Contracts & Projects Tracker: Feb 2010

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Bitumen supplier Petroplus has extended its relationship with DHL Supply Chain for five years in a deal worth £30m. DHL will handle order management, customer services and movements of bitumen at elevated temperatures, to quarries and asphalt manufacturing plants throughout the UK. The contract was awarded to DHL following a nine year relationship, formerly with BP Bitumen for seven years; then with Petroplus Bitumen since its acquisition of BP Bitumen two years ago.

Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd has awarded Technip two engineering, procurement and installation contracts, worth around €40m on a lump sum basis, for the development of the Auk North and Burghley fields. The fields will be tied back to Talisman’s Fulmar A platform and the Premier Oil-operated Balmoral Floating Production Vessel, respectively. The Auk North contract covers fabrication and installation of a production pipeline, the installation of an umbilical*, a power cable and subsea equipment. The Burghley contract covers fabrication and installation of a production pipeline and a gas lift pipeline, and installation of an umbilical and subsea structures. Technip’s operating center in Aberdeen, Scotland will execute the contracts, which are to commence in the field in Q2/10.

KSB AG has recently received an order for four large water pumps “in the million euro range” to be installed in the Shuweihat pump station in the Abu Dhabi emirate. Delivery is due for the beginning of 2011. Read more

Atlas Copco Compressors has supplied equipment for a project to convert domestic and industrial waste into energy is being commissioned at Dargavel, Dumfries in Scotland. Designed, built and funded by Ascot Environmental and operated by ScotGen Ltd the plant uses hazardous and non-hazardous waste to provide power and heat production while managing residual wastes usually destined for landfill. Read more

Linde Material Handling has delivered two fuel-cell trucks to the Linde Gases Division. The trucks are based on the Linde E 30,three3-tonne electric counterbalanced truck, but instead of the usual 80-volt battery, the trucks have a fuel cell and a tank which stores 1.6kg of hydrogen gas at 350 bar. Read more

KBR has been signed a contract with Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd to provide licensing and engineering services for its grassroots 2,200 tonnes per day ammonia plant in West Bengal, India. MFCL is setting up 1,300 ktpa ammonia/urea facilities, along with a captive power plant, utilities, infrastructure and railway siding in the complex. KBR will license its Purifier ammonia technology for the Matix plant, which will be based on coal bed methane. Use of coal bed methane as feedstock in ammonia synthesis is a relatively new application that provides an alternative to the use of natural gas.

Premier Foods’ Sarsons factory in Manchester managed a speedy return to production recently after the failure of a progressing cavity pump brought [art of the plant to a halt. The problem was resolved by NOV Mono, which supplyiesa replacement part from its Mono Universal Parts (MUP) range. Read more

Statoil has awarded Aker Solutions a NOK420 million EPC contract for the Gudrun jacket. The contract will be executed by the Aker Solutions yard in Verdal, and includes engineering, procurement, construction, load-out and sea-fastening of the steel jacket and associated piles. The detail engineering starts immediately, while  fabrication in Verdal will commence in July 2010. The jacket will be delivered summer 2011 and will then become number 35 in the series of jackets delivered by Aker Verdal.  

Bulk handling equipment company GAME Engineering is currently working with an unnamed client to design, manufacture and install a colour-sorting processing line at its current site. The UK operator has engaged Lincoln-based GAME to bring its colour-sorting line in house, in addition to existing plant installed by the same supplier in 2006. The plant will provide the client with a throughput of 20-25 tonnes per hour, removing argot and black tip wheat from the product streams.

ABB has won a contract to supply integrated telecoms systems, including CCTV, security, access control and communications, for a gas storage facility being built for E.ON at Holford, UK. The deal follows a recent order with the same vendor for the integrated control and safety system at the site. Read more

Process optimisation company Curvaceous Software Ltd has been awarded a development grant from the South East England Development Agency to focus on the management and control of alarm floods. The grant was awarded by Finance South East, on behalf of SEEDA, following a rigorous appraisal process against criteria including the level of technological advance and risk. Read more

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Nghi Son Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd to provide technical and commercial services for the planned Nghi Son refinery and petrochemicals complex. NSRP LLC is a JV comprising PetroVietnam and its international partners. FW will support NSRP in preparing the enquiry  packages, bid clarifications, and bid evaluation and provide all  necessary technical and commercial support leading to award of the EPC contract. FW recently completed the FEED for this new complex, which will be Vietnam’s second refinery.

