Oil & Gas Journal’s semiannual Worldwide Construction Update reports on refining, petrochemical, LNG, gas processing, gas-to-liquids, sulfur recovery, and pipeline projects. For the first time, this edition of the update separates LNG from gas processing into a category of its own. The gas-to-liquids category includes other related projects such as coal gasification.
Specific project details such as cost, status, completion date, and contractor information included in the report come from an intensive industry survey.
Refining
Plans have been announced for new refineries in the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe. Expansions and upgrades are planned in the US, Mexico, Greece, and Asia. Several new and expanded coking units also appear for the first time in this report.
Motiva Enterprises LLC is in the engineering stages of a 325,000-b/d expansion of its 285,000-b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Tex. While the expansion would notably increase refining capacity, modern design and technology would minimize associated emissions. Motiva would utilize advanced technology in all new installations and replace existing systems to cut emissions per barrel from refinery operations.
“We are confident that the market fundamentals will support an expansion of our US refining capacity. Adding 325,000 b/d of refining capacity would be the equivalent of building a new refinery” in the US, said William B. Welte, Motiva president and chief executive officer.
Construction will begin in 2007 with the expanded capacity to come online in 2010. The project would make the Port Arthur refinery the largest in the US (OGJ Online, May 8, 2006).
Sinclair Oil Corp. is in the engineering stage of a project to construct a 30,000-b/d delayed coker at its 60,000-b/d refinery in Tulsa. The unit will begin operating in 2009.
In Gujarat, India, the Reliance Petroleum Ltd. refinery will install a new eight-drum delayed coking unit as part of the Jamnager Export Refinery Project. It will be the largest delayed coker in the world, according to Foster Wheeler, and is to commence operations in 2008. Foster Wheeler received a process and detailed engineering contract for the coker.
Saudi Aramco plans two 400,000-b/d refineries, one in Yanbu and a twin plant in Jubail, to be completed in 2011.
Meanwhile, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) plans to upgrade Mexico’s oldest refinery near Minatitlan in Veracruz. The upgrades for the 194,000-b/d refinery will allow additional heavy, high-sulfur oil to be refined and will increase production of low-sulfur gasoline and middle distillates.
Petrochemical
The Middle East dominates petrochemical activity with new and expansion projects.
Saudi Kayan awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to KBR for a 1.35 million-tonne/year (tpy) olefins plant in Jubail Industrial City. Saudi Kayan is a partnership of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Kayan Petrochemical Co.
In the UAE, Abu Dhabi Melamine Industry Co. is planning an 80,000-tpy melamine project in Ruwais. The project’s estimated cost is $260 million with completion scheduled for first-quarter 2009. Also, Abu Dhabi Polymers Co. Ltd. is planning a polyethylene and polypropylene unit, both expected to be completed in 2010.
Elsewhere, Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte. Ltd. has awarded a contract to ABB Lummus Global and partner Toyo Engineering Corp. for a world-scale 800,000-tpy ethylene cracker on Bukom Island, Singapore.
The contract covers engineering, procurement, and construction management for the cracker, which will use ABB Lummus’s proprietary liquid feedstock steam cracking technology. Construction is to begin in 2007. Start-up is due in 2009-10.
Currently under construction is a Group III lubricant base oil plant within the Petronas refinery complex in Melaka. The first of its kind in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, says the company, the plant will be able to produce 300,000 tpy and is to be completed in 2008.
In US construction, US BioEnergy completed its ethanol plant in Woodbury, Mich., in September. The new, 50 million gal/year plant is the third of its kind in Woodbury.
LNG
LNG construction projects are growing in number worldwide.
In June, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved several LNG terminal projects.
Cheniere Energy received approval to expand capacity at the Cameron Parish, La., terminal, currently under construction, to 4 bcfd from 2.6 bcfd. Also, Cheniere received authorization to build a 3.3-bcfd terminal in Cameron Parish, to be completed in third-quarter 2009.
For Jefferson County, Tex., near Port Arthur, FERC approved a 3-bcfd terminal for Sempra Energy. The project will cost $600 million and is to be completed in 2009. BP PLC’s 1.2-bcfd Crown Landing terminal in Logan Township, NJ, also received approval.
