Sebastian Arriaga

Brief reference of INTEVEP (www.pdvsa.com)

 

INTEVEP (Instituto Tecnológico Venezolano del Petróleo, acronym in Spanish. Institute Technologic Venezuelan of Petroleum, in English). With 1700 employees, it is a filial of PDVSA in charge of investigation and development of new technologies to extract, exploration, production and refining of oil. The huge heavy oil reserves compel to investigate the ways to obtain the best yield and benefit of this tar.

 

Description of Departments where I worked in INTEVEP.

INTEVEP is organized by several general management. In particular, the refining general management was where I worked, in two departments:

• Pilots plants.

• Product quality.

 

Pilot Plants Department.

It’s responsible of test, improve and optimize refining process. Formed with 32 plants, 20 of process and 12 of industrial services and 15 automated. Tank Farm with 11 tanks equipped to handle light, medium and heavy crude, able of pumping through mantled pipelines with controlled temperature to plants of process. The industrial complex of Pilot Plants as formed by Physical separations plants like: atmosphere distiller, vacuum distiller, desalination, decanter centrifuge ; refinining plants like: Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD), Fischer – Tropsch process, hydro cracking, hydro treating, Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC), delayed coker, desaphaltation. The complex have an industrial services area where there are hydrogen generation and compression plant, water demineralizer, deoxo, store of hydrogen to high pressure, nitrogen to high and low pressure,  4 steam boilers, cot oil unit, chiller water, cooling water towers, emergency power plants of 1 MVA each one, air pressure to instruments and process, treatment of water to the complex and boilers.

 

 

 

Product Quality Department.

It is in charge of do tests of quality to oil products, such as: Diesel, varied octane gasoline, Jet Fuel, Fuel oil, greases and lubricants, asphalt, bio diesel, ethanol and formulation of new fuels and lubricants. Product quality department is formed of 4 divisions: Lubricants, Fuels, Asphalt and Automotive. Automotive division was the division where I worked.

 

In June 2004, I Joined to PDVSA in Product Quality Department, Refining Management in Automotive Technology Area. The company that I had worked previously (TECNOSECA), it sold automotive maintenance equipments such as:

• Emission gas analyzer for gasoline engines.

• Smoke analyzers (opacimeters) for diesel engines.

• Electronic automotive diagnostic scanners type handheld.

• Ultrasonic injector cleaner with test bench.

 

I sold these equipments to PDVSA and they was requiring a new program of training of 5 new employees. PDVSA came from a strike of employees where about 15,000 employees took leave and required hiring staff.  I had worked in similar task testing cars in automakers companies such as: FORD, GM and CHRYSLER. Each one of these companies have assembler factory in Valencia city, where was sited TECNOSECA and TECNOSECA was a subcontractor of these companies.