Contracts & Projects Tracker: March 2010

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Alfa Laval has received an order from an Indian refinery for a Packinox heat exchanger. The order value is about SEK95m (£8.6m) and delivery is scheduled for 2011.

AMEC and its joint venture partners have secured a three-year extension worth €200m (£176m) per year for the Integrated Services Contract for the assets known as Shell Onegas Southern North Sea.

Revolvo has secured a £1.2m order from Jindal Steel and Power, a steel producer in India, for its SRB split roller bearings.

Edwards has won an order to supply an EDP400 chemical dry pump system to CABB AG, which produces fine chemicals for the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.

European technical services provider Imtech has secured a number of energy orders in the Netherlands. The orders relate to the development of ’green’ power supplies and the completion of a wood-fired bio-power plant with a total value of more than €20m.

Foster Wheeler has announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded contracts by Petrom for investments that form part of a refinery modernisation project being implemented at the Petrobrazi Refinery in Ploesti, Romania. Petrom is majority-owned by OMV of Austria. Foster Wheeler will provide front-end engineering design modification services, and engineering, procurement and construction management for the revamp of an atmospheric/vacuum distillation unit at the refinery.

Shell has signed two contracts with the Technip and Samsung Heavy Industries consortium for the Prelude floating LNG project off the coast of Western Australia. The signings formalise an announcement made by Shell last October that Prelude is in the engineering and design phase of development. The first contract covers the FEED elements specific to the Prelude project, taking into account the composition of the gas, local weather conditions and other site specific factors. The second contract details the terms under which the floating LNG facility would be built, if the final investment decision for the Prelude project is made. Read more

NRG Energy is to receive up to $154m in US funding for a demonstration post-combustion capture and sequestration project in Thompsons, Texas, which will test some of the latest technologies in the CCS field including systems from Fluor and Ramgen. The project is intended to show that post-combustion carbon capture applied to existing plants can be done economically, especially when the plant has the opportunity to sequester carbon dioxide in nearby oilfields. Read more

China National Petroleum Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell plc plan to jointly develop and produce natural gas in China’s Sichuan basin. The companies have submitted a production sharing contract to the Chinese central government for approval. Under the 30-year contract, Shell and CNPC would appraise and potentially develop tight gas (basin-centred gas) reservoirs in an area of about 4,000-square-kms in the Jinqiu block of central Sichuan Province. Tight gas is natural gas contained in rock that must be fractured or broken open before it can flow easily to production wells.

Severn Trent Services-Apliclor has installed Spain’s first-ever combined UV and chlorine dioxide disinfection treatment at a wastewater treatment plant in Reus, Spain, operated by Aigues de Reus Empresa Municipal. The disinfection system treats wastewater for variety of reuse applications, reducing the plant’s effluent discharge volume. The plant, which serves the wastewater treatment needs of communities in the province of Tarragona, has a treatment capacity of 25,000 m3/day.

Petrobras has installed Sandvik’s Rotoform solidification technology to handle the increasing volumes of sulphur produced at its Brazil refineries. Eight Rotoform lines await start-up in four different Petrobras refineries as part of an investment programme in new or revamped refinery operations.The system deposits droplets of liquid sulphur across a continuously running steel belt. Water is sprayed against the underside of the steel belt and, as the sulphur is carried along the cooler, the resulting transfer of heat converts the liquid droplets into solid pastilles.

CSG Lanstar has installed a CT201 solids grinder from NOV Mono to improve process efficiency at its Manchester site, where it collects and treats bulk and packaged liquid waste streams. Its existing equipment could not handle mixed viscous waste oils that were being transferred as part of the process. The grinder has been installed upstream of the existing pump to finely macerate all solids within the flow, before the waste oil is transferred into the recovery system for cleaning

Aker Solutions’ geo business has signed a global three-year frame agreement (from 1 March) with Statoil to supply sub-surface consultancy services within the areas of production geology, exploration geology and reservoir technology. Statoil has options to extend the deal with two one-year periods. Aker Geo AS comprises a team of 60 geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers and specialises in geological and geophysical interpretation, petrophysics, reservoir modelling and simulation, wellsite geology as well as production.

Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd has deployed Aspen Technology’s aspenONE software at its olefins and aromatics plants in Daesan, Korea. The planning and scheduling package is expected to deliver $5m in annual savings by filling gaps between planning and production execution, and better inventory visibility on feedstocks and final products.

Nord Stream AG has awarded Technip a Euro35m frame contract for the Nord Stream project in the Baltic Sea. Technip’s operating center in Stavanger, Norway will execute this contract, which covers four tie-ins on the two parallel pipelines that will run through the Baltic Sea, from Vyborg, Russia to Lubmin, Germany: crossing Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German waters. The pipelines will have a total length of about 1,220km.

British Sugar has signed a five-year deal worth £800k/yr with CHEP, which will involve the conversion of its dedicated internal yellow pallet pool to CHEP pallets. British Sugar is part of Associated British Foods (ABF) which CHEP already supplies 900,000 pallets per year to. In signing the contract British Sugar aims to reduce administration of its pallet management as it will no longer need to manage its own exchange pool or pay for repair or replacement of assets.

UK accountancy firm SJD Accountancy has reported a record rise in the number of contractors forming limited companies. 2010, it said, has seen a 70% increase over 2009 in contractor limited companies being created, said SJD, which also noted a 108% year-on-year increase in the number of engineers becoming contractors and forming a limited company. The trend is said to reflect two years of negative job news and redundancies and a move away from rehiring full-time employees and towards contractors.

North West Shelf Venture operator Woodside Energy has selected Mustang to provide independent assessment and verification of readiness for the North Rankin B (NRB) platform topsides, to be located on the North West Shelf of Australia. The NRB topsides installation is set to break world records including the heaviest topsides (23,600t) to be floatover-installed on a steel jacket; and, at a depth of 126 meters, the deepest open-water floatover steel jacket. Mustang’s work commenced in January 2010.

ABB has signed a $12m framework agreement to supply medium voltage power equipment to ESB Networks, Ireland’s nationwide power distribution utility. The four-year framework agreement includes supply of 24 kV SafeRing Ring Main Units (RMUs) to help upgrade the utility’s secondary distribution network across Ireland and follows a similar previous agreement completed with ESB.

Support services company VT Group is to support Sellafield Ltd’s statutory monitoring requirements through its environmental laboratory (EL), based at the Westlakes Science and Technology Park, near Whitehaven, in Cumbria. The contract, which extends work carried out by the EL, is worth up to £10m over three years, with an option for a further year. The scope includes analytical services for approved dosimetry; analysis of terrestrial and marine samples; analysis in support of site groundwater monitoring programmes; analysis of plant aerial and liquid effluent samples.

Cadbury has chosen Atchison Topeka for a three-year contract to set up a dedicated nut handling facility. Atchison Topeka is a third-party food logistics business that focuses on storage and distribution of food ingredients. The operation will be based at Atchison Topeka’s Worcester site. The work will entail the de-canting of nuts into intermediate bulk containers, which will feed directly on to the Cadbury production lines seven days a week. Atchison Topeka will also control the waste management aspect of the contract.

Cold rolled steel manufacturer Hadley Group is to deploy Infor’s PM 10 performance management software for more agile budgeting and forecasting within its manufacturing sites in the UK and Germany. Hadley, which rolls 125ktpa of steel has outgrown using Excel spreadsheets for budgeting and is to integrate the software with its ERP system.

BP is to pay Devon Energy $7bn in cash for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico. These include interests in ten exploration blocks in Brazil, including seven in the prolific Campos basin; a major portfolio of deepwater exploration acreage and prospects in the US Gulf of Mexico; and an interest in the BP-operated Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) development in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan. BP will also sell to Devon Energy a 50% stake in BP’s Kirby oil sands interests in Alberta, Canada, for $500m.

The European Commission has started a major research initiative in which academia and industry will jointly develop new ways to convert biological feedstock into energy and other resources, using biorefinery technology. The EC is providing Euro52m in funding over four years. Its 81 partners from universities, research institutes and industry in 20 countries will invest another Euro28m. The biorefinery project is part of the Bio-energy European Industrial Initiative, which aim to see bioenergy make up at least 14 % of the EU energy mix by 2020, creating over 200,000 jobs.

