Contracts & Projects Tracker: June 2010

Invensys has signed a second long-term agreement with China Nuclear Power Engineering Co. (CNPE) to provide safety and DCS systems for two 650MW pressurised water reactor units under construction on Hainan Island, China. This follows an agreement between the companies in 2008 for the development and implementation of four large-scale DCS systems, including digitised main control rooms, equipped with Invensys safety and control system technology, for two nuclear power plants under construction in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

INEOS Bio has been awarded a £7.3m grant from One North East and the Department for Energy and Climate Change for construction of Europe’s first advanced bioethanol from waste plant using the INEOS BioEnergy Process Technology. Read more

Alfa Laval has received orders “of record size” for its PureBallast systems from two shipyards in South Korea. The systems will be installed onboard 14 vessels built for A.P Møller - Maersk. The total order value is about SEK80m and delivery is scheduled for 2011 and 2012: the systems being installed onboard a series of container vessels that Korean shipyards are building for a Danish ship owner A.P. Møller - Maersk – the largest ship owner in the world.

An Aker Solutions-built semi-submersible platform is on its way from the yard at Stord for installation at the Gjøa oil and gas field offshore Norway. Production start-up is scheduled for Q4/10. It will be Statoil’s first floating platform supplied with power from shore and is expected to reduce carbon emissions by about 250ktpa. Gjøa is one of the largest ongoing field development projects in the North Sea.

Chelsea Technologies Group is providing crude oil tracking sensors to monitor the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Originally designed for military use, the submersible fluorimeters can monitor the concentration of refined (360nm) or crude hydrocarbons (440nm) in coastal, marine and fresh water applications. They can be deployed independently as well as from submersible vehicles, diver held, moored, profiled or as part of a flow through system.

Northumbrian Water Ltd (NWL) has managed to offset some of the impact of recent plant closures by its customers in the North East: securing a contract with the new owner of the Artenius site as well as a contract extension with a Corus business unit. Read more

Chesterfield BioGas (CBG) is to supply Centrica with one of the UK’s first biogas upgrading plants for the production of clean biomethane from waste for direct injection into the national gas grid. The order, worth over £0.6m, has resulted from a partnership between Centrica, Scotia Gas Networks and Thames Water to process the gas naturally produced by waste water at the Didcot Sewage Works. Read more

Keppel Seghers, the environmental technology division of Keppel Integrated Engineering Limited (KIE), has contracted Konecranes UK’s Industrial Crane Division to supply the cranes for the £233-million EPC contract to build an energy-from-waste CHP (combined heat and power) plant for the Greater Manchester region. The order totaling £4m is in two parts. Read more

Cheniere Energy Partners LP has approved the initiation of a project to add liquefaction services at the Sabine Pass LNG receiving terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Cheniere plans to work with Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals to design and construct the liquefaction facilities, using ConocoPhillips’ Optimized Cascade technology. Bechtel designed and built the original Sabine Pass terminal, one of the world’s largest facilities for receiving and regasifying LNG.

ABB has won a $155m contract from the Kuwait Oil Co. for a turnkey project to design a new crude-oil transit line and build and associated ancillary systems.The project includes the expansion of an existing manifold (a pipeline consolidation installation) at a location in the north of the country, and the installation of the new transit line. The 123 km, 30-inch-diameter transit line will run between oil fields in the north of the country and a storage facility in the south. Read more

Emerson Process Management is to modernise controls at Ekibastuz GRES-1, the largest thermal power plant in Kazakhstan, with its PlantWeb digital plant architecture and Ovation expert control system. The 4,000 MW facility produces 13% of the country’s power. The project is to help ensure the plant is operating efficiently so that it is better able to meet the growing electricity needs of Kazakhstan. Read more

Aggregate Industries has installed a new Linatex G4 rubber pump, which is designed to offer energy efficiency and maintenance benefits in slurry applications. The company has reported power consumption savings of 18% when processing coarse sand, and 44% for fine sand applications – compared to a previously used LP111r pump – equating to annual saving of around £2000 and £1500, respectively. Aggregate Industries has also noted reduced wear and maintenance issues.

Formosa Chemicals and Fiber Corp. has recently installed Honeywell’s OneWireless wireless technology to eliminate the need to take manual temperature measurements on three of its rotary machines at its rayon plants in Yilan, Taiwan. The system was also used to fix the deviation in infrared sensors it was experiencing due to weather changes.

