Global, multidisciplinary approach wins in Ecuador

Announced earlier this month, RPS will be providing a thorough review of the $1.5 billion already spent on site preparation, engineering studies and plans for a new refinery to be built in province of Manabi, Ecuador. The planning for the refinery started in 2008, but construction on the refinery has yet to begin. The review process is being managed by the United Nations Procurement Division (UNPD), who selected RPS for this part of a wider review of 4 additional strategic downstream projects.

This type of review is important to the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources in Ecuador as its minister, Carlos Pérez-García, is seeking to modify the country’s management of resources. The government of Ecuador aims to attract more than $750 million in investment to this vital sector of its economy. To achieve increased transparency required to attract international investors, the UNPD will oversee the process of evaluating the performance of current refineries and downstream assets as well as plans for the Manabi refinery.

A global and multidisciplinary team of RPS staff and associates, a total of 12 experts, was assembled to prepare the tender and carry out the work. This effort is being led by Virginia Markouizou in the downstream consulting team who, with support from Ed Jankowski, developed a relationship with the new ministry. The complex nature of this project required Virginia and Ed to seek support from Esther Escobar, an economist in our upstream consultancy team based in London, Stéphane Guéritte, also London based, who is providing HSE and Environmental services, and the infrastructure and civil engineering services are being provided by Brendan Daly’s team in Belfast. RPS has also partnered with a local company Tecnie, who will provide local expertise and addition on the ground support. Making this project even more complex is the tight timeline - the review must be completed in 60 days and requires keeping the UNPD informed of progress every step of the way.

The UNPD awarded RPS this project based on our long history of interconnected project delivery services to the Energy Sector and support services to Ministries and NOCs - our reputation for providing independent advisory services, our multi-disciplinary approach, our global expertise and our ability to collaborate with local partners.