations at the idled Bulo Bulo ammonia and granular urea plant next month, according to a BNAmericas report, citing YPFB (GM March 26, p. 35; April 2, p. 30). The plant is the country’s only nitrogen fertilizer production facility.
Repairs and commissioning work at the plant, located in the country’s central Cochabamba department, are 85 percent complete, while contracts for the purchase of supplies for the restart of operations are in place, according to the report. Some 200 plant workers have also been re-hired.
According to the report, YPFB said it has received expressions of intent from local producers to purchase more than 20,000 mt of urea, and that international companies from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay are interested in buying up to 1.4 million mt/y once production at Bulo Bulo is ramped up.
During the repair work, the oil and gas company was working with a commercial team “to close some commercial aspects so that when the plant starts to operate again the company can quickly link the commercialization of the urea output.
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.
Production at Bulo Bulo was halted in November 2019 (GM Jan. 31, 2020). According to comments in March 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 of its shutdown.
Zelaya had put the cost of repairs to the plant at an estimated $53 million.
Started up in September 2017, the Bulo Bulo production facility has nameplate capacity of 2,100 mt/d of granular urea, but has suffered a series of operational problems since start-up.