Flint Hills advances Texas refinery expansion

April 10, 2015
Flint Hills Resources, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., has let a contract to KBR Inc., Houston, for work related to Project Eagle Ford (PEF), a $600 million project designed to increase processing capabilities for US light crude oil production at its 230,000-b/d West refinery in Corpus Christi, Tex.

Flint Hills Resources, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., has let a contract to KBR Inc., Houston, for work related to Project Eagle Ford (PEF), a $600 million project designed to increase processing capabilities for US light crude oil production at its 230,000-b/d West refinery in Corpus Christi, Tex. (OGJ Online, Dec. 2, 2014).

As part of the reimbursable contract, KBR will provide construction management and direct-hire construction services in phases over the next 3 years for PEF, KBR said.

This latest contract follows an earlier contract Flint Hills awarded to KBR for ongoing construction advisory services as the refiner completes front-end engineering and design work for PEF, the service provider said.

KBR valued its scope of work under the contract at about $300 million, which will be booked into its engineering and construction segment’s backlog of unfilled orders as individual orders are placed.

Initially announced in 2012 and formerly named the Domestic Crude Project, PEF will involve the modification of equipment at the West refinery’s continuous catalytic regeneration hot oil heater, as well as the inclusion of a new saturates gas plant and associated hot oil heater (OGJ Online, May 29, 2014; Aug. 27, 2012).

In addition to equipping the refinery with an ability to process 100% US light US crude from nearby Eagle Ford shale play and boosting its overall crude processing capacity by about 7%, the expansion and modification project will aid the Corpus Christi plant’s efforts to reduce criteria air emissions through the inclusion of best available control technologies, Flint Hills said.

PEF also will include installation of a mid-plant cooling tower, equipment piping, process vessels, and two storage tanks at the site.

Construction on the project, which began in December 2014, is scheduled to last 36 months, Flint Hills and KBR said.