European seeds company RAGT Seeds Ltd has employed Lincoln-based bulk handling company GAME Engineering to complete a second re-location project, which involves GAME dismantling and re-locating its processing plant. GAME first worked with RAGT Seeds in 2004 to relocate a seed cleaning plant.

Wood Group has signed a $150m, 18-year service agreement with PERU LNG. The deal covers a service and maintenance programme to maximise machine availability of the gas turbines, compressors and generators for PERU LNG at its Pampa Melchorita site south of Lima. Read more

As part of £7.0-million investment by South East Water to improve water quality from groundwater sources at Trossley and Borough Green in Kent, three large degassing / aeration towers and flocculation tanks were designed, built and installed by Forbes on behalf of the main contractors, Enpure. Read more

British Airways has unveiled plans to establish Europe’s first sustainable jet fuel plant. Design, engineering and management services company ARCADIS is to be the principle consultant on the project, which will be developed by Solena Group in partnership with the UK airline company. Read more

Shell has selected Yokogawa as a main automation contractor (MAC) for integrated production control and safety instrumented systems. The Global Framework Agreement (GFA) contract follows the annnouncement of a similar deal between Shell and Emerson last week. Read more

Technip has been awarded a lump sum contract by Repsol Investigaciones Petroliferas SA for the development of two fields 50km off the east coast of Spain. Technip’s scope includes engineering, supply, installation and pre-commissioning of the 11km flexible pipeline system that will connect two production wells to the Casablanca platform. This pipeline system will include a riser, a flowline and two jumpers. Technip’s operating center in Paris will execute the contract, with all flexible pipelines fabricated at its plant in Le Trait, France. Offshore installation is to be carried out in H2/11.

German power plant company Dreyer & Bosse is employing fieldbus technology to meet increasing demand for farm systems that extract biogas from slurry to fuel cogeneration plants. D&B supplies autonomous cogeneration units that use CC-Link open fieldbus network technology for data communications and safety and monitoring functions. Read more

Qatar Steel has selected GE Intelligent Platforms to provide a production management system to improve operating efficiency through a reliable and optimum production process. The $2m contract covers GE’s Proficy software suite, including Plant Applications, Historian, iFIX and Portal. The software is to support design and implementation for data collection from systems including material storage, handling and control, direct reduction furnaces, electric arc furnaces, ladle furnaces, continuous casting machines, bar rolling mills, the plant’s QC Centre and ERP system.

KBR has been awarded a contract by Eleme Petrochemicals Co. Ltd to provide technology licensing and engineering services related to the revamp of Eleme’s Port Harcourt, Nigeria ethylene plant. KBR will provide an extended basic engineering design package for the partial revamp of six Millisecond furnaces to incorporate its SCORETM technology features. The plant was originally designed and engineered by KBR, and came onstream in 1995. The revamp is to enhance the performance and reliability of the 15-year-old furnaces, improve run lengths and improve overall performance and reliability.

Emerson is to serve as Shell’s Main Automation Contractor on future capital projects under a five-year global framework agreement signed by the companies. The deal covers project and support services for main automation systems, including DCS and safety instrumented aystems, as well as ongoing maintenance of existing systems and the supply of new systems for brownfield and greenfield facilities. Read more

Algae-to-oil technology company OriginOil Inc. has claimed a major step forward for the commercialisation of its technology with the unveiling a pilot system for algae growth and harvesting. The company’s developments includes an extraction system, designed to “milk” algae oil without destroying algae cultures, and a bioreactor prototype specifically designed for wastewater applications. Read more

Model-based engineering company PSE is working with Det Norske Veritas AS, a maritime classification society, to develop blueprint designs for on-ship carbon capture and storage technology to reduce maritime CO2 emissions. Read more

Air Liquide has signed long-term contracts with two steel producers in China and will invest Euro75m overall to meet their needs. The first supply contract will provide oxygen and nitrogen to Bohai Steel Group in Tangshan, near Tianjin, from a large 2,200 tonnes per day air separation unit. Under the second contract signed with Jianbang Group in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, Air Liquide will invest in an 800 tonnes per day oxygen unit. Both units are scheduled to start up in Q2/11.

