Contracts & Projects Tracker: Nov 2010

The UK government plans to establish eight new nuclear plants as part of a “surge of investment” in new energy sources needed to ensure UK energy security and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In its Energy Review, the government said it also expects over half the new energy generating capacity built in the UK by 2025 to come from renewable sources. Much of the remainder is to come from low carbon sources such as nuclear and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage. Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a three-year, performance-based contract from Nexen Inc. for the provision of general maintenance services at the energy company’s Long Lake bitumen production and upgrading facilities in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

Northumbrian Water has completed a major refurbishment of its Stressholme sewage treatment works on the outskirts of Darlington, Co Durham. Key project partners included Entec UK Ltd, as consulting engineers and main contractor Carrillion PLC. Read more

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a project management consultancy contract by Carbon Holdings for a petrochemical complex in Ain Sokhna, Egypt with a nameplate capacity to produce 1,350ktpa of polyethylene. FW will provide technical support and consulting services to Carbon Holdings through financial close, estimated to be late 2011. Following financial close, FW will book the full scope of the PMC award, which includes overseeing the activities of the selected EPC contractor and subcontractors. The world-scale facility is expected to come on-stream in 2015.

Chronos BTH has completed a new combined mixing/FIBC packing system at Dunns (Long Sutton) Ltd’s plant in Longs Sutton, Lincs, UK. Dunns had procured some pre-used processing and bagging equipment, which Chronos integrated into an existing packing room. Two different sized E55 weighers make alternate weighments of pulses into a common discharge chute onto which a FIBC is fitted. A weighing controller, which allows Dunns to achieve mixed pulse blends in ratios up to 8:1 variations.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has selected Mustang to perform concept, FEED and detailed engineering for its gas compression system and associated facilities for KG D6 Block onshore terminal on the east coast of India. The facility is to compress natural gas produced from KG-D6 deep water gas fields, which will require around 100,000HP of compression. This will be one of the world’s largest facilities in a single location and will serve to boost the natural gas pressure to meet the inlet operating pressure conditions of the Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) East-West gas transmission system.

UPM has started an extensive maintenance shutdown its Fray Bentos, Uruguay, pulp mill, which is to be restarted on 10 Nov. In addition to normal annual maintenance works the super heaters in the recovery boiler will be replaced. During the maintenance period, 800-1,000 additional workers will be working onsite. The mill’s annual production capacity is about 1.1 million tonnes of bleached eucalyptus pulp, which is suitable for manufacturing fine and magazine papers, carton and tissue paper.

Moody Automation has installed and commissioned a state of the art kegging line at Thatchers Cider’s Myrtle Farm, UK site. Part of a £1.4m investment in new packaging facilities. Moody installed a system that fully automates the kegging process, running 450 kegs per hour - a 900% increase in capacity. The plant provides Thatchers with a comprehensive one-stop kegging solution, with integral washing facilities, capping and labelling, as well as camera inspection at two key points of the line, to quickly eliminate any packing discrepancies and maximise efficiency.

British Energy, part of EDF Energy, has installed over 400 AUMA actuators at a number of its sites, including Hinkley B, Dungeness B and Hunterston B. The company has engaged the manufacturer to provide tailored training programmes to support its use of the technology. Read more

NET4GAS sro has started to build a new border transfer station in Brandov, which is of key importance for the new high-pressure gas pipeline Gazelle, which is currently being built. The Gazelle pipeline is a new transmission route for Russian gas, which will enhance the security of gas supplies in the EU. In the event of the interruption of gas supplies via Ukraine, it will have a strategic importance both for the Czech Republic and surrounding countries. Read more

Osborne Engineering Ltd (OEL) is creating up to 45 new jobs manufacturing bearings and gas turbine components for the oil and gas, wind power and power generation industries. OEL, which currently employs around 125 staff, recently extended its facility in Cramlington: increasing its CNC machining and manufacturing capabilities and expanding its technical training facilities. The expansion was supported by a £350,000 grant from One North East, which is also assisting in the creation of the new roles including CNC machinists, design engineers and inspection and support staff.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has licensed its multi-zone stimulation technology (MZSTSM) well treatment process to Canyon Technical Services Ltd of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. MZST can be used to stimulate multiple reservoir zones in a single operation, yielding improved well economics, particularly for fracturing operations in tight gas, shale gas and coal bed methane wells that target multiple reservoir zones, thick reservoir sections, or long reservoir intervals where multiple stimulation treatments are required.

Shell has made a “significant” investment into phase II of the Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project more than 100km off the coast of Brazil. The move develops the fourth field in the BC-10 block and continues a wave of production growth in Shell’s upstream Americas business. The full project delivers an energy resource of approximately 300 million barrels of oil equivalent, with production of some 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

KBR is to execute the topsides detailed design for TOTAL’s CLOV FPSO unit. This project is the fourth development pole in Angola’s deep offshore Block 17, after Girassol, Dalia and Pazflor. Located in water depths ranging from 1,100 to 1,400 metres, the CLOV development will lead to four fields - Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta - coming on stream. The project is estimated to produce reserves of about 500m barrels of oil. The facility will be designed to process 160,000 barrels/day of oil, 230m standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of natural gas, and have a 1.8m barrels of oil storage capacity.