Construction work has started on the expansion of the Industrial Biotechnology demonstrator facilities in Wilton, Teesside. The Government has invested £12m in the facility, which is to help develop new and more sustainable manufacturing and process technologies at the chemicals complex. The market potential for chemicals made by industrial biotechnology is forecast rise to £12bn in the UK alone by 2025. Read more

Siemens is the “most recognised and used” brand of control system in China, according to an IMS Research user survey. Almost 75% of respondents said that they were using Siemens products in their PLC-based control system; this percentage exceeded nearly 50% for Siemens PC-based control systems. A recent IMS report on the Chinese PLC market found Siemens to have more than 50% share of the PLC market.

Oxford-based Oxsensis has raised £3m in a funding round in which Carbon Trust Investments Ltd has joined existing investors in the company. Oxsensis claims to have developed the world’s highest temperature sensors. Designed for use in gas turbines, for example in power stations, they can measure heat and pressure in harsh conditions at temperatures of over 1000°C - making it posible to run turbines at higher combustion temperatures, thereby increasing efficiency, lowering operating costs, and reducing carbon emissions. The funding is to help Oxsensis to commercialise its sensor technology.

KBR is to provide engineering, procurement and other project related services for BP-Husky Refining LLC’s $400m Reformer 3 equipment upgrade of its Toledo Refinery located in Oregon, Ohio. KBR will provide design and support services needed for the project, replacing two existing naphtha reformers and a hydrogen plant with a single, state-of-the art reformer. The new unit is to increase the refinery’s gasoline yields, increase co-product hydrogen production and improve overall plant reliability and help the refinery meet future environmental regulations, with an anticipated air emissions reduction of over 5%.

A West Yorkshire partnership between Broadbent Stanley and GAC Group has recently delivered its fifth Yorky Type “O” Oilfield Grinders: completing an order from the Baker Hughes Group for installation at the Baker Oil Tools, Baku facility, in Azerbaijan.

Gee & Co. has recently supplied three packaged plant systems for the dosing of ferric and glycerol at Ballynacor & Armagh Wastewater Treatment works. The three packaged plant systems were delivered as part of Northern Ireland Water’s Project Omega, a £122m capital investment wastewater treatment and sludge disposal scheme for Northern Ireland, and one of the most advanced wastewater management schemes of its type in Europe. Read more

Honeywell has formed a Libyan company - Honeywell Libya Technical Engineering Joint Stock Co. - together with its joint venture partner Rida Technical Services. The new company, to be known as Honeywell Libya JV, will provide process automation technology and services to local organizations and is the first automation joint venture between a global company and a Libyan company. Honeywell Libya JV has been registered with Libya’s Ministry of Economy and will be based in Tripoli.

Dow Agro Sciences, part of the Dow Chemical Co., has extended a contract with Geodis Calberson UK’s logistics division for a further three years. The multi-million pound deal will see Geodis Calberson managing all on-site logistics for the King’s Lynn-based company, which makes insecticides, fungicides and pesticides. It will also look after global supply chain requirements - mainly in European, Eurasia and Baltic markets. Warehousing and loading/unloading activities will also be handled by Geodis Calberson, along with the firm’s import and export shipping office duties and arrangement of transport for orders. Geodic Calberson will oversee around 10,000 pallets/12m kilos of goods for DAS annually.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is to serve as project management contractor (PMC) for Marafiq’s ongoing investments in Saudi Arabia. It will provide PMC services for a number of projects in Jubail and Yanbu industrial cities, under a framework that is in effect for three years, extendable for a further three. Work includes conceptual design,FEED and construction monitoring. Projects involve expansions, upgrades, and installations of wastewater treatment plants, electrical power generation facilities, and a seawater reverse osmosis plant. Jacobs is performing the work from its Reading, England, office with support from its personnel in Mumbai, India.

Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Fluor Corp. Power Group to market and sell carbon dioxide capture systems for existing coal-fired power plants in the US and Canada. Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a two-year contract from Canaport LNG for maintenance and related services at its LNG terminal in Saint John - the first in Canada. Delivering services under a performance based KPI programme, Jacobs will perform preventative, predictive, corrective and regulatorymaintenance activities at the LNG receiving and regasification terminal. Supplying natural gas to Canadian and American markets, Canaport LNG has maximum send-out capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet or 28 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

Balfour Beatty has selected eight Atlas Copco hydraulic core drills, for drilling around 13,000 holes in the walls and floors of the twin road tunnels of the Highways Agency A3 Hindhead Tunnel project. At 1.8km long, the tunnels running beneath the Devils Punchbowl, will be the UK’s longest non-estuarial tunnels. Read more

The US department of energy has announced a $40m award to two teams led by Westinghouse Electric Co. and General Atomics for conceptual design and planning work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) - a project to determine whether high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology can safely and reliably produce electricity as well as process heat for industrial applications. About 16% of US greenhouse gas emissions come from industrial process heat applications. The process heat or steam generated by NGNP units could be used for highly-efficient electricity co-generation in energy-intensive industries, such as petrochemicals.

Aker Solutions has signed a $41m contract with Petrobras to supply sulphate removal units for two FPSOs to operate offshore Brazil. The SRU systems will be installed on the topsides of the P-58 and P-62 FPSOs. Aker’s sulphate removal technology delivers treated and de-sulphated seawater for injection into the hydrocarbon reservoir to maintain the pressure and control scaling and souring effects in the reservoir. FPSO P-58 will produce 180 000 barrels of oil per day and will operate in the North part of Parque das Baleias field. P-62 has equal capacity and will operate in module 4 of the Roncador field, both in the Campos’ Basin offshore Brazil. First oil is scheduled for 2014. Supplier opportunities

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN), an institution created by the Spanish Government, for the design and supply of a circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) unit for testing FW’s Flexi-Burn carbon capturing CFB technology. This unit will be part of CIUDEN’s integrated carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology development plant (TDP), near Endesa’s Compostilla power plant in Ponferrada. The unit is due to be operational by H2/11 with testing programs to follow shortly thereafter. FW will design and supply the 30 MWth Flexi-BurnTM CFB test unit and some auxiliary equipment and provide site advisory services for the project. Read more

Siemens has been awarded a $14m contract to supply a hollow fiber membrane treatment system as part of the groundwater replenishment system expansion at Orange County Water District in California. The 48m-gallons-per-day membrane system, coupled with an existing Siemens membrane system, will increase the flow to 134 MGD for the reverse osmosis membranes downstream in the GWR System. Construction could begin as early as late 2010.

BioTfueL is a new joint project launched by five French partners and Uhde. BioTfueL integrates the various technology stages of the so-called biomass to liquid chain (BTL chain = biomass to fuel) with the aim of developing and integrating all the stages of the BTL process chain and bringing them to market. This involves the drying and crushing of the biomass, torrefaction, gasification, purification of the synthesis gas and its ultimate conversion to second generation biofuels using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Read more

The world DCS market is set grow by $1.5bn, and exceed, $17.2bn by 2014, driven mainly by the power, oil & gas, refining & petrochemical and water & wastewater industries, an IMS Research report suggests. The market, it forecast, wll also be very dependent on the energy and product consumption in developing regions. Alternative fuels and energy production, added IMS, will attract large investment resources to underpin spending of DCS systems to monitor and control operations efficiently, and to maximise return on investment.

Siemens Water Technologies has signed a 10-year water technology and operations agreement with Walt Disney World Resort. While Disney already has an existing agreement with Siemens AG to use a wide range of Siemens technologies, this agreement further expands the relationship and paves the way for the two companies to broaden their technological collaboration across platforms.

Rewinds & J Windsor of Liverpool has carried out a repair contract for a large oil seed food processing company in the north of England. The work on a rotary diverter lock assembly - from a conveyor handling system - was made of 316L stainless steel and measured 2.5m long and 500mm diameter. The food processor opted for the repair route as a new unit would have cost over £20,000. Read more

ESR Technology is to supply safety and risk management services to Dolphin Energy Ltd on its Dolphin Gas Project - one of the largest trans-border energy projects ever undertaken in the Middle East, now delivering 2bn standard cubic feet of natural gas per day from Qatar’s North Field reserves. The gas is extracted via two offshore wellhead platforms and then transported to the gas treatment and compression plants at Ras Laffan via sub-sea pipelines. ESR’s contract includes provision of: HAZIDs, HAZOPs, various risk assessments, design reviews, safety critical systems evaluations, emergency readiness analyses, SIL assessments, and failure mode and effects analysis.

