Oil & Gas Journal’s semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows a slight increase in refining and petrochemical construction activity compared with the previous edition of the update (OGJ, Apr. 7, 2008, p. 24).
Following are project details from the survey available online (see box).
Refining
Mariisky NPZ Ltd. awarded a contract to Foster Wheeler Italiana SPA, Milan, for the expansion of the Mari-El refinery’s capacity to 90,000 b/sd from 27,000 b/sd. Foster Wheeler will define the design basis, undertake the basic design package for nonlicensed process units, utilities and offsites, and front-end engineering design for the project. Mariisky plans to install a train, which will include crude and vacuum distillation units, hydrocracking, hydrodesulfurization, amine and sulfur recovery units, a solvent deasphalting unit, a hydrogen production unit, and sour water stripping facilities, according to Foster Wheeler. The project is scheduled for start-up in 2012.
On Aug. 13, Valero Energy Corp. broke ground on a $2.4 billion expansion project at its 325,000-b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Tex. The project, which includes the construction of a 50,000-b/d hydrocracker and 45,000-b/d coker, will increase the refinery’s crude distillation capacity to 415,000 b/d. The expansion is the company’s largest-ever capital investment project. Valero expects the hydrocracker project to be completed in fourth-quarter 2010 and the coker project to finish in second-quarter 2011. Contracts were awarded to Fluor Corp. for the hydrocracker project (OGJ Online, Aug. 7, 2008) and Technip for two processing units—a saturate gas recovery unit and an amine treating unit—and offsites work associated with the refinery expansion.
OGJ subscribers can download free of charge the 2008 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. To purchase spreadsheets of the survey data, please go to www.ogj.com/resourcecenter/orc_survey.cfm or email [email protected].
A coker and refinery expansion project at the Wood River, Ill., refinery, a 50-50 joint venture of EnCana Corp. and ConocoPhillips, began in September, says EnCana. The $3.6 billion project includes a 65,000-b/d coker to enable the refinery to process heavier crudes, increase total crude distillation capacity by 50,000 b/d to 356,000 b/d, more than double heavy crude refining capacity to 240,000 b/d, increase clean-product yield to 330,000 b/d from 250,000 b/d, and eliminate 40,000 b/d of low-value asphalt production. The project will be operational in 2011.
In October, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) began construction of the 100,000-b/d Santa Ines refinery, in Barinas state (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2008). The $1.2 billion complex is being developed in two phases: the first is scheduled for completion in 2011 with an initial capacity of 30,000 b/d, while the second will be reached in 2014, bringing the plant to full capacity. The facility will refine oil from Barinas and Apure states, as well as oil from the Orinoco heavy crude belt. It will produce regular and high-octane gasoline, LPG, diesel, kerosine, fuel oil, and asphalt. Santa Ines is one of four domestic refineries either under way or planned. The others include the 50,000-b/d Caripito refinery, a 200,000-b/d refinery in the state of Zulia, and a 400,000-b/d refinery at Cabruta.
Meanwhile, Petrovietnam awarded Foster Wheeler a contract to design the 200,000-b/d Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical project (OGJ Online, July 22, 2008). The refinery is expected to meet 60% of Vietnam’s domestic demand for gasoline and other products. The Nghi Son project will import oil from Kuwait to produce high-quality products and is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Petrochemical
S-Oil Corp. selected Axens’ ParamaX Technology Suite for the No. 2 Aromatics complex at the Onsan refinery in South Korea. The 1.18 million tonne/year (tpy) plant will add capacities of 900,000 tpy paraxylene and 280,000 tpy benzene. Plant start-up is planned for first-half 2011.
PetroChina Sichuan Petrochemical Co. Ltd. selected UOP LLC to supply technology, basic engineering services, and equipment for an integrated refining and petrochemicals complex to be installed at its facility near Chengdu, in Sichuan Province (OGJ Online, July 16, 2008).
The plant is a grassroots installation that will produce both fuels and petrochemicals, including 600,000 tpy of paraxylene using the UOP Parex process.
The plant also will produce more than 350,000 tpy of benzene. Feedstock to the aromatics complex will in part be provided by a UOP Unicracking process unit that will process 2.2 million tpy of heavy gas oil from oil and convert it to more usable products such as diesel, kerosine, and naphtha. This will be the fifth aromatics complex UOP has designed for PetroChina and the sixth Unicracking unit.
PetroChina Sichuan also selected the Unipol polypropylene process technology from Dow Technology Licensing for its 450,000-tpy polypropylene facility at Chengdu. Aker Process BV will carry out process design and technical advisory services. The facility will be one of the largest single-train polypropylene facilities in China, a part of PetroChina Sichuan’s 800,000-tpy ethylene complex at Chengdu, the largest in Southwest China. It will be completed and on stream in 2010.
In September, Essar Gujarat Petrochemicals Ltd. awarded contracts to CB&I-Lummus Technology with a total value of $45 million for technology licenses and basic engineering related to a major grassroots petrochemicals complex in Vadinar, Gujarat, India. The cornerstone of the petrochemical complex will be a 1.3 million-tpy mixed-feed ethylene unit that will utilize Lummus’ latest generation SRT VI cracking furnaces and recovery technology.