Elecnor SA has awarded Fluor Corp. an engineering services contract for two new 50MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in Alcazar de San Juan, Spain. Fluor will provide basic and detailed engineering and related services for the units, which will capture solar energy using parabolic trough mirrors and will ultimately convert it into electricity via a steam turbine generator. The project engineering work is due to be complete by Q3/011.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) and FEED contract by Cardon IV SA, for new production facilities at the Perla field in the Gulf of Venezuela, Caribbean Sea. Cardon IV is a JV between Eni Venezuela BV and Repsol YPF Venezuela Gas SA for developing non-associated natural gas exploration and exploitation activities in Cardon IV area, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

GigaCrete Inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada, claims its cement-based building products, made with power plant fly and bottom ash and recycled glass, are lighter than conventional cement based materials. In meeting GigaCrete’s high output targets, a 0.57 cu m Munson rotary batch dry mixer and a 2.8 cu m contiunuous paddle blender for a wet mixture mix 907 kg batches of cement binder and filler. The dry mixer yields a 100% uniform mix in just two minutes regardless of the bulk densities and without segregation of the batch. The paddle blender blends and discharges a 907 kg batch in 10 minutes that evenly distributes liquids added to mixtures.

Total has signed a farm out agreement with Gazprom for the transfer of a 20% interest in the Ipati and Aquio licenses in Bolivia. The partnership on these licenses will be constituted by Total (60%, operator), Tecpetrol (20%) and Gazprom (20%). In 2004, Total discovered the Incahuasi gas field in the Ipati license. The discovery appraisal is under way with the drilling of the X-1001 well on the Aquio permit.

Bechtel has started working on the site where it will build BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Crews began preparing the site on October 8, just one day after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued the Record of Decision, the final permit needed for construction. Ivanpah will be built in the Mojave Desert in southeastern California. When complete, it will nearly double the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in the US today.

ExxonMobil, on behalf of the Marine Well Containment Co. (MWCC), has awarded Technip a FEED contract for underwater well-containment equipment for provide emergency response services in the Gulf of Mexico. The contract includes system engineering and design of specific subsea components including the containment assembly, manifold, control umbilicals, accumulator, dispersant injection, risers, and flowlines. ExxonMobil is leading the EPC of the containment system on behalf of the sponsor companies, which also include Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell.

AUMA has supplied new generation electric actuators to Petro SA, formerly MOSSGASS. The units will be installed in an air separation plant built by Linde Air. The plant exclusively uses AUMA actuators and has done so since it was built in 1990. The upgrade has taken place as existing equipment has come to the end of its life cycle.

Wood Group GTS has won a $152m EPC contract from GWF Energy to construct and commission the conversion of the Tracy Peaker Plant in Tracy, California to a combined cycle facility. The project is convert the existing facility – two GE Frame 7EA gas turbine generators – to combined cycle operation through the installation of two heat recovery steam generators and a single steam turbine generator, an air cooled condenser, and related balance of plant equipment.

Aker Solutions has signed three subsea contracts with Shell Offshore Inc. for deliveries to the operator’s Popeye and Europa fields in the Gulf of Mexico. It will deliver around 40km of electro-hydraulic steel tube umbilicals to Shell’s Popeye field and Europa field extension. Aker Solutions will also install the umbilical for the Popeye field, using the company’s deepwater installation vessel Boa Sub C.

Air Liquide has commissioned a new high-pressure and high-purity gaseous oxygen production unit in Castelnuovo del Garda, near Verona, Italy. With a production capacity of around 800 t/day, the new unit will bring the total production capacity on this site to 1,100 t/day of oxygen per day. The total investment is around Euro40m. The new capacity is to meet the increasing demand of customers connected to the 700 km long pipeline network that extends into Po Valley, between Genoa and Padua, including steelmaker Arvedi, in Cremona. The standardised “YangO2 unit” was designed and built by Air Liquide Hangzhou in China and is the first unit of its kind to be installed in Europe.

Yokogawa Electric Corp. has received an order from Marubeni Corp. to supply the control system for the boiler, turbine, and auxiliary facilities at the Tembusu Multi-Utilities Complex in Singapore, a cogeneration power plant that will burn both biomass and coal. The 160MW plant, which will have a steam supply capacity of 1000 t/hr, is being constructed by TP Utilities Pte Ltd in the Tembusu industrial district on Jurong Island.

