Contracts & Projects Tracker - September 2010

Foster Wheeler has won a contract with Gulf Farabi Petrochemical Co. to provide project management consultancy services for a 100ktpa plant to produce linear alkyl benzene, a basic ingredient in the formulation of synthetic detergents. The first phase of the project covers preparing an invitation to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm), bid evaluations, preparation of the EPCm contract and supporting the engineering and procurement phase of the project. For the second phase, FW will support the construction phase, with key personnel based on site through to 2011 when the project is due for completion.

Otto Simon Ltd is to support Enerkem in the design and construction of two biofuel projects in Canada and the US. Each project will employ Montreal-based Enerkem’s thermo-chemical gasification and catalytic synthesis technology to convert diverse feedstock’s including sorted municipal solid waste, construction waste and treated wood to produce methanol, ethanol and other speciality chemicals. Otto Simon will complement Enerkem’s own in-house operations group.

Chevron has tapped Mustang to perform detail design for topsides facilities for the Chevron Jack and St. Malo floating semi-submersible facility, to be located in 7,000 feet of water in the Walker Ridge Area of the Gulf of Mexico. Mustang was chosen based on its FEED for the project. Mustang is also providing detailed engineering for integrated control and safety systems under an international master agreement, which appoints it as a main automation contractor (MAC) for Chevron’s Global Upstream business units.

The downturn has not impacted the market for DCS I/Os – primarily used in process industries – as badly as it has the market for PLC- and PC-based I/Os used mainly in discrete industries. Thyis, said IMS Research, is mainly because many process industries purchasing DCS products plan for these investments over a year or two in advance; so delaying the impact of the global recession. The stronger emphasis on services in the DCS world, means demand for I/O modules controlled by DCS should grow more slowly to 2014, added IMS.

Robotics and automation centre CenFRA Ltd, has secured lifeline funding from Yorkshire Forward (YF) until March 2011. The Doncaster-based organisation will now implement a business plan to help it achieve self-sufficiency by autumn next year. Funding constraints on the regional development agency have threatened CenFRA, which was founded in 2007. YF’s continued support recognises the centre’s work in promoting automation in the food & drink industry. Yorkshire is the UK’s largest food and drink manufacturing sector with over 15,000 companies, including Nestle, Heinz and Coca-Cola.

UTS Biogas Ltd, part of UTS Biogastechnik GmbH, has received its first major construction contract for an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in the UK. The 700 kW biogas plant located in Glenfarg, Scotland will convert 16,000 tonnes per year of food waste into electrical energy and heat. Read more

Gem Diamonds Ltd has recovered an exceptional 196 carat rough white diamond from the Letšeng mine in Lesotho. Since Gem Diamonds acquired the Letšeng mine in 2006, it has produced three of the world’s 20 largest recorded diamonds, namely, the 603 carat Letšeng Promise, recovered in August 2006, which sold for $12.4m; the 493 carat Letšeng Legacy, recovered in September 2007 which sold for $10.4m; and the 478 carat Light of Letšeng, recovered in September 2008, which sold for $18.4m.

Kuwait Petroleum Association subsidiary KNPC’s Shauiba Refinery has converted 1,750 mechanical traps to Thermal Energy Int.’s GEM Venturi Orifice design. In addition, KNPC has seen the HP hot condensate header pressure drop from highs of 175 psig to just 90 psig. Read more

Spanish paper mill Alier Paper was adding three tonnes a day of carbon dioxide to its water system to prevent scaling of vacuum pumps but with limited success. In January, therefore, the company installed a 150mm diameter MagCAT - a hard water scale prevention systems from Fluid Dynamics Int. - in the feed line to the vacuum pumps. Read more

KBR has been awarded a contract to provide engineering and procurement services to Chemetall Foote Corp., part of Rockwood Holdings Inc. to add lithium hydroxide production at its current operation in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. The project is funded in part by a $28.4m grant from the US Department of Energy to expand and upgrade the production of lithium materials for advanced transportation batteries.

