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Learn about the history, cultural principles, and ethics that have defined one of the most important crude oil transportation operations in Colombia.
Territory
We invite you to know the characteristics of the regions where Ocensa is present and the relationship with the communities and the environment.
- Casanare
- Boyacá
- Santander
- Antioquia
- Córdoba
- Sucre
- Bogotá
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Operation

Port Concession

In the year 1996 the ANI and Ocensa signed a contract for the construction of the offshore oil terminal that provides crude oil loading services for export.

¿What is the Port Concession?

The significance of the construction of this port consists of the following: oil is extracted in Casanare from Cusiana and Cupiagua wells, which Ocensa transports through a buried pipeline that crosses 45 municipalities in 6 departments. The diverse types of crude oil (heavy, light, and mixed) are pumped using a pressure and speed controlled from a control center. The pumping and storage stations play a particularly key role in this pressure: Cusiana, Cupiagua, El Porvenir, Paez, Miraflores, La Belleza, Vasconia, Chiquillo, Caucasia, La Granjita and the Coveñas Terminal.

Therefore, it was required a place where the oil that crosses the country could arrive, a place where it could be stored. This is to pump it through another underwater pipe (12 kilometers long, made of steel and protected by concrete) into the Tanker Loading Unit (TLU-2) or offshore monobuoy, one of the three floating naval structures through which Colombia’s crude oil is exported, located in the Gulf of Morrosquillo.

The petroleum completes its journey under the TLU-2, at a valve and piping site that redirects it through hoses, known as PLEM; from there, and through other floating hoses, we feed the crude oil to the tankers (with a capacity of up to 2 million barrels) coming from all over the world.

ANI: one of the actors

The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), formerly known as the National Institute of Concessions (INCO), is a state agency of a special nature and is attached to the Ministry of Transportation.

This entity plans, coordinates, structures, contracts, executes, manages, and evaluates concession projects “for the design, construction, maintenance, operation, administration and/or exploitation of public transportation infrastructure”, as determined by the National Government.

OCENSA and ANI

The contract between ANI and Ocensa was signed on December 6, 1996. What for? To build and operate an offshore oil terminal to provide the service of loading crude oil for export.

What is Conport

This contract of 1996 between Ocensa and ANI was renewed on December 5, 2016, and will be in force until 2036. From this contract derives the Port Concession Project (Conport), which considers, among other aspects, the modernization and improvement of the infrastructure of the Coveñas Terminal.

This was conceived to execute the peak of the initial investment of 108 million dollars over a 20-year period corresponding to the Port Concession. That is, the Conport Project from 2019 to 2021 invests 49.12 million dollars and subsequently, it will be with the operation and the works of integrity as the remaining budget will be executed.

Within the framework of Conport, but primarily for the commitment we have with our personnel, communities, environment, clients, and authorities, we undertook a high engineering work that has three fundamental parts:

Replace the tlu2 and plem by a new and modern infrastructure that allows for safe and optimized operation, which also includes a fiber optic communication system.
Replace subsea and floating hoses in accordance with the philosophies of integrity.
Perform works of integrity on the subsea pipeline including a deformation monitoring system, intelligent inspections that define works to mitigate corrosion and reconformation of the seabed, among other things.

We work to ensure responsible and safe execution of operations, prioritizing care for life and environment. The Conport project is executed in accordance with the terms of the environmental license that covers it.

Environmental factor, always present

In order to develop our oil transportation activity, we have always needed an environmental license. The current license, granted in 1995 by the then Ministry of the Environment, allows us to run and maintain the Cusiana-Coveñas pipeline and the kilometers at sea, including the TLU-2.

Following are the significant environmental issues related to the TLU-2 or monobuoy changeover:

The change of the monobuoy and replacement of the hoses is a routine activity that is within the scope of the maintenance activities covered by the environmental license.

The operation will be carried out in the Morrosquillo Gulf, which is 80 km long from west to east. It affects the municipalities of Coveñas, Tolú, Toluviejo, San Antonio de Palmito and San Onofre (Sucre), and San Antero, San Bernardo del Viento and Moñitos (Córdoba).

On November 26, 2020, it was executed, as a preventive measure, a level 3 drill. The exercise involved local, regional, and national authorities.

12 kilometers of submarine pipeline for the loading of offshore tankers.