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by YPF for a new delayed coking unit to be built at YPF’s Complejo Industrial La Plata in Argentina. The scope includes detailed engineering, procurement services and support to construction and plant start-up. The unit will use FW’s selective yield delayed coking technology. The planned new facility will have a capacity of 28,000 barrels per stream day, and will produce anode coke to be used in the aluminum industry.

Aker Solutions has signed three subsea contracts with Shell Offshore Inc. for deliveries to the operator’s Popeye and Europa fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the contracts, Aker will deliver around 40km of electro-hydraulic steel tube umbilicals to Shell’s Popeye field and Europa field extension. Aker Solutions will also install the umbilical for the Popeye field, using the company’s deepwater installation vessel Boa Sub C.

Air Liquide has commissioned a new high-pressure and high-purity gaseous oxygen production unit in Italy. It was installed in Castelnuovo del Garda, near Verona, where Air Liquide already operates another air separation unit. The new 800t/day unit will bring the total production capacity on this site to 1,100 t/day of oxygen. The total investment amounts to around Euro40m.

The US department of energy (DOE) has appointed Air Liquide to participate in the development of FutureGen 2.0 - the world’s first full scale oxy-combustion power plant incorporating permanent CO2 capture and storage (CCS). Read more

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by the CO2 Capture Project (CCP) to undertake a study to evaluate a range of refinery, in-situ extraction of bitumen and natural gas power generation CO2 capture scenarios. The CCP is a partnership of seven of the world’s major energy companies including BP, Chevron, Eni, Petrobras, Shell, Suncor, ConocoPhillips and associate member EPRI. Read more

Atlas Copco has won a Euro20m order to supply 90 units for the construction of the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas transmission system. The equipment - portable compressors, dryers, boosters, lighting towers and a generator - will be used during the construction of a 1 600km gas pipeline system from north of Sakhalin island to Vladivostok. The packages will deliver a total capacity of up to 1 230 m³/min compressed air. The project requires equipment for pressures of up to 150 bar and that work in temperatures of minus 40C.”

BP and SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan, have signed a production sharing agreement on joint exploration and development of the Shafag-Asiman structure in the Caspian Sea. Under the 30-year deal, BP Exploration Caspian Sea Ltd will be the operator with 50% interest while SOCAR will hold the remaining 50% equity. The block lies some 125km SE of Baku, covers some 1100 square km and has never been explored. It lies in a deepwater section of about 650-800m with reservoir depth of about 7000m.

Sharecat Solutions has secured a $4.1-4.9m, three-year information management contract from Statoil ASA. Sharecat will deploy its specialist software tools and services across multiple and concurrent Statoil projects to collect and classify contractor equipment and parts information, increasing the incoming speed and quality of information required to optimise plant operations and maintenance.

Air Liquide has signed a long-term agreement with RusVinyl - a JV between Russian chemical company Sibur and Belgian PVC major Solvin - 75% Solvay, 25% BASF). Air Liquide will supply oxygen, nitrogen and compressed dry air to RusVinyl’s new world-scale PVC plant being built in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod. The deal involves a Euro60m investment by Air Liquide, including building and operating a new 350t/day air separation unit (ASU) in Kstovo, to start-up at the end of 2012.

Lummus Technology, part of CB&I, has signed an agreement with BP for the exclusive right to license and market BP’s paraxylene recovery and isomerization technology and catalyst. CB&I’s Lummus Technology business sector will be responsible for all sales, marketing and licensing activities globally. “This technology marks our entry into the polyester value chain and significantly bolsters our technology portfolio in aromatics,” said Dan McCarthy, president of Lummus Technology.

Aker Solutions has won a $40m contract to provide a complete, 8 000 feet drilling riser system to Sevan Marine’s deepwater drilling rig Sevan Brasil. The delivery includes more than 100 riser joints, which will be produced at Aker Solutions’ manufacturing facility in Rio das Ostras, Brazil. Aker currently has 14 drilling riser systems in operation, three of which have been manufactured in Rio das Ostras.

Vinamilk, a Vietnam producer of dairy products has placed a Euro30m order with GEA Process Engineering for two complete dairy processing lines for production of infant formula. It includes two wet mix plants, two spray dryers, and two powder handling and retail filling plants. GEA will also provide utility and mechanical installation as well as production start-up services. The two processing lines will each have a capacity to produce 4 ton of formula per hour. Production is due to start in Q3/12, at a plant near Ho Chi Minh City.

Haldor Topsøe A/S and the Linde Group have been selected as technology suppliers for the syngas treatment and methanation unit at steel major POSCO’s synthetic natural gas (SNG) plant in Gwangyang, South Korea. Producing SNG from coal and/or petcoke, the 500ktpa plant will come onstream in 2013. Linde will supply syngas treatment and conditioning technology, including sour shift, acid gas removal - Linde Rectisol - and sulphur recovery. Topsøe will supply methanation technology, TREMP, including conditioning of the product gas, to deliver SNG with a methane purity of over 98%. The plant, which will feature ConocoPhillips’ E-gas gasification technology, will be adjacent Gwangyang steelworks.

