ExxonMobil Corp. has let a long-term contract to Altrad Group to provide a series of maintenance services at affiliate Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd.’s (EPCL) 270,000-b/d Fawley refinery near Southampton, UK.
As part of the 5-year contract, which took effect on May 1, Altrad will deliver access, insulation, and painting services for the Fawley refinery, the service provider said on May 19.
This latest contract, for which a value was not disclosed, follows ExxonMobil’s previous 5-year contract award to Altrad for collaborative services on a value-enhancement program executed at EPCL’s Fawley refinery completed in 2018, Altrad said.
Situated on the western side of Southampton Water, the Fawley refinery—the UK’s largest—features a mile-long marine terminal that annually handles about 2,000 ship movements and 22 million tonnes of crude and other products.
Fawley project update
In late 2019, ExxonMobil let a contract to Fluor Corp. to provide engineering, procurement, fabrication, and construction for EPCL’s Fawley Strategy (FAST) project to increase the refinery’s production of ultralow-sulfur diesel by nearly 45% (OGJ Online, Nov. 15, 2019; Apr. 24, 2019; Sept. 20, 2018).
At the time of November 2019 contract award, Fluor said it already was leading engineering and procurement on the project, which will include construction of a new diesel hydrotreater (hydrofiner) and steam methane-reforming hydrogen plant, as well as modifications to unidentified existing installations at the Fawley site.
Identified as one of ExxonMobil’s major key downstream projects in its 2019 annual report to investors released in April 2020, the more than $1-billion FAST expansion project intends to help reduce the need to import diesel into the UK by adding a hydrofiner to remove sulfur from fuel, supported by a hydrogen plant that, combined, will increase ULSD production by 38,000 b/d and also help improve the refinery’s overall energy efficiency.
While construction on the FAST project was scheduled to begin by yearend 2019 for a targeted commissioning date in 2021, a definitive timeframe for the project remains unclear in the wake of ExxonMobil’s announcement to investors in its first-quarter 2020 quarterly earnings report—released on May 1—that it was slashing capital spending in 2020 to $23 billion from a previously proposed investment of $33 billion as a result of market impacts resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) health crisis. The operator has yet to identify which major downstream projects, if any, could be impacted by the 2020 spending cuts.
ExxonMobil previously said the FAST expansion project comes as part of the company’s broader plans to increase earnings potential of its global downstream business by 2025 (OGJ Online, Oct. 31,2018).