Shell has taken an equity stake in Virent Energy Systems Inc. and begun a joint technology programme to convert plant sugars directly into diesel. Since 2007, Shell and Virent have been conducting a joint R&D effort culminating late last year in the start-up of a pilot plant. This effort will now be expanded to include research into the production of diesel. Virent’s BioForming process can convert non-food plant sugars directly and provide fuel with the same properties as conventional diesel.

Cocoa and chocolate products manufacturer Barry Callebaut has recently purchased a specially developed stainless steel Pure-Screen duplex filter system and frame from filtration company, Axium Process. The system is completely jacketed to ensure the product temperature will be maintained to close limits.

Masdar has appointed Total and Abengoa Solar as partners to own, build and operate Shams 1, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant and the first of its kind in the Middle East. A JV between Masdar (60%), Total (20%) and Abengoa Solar (20%) will develop, build, operate and maintain the plant in Madinat Zayed, 120 km southwest of Abu Dhabi. Shams 1 will cover 2.5 km², with a capacity of about 100 MW and a solar field consisting of 768 parabolic trough collectors to be supplied by Abengoa Solar. Construction is to begin during Q3/10 and take around two years.

Finning (UK) Ltd has invested £170,000 in three new Thermo iCAP ICP fluid and condition monitoring equipment at its laboratory in Leeds. The kit is to help it’s fluid and condition monitoring service deliver faster, more accurate fluid data to customers; increasing its wear metal analysis capacity by 10% to 150,000 additional fluid samples per year.

Parker Hannifin and Hydrasun have signed a strategic partnership for the development, sales and support of fluid and gas handling and process control technologies. Aberdeen-based Hydrasun supplies fluid power and transfer products and is a designer and manufacturer obespoke connectors, assemblies and umbilicals.

ABB looks set to acquire Chloride, whose board has now backed its £860m offer for the company. The deal would combine Chloride’s position in the medium- to high-power UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) business with ABB’s global power and automation offerings for sectors including oil, gas, and petrochemicals. Chloride would join ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division.

Wood Group GTS has signed a multi-year agreement with Mass Global Investment Co. for operations & maintenance of the Solymaniah Power Facility, located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The 500-megawatt electric generation facility has four GE 9001 E combustion gas turbines in simple cycle configuration. This exclusive operations & maintenance (O&M) contract includes both transition and operational phase services, with an initial term of seven years.

Bayer - through its Bayer MaterialScience and Bayer Technology Services units - RWE Power AG and RWTH Aachen University are working jointly on a project, called “Dream Production”, to turn carbon dioxide emissions into polymers. Read more

Yokogawa UK has won a “major” contract from Orbital Gas Systems for pressure and temperature transmitters for use on the National Grid gas network. The contract covers the supply of 350 EJX pressure transmitters and 80 YTA temperature transmitters for major upgrades to the UK’s National Transmission System (NTS): the high pressure part of the UK’s natural gas transmission network, consisting of more than 7400 km of pipeline operating at up to 85 bar. Read more

The Environment Agency has approved CEMARS, the chosen certification standard for Achilles’ carbonReduction programme, as an Early Action Metric in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. Achilles claims the decision puts the “programme at the forefront of credible carbon measurement, management and reduction in the UK.” The CEMARS standard provides certification to ISO14064 Part 1, the company also noted. 

Finning has recently signed a three-year service support-led deal for nine items of Caterpillar equipment worth over £1m, with Raymond Brown Group for use in its construction, minerals and recycling divisions. The deal includes five Cat 320DL excavators, two Cat 962H wheel loaders, one Cat 966H wheel loader and a Cat M318DL Material handler, with a guaranteed three year uptime promise for every machine.

Shell Exploration and Production has awarded a five-year condition monitoring (CM) contract to AV Technology, an Independent industrial consultancy based in Handforth, Cheshire. The deal covers the provision of CM consultancy, training and equipment to ten offshore platforms and three onshore terminals located throughout the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), mainland UK and Ireland. Read more

Chemineer has reported that five of its agitators have successfully completed trials at a major pharma company’s pilot plant in Singapore. For gas dispersion and reincorporation of gas from head space, one agitator had three up-pumping Maxflow-W impellers. Other designs included two high efficiency impellers with a low level operation that were designed to avoid the bottom outlet valve.

