JSC ForteInvest subsidiary JSC Orsknefteorgsintez has let a contract to Amec Foster Wheeler PLC for engineering and material supply of a steam reformer heater for hydrogen production for its 6 million-tonne/year refinery at Orsk, Russia.
Amec Foster Wheeler will complete its scope of work on the heater, which will be based on its proprietary Terrace Wall reformer design, by Mar. 31, 2017, the service company.
A value of the contract was not disclosed.
This latest award follows a June 2014 contract award to former Foster Wheeler AG to deliver a separate Terrace Wall steam reformer heater for hydrogen production at the Orsk refinery by second-quarter 2015 (OGJ Online, June 24, 2014).
The new heater and proposed hydrogen production plant comes as part of Forteinvest’s modernization and development program to bring the Orsk refinery into compliance with a July 2011 quadripartite agreement on modernization of Russia's oil processing industry between oil companies; the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation; the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostechnadzor); and the Federal Agency for Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandart) to reequip, upgrade, and improve efficiency of oil processing capacities at the country’s refineries.
Alongside the addition of hydrogen production plants at the site, Orsknefteorgsintez, the refinery’s operator, also has launched projects to add hydrocracking capacity for vacuum distillates as well as units for sulfur recovery, according to the company’s web site.
During 2015, Orsknefteorgsintez said it completed a series of project under the 2011 agreement on Russian refinery modernization, including the following:
• Construction and startup of a visbreaking unit to reduce the refinery’s production of heavy fuel oils while simultaneously boosting its output of lighter feedstock for increased production of gasoline.
• Construction of the CRP-1A central distribution substation to provide the refinery a reliable power supply as well as connect it to other newly commissioned installations.
• Reconstruction of the LP-24-2000 diesel hydrotreater to enable the refinery to produce diesel that meets Euro 4 and Euro 5 quality specifications, as required by Russia’s technical regulations for fuels.
• Reconstruction of the 22-4M crude distillation unit side stripper to prepare feedstock for further processing at downstream reforming and isomerization units.
During 2014 Orsknefteorgsintez also completed construction of an isomerization unit at the refinery, the company said.
A former refining subsidiary of TNK-BP and then OAO NK Russneft, Orsknefteorgsintez was sold to ForteInvest in 2011.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
