Wison and Hyundai win $2bn Puerto la Cruz oil refinery project contract in Venezuela

China’s Wison Engineering, in consortium with Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company and Hyundai Engineering Company, has been awarded a contract by PDVSA Petroleo, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, to upgrade the Puerto la Cruz oil refinery.

The total contract value is worth about $2.9bn, of which Wison Engineering’s share amounts to about $927.8m.

Total oil processing capacity of the refinery, located about 250km east of Caracas, is expected to increase to 210,000 barrels per day from the current 180,000 barrelsper day.

Under the project, Hyundai-Wison will undertake engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and start-up assistance of the environmental units and auxiliary units, and amend the atmospheric distillation units of the refinery’s Deep Conversion Project.

Wison Engineering vice president Dong Hua said Venezuela has become one of the key important markets for his company.

"We are very proud to be recognised by PDVSA on our project management capabilities that we have accumulated over the years," Dong added.

The project also entails boosting the refinery facilities that operate on heavy crude oil as well as the expansion of other facilities that produce gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene and other fuels.

The refinery expansion is scheduled to take a total of 42 months to complete.