The Workshop on “Best practices in the operation and maintenance of hydrocracker and diesel hydrotreating units” was held December 12-14 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

The meeting was attended by more than 80 professionals from both refineries and service and engineering companies of Latin America.

The agenda for the event included 16 presentations which addressed various themes, from training and knowledge assurance to technical issues covering the entire cycle of operation of this type of units, from the quality of the load to the special tasks of maintenance, inspection and safety of facilities and people. The presentations were made by experts of Crystaphase, Ecopetrol, Eurecat, Haldor Topsoe, Honeywell UOP, Inerco, Petroval, and YPF.

This event was sponsored by Ecopetrol, since these processes are new to the recently opened refinery REFICAR. It was also supported by Haldor Topsoe.

"The purpose sought with this kind of meetings is to accelerate the learning curve of operators in the optimal management of these units through the exchange of best practices and lessons learned from incidents," Ricardo Buyatti, Downstream Manager of ARPEL, stated.

The oil industry in Latin America and the Caribbean, and particularly the refining industry, faces the challenge of operating its production units in an efficient and sustainable manner to ensure the competitiveness and profitability of refineries.

"While the transfer of knowledge is important in the course of the workshop, we must emphasize that networking achieved and continued over time among industry professionals is equally important," Buyatti said.

The workshop ended with a visit to REFICAR (https://www.reficar.com.co/)