Total refinery to get France's first IGCC unit

Total, Electricit? de France (EdF), and Texaco Inc. have launched a joint project to build an integrated gasification/combined-cycle (IGCC) plant next to Total's 320,000 b/d refinery in Normandy, France. It will be the first such plant in the country and located within a highly developed oil/chemical industrial area near Total's Gonfreville refinery, France's largest.

Sept. 7, 1998

3 min read

An overview shows Total's Gonfreville refinery in Normandy, France. The plant will be the site of the first integrated gasification/combined-cycle project to be developed in France. Photo by P. Boulen, courtesy of Total.

It will be the first such plant in the country and located within a highly developed oil/chemical industrial area near Total's Gonfreville refinery, France's largest.

The project has been in the planning stage for 41/2 years; the go-ahead decision is closely linked to the forthcoming deregulation of the European Union's electric power market. Until now, the French government, a key shareholder in EdF, was reluctant to add to France's already high electric power capacity.

But, with the forthcoming opening up of the EU electricity market, the project will give EdF a competitive edge, providing it with extra services, such as process steam and industrial gases, to offer neighboring industrial clients.

Project details

The 4 billion-franc project is due on stream late in 2003 and involves three initial shareholders to finance, build, and operate the facility: Total, with a 35-40% stake; EdF with 30-35%; and Texaco, providing the gasification technology, 20-25%.

A joint implementation team has been set up. Other industrial partners, such as Air Liquide, neighboring oil companies interested either in the technology or the end products, or equipment suppliers, are also expected to subsequently participate in the venture.

The Gonfreville area could be one of the possible sites being examined by Hoechst Celanese for the acetic acid unit the group is mulling in Europe, an investment that is estimated at 1 billion francs.

The IGCC unit will use as feedstock high-sulfur heavy fuel oil from the Gonfreville refinery. Other feedstocks would include used lube oils, petroleum coke, and various refining process wastes. It would also have the option of using heavy residues from other refineries nearby.

About 20% of the 365 MW of electric power produced by the IGCC unit will be for Total's onsite operations. The remaining 80% will be sold to EdF at market prices-25 centimes/kw-hr, said EdF Vice-Pres. Francois Ailleret.

The 250 metric tons/hr of steam and the 50-150 tons/day of hydrogen produced at the plant will supply local or regional oil and chemical companies-especially for Total operations.

Gasification and synthesis gas production will account for 40% of the planned capital investment, the combined-cycle and electric power units 35%, infrastructure and ancillaries 10%, and project studies and supervision 15%.

Project benefits

Total Pres. and CEO Thierry Desmarest indicated that the project's return on investment would be about 8%, less than Total's usual 13%.

But, he pointed out, this would be compensated by the absence of any political risk factor and by the fact that the project's profitability would be little affected by the price of oil, instead being tied to the price of coal.

Listing the project's advantages, Desmarest said the environmentally friendly IGCC will help meet Total's quotas for reducing emissions.

It will also give Total a boost in achieving EU-mandated 2005 refined product specifications and an edge in Europe's highly competitive refining market. The project would also serve as an EdF-Total showpiece within a strategy aimed at developing such joint projects worldwide, namely in Latin America and Turkey.