Aker Solutions has employed Trouvay & Cauvin’s specialist piping products division on a recent project at the Vivergo Fuels bio-refinery in Hull. The order was for a range of steam traps including thermostatic, ball float, pumping and drain traps predominantly manufactured by CDB Engineering. Strainers and sight glasses also from CDB and flame arrestors from Elmac made up the order.

Tata Chemicals has awarded Alfa Laval an SEK60m order for heat exchangers to be used in evaporation systems for production of salt in India. Delivery is scheduled for 2011. The heat exchangers will be used in evaporation systems to concentrate sea water brine for production of table salt and concentrated brine for caustic soda production. The freshwater generated during the evaporation process will be further used as process water.

Clyde Process Solutions plc has been awarded, through its subsidiary MAC Equipment, a £1.1m contract from the Asian affiliate of an existing North American based worldwide confectionary company.  CPS will provide this customer with a dense phase pneumatic conveying system for a sorbitol and xylitol system as part of the expansion at a large production facility in China.

Deritend Industries has refurbished a huge water cooling pump from Alcan Power Station in Ashington, Northumberland. The unit, which can pump around 65,000 gallons of water per minute, weighs over 25 tonnes and is one of the largest of its kind in existence. The three-month project at Deritend’s flagship West Bromwich branch encompassed each stage of the refurbishment process since decommissioning the pump in June. The pump has now been re-commissioned at the Ashington site.

AD, biogas and large storage tank producer Kirk Environmental has gained accreditation to the Achilles Building Confidence Scheme, which has become recognised by contractors as the main standard for supplier excellence in the construction industry. The scheme offers a supplier pre-qualification and accreditation service towards more sustainable supply relationships. Building Confidence accreditation was developed by Achilles in partnership with Bovis Lend Lease.

Branch Hydraulic Systems has recently supplied two hydraulic drive systems for UK industrial mixer manufacturer Winkworth. One drive system was specified for a 450 litre twin blade waste and recycling mixer/extruder. By replacing a dated unit, Winkworth gained a total power supply of 66kW - through a combination of three 22kW motors. The second unit offers an 11kW power supply driving a single Comer foot mounted planetary gearbox. The power unit incorporated a Parker load sensed, constant horsepower piston pump and a Duplomatic proportional valve. It is to be fitted to a double Z blade mixer/ incorporator for hazardous fluids and powders.

The vision industry seems to have weathered the worst of the global recession and is poised to emerge with positive signs of growth. Recently published surveys for 2010 from the European Machine Vision Association and the Automated Imaging Association in the US predict an 11% increase in turnover and a 2.6-4.6% rise in sales respectively in their particular regions. Similarly, an informal survey of UK Industrial Vision Association members revealed an upturn in enquiry levels and actual business since the beginning of 2010.

Welsh Water has installed an EZstrip cake pump from framework supplier NOV Mono at its sewage treatment works in Cardigan, West Wales. The progressing cavity pump is to transfer 22-28% sludge cake from the site’s centrifuge dewatering process to a storage skip for later removal from site.

RWE Innogy Italia is to construct the first biomass cogeneration plant in Sicily. The company will be the majority owner of the power plant, owning 90% of the project shares together with JV partner Fri-El Green Power. The remaining 10% are held by the Rome-based Infrastrutture e Gestioni SpA. Construction is to begin before the end of this year, with plant commissioning due late in 2012. The Euro61m, 18.7MW plant is designed for a power generation output of 128,000 megawatt-hours.

Alfa Laval has received an order, worth around SEK250m for decanter centrifuges to be used in the largest wastewater treatment plant in the world. Delivery is scheduled to be finalised during 2013. The centrifuges will be used for thickening the sludge generated in the biological treatment process in a sewage treatment plant in Chicago. The deal is Alfa Laval’s largest ever order.

Roxtec UK is to supply its cable penetration seals for the £310m phase 3 upgrade of the LNG receiving terminal on the Isle of Grain. The project involves the building of a second jetty and two large local equipment rooms which control the process plant which returns LNG back to natural gas before forwarding it to the National Grid. Roxtec recently announced another major contract with oil giant Agip KCO to supply onshore processing facilities at the Kashaghan oil field in the Caspian Sea.

LUKOIL has chosen Burckhardt Compression to deliver three process gas compressors for a refinery upgrade project in Volgograd, Russia. The units will be used as hydrogen make-up compressors in the diesel fuel hydrofining unit. The process requires knowledge in dry-running technology. Burckhardt Compression is GOST-R and Rostechnadzor certified which, it said, was key to securing this order.
Delivery will take place in mid-2011, with the compressors scheduled to be in operation by the yearend.

