Oil & Gas Journal's semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows a decline in construction activity compared with the previous edition of the update (OGJ, Apr. 6, 2009, p. 22).
Many companies have delayed project completion dates. Some projects have been cancelled. Following are details from the latest survey, which is available online (see box).
OGJ subscribers can download free of charge the 2009 Worldwide Construction Update tables at www.ogjonline.com: Scroll down to Additional Information, 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].
Refining
Irving Oil Corp. and BP PLC have suspended plans to build a 300,000-b/d refinery at St. John, NB (OGJ, Aug. 3, 2009, Newsletter). The companies said an 18-month feasibility study determined the Eider Rock project "was not viable at a time of global economic recession and dampening forecasts for petroleum product demand in North America." Privately held Irving operates a 250,000-b/d refinery at St. John.
Petroleos Mexicanos has settled on a site at Tula in Hidalgo state to construct a $9 billion refinery, and will modernize another facility at Salamanca in nearby Guanajuato state for $3 billion (OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2009). The 300,000-b/d facility to be built in Tula is expected to come on stream in 2015. The expansion of the Guanajuato facility will be ready by yearend 2014.
In October, the government of southern Sudan approved plans to build a $2 billion refinery, according to a senior official of the semiautonomous state. (OGJ Online, Oct. 19, 2009). Energy Minister John Luk said the southern government plans to build the 50,000-b/d refinery in Akon, Warap state, to serve all seven states west of the Nile.
Luk said construction will take 36 months, and the refinery will process crude from the fields of Unity state.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC is to install a $500 million hydrodesulfurization plant at its 400,000-b/d Pernis refinery in the Netherlands (OGJ Online, Aug. 20, 2009). Pernis is the largest refinery in Europe. The upgrade will be finished by the second half of 2011.
Shell awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction management contract to Technip for the first phase of its "Connect" project in Germany. By connecting two existing refineries in Godorf and Wesseling, Shell will create the largest refinery in Germany: the Rheinland refinery.
The first phase of the project will be implemented in the Wesseling refinery. It includes the modification of process units (desulfurization and hydrogen manufacturing) as well as the construction of new facilities. The units at Wesseling will also be used for the desulfurization of gas oil produced in Godorf.
Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname NV let a project management consultant contract to Aker Solutions for its refinery expansion project in Suriname. Once completed, the project will double the refinery's processing capacity to 15,000 b/d, producing diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, bitumen, and sulfuric acid. The expansion is to be completed in spring of 2013.
Petrochemical
Expansion of the petrochemicals complex at Shuaiba, Kuwait, about 25 miles south of Kuwait City, was completed earlier this summer, according to its engineering contractor Fluor Corp. The project spanned 5 years (OGJ Online, Aug. 27, 2009).
Fluor began work on Olefins II in July 2004 by providing overall management consultancy and front-end engineering and design for utilities and infrastructure. Olefins II doubles capacity of the existing complex that has operated there since 1998 (OGJ, Sept. 15, 1997, p. 36).
A worker helps construct the Arbuckle Pipeline, a 440-mile natural gas liquids pipeline extending from southern Oklahoma through the Barnett shale of North Texas and on to Mont Belvieu, Tex., on the Gulf Coast. Construction was completed on the line in late July. Photo from Oneok Partners.
Olefins II also included Fluor oversight of engineering and construction of an 850,000-tonne/year (tpy) ethane cracker, a 600,000-tpy ethylene glycol unit, a 450,000-tpy ethyl benzene/styrene monomer unit, and a debottleneck expansion of an additional 225,000 tpy of polyethylene capacity at the existing complex.
Brahmaputra Cracker & Polymer Ltd. has awarded contracts for the license and basic engineering of two new chemical plants to Lummus Technology. BCPL's ethylene plant, which has a design capacity of 220,000 tpy, will utilize Lummus Technology's proprietary ethylene technology. The downstream polypropylene plant, which has a design capacity of 60,000 tpy, will utilize Novolen advanced gas-phase polypropylene technology. The two plants will be built in Lepetkata, Assam, India.
