Fluor takes the LION's share

US-based EPC contractor Fluor is to take charge of a major clean fuels project in South Africa for a joint venture between BP Southern Africa and Shell SA Energy. The LION (Large Increase in Octane Number) project will be located at the companies' SAPREF crude oil refinery near Durban.

Fluor has been contracted to provide project management, basic and detail engineering, procurement, construction management and commissioning of the project, which will produce fuels with no lead and reduced sulphur content. The project will be executed from the company's offices in Johannesburg, Haarlem in the Netherlands, and Gliwice, Poland.

Despite the plant's location, international standards are important to the project, says SAPREF project manager Tjalling Terpstra. 'On completion of the LION project, SAPREF will have increased significantly its supply of lead-free petrol to the market and will meet European legislative requirements for sulphur content,' he says.

'The LION project will make an important contribution to a cleaner environment.' For Fluor, group executive for oil, gas and power, Jeff Faulk, comments that the company's previous work at the Durban site and expertise in clean fuels projects will 'provide maximum benefit for SAPREF.'

Fluor has also closed a deal to provide engineering and procurement services for an oil and gas processing facility on Russia's Sakhalin Island for Exxon Neftegas, which had already awarded Fluor the contract for construction management services on the project. Exxon Neftegas operates the site for the Sakhalin-1 Consortium, a group of companies developing three oil and gas fields of the northeastern coast of the island. The contract is worth over $80million.

'We're extremely pleased to have been asked to participate in this important project,' says Faulk. 'It's an opportunity for us to expand our portfolio of work in this region with several Russian design institutes, which will be subcontractors in performing portions of the work.'