Kirk Environmental has completed the installation of a BIODOME double membrane gas holder in Boseong on the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, the unit was designed and supplied by Kirk for Stratech Systems as part of a series of ongoing environment & new/renewable energy projects.

Aker Solutions is to supply further subsea umbilicals for leading US independent oil and gas company Noble Energy Inc. The NOK270m order is an exercise of options agreed under an initial NOK650m umbilical contract. The subsea umbilicals will be used at Noble Energy’s Tamar deepwater project in the Mediterranean Sea. The latest order is for around 105km of steel tube umbilicals, bringing the total order from Noble Energy up to 330km of subsea umbilicals. Estimated delivery date is Q3 2011.

KNPC’s Shauiba Refinery in Kuwait has converted 1,750 mechanical traps to Thermal Energy International’s (TEI) GEM Venturi Orifice design. With the switch, KNPC, a subsidiary of the Kuwait Petroleum Association, has seen the HP hot condensate header pressure drop from highs of 175 psig to just 90 psig. Read more

Edwards has won orders worth £1m to install steel degassing modules in India, at companies including Laxcon Steel and Bhawani Steel to run the vacuum degassing and vacuum oxygen decarburising processes to produce degassed alloy steels and stainless steel. The dry vacuum steel degassing units will replace traditional energy-hungry multi-stage steam ejector systems backed with liquid ring pumps. The technology, said Edwards, offers potential energy cost savings of more than 90% over steam ejectors.  

Fluor Corp. has been awarded the Project Hijau Gasoil Phase-1 by Shell Refining Co. FOM Malaysia. The project comprises a new 6,000 tonnes-per-day diesel processing unit in Port Dickson, Malaysia. Fluor will perform engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services as a follow-on scope of work to its previous FEED work. The project is expected to require up to 650 craft and professional employees at Fluor’s Manila, the Philippines; Haarlem, the Netherlands offices; and its Kuala Lumpur project site.

Babcock’s NICIE graphite core inspection technology is to be extended to Torness and Heysham 2 in a contract worth £3.1 million. The NICIE system has already been deployed at British Energy AGR Stations, Hartlepool, Heysham 1, Hinkley Point B and Hunterston.
Read more

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a contract from Huntsman Corp. to provide engineering, procurement, construction management and turnaround management services for a capacity expansion of Huntsman’s polyether amines manufacturing facility on Jurong Island, Singapore. The scope includes the design and installation of a third reactor at the manufacturing facility to increase the production capacity of the product.

Corus has recently installed steam traps at its Trostre Steel Works, in Llanelli, South Wales, which produces over 400ktpa of packaging steels for the UK market. The units were added onto a continuous annealing (CAPL) process line to give the steel its required hardness.
Read more

Roche Diagnostics has decided to build a new anaerobic plant for the biological pre-treatment of a partial wastewater flow at the Penzberg site in Upper Bavaria. The plant, which produces energy-rich biogas, will supplement an existing membrane bioreactor system. The new anaerobic plant will be built by Aquantis, a subsidiary of Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies. Read more

Taim Weser has concluded pre-commissioning tests on its installation for the new Vallés Occidental waste treatment plant in Vacarisses, Barcelona. The installation comprises a complete composting plant for the organic fraction of urban waste. Read more

Oil and gas flow equipment maker Cameron - supplier of the failed blowout preventer (BOP) valve at the centre of the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster - is employing custom built hydraulic motors from Parker Hannifin in an effort to make deep sea oil wells safer. Read more

BASF is to establish a wholly-owned world-scale production base for water treatment and paper chemicals in Nanjing, China, with the construction of a 40ktpa quaternised cationic monomers plant and a 20ktpa cationic polyacrylamides plant. The plants, which are expected to start up production in Q3/12, mark the first Asian manufacturing of these products for BASF.

Jacobs Engineering has used a translucent cladding system to meet health and safety requirements at the Janssen Pharmaceuticals plant in Belgium. The Kalwall system, from Stoakes Systems, is designed for situations where volatile chemicals are being used or where there is a risk of sudden internal explosion. The cladding releases from its mounting system, while the panels remain safely attached to the side of the building by hidden restraining straps. The also system provides natural light in which to work, without shadows or glare and without the need for solar control.  

Hach Lange has won a five-year, framework agreement contract for water monitoring instrumentation with a major UK water company. The contract was awarded after the company successfully bid for four out of five framework ‘lots’ and includes its 170e online turbidimeter, Solitax SC for suspended solids, the LDO for dissolved oxygen and the UVAS plus for organic load measurements. Its SC1000 controller, Nitratax immersion probe and NH4D for ammonium complete the order. The instrumentation will supply the full spectrum of the water company’s AMP5 requirements for analytical instruments.

