Reficar Cartagena Refinery Expansion, Colombia - EKN

Ecopetrol started the environmental licensing process for the PMD in 1995. In 1996, the
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Ministry of Environment issued the terms of reference for the environmental impact assessment
(EIA) and stated that no alternative analysis was required, because the proposed project
consisted only of an expansion of capacity of an existing operation. Ecopetrol submitted an EIA
and environmental management plan in March 1998. MAVDT granted an environmental
license to Ecopetrol for the construction and operation project of the proposed new plants for the
refinery in November 2000 (Resolution 1157). The resolution identified 27 requirements.
However, the present proposed Project expansion is not the same as presented, and thus, this
resolution is not fully valid for the proposed refinery expansion.
In January 2007, Ecopetrol and Reficar requested MAVDT to grant partial concession to
Reficar of the environmental license (Resolution 1157 of 2000) granted to Ecopetrol, and
MAVDT granted the partial concession (Resolution 349 of February 2007). CARIDQUE issued
a similar transfer to Reficar of the responsibilities and obligations in Resolutions 433 (2002) and
911 (2005).
In August 2008, Reficar requested a modification to the originally proposed refinery expansion
as authorized by Resolution 1157 of 2000. This modification included submittal of the Project
EIA. The principal requested modifications were: one additional primary distillation unit, one
additional vacuum distillation unit, one new FCCU, one new coke unit, one new alkalation unit,
one additional sulfur cathodic oxidation unit, one new gas saturation unit, increase tank storage
of product by 2,000,000 barrels, additional solid storage for coke and sulfur, and four new
turbo-generators of 52 MW. MAVDT issued the modification authorization for the Project
(presently proposed refinery expansion) in November 2008 (Resolution 2102). The
authorization states that the existing authorizations/resolutions related to the existing refinery
operations shall maintain in effect until initiation of the refinery expansion operations.
CARDIQUE authorized the land clearing for the proposed refinery expansion in 2008
(Resolutions 1045, 1063, which allowed for the clearing of 56 ha and required the planting of
36,000 trees as compensation for the loss of the 5,143 trees during site clearing (1 to 7
compensation ratio).