Petrobras has applied Emerson’s Smart Wireless system to automate collection of pressure, temperature, and vibration data from compressors at its Sao Mateus gas compression facility in northeastern Brazil. Emerson’s 56 transmitters and a single wireless gateway automate data collection on two of the seven compressors at the facility. The installation is in an environment where high cost and occasional flooding made a wired approach impractical, and so has saved Petrobras saved $200,000.

Woodside has awarded KBR to execute a basis of design study for the company’s Browse LNG development. The study will focus on Woodside’s onshore LNG facilities within the Western Australian Government’s proposed Browse LNG Precinct. KBR will execute the study for a 12,000-ktpa liquefaction facility, as well as the associated infrastructure and marine facilities. The anticipated duration of the study is nine months. The award of the basis of design study follows the recent award to KBR of a FEED contract for Woodside’s Pluto LNG trains 2 and 3.

Vivergo Fuels has selected EKATO Group to design and manufacture the agitators for the fermentation process at its biorefinery, which is currently being built in Saltend, Yorkshire. The mixing units will be used for the continuous suspension of solids and homogenisation of tank contents, and are said to offer significant savings compared to traditional top entry agitator technology. Read more

Vietnamese EPC contractor Lilama Corp. has awarded Foster Wheeler a contract to design and supply two steam surface condensers and auxiliary equipment for the Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant in Vietnam. The 2 x 600 MWe coal-fired power plant will be located in Ha Tinh Province on the north central coast of Vietnam. The project is being built by investments from PetroVietnam as part of the National Power Development Plan for the 2006-2015 period. Commercial operation of the first unit is scheduled for Q2/12 with the second unit coming online in Q1/13.

Wood Group’s Multiphase Solutions Inc. (MSi) has completed integration and deployment of its subsea simulation system, which is being used by Shell engineers to model operation of the Perdido project in the Gulf of Mexico. MSi, a Wood Group technical consulting services and software systems business, developed the Transient Engineering Simulator (TES) system, a stand-alone subsea system simulator, and interfaced its physics into the Perdido Operator Training Simulator, which simulates the complete project.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is to provide construction services for ExxonMobil’s enhanced oil and gas recovery project at the Hawkins Field in Wood County, Texas, about 100 miles east of Dallas. Jacobs will provide engineering, procurement and the direct hire of construction services. New facilities will be installed at the Hawkins Field, discovered by ExxonMobil in 1940 at the time one of the largest in the state, to recover and reinject nitrogen and other gases from the field’s natural gas production. This will enable more oil and gas to be recovered from the reservoirs and extend the life of this mature field. Project start-up is anticipated in late 2011.

Norvento Energía Distribuida, a renewable energy company based in northwest Spain, has opted to use an ANSYS software suite for its work in developing and optimising renewable forms of energy. The company will use the coupled electromagnetic, thermal and structural simulation capabilities of the technology in developing its designs, which include wind turbine specially designed for distributed energy applications.

Wessex Water is nearing the completion of a major upgrade at its sewage treatment works at Swanage. The project is intended to introduce automation and energy-saving measures, whilst increasing the size of the advanced membrane treatment plant and so provide spare capacity for future demand at the site. Read more

The global economic slowdown has impacted demand for drives in some industries much harder than in others, according to IMS Research. Smaller declines have been experienced by the renewable energy, food, beverage & tobacco, and commercial HVAC sectors are expected to help offset significant decreases in the semiconductor, shipbuilding & marine, and machine tool industries. Read more.

Aker Solutions has been notified by Eni Norge AS that it will not be awarded the EPC contract for delivery of the Goliat FPSO.  The Norwegian group was bidding for the job in a grouping including Samsung Heavy Industries. Read more

Vattenfall has reported the arrival of two large engineering components at its pilot plant for CO2 capture in Buggenum, the Netherlands. The energy group is working through a subsidiary, Nuon, on the development of three different carbon capture technologies. Read more

Foster Wheeler is to provide project management consultancy services to Singapore LNG Corp. Pte Ltd (SLNG ), part of the Energy Market Authority of Singapore. The contract supports an LNG terminal development on Jurong Island. The terminal, which will have an initial capacity of 3500ktpa, with provisions for expansion to 6000ktpa, is targeted to be ready for start-up in 2013. SLNG and FW will jointly manage the EPC contractor through a project team approach to allow SLNG to be fully involved in managing design and construction activities.

