(World Fertilizer, Louise Mulhall, 22.Mar.2017) — Over the coming days, 500 special containers will be shipped to the ammonia and urea plant, which will be used to export granular urea from the petrochemical complex located in Bulo Bulo, Cochabamba to the Brazilian and Argentinean markets.
“In order to comply with urea clearance logistics, it has been defined by using containers that are already on the way to Bolivia. At this moment they are in the port of Arica (Chile) and we estimate that until the end of the week or the first days of the next week they will be these containers in Santa Cruz,” indicated the director of the Project Amoniaco Urea, Carlos Vilar.
The 500 containers for the ammonia and urea plant have a patented design that optimises the losses of product in bulk to the discharge of the same. These containers have the functionality to rotate 360-degrees to optimise the manoeuvre time, with specific devices created for this purpose.
“They will serve to transport urea from the plant to Puerto Suárez on the border with Brazil or to Yacuiba on the border with Argentina. Each container has a transport storage capacity of 25 short t of urea, are containers 6 m long by 2.40 m wide and almost 3 m high,” said Vilar.
“These teams have the Australian patent because they have the virtue of having the top removable and this cap can be removed when loading or unloading. Especially at the time of unloading the lid is lifted and the whole container can be dumped, speeding up the process of unloading the product contained in these containers,”explained Vilar.
Wagons
Apart from the containers, the state-owned oil company also acquired 250 specialised railroad cars for the same transportation service, which are being manufactured in the city of Santa Cruz.
Having such large markets as Brazil and Argentina and a production capacity of 2100 million t of urea, then a mass transportation service is required and the transportation through trucks requires a very large fleet and logistics for the evacuation of the product.
This first mega 100% petrochemical project consolidates the industrialisation of natural gas in Bolivia, a scenario that will generate higher value added revenues for the benefit of the Bolivian people.
***