Brahms Oil Refineries Ltd., Geneva, has let a contract to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., Montreal, to provide front-end engineering design for a grassroots 10,000-b/d refinery in Kamsar, Guinea.
SNC-Lavalin’s scope of work under the contract will include delivery of project management, coordination, management of technology process licensor and geotechnical and topographic survey contractors, preliminary engineering, and procurement for the proposed project, the service provide said.
SNC-Lavalin also will provide estimating services as well as the execution plan for engineering, procurement, and construction of the modular refinery, including an associated tank farm and marine infrastructure required for waterborne crude imports.
The conversion contract additionally outlines a process to extend the agreement for short-form FEED into an EPC contract for phased development of the refinery should Brahms decide to move forward with the project.
Brahms plans to use the FEED study as a budget cost estimate to reach final investment decision on the project later this quarter, said to SNC-Lavalin, without disclosing a value of the contract.
If approved, the new refinery—and Guinea’s first—will produce diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel for the local Guinean market.
The long road
This latest contract for the proposed refinery follows a series of initiatives Brahms has undertaken to develop the project, according to the operator’s web site.
To date, preparatory works for the project have involved the following:
• November 2013: Brahms let a contract to Foster Wheeler France SA to provide the project’s technical feasibility study, which was completed in May 2014.
• June 2015: Brahms signed an investment-and-refining framework agreement with the government of Guinea to build and operate the Kamsar refinery.
• July 2015: Brahms selected SGS SA to perform a social and environmental impact assessment (SEIA) for the project.
• August 2015: The Bureau Guineen d’Etudes et d’Evaluation Environnnementale—technical arm of Guinea’s Ministry of Environment (MOE)—approved the SEIA’s scoping report and term of references.
• December 2015: SGS finalized the SEIA based on MOE recommendation, enabling La Societe de Raffinage Guineenne SA (SRG)—Brahms’s local company—to obtain its environmental certificate from MOE.
• January 2016: The Guinean Parliament officially ratified the investment-and-refining framework agreement by unanimous vote.
• August 2016: Brahms let a turnkey contract to Kentz Corp. Ltd. (now a division of SNC-Lavalin) to deliver FEED and EPC for the project.
• January 2017: Brahms lets contracts to WSP Global Inc. to provide a geotechnical investigation study (GIS) of the proposed construction site and to Axens SA for licensing of its proprietary process technology for the project.
• February 2017: Brahms’s technical partners break ground at the proposed construction site to collect information for the GIS and other geotechnical studies.
• April 2017: WSP completed and submitted the GIS to Brahms.
• May 2017: Axens finalized and officially transferred its technology configuration study to SNC Lavalin.
• June 2017: Brahms completed all topographical work for the proposed project.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].