DPS (Bristol) Ltd is to act as FPSO consultancy to ONGC of India for a proposed D-1 marginal field FPSO. The D-1 field is 200km west of Mumbai and currently under production through an MOPU-based Early Production System. ONGC aims to install three new well platforms, drill extra wells and lay pipelines and subsea manifolds. DPS will initially help it select an FPSO configuration, prepare a technical bid package, and subsequently interface between ONGC, the contractor, classification society, regulatory authorities and other agencies on the FPSO project.

Green Biologics Ltd, an Oxford-based technology provider for bio-butanol production, has completed an investment round of £4.9 million to roll out its technology and commercialisation plans. The company develops retrofit packages to convert ethanol plants to bio-butanol and with fermentation and process technology solutions for existing and new-build bio-butanol plants. Read more

Honeywell is to upgrade operational safety at a major ethylene plant operated by Noretyl AS, part of INEOS. The scope of work includes the immediate installation of four Safety Manager systems and three redundant C300 controllers at the plant in Rafnes, Norway. Honeywell will also provide local services and support and eventually will replace all the plant’s remaining, ageing safety systems. Read more

Shell is to acquire subsidiaries which own substantially all of the business of East Resources, Inc. for $4.7 billion, from East Resources, its private equity investor, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and its advisors Jefferies & Co. The deal is subject to certain regulatory approvals. Read more

Air Liquide is to invest Euro25m in a new air separation unit (ASU) for Dongbei Special Steel Group in Dalian, China. The new ASU will have a production capacity of about 800 tonnes of oxygen per day, to supply oxygen and nitrogen. It follows a first long-term gas supply contract signed in 2007. Commissioning of the new unit is due in Q3/11. Plant operation teams will be from Air Liquide China, while the ASU will be designed and manufactured by Air Liquide Hangzhou, Air Liquide’s Engineering centre in China. Dongbei Special Steel has a total special steels capacity of around 3300ktpa.

Cameron has developed an automated Jiskoot Fast Loop sampling system under a technical cooperation deal with Petrobras for use in a 20in multi-product pipeline in Brazil. The system is designed for unmanned multi-batch collection of representative batch and spot samples of refined fuels for lab analysis. It can take up to 10 composite or intermediate samples while monitoring performance dynamically using weighing systems, using NeSSi technology to minimise the risk of intra-sample contamination combined with a pressurised, volume burst, inert purging system. A Petrobras DCS system is connected to the Jiskoot Controller via Modbus to provide SCADA operation.

Fluor Corp. has reached mechanical completion on Renewable Energy Corp.’s Silicon IV silane gas plant for its Moses Lake Expansion Project in eastern Washington state, about 100 miles southwest of Spokane. The Silicon IV silane gas plant is currently in a testing and commissioning phase in preparation for production start-up. When completed, the silane processing plant will provide silane gas for the production of high-grade polysilicon for use in solar panel manufacturing.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a feasibility study and FEED contract by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil for a new grassroots refinery at Nassiriya in southern Iraq. The proposed refinery will have a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. FW will develop the configuration of the new refinery to meet the client’s processing objectives, evaluate proprietary technologies, prepare a report covering the feasibility of the project and the design basis of the refinery facilities, engage the selected licensors and prepare the front-end engineering design package for the total project.

Fluor Corp. has won a contract with Rentech Inc. to provide FEED services for the Rialto Renewable Energy Center, near Los Angeles. The project, which will use green urban waste as feedstock, is among the first commercial biomass gasification facilities in the US to co-produce renewable electric power and synthetic diesel fuel. It will produce about 35MW of base-load renewable electricity and 640 barrels-per-day of fuels from urban woody green waste. Fluor has executed over 20 gasification projects globally, 150 gasification feasibility studies and also helped to develop the major Fischer-Tropsch plants in operation today.

KBR has been awarded a contract by Jilin Connell Chemical Industry Co. Ltd to provide licensing and related services for its grassroots aniline plant in Jilin City, China. The aniline technology is offered by KBR through a licensing alliance with DuPont. KBR will license this leading technology for Connell’s 150ktpa aniline plant, which will enable it to double its existing production capacity at this site. KBR will also provide basic engineering, training and field support services. This award follows the successful licensing by KBR of two aniline plants in China. Work on the project is already underway.