Air Liquide is to be the sole supplier of gases and services to 3Sun, a new manufacturing JV, which has recently been established by Enel Green Power, Sharp Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV. Its factory in Catania, Sicily will start operations in 2011, using Sharp advanced triple-junction technology to produce solar panels. Air Liquide’s agreement covers the supply of specialty gases, the pipeline supply of carrier gases. It will build the entire gas distribution and gas abatement networks on a turnkey basis.

EDP is set to begin a decommissioning and demolition project at a seven-hectare power plant in Barreiro, Portugal. The oil-fired plant, which operated from 1977 to 2009, was EDP’s largest thermal cogeneration power plant. It has already been replaced by a modern CHP power plant on the same site. UK-based consulting engineers RVA Group has helped prepare a detailed project specification and tender documentation, and will advise on contractor selection. Structures to be demolished include a 1,000m oil and steam pipeline, engine room, boiler, steam turbines, pumping station and two 7,500m3 reservoir tanks.

Emerson Process Management is one of three suppliers chosen for a long-term frame agreement with Norway’s Statoil that positions Emerson to bid on future automation and safety systems for the international oil and gas producer. The five-year frame agreement covers process safety and automation systems, including engineering services, for new capital projects as well as upgrades to existing facilities, and includes the option to renew for two additional two-year terms. Emerson will continue to provide control valves, measurement instruments, asset management solutions, and related services to help Statoil optimise its operations.

NOV Mono has installed a solar powered recirculating pump at Welsh Water’s Llanrhidian WwTW, a remotely located wastewater plant on the Gower Peninsular which has no power supply. The facility, which consists of a biological filter bed and two final tanks, was found to be drying out during long spells of dry weather, killing off the biological process that is fundamental to treatment at the site. Read more

BP has selected KBR to undertake the second stage of concept selection and definition for the onshore terminal and export pipelines for its West Nile Delta Development in Egypt.
KBR is to develop a technical definition package for an onshore terminal that will process 1,000 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and condensate to sales specifications from a number of offshore fields. This award follows the execution of the project’s first stage by KBR and builds upon the feasibility work completed by KBR’s consulting subsidiary, Granherne.

AEG Power Solutions has been awarded a major PV contract for utility scale equipment of globally 260MW. Starting December 2010, over a period of one year, AEG PS will provide complete balance of electrical system for 13 PV power plants in Eastern Europe, each of 20MW. It will design and supply a shelter containing: Solar Inverter, monitoring and supervising equipment, transformer and medium voltage switchgear.

Wood Group has entered into a contract with BP Operating Co. Ltd to provide topside engineering and project management services for BP’s Andrew Area Development project in the central North Sea. The scope includes the tie-back of the Kinnoull reservoir to Andrew, 28km away, and developing the Lower Cretaceous development beneath the platform. The two-year, £75m contract, covers topsides EPC on the Andrew platform and the installation of an 800-tonne module.

WEG has supplied 250kW HGF motors to fit in the same space envelope previously occupied by three 132kW Loher pump motors, at the Daleel Petroleum Oil Field in, Oman. The kit is enabling Daleel Petroleum to increase the output of three crude oil shipping pumps by 45% respectively; each pump now being capable of shipping 16000 bpd, instead of 11,000 bpd previously. This increase also offers the advantage of enabling one pump to be withdrawn at any time for maintenance, without Daleel Petroleum incurring penalties for falling below its contracted pumping rate of 30,000bpd. Read more

Wood Group Kenny has been awarded the FEED work and related project management support activities for the BG Norge AS, Jordbaer field development. The proposed field development, located in the North Tampen region consists of a stand-alone FPSO with two drill centres in a water depth of approximately 410m. Gas will be exported from the FPSO to an established gas export pipeline system. The work includes delivery of an approved design package for in field and export pipelines, control systems, risers and umbilicals as well as providing budget and schedule estimates.