BHR Group has recently started working on a major, EC-funded project: AddNano – The development and scale-up of innovative nanotechnology-based processes into the value chain of the lubricants market. BHR is working as the manager (leader Dr Gul Ozcan-Taskin) of the collaborative project with Infineum as co-ordinator in partnership with 13 other organisations. The UK group is also contributing to this project in the areas of nanoparticle dispersion and tribology.

Wood Group GTS has renewed its flexible service agreement with envia THERM GmbH in Großkayna & Wolfen, Germany valued at approximately $8m. Wood Group GTS will exclusively provide a wide range of major maintenance services for planned and unplanned maintenance of envia THERM’s four GE Frame 6B gas turbines. These services range from component supply & repair and field service outages, to unplanned outage response.

The US-based Global Foresight Group has forecast growing demand for process instrumentation & automation. Its white paper Growth Opportunities 2010 and Beyond, predicts opportunities in the electric utilities and water & wastewater industries and buildings projects through increased demand for metals, chemicals and mining products. Other promising process areas, it said, include the oil & gas industry - due to the use of unconventional gas sources and continuing deepwater projects - pharma and food & beverage.

Aker Solutions has provided more details of its recently awarded contract at a power plant project in Europe. The £115m contract, it said, was awarded by RWE and is to provide design, supply, installation, construction and commissioning for a new 50MW biomass renewable energy plant at the Tullis Russell Papermakers plant near Fife in Scotland. The power plant represents RWE’s largest investment to date in biomass based power generation. Read more

Smurfit Kappa has installed a Bollfilter 6.18 automatic filtration system to protect the heat exchanger at a new water treatment plant at its regional recycling plant in Birmingham. The 130-year-old Mount Street paper mill produces 200 kilotonnes of liner and fluting paper from recycled card and paper sourced from local authority and trade waste. Read more

Unemployed engineering construction workers on 3 Feb staged protest outside the London offices of Alstom, the Engineering Construction Industry Association and that of UK business secretary Lord Mandelson. The demonstrations follow an audit of Italian sub contractors Somi, working for main contractor Alstom at the Staythorpe Power station construction site in Nottinghamshire, which, the GMB union claims, uncovered that Somi has been underpaying employees by Euro1,300/month. Related story

RWE npower is investigating options to build a gas-fired power station at its site at Tilbury, UK. The existing coal-fired power station at the Essex site is set to close by the end of 2015. The closure is required under the European Union’s Large Combustion Plant Directive regulations which set tough new emissions standards for the power-generation industry.

Npower Cogen has recently acquired the 53MWe Hythe CHP plant from BP Exploration. The plant, near Southampton, delivers steam to the neighbouring Cognis chemical plant as well as steam and electricity to the adjacent Polimeri plant with excess power exported to the grid. The plant provides a platform for future growth from potential new customers that exist in the local area, for both heat and power, said Npower.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by the Ugandan government for a feasibility study to develo an oil refinery with a capacity of up to 150,000 barrels per day in Uganda. The scope of work will include the development of the  location and configuration of the planned refinery to process Ugandan crude. Due for completion in mid-2010, the study will also include the assessment of options for developing the oilfield, crude transportation, and an evaluation of the relative economics of developing the new refinery versus alternative options, including pipelines, for exporting the crude oil.

Atlas Copco Group had a good Q4 and “is prepared to capture the growth when it returns, as we have already seen in Asia and South America,” Ronnie Leten, president and CEO has reported. “Many emerging markets are foreseen to have a continued favourable development and demand from the mining industry is expected to improve.”

Foster Wheeler is to form a Saudi Arabian-based JV with A. Al-Saihati, A. Fattani and O. Al-Othman Consulting Engineering Co. (SOFCON). The new entity, Foster Wheeler SOFCON Consulting Engineering Co., is planned as a regional engineering hub and will be based in the city of Al-Khobar. Foster Wheeler SOFCON will focus on providing full-service engineering and project management services for onshore/offshore oil and gas, refining, petrochemicals and associated infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia.

