Survey shows increase in petrochemical construction

Nov. 5, 2012
Oil and Gas Journal's semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows an increase in petrochemical construction activity compared with the previous edition of the update (OGJ, May 7, 2012, p. 32).

Oil and Gas Journal's semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows an increase in petrochemical construction activity compared with the previous edition of the update (OGJ, May 7, 2012, p. 32). Following are details from the latest survey, which is available on OGJ Online (see box).

OGJ subscribers can download free of charge the 2012 Worldwide Construction Update tables at www.ogjonline.com: Click on OGJ Subscriber Surveys, then Worldwide Construction. This link also includes previous editions of the update. Historical spreadsheets of data presented here are available for purchase from PennEnergy Research. Visit www.ogj.com, and click the "Research" tab.

Refining

In May, Motiva Enterprises LLC, Houston, reported the completion of the 325,000-b/d expansion at its refinery in Port Arthur, Tex. (OGJ Online, May 31, 2012). Nameplate capacity now is 600,000 b/d, making it the largest US refinery. The project took 5 years to complete (OGJ, July 25, 2011, p. 24). The expanded refinery can process a wide variety of crudes, ranging from relatively light to heavy. It also has the flexibility to switch between primarily producing gasoline and diesel to adapt to varying market conditions, the company said. Motiva Enterprises is a refining and marketing joint venture owned by affiliates of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Saudi Aramco.

Meanwhile, Dutch refiner Zeeland Refinery NV awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction contract to a unit of Foster Wheeler AG's Global Engineering and Construction Group to upgrade the distillate hydrocracker at the Zeeland refinery at Vlissingen, the Netherlands (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2012). The EPC contract's value was not disclosed. Zeeland Refinery is a joint venture of Total SA and OAO Lukoil. The project is to maximize throughput of the distillate hydrocracker by debottlenecking its reaction and fractionation sections. Foster Wheeler's work is to be completed by June 2014.

Mexico's Pemex Refinancion has signed a licensing agreement with Bechtel Hydrocarbon Technology Solutions Inc., Houston, for process design of a delayed coking unit for the new Tula refinery in Hidalgo, Mexico (OGJ Online, Sept. 17, 2012). The unit will use Bechtel's ThruPlus Coking technology to upgrade heavy oil into light hydrocarbon liquids. The technology will increase the Tula refinery's production of "high-quality gasoline and diesel and reduce the production of heavy fuel oil," according to Scott Johnson, vice-president and general manager of Bechtel's onshore oil and gas/downstream division. The unit will be one of the largest in the world, he said, and will be configured with a two-train, 166,000-b/d capacity.

PDVSA Petroleo SA let a contract to a unit of Foster Wheeler's global engineering and construction group for the engineering, procurement, and construction management for the expansion of PDVSA's El Palito refinery near Pto. Cabello, Carabobo state (OGJ Online, July 19, 2012).

Foster Wheeler will execute the project in a consortium with Japan's Toyo Engineering Corp. and Venezuela's Y&V Ingeniería y Construccion. The project is to be completed in 2016. The expansion, which will double the refinery's capacity to 280,000 b/sd, includes several new units:

• A 140,000-b/sd crude vacuum distillation unit.

• A 24,500-b/sd naphtha hydrotreater and continuous catalytic reformer.

• A 58,000-b/sd vacuum gas oil hydrotreater.

• A 45,000-b/sd diesel hydrotreater.

• An 80-MMscfd hydrogen production unit.

• A 250-tonne/day sulfur recovery and tail-gas treatment unit.

Petrochemicals

In October, China National Petroleum Corp. started up a 600,000-tonne/year (tpy) ethylene unit that doubles capacity of Daqing Petrochemical with the country's first ethylene plant based on domestically developed technology (OGJ Online, Oct. 11, 2012). The project is part of a national push to increase ethylene production capacity (OGJ Online, May 19, 2009). CNPC subsidiary China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp. developed pyrolysis technology and front-end depropanization and front-end hydrogenation separation technologies for the project.

Construction progresses on the Gorgon LNG plant site. A fourth train will be constructed as part of the project on Barrow Island. Capacity will be 5.2 million tonnes/year. Photo from Chevron Australia.

Westlake Chemical Corp., Houston, is planning to expand the Petro 2 ethylene unit at the company's complex in Lake Charles, La., in first-quarter 2013 (OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2012). This expansion will increase ethane-based ethylene capacity by about 104,000-109,000 tpy. Expansion of Petro 1, originally set for yearend 2014, is scheduled for 2015. Before the projects were announced, capacity of the crackers was 567,000 tpy and 522,000 tpy, according to OGJ figures for 2011.