Hull-based instrumentation and calibration firm Denman Instrumentation Ltd has secured a contract with Alstom on a Euro1bn joint repowering and new construction project. The project involves the integration of three new gas turbines into a former steam power plant near Maastricht, The Netherlands, to form a 1,280 MW combined cycle power plant. A Denman team of specialist professionals is to compliment Alstom’s on-site engineers for the project, which aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 40%.

RWE has signed cooperation agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to develop and design its domestic and export gas transportation infrastructure - creating a route to market for Kurdistan’s major gas reserves. The deal also foresees the negotiation of gas supply agreements to enable gas from the region to be transported to Turkey and Europe via the Nabucco pipeline.

Bostik has recently installed an SLF125 frequency controlled screw compressor from Boge to improve energy efficiency of the compressed air supply at its manufacturing plant in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. The SLF series combines a direct coupled drive system with frequency control to provide the ultimate compressor for pressure control under variable output requirements. Frequency control minimises idling time and evens out air demand fluctuations.

Stelex Construction Equipment, manufacturer of the Hercules range of trommels, has standardised on Baldor-Dodge Imperial ISN mounted spherical roller bearings for its new HT182M road-going trommel. The new stone cleaning and sizing machine is designed for deployment flexibility and ease of on-site maintenance. The ISN bearings for all of the machine’s main rotational load-bearing parts use a patented thin wall push-pull adapter system which can achieve clearance setting without the use of feeler gauges.

KBR has been awarded two contracts by the Iraq Ministry of Oil through the South Refineries Co. KBR will provide licensing and basic engineering services for the construction of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and solvent deasphalting units at the planned grassroots Maissan Refinery in Maissan, Iraq. KBR will license its FCC Ttchnology for an anticipated 47,500 barrels per day FCC unit and its Residuum Oil Supercritical Extraction technology for a 45,000 BPD SDA unit. The FCC unit will be delivered under a joint marketing alliance between KBR and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.

Shell Chemicals recently completed the first turnaround at the CSPCL - “Nanhai” petrochemicals complex in Guangdong, China. Nanhai is a JV with CNOOC. The turnaround was completed in Q2/10 alongside a debottlenecking of an ethylene cracker and ethylene oxide/ethylene glycols, and styrene monomer/propylene oxide process units. The debottlenecking, which upped ethylene capacity from 800 to 950ktpa, and total petchem capacity from 2300 to 2700ktpa, included constructing an eighth liquid cracking furnace for light and heavy feedstock. Four out of five derivative plants were debottlenecked by 10% to 30%.

ABB has won orders worth a total of $24m from Petrofac to design and deliver power infrastructure, systems and automation equipment for the ASAB Full Field Development Project in Abu Dhabi. ABB will design and supply power equipment, including air-insulated medium-voltage switchgear and power transformers. The scope includes MNS 3.0-type low-voltage switchgear, which uses Alu-zinc-coated materials in all the frames and subdivisions to reduce chemicals used in the coating process. The delivery also includes a substation monitoring and control system and integrated motor-control system, which covers nine substations and one central control building.

Statoil has awarded Aker Solutions Marulk tie-in to the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Norne. Aker Solutions estimates the value of the work to be around NOK120 million (£12 million). Marulk tie-in to Norne falls in with a series of tie-in projects connected to Norne FPSO. The Marulk field is located in the Norwegian Sea. The initial development will consist of two wells tied back to the Norne FPSO, the northernmost production facility on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The project will be managed out of Aker Solutions’ regional office in Trondheim.

SABIC has said that it has signed an agreement with Lurgi, a German firm, for the technology licensing and engineering that will allow SABIC to produce oleo-chemicals at its affiliate, Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company, following the completion of new facilities to be constructed in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

Sellafield Ltd has awarded a Babcock and Balfour Beatty JV a contract for the early contractor engagement (ECE) phase of the box encapsulation plant product store 1 and comprehensive import export facility (BEPPS1 and CIEF) project. The contract involves a two-year initial ECE phase, to start almost immediately. The implementation phase, which starts in 2013, comprises the detailed design, procurement, construction and commissioning, and is due for completion in 2019. The total scheme value is estimated at over £200m.

