(Reuters) – Costa Rica’s state refining company RECOPE launched two tenders to buy 800,000 barrels of fuel oil and one 20,000 barrel cargo of MTBE, to be received between December 2013 and July 2014 at Port Caldera (Pacific) and Moín (Caribbean) terminals, according to documents seen by Reuters on Monday.
The first RECOPE’s tender is to buy 8-10 cargoes of 85,000-115,000 barrels each of fuel oil with 1.8 percent sulfur, to be received at Port Caldera between February and July 2014.
The first cargo should be delivered the first week of February and bidders must submit their prices indexed to U.S. Gulf Coast fuel oil number 6 before December 5. The company said that it could ask for up to four additional cargoes of same volume.
The second RECOPE tender is to import one 20,000 barrel cargo of MTBE (Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether, used for oxygenate gasoline), to be received at Moín terminal between December 25 and January 5. The firm will receive offers until December 3.
RECOPE, which operates the 25,000 barrel per day (bpd) Caño Limón refinery, awarded a previous tender in August to Valero Energy to receive 67 cargoes with a total volume of 14.25 million barrels of motor gasoline, diesel and jet fuel during 2014. The Puerto Limón refinery in Moíin is undergoing an expansion program to reach 60,000 bpd of capacity in 2015.
The Peruvian state-run oil company Pluspetrol also launched a tender to buy two combined cargoes of 290,000 barrels each of ultra low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) and jet fuel, to be received at Conchan and Callao ports.