Haldor Topsøe has signed a contract with the Henan Jinkai Group, China, which is establishing a sulphur management plant as part ot a broader clean-coal gasification project. The plant will be built alongside an ammonia plant, producing 500ktpa of ammonia for fertiliser production. Waste gases from the process contain large amounts of sulphur compounds, among others H2S will be cleaned before release into the environment. Read more

Buhler Technology Group has recently won a CHF110m contract related to Saudi Arabia’s plan to privatise its grain mills. Operator theGrain Silo and Flour Organization placed the order, which comprises two subprojects. In Mecca, Buhler will lead the key project for a new facility worth CHF90m and a processing capacity of 1200 tonnes per day. In the port of Jeddah, the group will modernise a plant with a capacity of 450 tonnes per day for a contract volume of CHF20m.

BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd has awarded Foster Wheeler two contracts for the Forties Pipeline System (FPS) at its Kinneil Terminal in Scotland. The first contract is for the FEED for the Enhanced Gas Separation Project (EGSP). The second contract is for the pre-FEED for the Refrigerated Liquefied Petroleum Gas (RLPG) Chiller Upgrade Project. Read more

Invensys Operations Management has signed a five-year, multi-million dollar contract with Bangkok-based Thai Oil Public Company Ltd. Invensys will implement its SimSci-Esscor ROMeo software – for simulation, data reconciliation and operations decision support – at Thai Oil’s refinery operations, as part of a five-year plan to optimise all its major distillation and conversion units, as well as its plant-wide energy and hydrogen systems. Invensys will also provide turnkey design, engineering, commissioning and consulting services.

Pilkington Group Ltd’s glass plant at Changshu on the Chinese eastern seaboard, operates a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) plant for the production of low-e glass. The Changshu facilitty is the third in a series of contracts awarded to ACWA AIR to prevent pollution from the CVD coating system and recover energy for use within the process. Read more

Brammer has come to the aid of Crown Bevcan’s material manufacturing site in Braunstone, Leicester, when a shaft system broke down during an evening shift. Brammer organised a taxi from the UK to meet a French taxi bringing a replacement shaft – made to order for the canning industry – from Crown Bevcan’s site near Nancy in eastern France. The two taxi drivers met at 3:00am French time to exchange the parts at Calais, with all parts reaching Braunstone by 8:30am the next morning.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has licensed its Multi-Zone Stimulation Technology (MZSTSM) well treatment process to Calfrac Well Services Ltd of Calgary, Alberta. The MZST process can stimulate multiple reservoir zones in a single operation. It can be used in fracturing operations in tight gas, shale gas, and coal bed methane wells. Calfrac will use it to optimise its stimulation operations by combining the deployment of perforating and fracturing equipment simultaneously in the wellbore to enable single-trip, multi-zone stimulations.

Jacobs Engineering Group is to provide Hydrogen Energy with engineering services for its water treatment and zero liquid discharge facility in Bakersfield, California. Jacobs will complete the FEED-stage deliverables for the site. The scope includes evaluating/optimising the proposed water treatment systems; developing the design basis; preparing design deliverables for process, instrumentation and control, mechanical, piping, electrical, civil and structural disciplines; and developing commissioning/start-up procedures.

SRF Ltd of India is to carry out three R&D driven projects at a total estimated cost of around Rs. 200 crore for setting up new units in its chemical complex at Dahej in Gujarat. The projects concern a flexible multi-purpose plant, intermediate speciality plant and captive power plant. Read more

Konecranes UK’s Industrial Crane Division in East Kilbride is to supply Corus in Scunthorpe and the Parker Steel Group in Shoreham with cranes fitted with magnetic equipment for steel handling. Read more

Food manufacturer Greencore Group Plc has reduced downtime and repair costs on the water treatment plant at its Greencore Grocery site in Selby, North Yorkshire, following the installation of a high-pressure peristaltic hose pump from Watson-Marlow. Read more

Statoil Petroleum AS has awarded Aker Solutions the first project-specific agreements for engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the Gudrun tie-in to Sleipner in the North Sea. The NOK900m order replaces a letter of intent announced 14 July. The Sleipner area is the second largest gas producer in the North Sea, after the Troll field. Sleipner will process oil and gas from Gudrun and supply power to the Gudrun platform. The work will be managed out of Aker Solutions’ regional office in Stavanger and will also engage prefabrication resources at Aker Solutions’ yard in Egersund. Work under the contract will be completed in October 2013.

An Alstom Grid / WeserWind GmbH Offshore Construction Georgsmarienhütte consortium has won a turnkey construction and grid connection contract for a self-floating and self-installing* offshore high voltage substation. EnBW Erneuerbare Energien GmbH of Stuttgart awarded the project to build, install and connect a 155/33 kV substation for its 80-turbines, 288 MW offshore wind farm, 30 km north of the Rügen Island in the German Baltic. The deal includes Alstom Grid power transformers, gas-insulated switchgear, auxiliary power supply, substation automation, protection and control systems for 80 wind turbines. Offshore commissioning is due by June 2012.