Emerson Process Management’s DeltaV digital automation system has been selected by Perstorp, a speciality chemicals group, for a control system upgrade at its pentaerythritol processing plant in Perstorp, Sweden. The Perstorp plant uses a chemical batch process to make pentaerythritol (penta), an additive in paint and lubricants. The existing Emerson RS3 distributed control system has controlled the process since 1984. However, the need to run the plant continuously prompted Perstorp to plan for the time when spares for the existing system would no longer be available.

Emerson Process Management has been awarded two multi-million dollar purchase orders from Westinghouse Electric Company for critical control valves to be used in the first of two AP1000 pressurised water reactors at both the Sanmen and Haiyang nuclear power plants in China. Emerson’s Fisher air-operated control valves will serve several functions related to operational safety in the nuclear-containment area.

Hayward Tyler has announced that it has received an order for two boiler circulation pumps from Babcock & Wilcox Beijing for delivery to CIF Beijing in CIF Beijing (Tianjinxin Port), China. The order for Hayward Tyler’s 520kW Glandless Motor Pumps will be used on two 600MW Supercritical Once-Through boilers.

KBR has announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Asian Development Bank to undertake the preparation for a proposed water sector project. KBR will prepare a national Sanitation Master Plan, a draft Land Use Plan for the Samoan capital, Apia, and a Greater Apia Integrated Water Supply, Sanitation and Drainage Master Plan. This sustainable development project will focus on providing a secure and efficient water supply and wastewater management.

Aker Solutions, through its subsidiary in Malaysia, Aker Process Systems Asia Pacific, has been awarded two subsea contracts from PETRONAS Carigali. The first is a work order to supply subsea production system and services for the Kanowit field, while the second is a contract to deliver 5,600m of subsea umbilicals that tie back the Kanowit subsea wells to the Kumang Cluster, Offshore Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia.

EDF Energy has awarded AMEC a contract worth over £60m to extend a gas storage facility in Cheshire. The project, at the Hill Top Farm facility at Warmingham, will see AMEC design, install and commission the filtration and compression facilities, after-cooling, de-hydration, metering and utility equipment. AMEC originally designed and engineered the existing two facilities at the site by the company. The work will enable EDF Energy to significantly increase its gas reserves, and therefore contribute to the security of the UK’s gas supplies.
Engineering will start immediately with planned completion in July 2012, after which AMEC expects future asset maintenance work.

An investment in new energy-efficient compressors is expected to save over 430,000kWh per annum at Petrochem Carless’s Harwich refinery, meaning the new equipment will pay for itself in just two years. The decision to change equipment was made after a datalogging exercise by rotary vane manufacturer Mattei revealed the potential savings. Read more

Ecopetrol SA. has awarded Wood Group’s Mustang a two-year master service agreement to provide pipeline engineering expertise and related services to optimise engineering design and increase operating efficiencies, with the goal of raising Colombia’s oil and gas production transmission capacity and safety. Initial efforts will focus on transportation of crude oil from producing fields throughout Colombia to refineries and terminals in country. Mustang will provide integrated engineering services which include hydraulic system modeling, project management, procurement, environmental permitting, GIS, survey, drafting and construction management/inspection support.

Emerson Process Management is to install its Ovation control system at units 1 and 2 of the Guizhou Xingyi Power Plant, in China’s Guizhou Province. The coal-fired facility, which will ultimately feature four 600-MW, supercritical units, is being built in two phases. In phase one, Emerson is to automate units 1 and 2, which will go on-line in Feb 2011 and June 2011, respectively. An Ovation system at each unit will perform data acquisition, nd monitor and control the Beijing Babcock boiler and Harbin turbine. They will also manage the plant’s FGD, modulating control, sequence control, electrical control, furnace safety supervisory, and feed-water turbine control systems, and balance-of-plant processes. The two systems will control 22,400 I/O points, via 42 Ovation controllers and eight workstations. Under a separate contract, Emerson will provide its Fisher control valves for the power plant.