Dominion Cove Point LNG and Statoil ASA began construction in October on the expansion at Cove Point on Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland. Completion of the project targets fall 2008.
Elsewhere, China and EurOrient Financial Group signed an agreement in September to construct an LNG terminal in Rizhao City in Shandong province with an initial import capacity of 1.5 million tpy. Construction of the $965-million terminal is to begin in first-quarter 2008.
LNG projects are in planning and engineering stages in Australia, France, and the Netherlands.
Gas processing
Energy Transfer Partners LP is planning a gas processing plant in Johnson County, Tex., to handle gas produced from the Barnett shale and connect with the partnership’s pipeline system. The project consists of two phases: Phase I will be operating by the end of November and consists of a 115-MMcfd cryogenic gas plant. A 170-MMcfd cryogenic gas plant, planned for Phase II, will be completed by the end of June 2007. Project cost is $65 million.
Meanwhile, Inter Pipeline Fund plans to expand its Cochrane ethane plant west of Calgary to 80,000 b/d from 65,000 b/d. Upon regulatory approval, the project is to be completed by yearend 2008.
The In Amenas natural gas project in southeastern Algeria started production in May (OGJ Online, May 8, 2006). Production is to build to 9 billion cu m/year of gas over the next several months. The project is a joint venture of Sonatrach and Statoil ASA.
GTL, other gas
In June, the $950-million Oryx gas-to-liquids plant was inaugurated in Qatar (OGJ Online, June 7, 2006). It is the first commercial GTL plant in the world and utilizes the proprietary, low-temperature Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate process, which is based on Fischer-Tropsch technology (OGJ, Mar. 14, 2005, p. 18).
The plant will convert 330 MMcfd of lean gas from Qatar’s North gas field into 34,000 b/d of ultralow-sulfur diesel, 24,000 b/d of diesel, 9,000 b/d of naphtha, and 1,000 b/d of LPG.
In Spreetal, Germany, the Siemens Power Generation Group plans to build a large-scale coal gasification plant. The plant will have more than 1,000 Mw thermal capacity and is scheduled for completion in 2009.
GE Energy & Bechtel Power have agreed with American Electric Power to proceed with the front-end engineering and design of a 630-Mw coal gasification plant in Mason County, W.Va. The FEED work is to be completed in mid-December. GE and Bechtel also signed a FEED agreement with AEP in September 2005 for a 600-Mw coal gasification project in Meigs County, Ohio.
Sulfur
Kuwait National Petroleum Co.’s tail-gas treating unit is currently under construction in Shuaiba, Kuwait. Project cost is $54 million.
Worley Parsons is working with several sulfur projects in the engineering stage. A Claus project in Nizhnekamsk, Russia, will process 880 tonnes/day of sulfur from refinery acid gas. A similar project is being completed for Statoil in Mongstad.
More sulfur projects in the engineering stage are in Italy, Canada, and other locations.
Pipeline
In May in the US, Oneok Partners and Williams formed a joint venture, Overland Pass Pipeline Co. LLC, to construct an NGL pipeline from Opal, Wyo., to Conway, Kan. The pipeline will transport 110,000 b/d with an expandable capacity of 150,000 b/d.
The route spans from higher to lower elevations, requiring only one pump station and minimizing operating costs, according to the partners. Construction of the 750-mile, 14- and 16-in. pipeline is to begin in summer 2007, with start-up scheduled for early 2008. The project cost is about $450 million.
Energy Transfer Partners is planning a 36-in. expansion connecting the Barnett shale to its Texoma pipeline. Pipelay will include 27 miles of 30-in. pipe and 108 miles of 36-in. pipe at an expected cost of $300 million.
In Canada, Pacific Trail Pipelines LP, a partnership of Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. and Kitimat LNG, plans a 292-mile natural gas transmission pipeline between Kitimat and Summit Lake, BC. The project will cost $1.2 billion and will begin operating in late 2009.
Click here to download the 2006 semiannual Worldwide Construction Update.
