Colombia is a country rich in natural gas and oil deposits. Like most countries outside of the United States, these natural resources are owned and controlled by the government. When the lease expired on seven compressor units that supported a 360-mi natural gas pipeline, the Colombian government’s gas company, EcoGas, made the decision to purchase new units rather than enter into another leasing agreement. Bids were issued and in November 2006, Valerus Compression Services was awarded the bid to construct two of the gas compression facilities.

Valerus, based in Houston, is an experienced, worldwide leader in natural gas handling services that include compression packaging, gas treating and processing, production equipment, and facility operations. The company owns and operates more than 400,000 horsepower of compression equipment in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia. This case study details how, in record time, Valerus was able to safely complete a new 8,400 horsepower compressor station and related infrastructure for a facility located near the Colombian town of Casacará, an area located in the red zone and known for guerilla activity.

Challenge

The Ballena-Barrancabermeja Pipeline begins in the Southern Caribbean Sea, traversing Colombia’s rugged northern coast to bring natural gas into the country’s remote interior region of Barrancabermeja. The natural gas that now fuels the country’s power supply through the Ballena-Barrancabermeja Pipeline was once considered an unusable byproduct of traditional oil fields.

The Casacará compressor station is a pipeline booster compressor station that serves power plants downstream. Casacará is in an area of Colombia known as the “red zone,” a hotbed of guerrilla activity for decades. Despite the unrest in the area, the local population requires a safe and reliable source of energy for their businesses and homes.

The scope of work for the Casacará project called for design, engineering and construction of a new natural gas compressor station, including 8,400 horsepower of compression equipment. Valerus also was required to provide equipment, start-up services and operations for the first year.

The challenge for Valerus was to design and implement a work plan to safely move equipment and workers to the area and complete the project, meeting the conditions set forth in the contract with the Colombian state-owned gas company. The compressor packages had to be built in the United States and shipped to Colombia, adding yet another dimension to an already challenging situation compounded by inclement weather and constant vigilance for guerilla organizations.

Results

With a solid work plan in place, construction on an area of 215,278 sq ft started on April 14, 2007, and within two months, the station was ready for operation. The station consisted of five skid-mounted Waukesha L-7044GSI engine driven packages powering GE FS604 frames. At the same time, Valerus was installing the Barrancabermeja compressor station approximately 250 miles away. The Barrancabermeja station consisted of four skid-mounted Waukesha L-5794GSI engine driven packages powering GE FS604 frames Valerus was able to complete this turnkey project in record time – six months from contract signature compared to the industry average of nine to twelve months. Local engineering and environment protocol required expert engineering, planning and execution. The Houston-based Valerus employees utilized the experience of their Colombian counterparts to successfully execute this project with the time constraints. In a country with limited natural gas capacity, a new source of natural gas was able to power the local plants, bringing a safer and reliable source of energy to the local community.