BP lets delayed coker contract to Foster Wheeler

Aug. 25, 2008
BP Products North America awarded a contract to Foster Wheeler Ltd. for the engineering, procurement, and fabrication of a 102,000 b/sd, 6-drum delayed coking unit and gas plant facilities at BP's 405,000-b/d Whiting refinery in northwest Indiana.

By David N. Nakamura
Refining/Petrochemical Editor

Houston, Aug. 25 -- BP Products North America awarded a contract to Foster Wheeler Ltd. for the engineering, procurement, and fabrication of a 102,000 b/sd, 6-drum delayed coking unit and gas plant facilities at BP's 405,000-b/d Whiting refinery in northwest Indiana.

The delayed coking unit is part of the BP Whiting Refinery modernization project, which will increase the refinery's gasoline production by 1.7 million gal/day and allow it to process more Canadian crude (OGJ, Sept. 25, 2006, p. 10). Terms of the award were not announced. Foster Wheeler USA has been working on the project since 2005.

BP has awarded contracts for the project in stages. Previous contracts were awarded to Fluor Corp. for work that includes a crude distillation unit and a new gas oil hydrotreater (OGJ, Nov. 27, 2006, p. 10). and to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. for the sulfur-recovery facilities (OGJ, Apr. 23, 2007, p. 9).

BP expects to finish the $3.8 billion project in 2011. Foster Wheeler is using its Sydec process for the delayed coking units.