Spanish group Abengoa Bioenergy is advancing its plans to establish major biofuels production facilities in Europe and the US. These include a flagship facility in the Port of Rotterdam, with an installed capacity of 480 million liters of bioethanol, and more than 300 kilotonnes of DGS - a protein rich component for animal feed. Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a 30-month contract from LyondellBasell to provide engineering services in support of plant changes and small project work at two of its manufacturing sites in The Netherlands. The sites include advanced polyolefins plants at Botlek and Maasvlakte. Headquartered in Rotterdam, LyondellBasell has polypropylene and polyethylene production sites in six European countries. Officials did not disclose the contract value; but said that services would be provided from Jacobs’ nearby office in Hoogvliet.

British Gas is to go ahead with five biomethane demonstration projects that are likely to be the first in the UK to inject green gas into the grid, the energy company has announced. The decision, it said, follows Government backing for this emerging technology that confirms support for biomethane to grid from April 2011. Read more

Aker Solutions has gained a contract to provide design, supply, installation, construction and commissioning for a new power plant facility in Europe. The contract value to Aker Solutions is approximately £115 million. Work is scheduled to commence in February 2010. The Aker Solutions’ contract party is Aker Solutions E&C Ltd.

Thames Water is investing in sludge treatment equipment from Hydro International at its Beckton sewage treatment works. The contract is to install Hydro’s Zickert mechanical sludge scraping equipment in two of the 16 existing primary settlement tanks at the STW in Barking. It follows the installation and evaluation of this kit for a previous upgrade of tanks at Beckton. As part of the ongoing upgrade at Beckton, Hydro is supplying Zickert longitudinal tank bottom scrapers, scum scrapers and other associated equipment to improve primary sludge settlement performance.

Shell International Petroleum Co. Ltd and Cosan SA have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a circa $12bn joint venture in Brazil for the production of ethanol, sugar and power, and the supply, distribution and retail of transportation fuels. With annual production capacity of about 2bn litres, the JV would be one of the world’s largest ethanol producers. Read more

Engineering project management company PROjEN Plc, based in Preston Brook, Cheshire has completed a £1.6m project for GSK involving the replacement of 230 bursting discs in its Stevenage Chemistry Pilot Plant. The project, said PROjEN, came in £165,000 under budget, due to material selection and management techniques that ensured the work was completed on time with “zero” delays. The project, it added, consisted of 9,200 construction manhours without any lost-time accidents, injuries or environmental issues.

Ashtead Technology has supplied NDT (non destructive testing) instrumentation for inspection work carried out by SGS Industrial Services during the shutdown of two of Europe’s largest oil refineries. SGS hired 14 Panametrics 37DL ultrasonic thickness gauges for month-long inspection projects at the BP Europoort site in Rotterdam and Total’s Vlissingen refinery. Read more

London-based M.W. Kellogg Ltd (MWKL) has entered into a license agreement and basic engineering design (BED) agreement with Kawasaki Plant Systems Ltd for the Mary Project, anticipated grassroots ammonia and urea plants to be located in Turkmenistan. MWKL’s services include the development of a basic engineering design package and the provision of an ammonia license in order for K-Plant to engineer, procure and construct the ammonia and urea plants of the Mary Project. State-owned Turkmenhimya is commissioning the project with support from Sojitz Corp.

Linde Group has recently announced several contracts for plant engineering and gas supply projects in Russia for subsidiaries of groups including SIBUR, Gazprom and Novolipetsk Steel. Under these unrelated deals, Linde is building two olefin plants for two chemical customers in Western Siberia, and an air separation unit (ASU) for on-site supply of industrial gases to a steel operation in the Moscow region. The company estimated the combined value of the contracts at over Euro530 million. Read more

Technip has been awarded a Euro21m lump sum contract by Lundin Britain Ltd for an augmentation pipeline at the Broom field in the UK North Sea. This field, which is located 320km north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland, is tied back to the Heather Alpha platform. The new augmentation pipeline will extend the existing Broom subsea infrastructure. Technip’s operating centre in Aberdeen will execute the contract, which is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2010.