Fluor-B&W Portsmouth LLC, has been chosen by the US Dept of Energy for the next phase of cleanup at the Portsmouth site in Pike County, Ohio. It will be the prime contractor for the decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The estimated value of the contract is around $2.1bn over 10 years.

Envirolink Northwest, in conjunction with CO2Sense Yorkshire and the Combustion Engineering Association, has published a directory for process heat industries and potential power plant developers looking for technology that utilises biomass or alternative fuels. Listing over 50 technology providers, it covers straight combustion as well as more advanced thermal combustion technologies such as Pyrolysis and Gasification. NW England’s large-scale fuels supply chain handles over 3000ktpa of wood fibre/biomass year, while Yorkshire and Humber is the major UK entry point for imported wood fuels. CO2Sense Yorkshire has also joined forces with Dalkia to build the UK’s newest pellet mill near Selby and helped develop a containerised industrial boiler system with Byworth Boilers.

TS LNG BV has selected Burckhardt Compression to supply a compact compressor for a high-pressure compression facility within the Dutch LNG import terminal in Rotterdam-Maasvlakte. The order was issued via Techint, Italy, and SENER, Spain. Due for delivery in Q2/11, the Laby-GI compressor will feed the natural gas into the pipeline with 83 bar. Its special labyrinth sealing system on piston and piston rod gland allows oil-free and contact-free compression for minimum wear. Gate terminal BV will start operations in H2/11. It’s current capacity is 12bn m3 natural gas but has permits to expand to 16bn m3 throughput capacity.

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) has awarded SKSWood, a Wood Group joint venture, a two-year extension for one of the largest integrated service contracts in Asia Pacific. SKSWood has executed and managed the offshore construction and maintenance associated with approximately 200 offshore assets for BSP since 2003. The scope of services includes work preparation and scheduling, fabrication, materials handling, electrical and instrumentation and offshore execution. The contract has the capacity to execute in excess of one million productive manhours of offshore work and will employ 1,200 people.

Lummus Technology, a CB&I company, has been awarded a contract by Tianjin Bohua Petrochemical Co. Ltd for the license and engineering design of a grassroots propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit to be built in Tianjin, China. It will be the first PDH plant in China; and upon start-up in 2012, it will be the largest operating PDH plant in the world.
The unit will use a fixed-bed-reactor, dehydrogenation process, employing Sud-Chemie’s established Catofin catalyst technology, to produce 600ktpa of propylene.

Cobalt Technologies of Mountain View, California, has signed an agreement with Fluor Corp., under which Fluor will provide engineering consulting services to help Cobalt commercialize its biobutanol production technology. It will also provide EPCM services for Cobalt’s demonstration and commercial-scale butanol production plants, which use non-food feedstocks, such as forest waste and mill residue.

YPF Argentina and Haldor Topsøe have signed two controcts for the production of hydrogen and ultra low sulphur diesel at the Lujan de Cuyo refinery in Mendoza Province. Topsøe will supply a skid-mounted, compact hydrogen plant’ its scope including license, engineering, catalysts and equipment. The plant will use Topsøe’s hydrogen catalysts and will be able to operate on multiple feedstocks. Topsøe will also supply a reactor design package for a hydrotreater to produce ultra low sulphur diesel. The scope includes design of the reactor, basic engineering, catalysts and proprietary reactor internals. The reactor will use Topsøe’s BRIM catalysts already used by YPF in a number of hydrotreaters in its refineries.

Panton McLeod has carried out testing at a new Scottish Water facility in the Scottish Borders to check it was ready to be put into service. Over two days, engineers treated and de-chlorinated millions of litres of water that was sent through the Roberton water treatment works to test its operational capacity and to check for any faults. Earlier this year, the firm agreed a new deal with Scottish Water that will see it clean and disinfect more than 400 service reservoirs and water tanks across the Ness, Don, Tayside and Ayrshire regions.

