14-01-2016

PEMEX extends contract for nitrogen supply with Linde

The technology company The Linde Group has signed a contract with Pemex Exploración y Producción, a subsidiary of Petróleos Mexicanos, to extend its supply of high-pressure, high-purity nitrogen to Pemex’s oil reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico through 2027. Cía. de Nitrógeno de Cantarell, SA de CV (CNC), the local Linde affiliate, is now supplying a total of 1,500 million cubic feet (50,000 metric tons) of nitrogen per day from the nitrogen plant located on the Atasta Peninsula, near Ciudad del Carmen in the State of Campeche to maintain pressure at the Cantarell and Ku Maloob Zaap oil reservoirs.

“We have been providing uninterrupted nitrogen to the Cantarell project since the year 2000 and are proud to be a trusted business partner of PEMEX in one of the world’s largest EOR projects,” said Tom Blades, member of the Executive Board of Linde AG.

“We’ve continually upgraded our facilities and added new capacity to keep up with PEP’s oil production demands,” said Pat Murphy, president of Linde Americas.  “Our facility is now the largest nitrogen plant in the world.”

 
Over the next months and years, Linde plans to invest additional capital to continually upgrade the facilities to ensure and maintain reliability of its nitrogen supply to optimize oil production. The PEMEX goal is to recover 800 million barrels of oil in the next 11 years via this EOR process.

“We believe our ongoing investments will generate substantial economic activity in the neighboring communities, as well as overall economic benefit for the State of Campeche,” Murphy added.

The nitrogen at the Linde plant is produced in five air separation units, using atmospheric air as input to an ultra-low temperature cryogenic process that separates the pure nitrogen from the oxygen and other minor components. The nitrogen is subsequently pressurized to 1740 psi (120 bar) for delivery via steel pipelines over 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the PEMEX off-shore fields. The energy required to run the nitrogen production process is generated on site using five natural gas fed, super-efficient, combined-cycle power generation units.

Since 2001 Linde has been working through Fundación de Nitrógeno de Cantarell para el Desarrollo de Cantarell, AC, locally known as FUNICA, to implement several social and environmental initiatives to improve the quality of life of the neighbor communities. Notable among these are programs instituted for collection, handling and recycling of solid refuse, resulting in important benefits to the residents and the local environment.

For more information, please visit: www.linde-engineering.com