Total SA of France has let a contract to Wood Group PLC to provide long-term support services at subsidiary Total Lindsey Oil Refinery Ltd.’s 110,000-b/d refinery in North Killinghome, Immingham, Lincolnshire, UK.
As part of the multimillion-dollar contract, Wood Group will deliver unidentified onshore maintenance services at the refinery for 5 years beginning on Jan. 1, 2018, the service provider said.
The contract also includes an option to extend the agreement for up to an additional 2 years, said Wood Group, which on Oct. 9 completed its previously announced acquisition of fellow service firm Amec Foster Wheeler PLC (OGJ Online, Mar. 13, 2017).
The long-term service contract for the Lindsey refinery follows Total’s completion of the first phase of its complex restructuring program for the plant, which alongside reducing crude processing capacity by about half from its previous capacity of 200,000 b/d, also involved work to simplify and improve overall efficiency and conversion ratios to safeguard Lindsey’s ongoing competitiveness.
Lindsey update
The first phase of Lindsey’s restructuring included the cessation of processing activities at the refinery’s crude distillation unit 1 (CDU1) and other stage-1 units on Sept. 22, 2016, as well as a project to improve furnace operations, improve operating efficiency, and achieve full-production capacity at CDU2, Total said in a 2016-17 report on its UK business.
The operator also said planning is under way for two projects at the Lindsey refinery in 2019-20 that will involve adaptations to the manufacturing site’s hydrodesulfurization and fluid catalytic cracking units to increase production of cleaner, lighter fuels.
First announced in 2015, the restructuring program at Lindsey joins Total’s broader plan to restructure and streamline its European refining businesses to ensure long-term survival by innovating and adapting to shifting global and regional demand trends (OGJ Online, Aug. 7, 2017; July 7, 2017; Apr. 16, 2015).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