CSO Technik Ltd said it is nearing completion of an odour abatement system in the world at Fleetwood WwTW for United Utilities (UU). CSO won the contract in May 2009, from KMI Plus. The Terminodour system neutralises odour in situ by supplying ionised air into the building where it reacts and oxidises odours. As it is not working against a closed head the pressure drop is minimal, so fan motor sizes can be reduced. There are two Terminodour systems at Fleetwood: at the main sludge treatment building, with a volume of nearly 16,500 m3, the other providing odour control to the sludge cake building. The system is controlled by an HMI PLC (Siemens S7)  based panel also designed and supplied by CSO Technik.

AMEC has formed a JV with Shanghai Zone Petrochemical Engineering Co. Ltd, a chemical engineering company based in Shanghai, are delighted to new joint venture in China. The new SZPE AMECventure will allow AMEC for the first time to undertake detailed engineering in China. It employ around 120 skilled engineers, with further expansion planned to support new projects.

Oil & Gas UK, on behalf of the UK’s Oil Spill Advisory Group (OSPRAG), has awarded the contract for engineering services to assess subsea capping and containment options for the UK continental shelf (UKCS) to Wood Group Kenny. The project is in response to dangers highlighted by the on-going incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more

E.ON UK plc has awarded a consortium including Foster Wheeler AG UK plc and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd a contract to support the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a post-combustion CO2 capture and compression plant proposed as part of E.ON’s planned new supercritical coal-fired power station in Kent, UK. E.ON plans to replace its existing coal-fired uits at Kingsnorth Power Station with two new high-efficiency 800MW coal-fired units using the latest supercritical technology. Read more

Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical Co. have confirmed Jubail Industrial City as the planned site location for their proposed joint venture petrochemical project. Read more

Doyon Utilities LLC of Fairbanks, Alaska, has embarked on a major multi-year project involving GE’s Proficy process systems for a major utility privatisation project for the US Army. The 50-year contract calls for Doyon to assume ownership, operation and maintenance of the electric, natural gas, steam and potable water distribution systems, as well as the wastewater collection system.

UkrHydroEnergo has awarded Emerson Process Management a $28m contract for automation systems to manage and control 100 turbine generators in nine hydroelectric power plants - total capacity 4639MW, representing over 90% of Ukraine’s hydroelectric generating capacity. The award is part of a project to modernise the series of eight plants that were built between 1939-75 and make up the Dnieper River energy cascade, plus the Dnestrovskaya hydroelectric power plant, built in 1983.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded an owner’s engineer contract for a new LNG receiving terminal – the GNL Del Plata facility – to be built in Montevideo, in the region of Río de la Plata, Uruguay. The contract was awarded by Uruguay’s state-owned oil company, Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland. Read more

Eastman Chemical Co. has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. a multi-year, continuous presence contract from for program management services, capital construction projects and site maintenance support at its Kingsport, Tennessee, site, which employs around 6,600 and is one of the largest chemical manufacturing sites in North America. The site occupies more than 550 buildings and 4,000 acres of land, with the main plant site covering 900 acres. Jacobs’ scope of work includes performance of all small and mid-cap construction projects and a portion of the company’s maintenance operations.

ABB has recently won a contract to supply two medium-voltage drives to a water project that will form part of the water-supply system for the north west of England. The drives will control pumping for the £125m West East Link Main, being built by J Murphy and Sons for United Utilities between Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

A project being carried out by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. has received funding of $790,900 from Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp. for clean technology research and development projects. The project, the Alberta Oil Sands Energy Efficiency and GHG Mitigation Roadmap study, will quantify potential GHG emissions reductions from technology and operational improvements in energy use at Suncor Energy’s bitumen mining, steam assisted gravity drainage and upgrading facilities in the Fort McMurray area.