SKF has appointed ERIKS as its first UK-wide certified maintenance partner (CMP). After three years’ work as a local CMP, the new status recognises ERIKS’ technical support effort in the UK, which includes 32 certified vibration analysts in the field, and 70 branch and 23 workshop locations. CMPs offer a tailored condition monitoring service for bearings on critical machinery.

Atlas Copco Central Asia LLC, Kazakhstan, has received a $34m mining equipment order from Kazakhmys Group. The order – one of the largest ever orders for Atlas Copco’s Construction and Mining Technique business area – is for underground equipment; drill rigs, loaders and trucks for use in three different mines in the Zhezkazgan area of Kazakhstan. Kazakhmys is the largest copper producer in Kazakhstan and in the top ten worldwide. Delivery will start in Q4/10.

PJ Heat Exchangers has installed two process tank heating systems from Lanemark International Ltd at its Barnsley site. The units are helping to improve the heating accuracy and control of the cleaning process which is a key part of the company’s maintenance service. Read more

Severn Trent Water has installed a progressing cavity (PC) pump from framework supplier NOV Mono at its sewage treatment works in Newthorpe, Nottinghamshire. The unit is being used to pump digested sludge to the site’s centrifuges for thickening. Poor reliability meant the previous pump gearboxes which were causing significant downtime at the plant, while de-ragging was also a problem due to the small access port. The new Chroma pump was directly interchangeable with the existing pump so required no additional pipework modifications. Regional maintenance advisor at Newthorpe STW, Andy Berry said: “As well as benefiting from improved control over the process with a variable speed drive, [and] de-ragging is much easier.”

The Steel Construction Institute (SCI) is to project manage a joint industry research project to improve the understanding of explosion mechanisms such as might have been at play in the 2005 Buncefield incident, which resulted in tremendous damage to the outlying area. Detailed analysis from earlier work supports the proposition that the surrounding site boundary vegetation accelerated the flame which caused part of the vapour cloud to detonate, but there were also other novel mechanisms considered. Read more

Shell has started production of a 100,000 barrels per day expansion of its Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) in Canada. The new Jackpine Mine will combine with existing production from the Muskeg River Mine to feed the Scotford Upgrader, which processes the oil sands bitumen – heavy oil – for refined oil products. Read more

Honeywell is to design the automation system to control a new pulping line for one of Russia’s largest paper producers. Its Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) will control a chemical regeneration unit at the Mondi Syktyvkar (MS) uncoated fine paper plant. The unit includes a new wood yard, white liquor plant, soda recovery boiler, evaporation plant and two new cooling towers. Controlled by Experion and Honeywell’s Field Device Manager, it will provide extra pulp to help increase overall capacity. MS will produce around 1000ktpa of paper and boardd, using wood from its own logging companies.

Foster Wheeler has entered into a 20-year agreement with the Saraswati Industrial Syndicate Ltd, to provide an advanced technology license for wall-fired subcritical and supercritical pulverised-coal (PC) steam generators to be sold in India. Under a separate existing agreement, Foster Wheeler and Saraswati have successfully sold and executed 34 circulating fluidised-bed steam generators in India totalling approximately 1.5 GWe since 1997.

Biomass Power Ltd (BPL) is preparing to ship its final delivery to the Bagnolo Power Srl 4.7 MWe biomass power plant, under construction near Venice, Italy. The project is being carried out in partnership with Siemens Industrial, which has appointed BPL as its UK strategic partner for biomass power plants. The Bagnolo facility features a 20 tonne/hr, 45 Barg, 450°C biomass boiler, with economiser and superheater.  Staffordshire-based BPL’s final shipment, due in October, will be the heavy-duty steam raising boiler. UK systems integrator Capula is installing a Siemens PCS7 control system for the plant’s gasification unit, which can burn forested new wood, scrap wood and miscanthus, among other fuels. This process produces a syngas that is combusted in a secondary chamber which in turn heats the steam raising boiler.

Capula has recently won a framework agreement wto replace Thames Water’s existing remote telemetry unit assets across many of its process sites. The RTU framework agreement is five years in length (2010 - 2015) and covers the company’s AMP5 programme. Utilising technology from both MultiTrode and Rockwell Automation, Capula will provide monitoring control of Thames Water’s sewage pumping stations, small sewage treatment works, large water treatment works and its water booster sites, allowing critical data to be captured in real-time.

Babcock has won a £1.3m contract from British Energy to develop a new hybrid trepanning tool for sampling the graphite of nuclear reactors. Eventually, there will be four Hybrid Trepanning Tools. The new tool, claims Babcock, offers significantly greater refinement and operational flexibility than any predecessor. Read more

Chronos BTH has secured an order from Border Aggregates to supply a new fully automatic packing system for their Carnforth facility in North Lancashire. Border Aggregates supplies sands, natural aggregates and stone products to the landscaping and construction industry throughout the UK.