KBR has won a contract by Houston-based FPR Inc. to provide design and early engineering services for the development of the Araromi Refinery Project in Nigeria. KBR will execute the services for a low complexity 160,000 barrels per day (B/d) greenfield refinery and marine facility estimated in excess of $3bn. The refinery will produce motor gasoline, automotive gas oil, kerosene and jet fuel. The contract was awarded under an agreement under which both firms anticipate executing various phases of the project, including EPC-GM and operation and maintenance. The project will be developed in phases, with an ultimate capacity of 320,000b/d with a full petrochemical complex.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) services contract by Société Nationale de Raffinage (SONARA) for phase 1 of the Limbé Refinery upgrade and modernization project in Cameroon. FW has already completed the front-end engineering design for the entire project. phase 1 includes the revamp of the existing crude distillation unit, addition of a new vacuum distillation unit, new catalytic reformer unit, and power generation and associated offsites and utilities facilities.

Aker Solutions has signed an $18m contract with Ilim Group to supply an integrated chlorine dioxide plant for Ilim’s pulp mill project in Bratsk, Russia.  The contract covers the supply of technology, engineering, equipment, site and commissioning services from Aker’s office in Vancouver, Canada, with support from its office in Moscow. Read more

Technology company Novozymes, COFCO, a producer of processed agricultural products, and Sinopec are to build a demonstration cellulosic biofuel plant in China. Novozymes will supply with enzymes for the unit, which is to start up in Q3/11, producing 3m gallons of bioethanol made from corn stover a year. It will be the largest demo facility converting agricultural waste into biofuel in China.

Aker Solutions has won two contracts, together worth $180m, from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd (DSME) in South Korea for the delivery of two drilling equipment packages. It is to deliver complete drilling equipment packages consisting of equipment deliveries and commissioning services, while DSME will manufacture both units in South Korea. Delivery is due in H1/12.

Industrial door maker Stertil Stokvis is to supply more than 250 doors and shutters to two waste management projects in a contract worth nearly £1.5m. Waste 2 Resourcesis constructing two waste treatment facilities in Leyland and Thornton in Lancashire in partnership with waste processing company Global Renewables.

UK company ENER-G Energia Technologia has designed and built a Euro2.6m renewable energy centre at the Budapest wastewater treatment plant in Csepel - as part of the Living Danube programme. ENER-G has installed a 4.5MWe biogas cogeneration system, together with three 2.5MW Loos boilers for additional hot water generation using natural gas, or biogas. The company also manages the operations and maintenance services. Read more

Hungarian ice cream manufacturer Magic Ice has substantially increased productivity through the installation of a Verderflex Smart F30 tube pump, which can double production by accommodating several pump heads. Currently Magic Ice has a twin head Verderflex Smart F30 on its production line. The pump, however, can be expanded up to four heads, providing the potential for future expansion. Read more

Foster Wheeler, ENDESA and Spanish body Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN) have signed a grant agreement with the European Commission (EC) for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology development in Spain. The 300 MWe oxy-combustion power plant is to receive Euro180m of EU funding under the EC’s European Energy Program for Recovery. Read more

GEA Niro has recently won a contract “worth several million Euro” with Dao Heuang Group in Laos for the delivery of a complete instant coffee processing line. It will produce 3,000 tons of instant coffee annually and is due to start operation in November 2011. GEA Niro is to supply two extraction lines, evaporators, aroma recovery plant, a spray dryer, an agglomerator and an extendable continuous freeze drying plant.

Foster Wheeler has announced the start of commercial operation of a large-scale, 125MWe, circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) boiler island delivered to Kaukaan Voima Oy, in Finland. The new biomass unit fires a combination of biomass and peat and has the capability to fully fire either fuel, supplying process steam and electricity to the adjacent UPM-Kymmene Corp.’s pulp and paper mill, as well as electricity and district heat to the city of Lappeenranta. Read more

France’s Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) is to partially fund the Euro54m France Nord carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. A consortium of EU manufacturers and research bodies will examine the feasibility of installing a CCS demo facility in a sedimentary basin in northern France. Detailed studies will be conducted to select a suitable geological site for storing the CO2 in deep saline aquifers and to identify the appropriate infrastructure necessary to transport CO2 from industrial facilities.

Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Group Co. has opted to use Arkema technology at two new plants to be located in Xining City, China. Under an agreement reached with Arkema in 2008, Aker Solutions will prepare the basic engineering for the 230ktpa suspension polymerisation plant and 35ktpa emulsion process plant.

Borouge and Linde Group have formally signed a $1.075bn contract to establish a 1500ktpa ethane cracker at Borouge’s production site in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. The cracker, the third of its kind to be built by Linde for Borouge in a decade, complements the existing 600ktpa and planned 1500ktpa ethane crackers at the site. On completion, ADNOC/Borealis JV Borouge will have the world’s largest ethane cracker complex.

Siemens Water Technologies will provide its Zimpro wet air oxidation technology at PetroChina’s Daqing ethylene plant projects in Heilongjiang Province, China. A system will treat sulfidic spent caustic wastewater streams from the production of ethylene; destroying odorous sulfide pollutants and generating a biodegradable effluent that can be discharged to conventional wastewater treatment. The Daqing system will treat about 22.7 m3/h of wastewater.

North East food manufacturer Longbenton Foods is creating 314 jobs as it continues a multi-million pound recovery. The former Findus factory at Longbenton was forced to lay off its entire 420-strong workforce after a devastating fire there early last year. Read more

Jams, marmalades and honeys producer Duerr’s has recently commissioned Denca Controls Ltd of Widnes, Cheshire, to upgrade its honey processing production line. The project followed the addition of a second melting chamber to increase capacity at the plant. Read more

Lanemark International Ltd has installed a second oven retrofit heating system at BG Penny & Co. Ltd, a powder coating subcontractor to a range of industries. The project follows a previous Lanemark installation at the Coventry site and is set to repeat the enhanced performance via high levels of control and reliability. Read more

PROjEN’s capital/energy management services are helping GlaxoSmithKline to exceed energy reduction targets at its Stevenage chemistry pilot plant. Between May 2009 and April 2010 the unit’s energy requirements fell by 56 million kWh – saving £250k and 1,600 tonnes of CO2. Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) is now 6% ahead of GSK’s target of a 20% cut in energy usage by the end of 2010. PROjEN is also helping GSK meet a target of a 45% reduction by 2015.

Fluor Corp. has won a series of contracts from a Ma’aden/Alcoa JV to provide program management consultancy and engineering, procurement and construction management services for a number of projects related to the development of the integrated Ras Az’Zawr aluminum complex. The $11bn super-project will include a bauxite mine, alumina refinery, aluminum smelter and rolling mill. Fluor expects to book about $3bn in Q2/10. Read more

Occidental of Elk Hills Inc. has awarded a CB&I project, worth over $280m for a new gas processing plant at the Elk Hills oil and gas field in Central California. CB&I’s scope of work includes the EPC of the 200m cubic foot per day natural gas processing plant, including fractionation, storage tanks and export pipelines. In addition, CB&I’s Lummus Technology sector is providing proprietary NGL-MaxSM recovery technology. The project is scheduled for completion in H1/12.

The Enfield depot of family baker Warburtons has recently added a pallet lift installation from Tecmach to enable operators to process heavy batches of raw ingredients more efficiently, whilst removing the risk of injury. Read more

Imtech NV has been selected by the Dutch Province of Limburg to establish two sustainable power plants at the ’Klavertje 4 / Greenport’ site in Venlo and the ’Belvedère’ site in Maastricht. The power plants, which represent a combined investment of Euro140 million, will generate electricity equivalent to the needs of 65,000 households. Read more

Bechtel has installed a 45-tonne shield door at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) site in Hanford, Washington. The door, in the WTP’s High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility, was installed to tolerances down to 0.13 millimeters. It is one of six doors that Bechtel will install at WTP. Bechtel is designing and building WTP, the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment plant, for the US Department of Energy. The plant is to begin operating in 2019.

Eni has awarded Technip a contract for the Kitan field development project - in 350 meters of water, in an area of the Timor Sea jointly administered by Timor-Leste and Australia. The contract covers project management and engineering, supply and installation of 23 kilometers of flowlines and risers, and installation of the umbilical system.

