BP taps Jacobs for Cherry Point ULSD upgrade

March 9, 2005
BP PLC has contracted Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Houston, to provide front-end engineering, design, and procurement services for an ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) project at BP's Cherry Point refinery at Blaine, Wash.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Mar. 9 -- BP PLC has contracted Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Houston, to provide front-end engineering, design, and procurement services for an ultralow-sulfur diesel (ULSD) project at BP's Cherry Point refinery at Blaine, Wash. The front-end engineering is complete and detailed design is under way.

The project is an extension of BP's continuing program to introduce clean fuels that substantially reduce emissions. Jacobs also completed the engineering for BP's clean gasoline unit that was commissioned at the refinery Aug. 5, 2004.

The Cherry Point plant, which started up in 1971, is designed to process Alaska North Slope crude. The largest refinery in the state of Washington, the facility has the capacity to process more than 230,000 b/d of crude to produce 3.5 million gal/day of gasoline and 2.2 million gal/day of diesel in three grades. Nearly $500 million has been invested over the past 10 years to modernize the refinery and keep it efficient.

BP plans to invest more than $75 million on the new ULSD facilities at the plant, with mechanical completion projected for mid-2006.

The US Environmental Protection Agency's mandatory ULSD regulations are slated to go into effect June 1, 2006.