LNG
On July 16, Taiwan's CPC Corp. inaugurated the country's second LNG terminal at Taichung in the north, according to press reports (OGJ Online, July 17, 2009). Start-up of the nearly $955 million terminal was more than a year behind schedule.
In September, The UK's 4.4 million-tpy Dragon LNG terminal at Milford Haven, South Wales, began commercial operations (OGJ Online, Sept. 2, 2009). Commissioning formally began on July 14 with arrival of BG Group LNG's, 145,000-cu m carrier Methane Lydon Volney. BG Group holds a 50% interest in the terminal with Petronas (30%) and 4Gas (20%). BG Group (50%) and Petronas (50%) also have agreements governing capacity rights for a 20-year term, allowing them each 2.2 million tpy of throughput.
Qatargas 2 partners Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Corp. completed the 7.8 million-tpy Train 5 (OGJ Online, Sept. 9, 2009). This follows start-up in the second quarter of Qatargas 2's other 7.8 million-tpy Train 4.
China commissioned its third LNG terminal last month. China's Shanghai LNG terminal received its first LNG cargo of 45,000 cu m aboard the 88,000-cu m Arctic Spirit LNG carrier from Bintulu, Malaysia on Oct. 11.
Also in China, construction began on the Ningbo LNG terminal south of Shanghai, in Zhejiang Province. It will be the fifth Chinese terminal. When completed in 2012, Phase 1 will have installed 3 million tpy of regasification capacity.
Chevron Australia awarded a $550 million contract for its Gorgon-Jansz LNG project off Western Australia to CB&I (OGJ Online, Oct. 2, 2009). The scope of the work includes the engineering, procurement, fabrication, and construction of two 180,000-cu m LNG containment tanks and four condensate tanks as well as the associated piping, electrical, instrumentation, and civil works. The work is slated for completion in third-quarter 2013.
Gas processing
Williams Cos. Inc. announced that the 450-MMcfd Willow Creek natural gas processing plant in western Colorado's Piceance basin has achieved full processing operations. The plant began operations on Aug. 7.
Construction of the Willow Creek facility began November 2007 and finished in July. It consists of a single-train amine treating and cryogenic plant in Rio Blanco County, Colo., about 25 miles northwest of Williams' facilities in Garfield County. The Willow Creek plant is currently recovering about 20,000 b/d of natural gas liquids.
Enterprise Products Partners LP plans to build a 75,000-b/d NGL fractionator at its Mont Belvieu, Tex., complex east of Houston (OGJ Online, Aug. 12, 2009). The unit will provide additional capacity to accommodate growing NGL volumes from producing areas in the Rockies, the Barnett shale, and the emerging Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas.
When completed in early 2011, the project will increase Enterprise's NGL fractionation capacity at Mont Belvieu to about 300,000 b/d and net system-wide capacity to about 600,000 b/d.
Joint venture partners Apache Energy Ltd. and Santos Ltd. broke ground at the Devil Creek domestic natural gas processing plant site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 50 km south of Karratha. (OGJ Online, Sept. 17, 2009). The plant will supply as much as 220 TJ/day of gas into the Dampier-Bunbury trunk line. It will also produce as much as 500 b/d of condensate.
Clough Australia is contractor on the project. The $54 million (Aus.) contract is for engineering, design work, and procurement of all permanent materials and equipment plus fabrication and assembly of all modules for the facility.
Other gas
Sasol has formed a partnership with Petronas and Uzbekistan state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz to establish a 1.3 million-tpy GTL plant in Uzbekistan (OGJ Online, July 17, 2009).
No start up date was provided nor were details on which gas fields could produce the feed to produce the diesel, kerosine, naphtha, and LPG. Sasol said the GTL facility will use its proprietary Slurry Phase Distillate process, which produces a clean-burning, high-performance diesel fuel. Each company will have an equal equity share in the JV. The plant will have a capacity of 36,000-40,000 b/d. Project cost is $2.5 billion.
