OREANDA-NEWS. December 20, 2016. Ecuador's residual fuel oil production increased by 61pc to 15.38mn bl during the first ten months of the year, up from 9.56mn bl during the same period last year. Ecuador's fuel oil exports more than tripled over the same period from 2.92mn bl to 9.61mn bl.

The gain in residual fuel oil output reflected the completion of a 16-month turnaround at Ecuador's biggest refinery Esmeraldas, in November 2015. State-owned PetroEcuador operates three refineries in Ecuador: the 110,000 b/d Esmeraldas, the 45,000 b/d La Libertad and the 20,000 b/d Amazonas refining complex.

Esmeraldas nearly doubled feedstock processing to 104,994 b/d in January to October, compared with 55,581 b/d in the first ten months of 2015. By contrast, La Libertad was working at half capacity and processed 26,166 b/d down from 40,791 b/d. In May a fire damaged the 26,000 b/d crude distillation unit at La Libertad. The unit has been shut since then is expected to remain offline for the rest of the year. Once the unit resumes operation, Ecuador's residual fuel oil output could surpass 19mn bl a year. Crude processing was slightly up at the Amazonas refining complex – from 19,196 b/d to 19,438 b/d.

The bulk of Ecuador's fuel oil exports move to Panama's Pacific coast for bunker sales. There were no Ecuadorian fuel oil exports to the US from January to September 2016. Ecuador's fuel oil inland consumption for power generation was down to 6.82mn bl to 6.10mn bl. Ecuador did not import resid.