Aker Solutions is the lowest bidder for a four-year frame agreement to supply 61 subsea trees to Brazilian national oil company Petrobras – as announced at a public bid opening in Brazil. Standard procedure is that the company with the lowest bid enters technical clarifications and commercial negotiations with Petrobras. A contract could be signed during Q2 2010. Aker’s bid stands at Euro195m.

Babcock Nuclear Division has supplied a fuel integrity monitoring system (FIMS) for the Oldbury Site, which is operated by Magnox North on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The system, which is now in the final stages of commissioning, has enabled both of Oldbury’s reactors to become fully operational and generating 400MW/day, for the first time in years. The FIMS contract was worth £2 million to Babcock. Read more

JACOB (UK) has supplied an extensive stainless steel modular pipework ducting system for Cadbury at Marlbook in Herefordshire, designed and installed by Jex Engineering to assist in the production of chocolate crumb, which is later refined to produce Cadbury Dairy Milk products. Read more

ENDESA has given Foster Wheeler full notice to proceed on a contract to design and supply a low NOx burner system for its Compostilla power plant, unit 3 (330 MWe), in Ponferrada, León, Spain. Commercial operation is scheduled for Q4 2010. This is FW’s third such award at the Compostilla plant (after Units 4 & 5). When Unit 3 reaches full operation, all three operating units will be capable of operating at NOx levels below the most restrictive emission levels according to local regulation and with fly ash of sufficient quality to permit its sale to local cement producers.

The Buncefield explosion has led to the award of a contract worth over £1million for Quantitech, which is to provide air sampling and analysis equipment to a new multi-agency air quality cell at the site. The unit was established in line with the recommendations of the Major Incident Investigation Board towards addressing the environmental issues caused by the explosion and fires at the oil storage site near Hemel Hempstead in 2005. Read more

UK technology companies C?Tech Innovation, Ingenza and AM Technology are collaborating on a £1-million project to develop new flow process techniques for bio manufacturing. Co?funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the initial phase of the programme will run for two years. The project will integrate all aspects of bioprocess development from catalyst discovery and engineering, to process design, through to small footprint manufacturing. Read more

Prax Petroleum has extended its contract with TDG to store and blend fuels at its Dagenham terminal, by a minimum of ten years. The company moved into its own dedicated area at the terminal in 2007. Since that time TDG has upgraded its loading facilities and plans additional investment in 2010 to complete the programme of installing radar gauges on all Prax tanks. Prax appeared in The Sunday Times “Fast Track 100” as the 19th fastest growing company in the country in 2009. It is now one of the UK’s largest importers of fuel oils including diesel, gas oil, kerosene and petrol.

Singleton Birch Ltd, the UK’s largest independent manufacturer of lime products, has recently installed a Type S2056EL Mogensen sizer to replace a machine, which had been in service for about 28 years. The Sizer, a 2-metre, 5-deck machine fitted with Mogensen-designed electric heating to the two lowest decks, is handling 70tph of crushed chalk in the size range 0 – 10mm, and removing 63tph of material finer than 3mm. Read more

Foster Wheeler is carrying out pre-FEED work for a post-combustion carbon capture plant as part of E.ON UK’s plans for a new supercritical coal-fired power station in Kent, UK, according to the Autumn/Winter 2009 edition of FW News. Consortium partner for the project is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd of Japan. Reading, UK-based FW pre-FEED scope includes the development of the project schedule and cost estimate, which will form the basis for project sanction and the EPC phase. The project is expectedto initially capture about 2m tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide, with provision for future expansion. Related story

AMEC, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Senergy, have been appointed by Gateway Storage Co. to undertake the front-end engineering design (FEED) for both the offshore and onshore elements of the £600m Gateway offshore underground gas storage scheme, in the East Irish Sea, 25km offshore, south west of Barrow-in-Furness. The current project phase will provide 1.5bn cubic metres of storage capacity, with scope for expansion. The FEED work is towards the construction of the facility at the end of 2010 and the startup of gas storage services for the UK in 2014. The development will use offshore caverns and will enable gas to be delivered, stored and then returned to the UK transmission system.