BT has been awarded an extension, worth around Euro173m, to its outsourcing contract with Unilever, a supplier of food and personal-care products. The deal will see BT accelerating technology innovation in services such as unified communications, messaging, supply chain, wireless technology and agile working in more than 100 countries over the next four years.
The scope of the service includes the design, management and operation of a secure, fully integrated end-to-end IT networking infrastructure, delivering data, voice, video and mobility services to around 1,000 sites.

Thames Water has installed a NOV Mono EZstrip maintain-in-place pump at its sewage treatment works in Dorking. The site’s previous equipment, which transferred sludge from the primary settlement tank into a picket fence thickener, was failing and causing significant down time for the plant. Mono claims its sewage pump can be fully stripped down and maintained in just 30 minutes.

Bürkert Fluid Control Systems has recently partnered with biodiesel equipment maker Green Fuels Ltd to provide a complete package of ATEX-rated valves, flow sensors, level switches, positioner systems and conductivity and flow meters. The package for use in UK-based Green Fuels’ latest Fuelmatic system is designed to produce up to 20,000 litres per day of high grade biodiesel. Read more

Systems and engineering-technology consultancy Frazer-Nash has landed a five-year framework contract and three work packages from Horizon Nuclear Power, the energy company that aims to develop and operate around 6,000MW of new nuclear-power stations in the UK by 2025. The framework will initially focus on supporting Horizon’s submissions of Site Licence Applications for the Oldbury and Wylfa sites.

BP has hired Witt Associates to support its work to restore Gulf Coast communities in the wake of the oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Witt Associates, a public safety and crisis management consulting firm, founded by former FEMA director James Lee Witt, has experience in emergency response, recovery, and mitigation. The firm has worked in the Gulf region and across the US to engage with stakeholders and manage long-term recovery efforts.

Advanced Engineering of Rochdale, UK, has supplied mixing equipment to Jollofé Ltd, for the launch of a new tomato sauce with herbs and spices sourced from several regions of Africa. The package comprised the 200 litre vessel with a bottom-entry mixer for the initial coarse mixing phase, and an in-line mixer to reduce the ingredients to a smooth sauce, and a control panel, all mounted on a wheeled trolley for movement around the firm’s London factory.

Emerson Process Management has completed a WDPF-to-Ovation control system migration project at Benxi Steel Co.’s No. 5 blast furnace, in Benxi city in the Liaoning Province of China. The furnace was built in 2001 and this migration project, which reduced system-replacement downtime by retaining existing I/O modules, was to help extend its service life. Installing the new Ovation system was accomplished in five days and 14 hours within a scheduled maintenance outage, said Emerson.

ABB has won a $20m order to provide complete power systems, drilling drive and propulsion systems for a new deep water drilling rig to be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering at its shipyard in South Korea. The end customer is Brazilian ship owner Petroserv, who will operate the drilling rig for Petrobras. The rig is scheduled to be commissioned by early 2012.

Shell Gas UK has renewed its contract with Wincanton for bulk tanker distribution of aerosol propellants and LPG. The £13m two-year contract builds on a 10-year relationship. The bulk tanker fleet predominantly loads from Shell Gas terminals at Stanlow in Cheshire and Mossmorran in Fife and has a nationwide distribution network managed from eight strategic operating centres.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering and procurement services contract by Gassco AS for the implementation of the blow-down system modification at the Gassco-operated Dunkerque Terminal, France. The project will be executed by FW’s Teesside operation at Middlesbrough, UK. The EPC’s upstream oil & gas division in Reading, UK, completed a feasibility study in 2008 to optimise the blow-down system to meet venting time recommendations for the terminal at Dunkerque.

Welsh Water is investing £200 million to upgrade its water treatment works across Wales by 2015. This includes the water treatment plant at Cwellyn, where Rotork intelligent electric valve actuators have been installed to control the flow through a new state-of-the-art extension to the works. The Cwellyn plant has been designed and built by Black & Veatch Ltd, one of Welsh Water’s Asset Management Alliance partners for water supply capital investment schemes. Read more