Expansion at a Colombian refinery will provide further impetus for product tanker shipping, but crude shipments will fall, a shipbroker believes.

The Cartagena plant has recently commissioned an expansion that will take its capacity to 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), around a third higher than its original capability.

This expansion is a major part of the plans of the plant’s operator Ecopetrol to turn Colombia into a major refined product exporter, Paris shop Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS) said.