Major advance has been achieved as part of the works under way that the Techint-SACDE joint venture is carrying out for Oldeval. There are over 850 people actively engaged in the field and the plan is to complete the remote-controlled crossing of the Colorado River in June.

The DUPLICAR project for Oleoductos del Valle (Oldelval), being carried out by the Techint-SACDE joint venture, is forging ahead. “We currently have all phases active and are in the final stages of the topography and opening the right-of-way. Then we’ll move onto the pre-commissioning and commissioning stages,” explains Juan Manuel Zanuttini, Project Controls Manager.

At the moment, the project’s Civil Engineering team is working on surface facilities, while the Electrical team is developing the grounding and channeling work. A prefabrication workshop has been set up for 20 people from the Piping area, where there are four valves underway at the same time, and work is about to begin on the pre-assembly of roofing and other structures.

Techint-SACDE, a single team

The DUPLICAR project aims to increase transport capacity for Oldeval oil coming from Vaca Muerta by building a pipeline from the Allen pumping station, in the province of Río Negro, to the terminal station in Puerto Rosales, in the province of Buenos Aires.

Module 2 of the pipeline, which is being built by the joint venture, measures 254 km in length and is split into two stretches of different diameters: 199 km of 24” pipeline and 55 km of 30” pipeline, running across the provinces of Río Negro, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. The project envisages building pipeline crossings under existing roads, railways, watercourses and other interferences—and also contemplates an 850-meter crossing underneath the Colorado River. “For this particular crossing, as the ground is extremely hard, we are bringing a special trencher,” explains Zanuttini.

To meet the deadlines for the work—scheduled for completion by January 2025—there are over 850 people working together onsite. “It’s not about being from Techint or SACDE: here we’re one big team working on the project to the same high quality standards that are a feature of what we do, and we’re on schedule with our customer,” adds Zanuttini.