In other petrochemical news, Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) let a contract to a unit of Foster Wheeler AG's Global Engineering & Construction Group for work on a large, grassroots petrochemical complex in southeastern Brazil (OGJ Online, Aug. 23, 2012). Fed by natural gas, the complex, in Linhares, Espirito Santo, will be designed to produce more than 1 million tpy of ammonia and urea fertilizers, methanol, acetic acid, formic acid, and melamine. The Foster Wheeler unit will provide basic engineering design, front-end engineering design, and technical assistance and training during the engineering, procurement, and construction phase through completion and performance testing.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim OAO has let a contract valued at more than $40 million to CB&I for front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a 1 million tpy ethylene plant at its refinery-petrochemical complex at Nizhnekam, Tatarstan, Russia (OGJ Online, June 22, 2012). Completion of work under the contract is expected in 2013.

Russian petrochemical manufacturer SIBUR has let a contract to Linde AG for licensing and FEED of an ethylene plant with production capacity of 1.5 million tpy at its ZapSibNeftekhim complex in Tobolsk in Russia's Tyumen region (OGJ Online, June 22, 2012). The plant also will be able to produce 500,000 tpy of propylene and 100,000 tpy of butadiene from ethane, propane, and normal butane. SIBUR has increased gas fractionation capacity at Tobolsk to 3.8 million tpy of NGL and is building a fractionation unit with capacity of 2.8 million tpy. Also at the complex, it is adding units to produce 500,000 tpy of polypropylene and 1.5 million tpy of polyethylene.

Uz-Kor Gas Chemical LLC, a joint venture of Uzbekneftegaz of Uzbekistan and a group of South Korean companies, has let a contract to KBR for technology and services for a 400,000-tpy ethylene plant in the Ustyurt region (OGJ Online, June 22, 2012). KBR will license its proprietary ethylene technology and provide engineering, procurement, and construction support. Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, based in Nukus in Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous region, plans to build a petrochemical complex at Surgil gas and condensate field, a Ustyurt basin field it is developing. The Ustyurt complex, at the Akchalak settlement in Karakalpakstan's Kungrad region, is to process 4.5 billion cu m/year of gas and condensate from Surgil, East Berdakh, and North Berdakh fields, according to Uz-Kor Gas Chemical (OGJ Online, Mar. 31, 2006). The complex is to produce 400,000 tpy of high density polyethylene, 100,000 tpy of propylene, pyrolysis gasoline and oil, and sales gas. Completion of the complex is planned for yearend 2014.

LNG

Chevron Corp. reported that a fourth train will be constructed as part of the Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island, Western Australia. Geryon field, discovered in 2001, and Chandon field, discovered in 2006, will supply the new 5.2 million tpy capacity LNG train (OGJ Online, Sept. 26, 2012). This will bring the Gorgon project output capacity to 20.8 million tpy. The fourth train work will include construction of a fourth LNG storage tank on Barrow and the laying of a third pipeline to feed the project. The fourth train will be leveraged off existing infrastructure on Barrow Island to achieve the new train at the lowest cost. Although no figure was mentioned analysts believe a fourth train expansion would cost about $10 billion (Aus.). First LNG from the Gorgon-Jansz project is still scheduled for 2014.

GNL Quientero, operator of the first LNG terminal to serve the Chilean market, will expand its regasification capacity by 50%, adding a third train to reach about 4.43 million tpy. Start-up for the new capacity at the terminal in Quintero Bay, Valparaíso region, will be first-quarter 2014, GNL Quientero said (OGJ Online, Aug. 30, 2012).

The company's board approved the expansion with advance purchase of critical equipment and has started the process for the engineering, procurement, and construction contract to be awarded during second-quarter 2013. Implementation of the project will take place over 17-21 months, the company said.

Natural gas

In September, Enterprise Products Partners LP started up a second 300-MMcfd train at the partnership's Yoakum cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Lavaca County, Tex. (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2012). The additional train increases nameplate capacity to 600 MMcfd, and the plant can extract about 74,000 b/d of NGLs. EPP also said it is on schedule to bring the third 300-MMcfd train at Yoakum into service in first-quarter 2013, raising NGL production capacity to 111,000 b/d.

Williams Partners, Tulsa, let a contract to Exterran Holdings, Houston, for the design, fabrication, and installation of two gas processing plants in West Virginia. The plants are part of Williams Partners' Ohio Valley midstream operations in the NGL-rich Marcellus shale (OGJ Online, July 2, 2012).