J P Kenny is to carry out FEED work for the subsea Julimar Development Project, offshore Western Australia. Apache has a 65% operating interest in the project, with Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. owning the remaining 35%.The contract includes up to 18 subsea wells plus completions, tied back to the Wheatstone Central Processing Platform. Three fields – Julimar, Brunello and Grange, containing around 2.1 trillion cubic feet of gas - are to be developed as feedstock for the Chevron-led Wheatstone LNG project. Phase I is due by October, and the second FEED phase by June 2011.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has engaged SmartSignal Corp. to install its SmartSignal EPI*Center Predictive Analytic software to protect SSE’s entire large thermal fleet. SmartSignal will be monitoring all 6.5 GW at all SSE coal and CCGT plants in the UK. In addition, SSE will be using SmartSignal’s xConnector. Read more

Invensys has won a $12.4m contract to upgrade and modernise a distributed control system for Malaysia Liquefied Natural Gas Sdn Bhd. The Bintulu LNG Complex houses the MLNG, MLNG Dua and MLNG Tiga plants, and it is currently one of the world’s largest LNG production facilities from a single location. Read more

Over the years, Cotto Tiles has tried chemical additives and a range of electronic and wrap-around water conditioners, but nothing was able to stop a 10mm build up of scale in the pipes which reduced the water flow. It was also effecting production as moulds could not cool properly. Fluid Dynamics International identified oil in the system and proposed a radical solution combining two of its technologies. Read more

Technip has signed a deal, worth about €30 million, with Statoil ASA for the fabrication and installation of a pipe-in-pipe flowline to support the Marulk field development in the Norwegian Sea, 30 km southwest of the Norne field. Statoil is carrying out parts of the Marulk development project on behalf of the operator Eni. The initial development will consist of two wells tied back to the Norne FPSO.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. ( NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd (CSCEC) are to jointly establish three greenfield refineries and a petrochemicals complex at various locations in Nigeria. The partners are to seek an estimated $23bn in contractor financing and supplier credits from the China Export & Credit Insurance Corp., SINOSURE, and a consortium of Chinese Banks. Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a contract from ICA Construcciones Pesadas to provide detail engineering services for a waste water treatment plant in Zapopan, Mexico. The plant will process most of the waste water produced by the cities of Guadalajara, Tonala and Zapopan in Jalisco, encompassing a population of over four million.

A biogas recovery and electricity generation project in Honduras has employed hand-held analysers from Gas Data to check on methane-rich biogas being emitting into the atmosphere from eight open wastewater treatment lagoons. Read more

Schaeffler (UK) Ltd has completed the removal and replacement of a drive end bearing on the pipe storage and deployment reel on a Subsea 7 pipe-lay vessel, the ’Seven Navica’. The replacement required Schaeffler engineers to conduct a survey on the condition of the bearing before removing the existing bearing from the starboard side of the main reel, and then replacing this with a new bearing, mounted in the existing pedestal housing. Read more

US-based fruit juice producer Cliffstar Corp. has increase the efficiency of its juice manufacturing facilities follwing the implemented of GE Intelligent Platform’s Proficy production software suite.

Qatar Petroleum, on behalf of the Government of the State of Qatar has signed a 30-year exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) with Shell and PetroChina for Qatar Block D. Read more

Dubai Aluminum Co. Ltd has cut energy use ’by 13%’ following the installation of a wireless network at its site in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The Emerson system was required to manage an increasing demand for compressed air in each of the seven plant areas at the facility - one of the world’s largest aluminium smelters. Read more

SKF has won a five-year contract with Metso Lindemann, a supplier of equipment, services and process solutions, to manage its worldwide wear and spare parts warehouse and distribution operations. The agreement will see SKF supplying Metso Lindemann’s customers in the mining, construction, power generation, oil & gas, recycling and pulp & paper industries worldwide, on a daily basis, from a central distribution centre in Tongeren, Belgium.

The Venezuelan government has recently awarded a consortium a 40% stake in a company to carry out the $20bn Carabobo-1 project, in the country’s Orinoco region. The consortium comprises ONGC Videsh Ltd (11%), Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (3.5%), Oil India Ltd (3.5%), Repsol YPF (11%) and PETRONAS (11%). Read more

Santos has selected Fluor Corp. as the preferred contractor for EPC work on the upstream facilities component of the Gladstone LNG project in Australia. In anticipation of awarding a full EPC contract, Santos, in the interim, has extended Fluor’s current engineering design contract to include early works activities. Fluor will book around $45m in Q2/10 with a full EPC contract award expected later in 2010.