ONGC Mangalore & Petrochemicals Ltd. let a contract to UOP to supply technology, basic engineering services, and equipment for an aromatics complex to be built in Mangalore, India. The petrochemical complex is expected to produce 900,000 tpy of paraxylene and 275,000 tpy of benzene to support growing demand for these petrochemicals in Asia.
The aromatics complex will be integrated with an existing Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd. refinery complex in the Mangalore Special Economic Zone and will use the naphtha and aromatic-rich stream from the refinery as feedstock to produce aromatics. It is scheduled to be completed in 2010 and will be the largest petrochemicals plant in southern India.
LNG
The North West Shelf gas project’s fifth LNG train at the Woodside Petroleum Ltd.-operated facilities on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in Western Australia was brought on stream in September (OGJ Online, Sept. 2, 2008). The Train 5 project, built at a cost of $2.6 billion (Aus.), includes the fifth train, a jetty extension, and a second LNG loadout berth. The train has increased the gas project’s capacity by 4.4 million tpy to a total output of 16.3 million tpy.
Sonatrach awarded Saipem/Snamprogetti, in joint venture with Chiyoda, a €2.8 billion lump sum, turnkey contract for an LNG train. The contract encompasses engineering, procurement, and construction of a single 4.7-million tpy train to be built near Arzew, Algeria, about 400 km west of Algiers. Work is to be completed by yearend 2012.
Gas processing
ExxonMobil Corp. unit Mobil Producing Nigeria commenced operations of its $1.3 billion East Area Natural Gas Liquids II project on Bonny Island, about 17 miles off Nigeria. The project will produce at its peak about 50,000 b/d of natural gas liquids. It is designed to ultimately recover 275 million bbl of NGLs and utilize 950 MMscfd of gas.
“The East Area NGL II project was completed ahead of schedule with outstanding safety performance and demonstrates ExxonMobil’s ongoing commitment to helping meet the world’s growing need for energy,” said Mark Albers, ExxonMobil senior vice-president. “In addition, this project represents the first time a major oil and gas joint venture in Nigeria has completed a financing package exclusively through Nigerian financial institutions,” he said.
Major components of the project include an offshore NGL extraction complex, more than 125 miles of natural gas and NGL pipelines, and expansion of the existing onshore Bonny River fractionation terminal, says the company.
Crosstex Energy announced plans to construct an $80 million natural gas processing facility called Bear Creek in the Barnett shale region of North Texas. The plant, which is expected to become operational in third-quarter 2009, will have a gas processing capacity of 200 MMcfd, increasing the company’s total processing capacity in the Barnett shale to 485 MMcfd. The plant will be strategically located near Crosstex’s midstream assets in Hood County.
GTL, other gas
Construction on World GTL Trinidad Ltd.’s, gas-to-liquids plant in Pointe-a-Pierre will be completed by the end of the year with production starting in first-quarter 2009.
It will be the first commercial GTL facility in the Americas and will produce 2,250 b/d of GTL.
Sulfur
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) awarded a $125 million contract to Skanska AB to build a sulfur recovery unit and a tail gas treatment unit (TGTU) at its 47,000 b/d Capuava refinery in Sao Paulo, Brazil (OGJ Online, Sept. 30, 2008). The project is part of a nationwide environmental program to reduce sulfur contaminants in petroleum byproducts. The SRU facility will have a capacity to recover 20 tonnes/day of sulfur, and the TGTU will clean 40 tonnes/day of tail gas.
The scope of the contract includes detailed engineering, purchasing, construction, electromechanical installations, and assistance with commissioning and start-up of the plant. The total contract value is $125 million, with Skanska’s share 40% or $50 million. Skanska’s partner in the consortium is Brazilian engineering firm Promon. The project is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Pipeline
Midcontinent Express Pipeline, a joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Energy Transfer Partners LP, is currently constructing the Midcontinent Express gas pipeline. The 506-mile interstate system will deliver as much as 1.5 bcfd of gas to customers in the southern and eastern US through 30-in., 36-in., and 42-in. gas transmission pipeline in Oklahoma, northeastern Texas, northern Louisiana, central Mississippi, and Alabama. The system also will include a 4.1-mile lateral in Louisiana and other related facilities, including 111,420 hp of compression at four compressor stations and one booster station. The pipeline is scheduled to be in service by early March 2009, the companies reported. Project cost is $1.27 billion.
After earlier delays, Bolivia’s state-owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos and recently nationalized gas transporter Transredes began construction of the 130-MMcfd Gasoducto Carrasco-Cochabamba natural gas pipeline in July (OGJ Online, July 31, 2008). The $170 million GCC line will consist of 250 km of 16-in. pipe extending from the gas-producing region of Carrasco to the city of Cochabamba.
Pembina Pipeline Corp. completed its $400 million Horizon pipeline, which will provide 250,000 b/d of dedicated transportation capacity to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s Horizon oil sands project. Work began in November 2006. Construction involved laying 73 km of pipeline following twinning in 2004 of the original Alberta Oilsands pipeline (now called the Syncrude pipeline) which the company acquired in late 2001.
The UAE’s Dolphin Energy awarded a $418 million contract to Russia’s Stroytransgaz for the construction of the Taweelah-Fujairah natural gas pipeline. The 48-in., 240-km line will be completed in 2010. The line will link Dolphin’s receiving facilities at Taweelah in Abu Dhabi with Fujairah on the UAE’s eastern coast.