With the strategy, the Mubadala Capital Refinery also reduces carbon emissions
In order to reduce transport costs, Acelen, owner of the Mataripe Refinery (BA), contracted, at the beginning of December, for the first time, a vessel of the VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) class, the largest for long-range tankers. 2 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) were imported from Angola at one time. As a bonus, the company also reduces emissions.
Acelen, a Mubadala Capital company, imports between 30% and 40% of the crude oil that works in the Bahian refinery from the Atlantic Basin. For this purpose, in the first year of operation, vessels of the SuezMax type were used, with capacities up to 1 million barrels.
According to Acelen’s Vice President of Commerce, Trade and Shipping, Cristiano da Costa, doubling the volume of the operation by chartering a VLCC reduces transportation costs by about a third, as well as providing greater security for the supply of raw materials. burn less fuel, in line with environmental goals. Previously, in Brazil, VLCC type vessels were used only in Petrobras operations.
With the war in Ukraine, the value of goods in the Atlantic skyrocketed
According to the executive, the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia have caused a reorganization of suppliers and routes which has led to an increase of almost 300% in the cost of freight in the Atlantic. In this context, companies like Acelen have been looking for solutions to escape this cost escalation. Therefore, after the first cargo delivery via VLCC on December 6, the company already plans to repeat the operation in January and February and then make it routine. Today, says Costa, freight transport accounts for about 95% of the oil premium delivered in Brazil.
The refinery processes 300,000 barrels of oil per day
Purchased by Petrobras in 2021, the Mataripe refinery processes 8 million barrels of oil per month, between 250,000 and 300,000 barrels per day. Of this total, since July of this year, up to 3 million barrels have come from Africa, the Gulf of Mexico (USA) or Guyana. The rest is bought by the Petrobras system, which resells oil extracted by independent oil companies in the Recôncavo Baiano or by Petrobras itself in the Campos and Santos basins.
According to Costa, the origin of the oil used in Mataripe is due to its physicochemical characteristics and not exactly to opportunity costs. With more than 30 derivatives, Acelen’s portfolio goes beyond petrol and diesel, and reaches lubricants, special gases, paraffins and asphalts, sometimes requiring loads of crude oil with different characteristics from the national one.
The Angolan oil brought by the VLCC vessel, for example, has a low sulfur content and will meet the production plan for the coming months. This year, the executive says, Acelen launched three new products — specialty butane and propane, as well as a solvent — and plans to roll out new products next year. The volume of oil imported, therefore, depends on the expected demand for each product, but tends to increase over the next few years as the portfolio consolidates.
The vessel’s draft reaches a depth of 22 meters
The Daba vessel, VLCC class, is 333 meters long, 316,000 dwt and is capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil equivalent. The draft reaches 22 meters in depth.
The tanker left Angola in late November and crossed the Atlantic, reaching the Bahian coast on 6 December. It was the first time that an oil tanker of this size operated in Bahia and, precisely for this reason, it could not dock at the port of BaÃa de Todos os Santos, in Salvador. The cargo transfer will be done through a “ship to ship” operation, in which the cargo is transferred to smaller vessels at a distance of 130 kilometers from the coast for internalisation at the Terminal Madre de Deus, in the Recôncavo Baiano.
This notice was posted on Broadcast on 12/15/2022 at 2:33pm
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Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