Linde Group “fared reasonably well in a difficult economic environment,” its CEO Wolfgang Reitzle said announcing fiscal 2009 results. Gases division sales (like-for-like) fell 5.1% to Euro8.932 bn, while operating profit was just 1.6% down at Euro2.37 bn. Engineering division sales of Euro2.311 bn were 23.4% below the prior-year figure, operating profit down 21.3% to Euro210m.

KSB is currently working on a new order to equip La Caldera pumping station in Mexico City with 24 large waste water pumps. Some 16 of these are among the largest waste water pumps that KSB is building at its plant in Halle, Germany. Each of the submersible motor pumps weighs around 10,500 kg and has an output of around 2,000 litres per second. Read more

The UK water industry is forecast to make record investments in capital equipment, infrastructure and operational activities over the next five years, according to a report published today by IMS Business Information Services. For the period April 2010 to March 2015, water companies in England and Wales have committed to a £22.1bn capital expenditure, with a further £2.5bn scheduled to be spent in Scotland and £564m in Northern Ireland during the same period. The industry’s next investment cycle, AMP5, will ,however, provide some tough challenges for water companies. Read more

AMEC chief executive Samir Brikho has announced “excellent” results in 2009, but warned that the trading environment will remain challenging. “[We] expect that our order pipeline will continue to improve as the year progresses. We are currently well positioned on contracts at the early stages of the project cycle and are confident this will support future growth, building on our strong customer relationships. In the first quarter, we have seen signs of a pick up in the market and we expect to win a number of sizeable new contracts for delivery later in 2010 and beyond.” Read more

Nine GAMBICA member companies including four new members have formed a new Inter-Connection Technologies Group, within GAMBICA’s Industrial Automation Sector. The Group’s inaugural meeting appointed Stuart Jaycocks, from Weidmuller, as chairman and welcomed new member companies ContaClip UK, Phoenix Contact, Wago and Wieland to the roster. The other member companies in the group are ABB, Legrand, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric. The scope of the new Group includes a range of terminals and connectors for power, signal and data in industrial applications. It includes DIN Rail terminals, assemblies, PCB connectors and a range of accessories.

Farmgen is to establish a 1MW power plant employing anaerobic digestion (AD) technology at a farm near Silloth in Cumbria. Dryholme Farm has been purchased specially for the project. Lancashire-based Farmgen is also set to build a similar project near Blackpool. The AD plant will use animal slurries, grass silage and other crops from fields surrounding the farm to create biogas, which is then used to generate electricity. Read more

CB&I is to supply a cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Malvinas, Peru, as part of an expansion of the Camisea gas project. The $45m-plus contract is with Pluspetrol Peru Corp. as operator and contract administrator, acting on behalf of the licensees.CB&I will lead the engineering, procurement and modular fabrication of a cryogenic unit designed to process 520 million standard cubic feet per day of gas. The unit, which is due for completion later this year, will treat gas extracted from the Pagoreni field, separating the natural gas liquids out of the gas stream. CB&I has been involved in the Camisea project since its inception, having supplied four cryogenic plants at Malvinas, as well as a fractionation and topping plant at Pisco, and the associated refrigerated and atmospheric storage tanks on the site.

Chronos BTH Ltd has netted a plant upgrade contract worth over £1m for a fertilizer blending plant in Malaysia. The project will involve upgrading a range of weigh belt feeders that were originally supplied by Chronos sister company Richard Simon Ltd about 15 years ago. The upgraded machines are being produced as exact mechanical replacements to the previously supplied feeders, even working to the original production schedules and documentation. All of the feeder upgrades will involve the replacement of all the feeder frames with fertilizer grade stainless steel housings and material contact parts.

