Trans-Panama pipeline
| Trans-Panama pipeline | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Country | Panama |
| General direction | west-east |
| From | Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro |
| To | Charco Azul, Puerto Armuelles, Barú, Chiriquí Province |
| General information | |
| Type | oil |
| Partners | Panama Government |
| Operator | Petroterminal de Panama S.A. |
| Commissioned | 1982 |
| Technical information | |
| Length | 130 km (81 mi) |
| Maximum discharge | 860 thousand barrels per day (137×103 m3/d) |
The Trans-Panama Pipeline (Spanish: Oleoducto Chiriqui Bocas del Toro) is an oil pipeline across Panama near the Costa Rican border from the port of Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast to the port of Charco Azul on the Pacific coast.
The Trans-Panama Pipeline was opened in 1982 as an alternative to carry crude oil from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1980s in average twenty supertankers, each with a capacity of a million barrels of crude oil, arrived each month at Puerto Armuelles from Valdez in Alaska, for transportation to the Caribbean Sea. Between 1982 and 1996 the pipeline transported 2.7 billion barrels of Alaskan oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast ports. After declining Alaskan oil shipments, the pipeline was closed in 1996. In November 2003, the Trans-Panama pipeline was re-opened for transportation of Ecuadorian crude oil to U.S. Gulf ports.
In 2005, Venezuela began talks about reverse using the pipeline for its oil exports to China. In May 2008, BP signed an agreement with Petroterminal de Panama S.A., according to which the pipeline was modernized and reversed to ship BP's Angolan and other crude oil to the U.S. West Coast refineries. BP acquired 5 million barrels (790×103 m3) of storage capacities and committed to secure shipments of 65 thousand barrels per day (10.3×103 m3/d). On 28 August 2009, Tesoro oil company started reverse oil shipments through the pipeline to supply the Atlantic Basin oil to the Pacific Rim refineries.
On 15 October 2009, Petroterminal de Panama S.A. signed a contract with Chicago Bridge & Iron Company to design and contsruct the second-phase expansion of terminal storage facilities.
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