Sasol Petroleum International, the upstream subsidiary of Sasol Ltd., has started up its 63 million gigajoule/year (158 MMscfd) expansion at the Temane, Mozambique, gas processing plant. Capacity now is 458 MMscfd (OGJ Online, May 31, 2012). Sasol's partners in the plant are Companhia Mocambicana de Hidrocarbonetos SA, representing the Mozambican government, and the International Finance Corp. of the World Bank, Washington, DC. The gas plant began full-scale production of 300 MMcfd in 2004 and is connected to the South African market via a 865-km crossborder pipeline. With an investment of $220 million, the expansion came in under budget, the company said.

PTT of Thailand has retained Foster Wheeler (Thailand) Co. Ltd. as engineering consultant for the first phase expansion of LPG import facilities at its Khao Bo Ya LPG terminal in Chon Buri (OGJ Online, Aug. 10, 2012). Import capacity will expand to 250,000 tonnes/month from 132,000 tonnes/month. A planned second phase, due for completion in 2018, will push total capacity to 500,000 tonnes/month, PTT said.

Other gas, sulfur

State-owned Petronas let a contract to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. covering the basic engineering package for sulfur recovery at its RAPID refinery and petrochemical complex under development at Johor, Malaysia (OGJ Online, July 13, 2012). Jacobs will license proprietary technology for a three-train sulfur recovery unit at the complex, which includes a 300,000 b/d refinery.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP, Indianapolis, said it is considering adding a 1,000-b/d gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant to its Karns City, Pa., specialty products plant. This would be the first GTL installation in North America, so far as OGJ can determine; a few larger projects are under study and planning (OGJ, Sept. 19, 2011, Newsletter). Plant design will be completed by late this year, followed by site engineering and a decision to begin building in first-half 2013. Production could begin in second-half 2014.

Calumet has commissioned Pasadena, Tex.-based Ventech Engineers International LLC to design and deliver the GTL plant that will use an "autothermal reformer" from Haldor Topsoe Inc. and Fischer-Tropsch technology from Velocys Inc. Haldor Topsoe's ATR is a technology for reforming natural gas into synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. In the GTL plant, said the Calumet announcement, this synthesis gas will move through Velocys' FT process, converting it into long-chain hydrocarbons, typically paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatic compounds.

Pipelines

The United Arab Emirates has inaugurated its 252-mile Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah. Oil exports from Fujairah will pass through the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. Initial runs occurred at 1 million b/d, but ADCOP will eventually carry 1.5 million b/d, with up to 1.8 million b/d possible with the use of additives (OGJ Online, July 2, 2012).

ADCOP also includes space for 12 million bbl of storage (with eight 1-million bbl tanks currently available) three subsea loading pipelines, a main pumping station, intermediate pumping station, and three single-point mooring buoys for deepwater tanker loading. China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp. was ADCOP's main engineering, procurement, and construction contractor (OGJ Online, May 27, 2009). Start-up of the pipeline was originally scheduled for August 2011.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP received enough binding commitments from shippers during the open season for Sunoco Pipeline LP and Inland Corp.'s Allegheny Access pipeline project to advance the project. Allegheny Access will transport refined products from the Midwest to eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania markets (OGJ Online, Sept. 7, 2012). Sunoco expects the pipeline to have an initial capacity of 85,000 b/d, with the ability to expand to 110,000 b/d. The project will use a combination of new and existing pipe in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company expects Allegheny Access to enter service first-half 2014. Sunoco is operator and 83.3% shareholder of Inland.

Alliance Pipeline is moving ahead with construction preparations for its Tioga lateral natural gas pipeline project in North Dakota. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave Alliance the green light Sept. 20 for the line's 79.3-mile, 12-in. lateral that will connect gas production from the Williston basin to the Alliance mainline in North Dakota. The gas will then be shipped onward to Chicago.

The planned in-service timing for the pipeline is summer 2013. The pipeline has been certificated for 106.5 MMcfd, and is underpinned by a contract with Hess Corp. for transport of 61.5 MMcfd. The pipeline is expandable, based on shipper demand, Alliance reported. The Alliance system consists of a 2,311-mile integrated Canadian and US high-pressure gas transmission pipeline system that will carry gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the Williston basin to Chicago. The US portion of the system consists of 900 miles of mainline and related infrastructure. The system has been in commercial service since December 2000 and delivers an average of 1.6 bscfd of gas.