Houston (Platts)--19Jan2011/532 am EST/1032 GMT

Ecuadorean state oil company Petroecuador has set a crude production goal of 180.8 million barrels for 2011, up from the 2010 goal of 178.213 million barrels, according to a copy of Petroecuador's 2011 operations plan obtained by Platts on Tuesday.

Its goal for crude exports is 125.582 million barrels, compared with the 2010 goal of 122.151 million barrels.

In refined products, Petroecuador aims to import 44.705 million barrels, compared with the 2010 goal of 38.277 million, while exporting a total of 7.476 million barrels in 2011, down from the 2010 goal of 11.596 million barrels.

Petroecuador is targeting increased crude output at its Napo River operations, in which Petroecuador holds a 70% stake, with the remaining 30% belonging to Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA.

In order to achieve its production goal, Petroecuador aims to drill 33 new oil wells, conduct maintenance in 70 active oil wells and reestablish 10 inactive oil wells, the operations plan showed. The goal is to produce a total of 23.5 million barrels from that region in 2011. REFINING COST REDUCTION

Petroecuador is also aiming to optimize costs and improve the performance of its refining plants, targeting a refining costs goal of between $4.12-$5.50/barrel, the plan said.

The company expects to process 54.3 million barrels of crude oil in Ecuadorean refineries and produce 65.3 million barrels of refined products, including 10.2 million barrels of high octane naphtha and 3.6 million barrels of cutter stock.

In order to optimize its refining, Petroecuador has called for using 24.7 API gravity crude at the Esmeraldas refinery, 28.1 API gravity crude at its La Libertad refinery and 28.9 API gravity crude at its Shushufindi refinery.

It is targeting using 88 million barrels of crude for its domestic market, while exporting 101 million barrels. It also aims to export 7.7 million barrels of refined products, while importing 44.7 million barrels.

The company produces 91 octane naphtha from its FCC units with an aromatics content of 26.2%, and a sulfur content of 1,900 ppm. It also produces 80 octane reformed naphtha with a 40% aromatics content and 10 ppm sulfur content.

Petroecuador will continue to import 93 octane naphtha with a 30% aromatics content and a sulfur content of 50 ppm. ESMERALDAS MAINTENANCE

Ecuador's 110,000 b/d Esmeraldas refinery, the biggest in the country, is scheduled for an 82-day maintenance starting October 11, during which maintenance will be performed in crude unit 1, vacuum distillation unit 1 and hydrotreater unit 1. The plan noted that the maintenance will include work that is part of the plant's overall upgrade plan, which it expects to have completed in 2014. This is later than a prior 2013 target.

The Esmeraldas refinery will target processing 32.076 million barrels of crude in 2011, equivalent to 99,000 b/d or 80% of capacity, the operations plan showed.

Its FCC unit will run at 82% capacity and the crude unit at 62%.

Petroecuador's 45,000 b/d La Libertad refinery will aim to process 15.302 million barrels of crude, equivalent to 41,925 b/d or 93% of capacity. REFINED PRODUCTS IMPORTS

In 2011, Petroecuador expects to import 18.360 million barrels of 0.5% sulfur diesel, 600,000 barrels of ULSD, 10.2 million barrels of high octane naphtha, 2.28 million barrels of premium gasoline, 150,000 barrels of jet fuel, 815,413 mt of LPG, 40,000 barrels of aviation gasoline and 3.57 million barrels of cutter stock, under its operations plan.

The company will reduce exports of 2.3% sulfur fuel oil in September, and will not export the product between October and December in order to cover domestic demand.

--Luciano Battistini, luciano_battistini@platts.com

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