Honeywell has acquired rights to technology developed by Shell Global Solutions for gathering field data and helping industrial plants to safely increase production while reducing maintenance and operating costs. The technology, said Honeywell, will allow manufacturers to optimise communication, coordination, execution and tracking of critical field tasks and activities in real-time - in combination with its own OneWireless network and Dolphin mobile computer devices. Read more

KBR has signed a collaboration agreement with BP to promote, market, and execute licensing and engineering services for the slurry bed residue and coal upgrading Veba Combi Cracker (VCC) Technology. VCC Technology is a hydrogen addition technology suitable for processing residuum into high-quality distillates or synthetic crude oil in the refining, upstream field upgrading and coal-to-liquids (CTL). KBR said its technology portfolio will now include a full complement of solvent deasphalting, resid hydrocracking, delayed coking, resid solidification and gasification. The technology will be available for licensing globally. Read more

Merck KGaA has started construction work at its Darmstadt site on a plant for the manufacture of inorganic salts, which is to come on stream in mid-2011. This will increase capacity by around 50% compared to the production lines currently being used. The company is investing around Euro30m in planning, developing and constructing the plant, which will produce active ingredients and excipients, products for use in biopharmaceutical production processes, additives for the food industry and laboratory reagents.

Technip and Subsea 7 have won a subsea installation contract with Australia’s largest publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production company, Woodside Energy Ltd., for the Cossack Wanaea Lambert Hermes (CWLH) redevelopment project in Western Australia. The overall CWLH redevelopment project involves the replacement of the oil-producing Cossack Pioneer floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, located offshore in the Carnarvon Basin, as well as the refurbishment of associated subsea infrastructure.

Piquant Ltd, a Walsall-based manufacturer of coleslaws and dressed salads, mayonnaise, dips and dressings, has recently purchased a Romaco FrymaKoruma MaxxD machine, from the Swiss OEM’s UK and Ireland agent, Moody Direct. The new machine is being used to increase the company’s mayonnaise production capacity following recent contract wins. Read more

Scottish Power has selected PAS to supply its alarm management and control performance software and services to improve the operations of 12 sites comprising gas-fired, coal-fired, and hydro-electric power generation stations. Under the contract, PAS engineers will assess the performance of alarm management systems and control loops, and develop improvement plans for each individual plant. Read more

Headwaters Inc. and Axens are forming a strategic alliance targetting the production of ultra-clean fuels by direct coal liquefaction (DCL) alone or in combination with refinery residues or biomass. The two companies will to combine their technologies and licensing activities for coal-to-liquids (CTL) projects worldwide. The new “Alliance DCL”, expects to provide a single-source solution for producing ultra-clean transportation fuels from coal - whether alone or in combination with other low-cost or renewable feedstocks, such as biomass and refinery residues. Read more

Emerson Process Management is to automate a new 810MW thermal power plant owned by Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL). Emerson will install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with Ovation control system and AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Manager at the six-unit (6 X 135-MW), coal-fired plant to be located in Angul, Orissa, in eastern India. The captive power plant, which will ultimately generate 2,500 MW, is part of phase 1 of JSPL’s 6000-ktpa integrated steel plant. As part of its automation solution, Emerson is also providing its Scenario high-fidelity simulation technology. The first unit is slated to come online in April 2010, followed by subsequent units at an interval of two months each. Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a contract from Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd (HEC) to license and design its proprietary Superclaus technology for a desulphurisation unit at a new gas plant in Turkmenistan. The unit will be integral to the gas plant operated by state-owned Turkmengas. South Korea-based HEC will design and build the new gas plant, which is due to be operational in 2012. Gas from this plant will be supplied to China. Jacobs introduced Superclaus technology in 1985 and now has over 200 units in operation. The technology nearly eliminates sulphur from the production process.

Matrikon Inc. has won a $15.7m contract to build a remote monitoring and multidisciplinary collaboration center for one of the world’s largest oil fields though a jointly owned subsidiary. The jointly owned subsidiary, in which Matrikon owns a 49% interest, was established to procure and execute business in the region. The pilot project covers 78 wells and the installation is expected to be completed within 12 months. The collaboration center makes the best use of scarce resources by creating an operations hub where experts from a variety of disciplines can access information, troubleshoot and optimise the oil field, all from a single location. Read more