Samsung C&T Corp. has awarded Fluor Corp. an engineering and related management services contract for the Singapore LNG Terminal Project at Singapore’s Jurong Island. Samsung is the EPC contractor to Singapore LNG Corporation Pte Ltd. When completed, Singapore’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is expected to produce 3.5 million tonnes of LNG annually. Work is underway with the project being performed from Fluor’s Singapore, Manila and Houston operations centers.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a contract from Saudi Aramco to develop a basic engineering package for four sulfur recovery units, each with an expected capacity of 1,200 tpd. The four-train sulfur plant will be part of the Wasit Gas Development Program (WGDP) in Saudi Arabia. Jacobs has designed over 350 sulfur recovery units since 1985, and they will license its proprietary EUROCLAUS(R), and sulfur degassing technology for the project. Aramco’s WGDP will provide for the production and processing of up to 2.5bn standard cubic feet per day of gas from the Aribiyah and Hasbah offshore non-associated sour gas fields. This investment involves building gas processing plants, two offshore gas platforms, one tie-in platform, subsea power, comms links and pipelines.

More than 50 Landia mixers and pumps have been installed at the University of Aarhus Research Centre in Foulum, Denmark, home to the world’s largest biogas research unit. Mixing and pumping almost 30,000 cubic metres pa of pig, cow and mink slurry for three AD plants on the 550 hectare complex, the equipment must ensure that the dry and liquid matter are properly mixed in a total of 15 tanks; preventing pipes from becoming blocked. Read more

Bayer MaterialScience plans to invest around 150 million to establish a 300ktpa TDI (toluene diisocyanate) plant at its Chempark site in Dormagen. The unit will replace the existing TDI plants in Dormagen and Brunsbüttel and is part of a company strategy to optimise its European production for the isocyanate - a feedstock for the production of polyurethane flexible foam. Read more

Flowserve Corp. has won a $31m pumps order from LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas AD (LNB) for its ebullating pumping systems and heavy-duty high-energy barrel pumps. LNB, part of Russian oil giant LUKOIL, is the largest oil refinery in the Balkans. The pumps will be used in the refinery’s new H-Oil & VGO complex in Burgas, Bulgaria, which converts heavy residues to high-valued products. The H-Oil & VGO complex has expected capacity of 47,000 barrels per day.

KSB Group has recently shipped five large submersible borehole pumps for the purpose of dewatering and maintaining the water in New York’s famous Delaware Aqueduct while repairs are being done. This task requires the most powerful single-entry submersible borehole pumps KSB has ever produced, with each of the five units featuring a 2,650 HP, 4-pole, 4160 V high-voltage motor. The capacity of each pump is around 8,800 gallons per minute at a maximum rated head of 1,050 feet.

Technip, leader in a joint venture with Chiyoda, has been awarded by Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. Ltd (Qatargas 1) an EPC contract for the Plateau Maintenance Project (PMP) in Ras Laffan, Qatar. Technip and Chiyoda previously carried out the feasibility study, pre-FEED and FEED of the facilities. The contract includes a new acid gas removal unit, a new sulphur recovery unit, and modifications to utility systems for handling increased feedgas rates to the existing LNG trains. The contract is to be completed in 2013. Qatargas 1, a JV composed of Qatar Petroleum, Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui and Marubeni, has been operating three LNG trains since 1996. These trains are currently producing 10 million tones of LNG per annum.

Shell has awarded KBR a contract to provide instrument and electrical support services at its chemicals plant in Deer Park, Texas and refining joint venture facilities with PMI Norteamérica. KBR will provide instrument and electrical support services to include capital projects, turnarounds and continuing maintenance needs. The services will be provided by KBR subsidiary, Instrument Technology International, which provides instrument and electrical services from construction through checkout, commissioning, start-up, operational phases and post-operational maintenance.

Grundfos has recently fulfilled a large sewage pumps order for the ministry of water and wastewater in Saudi Arabia. This project was for a major sewage treatment station in Damman, which is a major seaport and centre of commerce. The order covered nine submersible sewage pumps including some with 650 kW motors, the largest that Grundfos had ever quoted on, at that time. The final five pumps that complete this scheme were recently built and fully tested at the Grundfos factory in South Korea.