Electricite de France SA, in coordination with EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG, awarded Technip an engineering, procurement, and construction management contract for the Crystal Gas Plant project in Etzel, Germany. The project covers gas compression and treatment facilities for the storage of gas in underground salt caverns. Gas will be injected into the caverns at times of low gas prices and withdrawn to feed into the Dutch and the German gas grids, notably during periods of peak demand.
Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd. (Gasco) let a $530 million contract to CB&I for the engineering, procurement, fabrication, and construction of six low-temperature/cryogenic storage tanks, two ambient storage tanks, and the associated piping, controls, power distribution, and civil works systems. The project is part of the expansion of Gasco's Integrated Gas Development project in Ruwais.
Sulfur
WorleyParsons is working with several sulfur projects in the engineering stage. A Claus project for Petroleo Brasileiro SA's Reduc facility in Rio de Janeiro will process 145 tonnes/day (tpd) of sulfur from refinery acid gas.
Meanwhile, a Claus project for PetroCanda Fort Hills in North Alberta will process 1,400 tpd of sulfur from refinery acid gas.
In the US, two Claus projects are under construction for Chevron Corp. in California with completion scheduled for 2013.
Pipeline
Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) has completed construction of the 160-mile Texas Independence Pipeline (TIP), which increases its gas takeaway capacity in Texas by an incremental 1.1 bcfd (OGJ Online, Sept. 1, 2009). ETP also completed the Rulison expansion project in Colorado.
The 42-in. OD TIP system will transport gas from Waha, the Bossier sands, and Barnett shale in east and north-central Texas to southeast Texas. Originating just west of Maypearl, Tex., and ending near Henderson, Tex., the TIP system connects ETP's existing Central and North Texas systems to its East Texas pipeline network. With the addition of compression, the project can be expanded to transport gas volumes in excess of 1.75 bcfd.
The Rulison expansion project includes the 10-mile, 24-in. OD Rulison pipeline and the Holmes Mesa compressor station in Garfield County, Colo. These projects are designed to increase the capacity of ETP's South Parachute-Rifle pipeline system. The project will also create an outlet for producers to access the Meeker processing plant at the White River hub.
The Rulison line will initially add more than 70 MMcfd of capacity, with the ability to expand to more than 200 MMcfd. The Holmes Mesa compressor station has more than 9,000 hp of compression.
Natural gas service on the roughly 500-mile Midcontinent Express Pipeline began Aug. 1 between Delhi, La., and Transcontinental Pipe Line's Station 85 in Butler, Ala. (OGJ Online, Aug. 3, 2009). Interim service from Bennington, Okla., to Delhi began in April. Completion of the final segment of MEP connects production from the Barnett shale, Bossier sands, and other plays in the region to the eastern US.
Kern River Gas Transmission Co. awarded Gulf Interstate Engineering Co. a contract to perform detailed engineering services on the compression facilities associated with its Apex Expansion Project (OGJ Online, Sept. 17, 2009).
The project entails adding 78,000 hp of incremental compression at one new and three existing compressor stations, and replacing a compressor unit at one station.
Gulf will provide detailed engineering services for a new turbine-driven compressor and ancillary equipment at the grass-roots Milford Compressor Station in Utah; additional compression at Coyote Creek Compressor Station in Wyoming, Elberta Compressor Station in Utah, and Dry Lake Compressor Station in Nevada; and replacement of a compressor unit at Fillmore Compressor Station in Utah. Kern expects the Apex Expansion Project to enter service Nov. 1, 2011.
China National Petroleum Corp. began construction in Chad of a 300-km oil pipeline that will transport crude from Koudalwa field to the Djarmaya refinery, north of N'Djamena (OGJ Online, July 2, 2009).
Neither the cost nor the capacity of the pipeline were disclosed. The project is slated to come online in 2013.
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