Houston-based KBR Inc. and Japan’s Toyo Engineering Corp. have been hired to audit Bolivia’s currently mothballed Bulo Bulo ammonia and urea plant, according to a report by BNamericas, citing state-owned oil and gas company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), the plant’s operator.
The audits, which are due to start on April 15, are aimed at detecting and assessing damage to critical equipment caused by the halt and mothballing of the plant.
Production at the Bulo Bulo facility, located in the country’s central Cochabamba department, was stopped in November 2019 (GM Jan. 31, 2020). As reported earlier, YPFB’s Executive President Wilson Zelaya believes the shutdown of operations was not done according to proper procedures, resulting in damage to some of the equipment, and also that proper maintenance was not performed during the 12 months and more of its shutdown (GM March 26, p. 35).
After the diagnosis of the patented critical equipment, specialized personnel for corrective maintenance are expected to be hired.
Bolivia’s new Minister of Hydrocarbons, Franklin Molina, believes the plant can be back in operation in May or June. Zelaya was cited this week as seeing operations potentially restarting at the beginning of June.
The cost of repairs alone to the plant are put at an estimated $53 million, according to the YPFB executive.