Southern Water has installed six Mono EZstrip progressing cavity pumps at its sludge treatment centre (STC) in Millbrook. The pumps are to transfer sludges at different stages in the process, including centrifuge feed, digester feed and cake dilution. Carl Smith, section leader at Millbrook STC, said the units were selected because of the de-ragging benefits they offered operators.

Sandvik Process Systems is to supply the sulphur solidification and handling technology for phases 17&18 of Iran’s South Pars gas field development. The order, scheduled for delivery before the end of 2010, is the third to be secured by Sandvik as part of the development of this huge field, confirming the company’s Rotoform-based granulation technology as the preferred sulphur solidification solution at South Pars. Read more

Fluor Corp. is currently performing a feasibility study for a joint venture led by PetroChina Co. Ltd. The proposed 440,000 barrel-per-day refinery and 1.2 million tons-per-year petrochemicals complex will be located in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China. The study is being led by Fluor’s Shanghai and Houston operations centers with support from Beijing and Manila, and is expected to be completed at the end of 2010. The PetroChina-led JV also includes Royal Dutch Shell PLC and the international arm of Qatar Petroleum.

Chevron is to use Invensys Operations Management’s Wonderware IntelaTrac system to support its upstream operations. The system includes configurable software and mobile hardware that enable workers to better manage workflow, procedural and general management tasks which focus on plant, production and field operations, maintenance management, production, inventory and logistics tracking and compliance applications. The mobile platform will assist Chevron operators, field engineers, technicians and supervisors in creating inspection and regulatory procedures, among other applications.

Foster Wheeler has gained a contract from Sinopec Jiujiang Co. for the design and supply of two circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) steam generators for the Sinopec Jiujiang Fuel Alteration Project located in Jiangxi province in south central China. Commercial operation of the new steam generators is scheduled for first-quarter 2012. FW will design and supply the two 50 MWe CFB steam generators and auxiliary equipment and provide site advisory services for the project. The CFB steam generators will be designed to burn coal and petcoke in a manner that will meet China’s increasingly stringent environmental requirements. FW has supplied over 40 CFB steam generators to clients in China, 23 of which have been sold to Sinopec.

LyondellBasell Industries has announced a project to cease the production of polypropylene (PP) at Terni, Italy. LyondellBasell’s PP production activities in Italy will be focused on the company’s world-scale sites at Ferrara and Brindisi. The Terni plant has a nameplate capacity of 255ktpa and currently has around 120 permanent employees.

Barun Mining Co. Ltd, part of China Baogang Group, is to use GE Intelligent Platforms’ Proficy process control system at its iron mining business. China Baogang is one of the largest equipment manufacturers in China, involved in the construction of metallurgical, infrastructural facilities, and other industrial projects. The company also provides geo-technical engineering construction, industrial and civil construction, rock and earthwork excavation, equipment installation, and steel structure fabrication and installation services. Barun Mining provides an extra source of material from China’s Bayan Obo area for the Baogang group to protect against global supply chain disturbances.

Rio Tinto has selcted Atlas Copco to develop one of two rapid tunneling concepts for underground block cave projects. The new machine are to be designed to enable fast and cost effective constructionm of mines that are safe, cost effective and have minimal impact on the environment.

MAN Turbo AG is employing a 45-tonne, 14,000kW, 10,000V high voltage slipring motor from WEG Germany GmbH for the testing of huge radial, axial, and geared compressors at its Oberhausen plant. The force-cooled unit is rated S1-100% 14,000 KW at F/F rise, from 1500rpm down to 750 rpm. Read more

BP Raffinaderij Rotterdam has renewed its five-year Master Site Agreement (MSA) with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. The MSA covers support for small projects work at BP’s Rotterdam refinery in The Netherlands. The refinery has the largest annual production capacity in Europe - around 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day - and produces a wide range of finished and intermediate products. Jacobs will provide various EPCM services at the Rotterdam site - as it has since 2004 under the initial MSA. The work will continue to be performed by Jacobs’ office in Leiden, The Netherlands, supported by a site-based team.