Jiskoot, part of Cameron’s Measurement Systems Division, has employed Burkert’s ex-proof AirLINE Ex 8650 system, working in conjunction with modules from the intrinsically safe Siemens SIMATIC ET 200iSPTM system, in a recent North Sea project. Read more

Impress, one of Europe’s leading metal packaging firms, has installed pedestrian and vehicle barrier systems from A-Safe at its Merthyr Tydfil site. Halifax-based A-Safe’s extruded polymer barriers are designed to withstand an impact of up to 304KN and have been certified BS6180 and BS6399.

Indian Oil Corp. has started up a new naphtha cracker at Panipat – the largest such facility in India. Naphtha for the unit is being sourced from IndianOil’s Koyali, Panipat and Mathura refineries. The cracker will produce over 800ktpa of ethylene, 600ktpa of propylene, 125ktpa of benzene, and other products. It will serve downstream units for - polypropylene (600ktpa), high density polyethylene (300ktpa) and linear low density polyethylene (350 ktpa swing unit with HDPE), monoethyleneglycol (325ktpa).

Jee Ltd, a pipeline, riser and subsea engineering firm, has been awarded a three-year contract extension, with a further optional two years, for the integrity management of Perenco’s 1600km of pipelines and umbilicals in the southern North Sea. The contract covers risk-based inspection planning, technical integrity assessment, development and prioritisation of preventative and remedial activities, and representation to government authorities.

Xstrata AlloysRhovan has installed a Verderflex peristaltic pump within the precipitation plant at its South African mining site which extracts vanadium, a metal whose principle use is for strengthening steel. The VF40 has been employed to pump abrasive mining slurry at 6 – 8 m³/hour, a medium with 60% solid content.  The pumps regularly handle slurries with sub-micron content in excess of 80% and with a specific gravity rating of more than 2.0.

Danish group Topsoe is to help design of the world’s first plant for producing substitute natural gas (SNG) from biomass. The complete process includes biomass gasification, tar scrubbing, gas conditioning and methanation, resulting in a green gas for the gas grid. Topsoe will contribute with the gas conditioning and methanation technologies. Read more

Selby Renewable Energy Park has appointed Entec Biogas GmbH as its technology provider for the UK’s largest anaerobic digestion (AD) plant. The unit is being established at the site of a former Tate & Lyle citric acid plant in Selby. Read more

Auma UK has reported an expanding client base for ITT’s sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) incorporating AUMA actuator technology. Latest installations, it said, include wastewater treatment works in Oman, Qatar and Ireland. Read more

Jordanian manufacturer Jordan Advanced Machining Co. has cut production time on a project by half after receiving expert assistance from Dormer Tools International, based in Yorkshire. Read more

Severn Trent Water is saving around £100,000 per year on energy costs following the installation of ABB variable speed drives at its Wanlip Sewage Treatment Works in Leicestershire. Read more

Arkema and Daikin have started up a HFC-125 production plant built at the Changshu site, China, as part of the Arkema Daikin Advanced Fluorochemicals Co. Ltd JV (ADAF) – owned 60 % by Arkema and 40 % by Daikin. HFC-125, with HFC-32, is a component in new-generation refrigerant blends such as R-410A which replaces HCFC-22.

Pemex Refinacion and Haldor Topsøe have signed a contract for the modernisation of eight existing diesel hydrotreaters and licensing of one new diesel hydrotreater at the Pemex Tula and Salamanca Refineries in Mexico. The redesign will enable Pemex to supply the market with ultra low sulphur diesel with less than 15 wt ppm from the Tula and Salamanca refineries. Danish group Topsøe said its new TK BRIM catalysts will provide Pemex with operational and cost benefits.

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water has upgraded its water treatment monitoring systems to ABB’s new Aztec 600 colorimetric range. The new systems have been installed at nine water treatment works, where utility is monitoring aluminium and iron using the Aztec 600 series, as well as phosphate, manganese and nitrate levels using Aztec 1000 units. Read more

UK fertiliser manufacturer GrowHow is upgrading the emergency shutdown system (ESD) at its Teesside Billingham chemical plant. Hima-Sella has been selected to establish a TÜV-certified HIQuad H51qHS system at the facility, which produces and stores ammonia, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate. Read more

ABB is to supply two new substations and expand two existing substations for Transmissora Delmiro Gouveia (TDG), which is jointly owned by the Brazilian state utility CHESF and engineering concern ATP Engenharia. TDG is investing around $130m in these substations, and ABB has been assigned a significant portion. ABB will deliver one of the largest transformers ever built in Brazil for the project.

Fluor Corp. has won an engineering and limited procurement contract for Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga project in Peru. The company booked about $170m for the current stage 4 portion of the project, having completed stage 3. The award covers select activities through Q2/11, including overall engineering, procurement and construction management services for the project. It will focus mainly on the copper concentrator and associated mining facilities at the project.

Clyde Process Solutions has gained £1.1m worth of orders for its European operation. A £0.8m contract involves the supply of storage silos, pneumatic conveying systems, bag dischargers and dosing injection systems to a UK waste recycling provider. The project will be commissioned by CPS in two phases and is due for completion in March 2011. Read more

Engineering companies are picking up some encouraging signals from across the process sector, but going on their latest financial statements very few of the major players are betting on a significant upturn over the next 12 months. Read more

BP has selected Emerson’s METCO Services unit as its single-source provider for offshore and onshore measurement audits and for onshore contract measurement engineering support of BP installations in the UK. The company will also provide operational support to the existing BP Measurement engineering team. Read more

Rotork Fluid Systems has completed a project to retrofit improved partial stroke testing capabilities on heavy duty pneumatic valve actuators installed at the Raffineria Milazzo refinery in Sicily. The 212-hectare site is said to be one of the most complex refinery facilities in Europe, producing high quality, low sulphur products. Read more

Air Liquide has been awarded a contract by RasGas Co. Ltd, on behalf of Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. Ltd and Qatargas Liquefied Gas Co., for a large turn-key helium extraction, purification and liquefaction unit to be installed in Ras Laffan, Qatar. Read more

ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. ) has awarded Samsung Engineering a $1.5bn gas development contract covering petrochemical and refinery projects and gas processing and fertiliser facilities. The UAE major has now awarded a total of three contracts worth $5.4bn awarded to Samsung in the past six months. Read more

Agricultural chemicals company Nufarm UK Ltd is nearing completion of a project to decommission and clear its 12 acre site in Belvedere, Kent following the relocation of its UK operation to West Yorkshire. Read more

Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Co. has selected Aker Solutions as its contractor for the detailed engineering of the Kebabangan Northern Hub development project located in the South China Sea, 130km offshore Sabah in East Malaysia. The four-year, NOK170m contract covers detailed design and engineering support through to the start up phase of project. 

Lion Oil is using Emerson’s Smart Wireless technology to check product inventory, prevent overfill and remediation costs, monitor UPS power for the radio tower, and monitor safety shower use in areas over 1,600 feet from the control room at its El Dorado, Arkansas facility. Read more

Hyderabad, India-based IT services provider Mahindra Satyam has signed a three-year off-shoring deal with BASF IT Services – a BASF Group company and one of the leading IT service providers for the process industries. The contract is to enhance BASF’s capacity to provide managed services for the company’s extensive installed base of SAP, messaging and groupware as well as user administration.

Farmer-owned dairy business Milk Link has awarded Culina Logistics a contract to provide national distribution and warehousing for its chilled cheese, butter and milk-finished goods. Culina will collect more than 400 finished product line, with picked orders subsequently being delivered to retailers, food processors and food service organisations across the UK.

One of the largest asbestos removal projects in Europe has just been completed as part of decommissioning the Calder Hall nuclear power station at Sellafield. The £26m project to strip asbestos cladding from the heat exchangers, turbine halls and associated plant was completed on 23 March. Read more

Vattenfall has recently opened a new straw-burning unit at the Fynsværket power plant in Odense, Denmark. More than 300k large bales of straw will be burnt in Fynsværket’s new large boiler every year, replacing the use of approx. 100ktpa of coal. Vattenfall has set a target for its Nordic operations to become CO2-neutral by 2030.