KBR has won a contract on a $1.285bn project at the Hope Downs 4 iron ore mine in remote Western Australia. The project is part of a JV between Rio Tinto and Hancock Prospecting. KBR will provide design, engineering, procurement management, project and construction management for the 15,000-ktpa mine, 1000km north of Perth. Construction is to begin in February 2011, and be completed in early 2013. KBR has already completed Hope Downs 1 Stage 1, in 2008, and Stage 2 in 2009. The scope includes: Ore processing plant sized to accept 220t capacity haul trucks with ore crushing, scrubbing and screening processes; Bulk fuel, lubricant and explosive facilities; Stockpile stacking, reclaiming and train facilities to transport product to port.

Saudi Aramco is to construct a grassroots refinery in Yanbu’ Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. Newly incorporated Red Sea Refining Co. will process 400,000 barrels of heavy crude per day when the facility is completed in 2014. Saudi Aramco and Air Liquide Arabia have signed a long-term hydrogen supply agreement for the refinery and will invest $450m in two hydrogen production units with total capacity of 300,000 Nm³ per hour – its largest single industrial investment and most significant “over the fence” hydrogen contract ever. The complex will be designed and built by Lurgi, a division of Air Liquide Engineering.

Severn Trent Water has awarded Brammer a contract to supply electric motors and gearboxes for applications at more than 500 Severn Trent sites. The contract covers the supply, repair and maintenance of thousands of new motors and gearboxes for water treatment, pump repair and pumping stations across the UK. Brammer has supplied Severn Trent Water with a range of products and services over recent years.

Dutch company Imtech NV has recently gained orders worth over Euro22m for intelligent networks. CEO René van der Bruggen said: “Intelligent networks form the foundation for optimum energy efficiency, as they serve as the basic infrastructure for communication between energy suppliers and clients.”

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has selected self-contained hydraulic shutdown systems from Emerson Process Management for installation on the Dazhangtou natural gas storage reservoir project in Tianjing, China. Seven of the PressureGuard systems, which require no external power source, will protect the gas storage reservoir by closing gate valves when a high or low pressure threshold has been reached. The reservoir is the first gas storage facility in China, and strengthens the peak-gas adjustment capacity of the Shan-jing natural gas pipeline, which extends 585 miles from Yulin, Shanxi, to Beijing. Gas that is not needed immediately is diverted into underground storage facilities.

Sheffield Forgemasters has secured a contract worth over £3m with MMK, one of the largest steel companies in Russia. The deal is to provide 116 work rolls weighing five tonnes each and two back up rolls weighing 40 tonnes each, throughout 2011 to MMK, which is located in the city of Magnitogorsk. The rolls will be used in the new wide strip cold rolling mill to roll steel sheets. Forgemasters’ processes range from forging of ingots to special heat treatment and machine finishing to within 0.05 mm.

The city of Wroclaw, Poland, will be installing a thermal drying system from Siemens Water Technologies at its wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that serves approximately 1 million people in the metropolitan area. Comprised of four Ecoflash thin layer dryer lines, the 10 tons/hr evaporation capacity drying system will reduce the city’s daily municipal biosolids volume from 320 tons/d to 109 tons/d. The dryers will become operational in 2011.

Gifford has been appointed project manager and designer to the UK’s Ministry of Defence to re-engineer the power station and boiler house at Mount Pleasant Airfield on the Falkland Islands. Design engineers, surveyors and project management staff from Gifford have previously designed and supervised the installation of three utilities buildings for power generation, water treatment and servicing facilities on the remote islands.

UK-based B9 Coal has launched its “revolutionary” proposition for efficient, cheap power generation from coal with carbon capture. The company is bringing together a consortium including WSP Group, AFC Energy and Linc Energy for a project which, it claims, will put the UK at the forefront of carbon capture and storage technology. Read more

ABB Oman LLC has signed a three-year maintenance agreement for Vale’s iron ore pellet plant and distribution center in Oman. ABB is already responsible for managing and planning the entire commissioning phase of the project. Vale is investing $1.3bn in the new direct reduction iron ore pelletising facility in Sohar Industrial Port. Vale’s first pelletizing operation outside of Brazil will have an initial capacity of 9000ktpa. Scheduled for start-up in late 2010, it will operate with 720 employees, 202 of whom will be part of ABB’s site maintenance team.

Porvair’s MF&T filtration group gas division has won a contract with a landfill gas operator to provide new filter units to protect the boiler units from contaminants in the syngas. The filter units provided were based on the Megga Gaz Slimline range but with a new design constructed entirely from stainless steel and providing a cleanable filter unit. The range was developed for installations where filter systems were required to be fitted in positions where conventional cylindrical filter assemblies were not possible due to space restrictions.

OCTAL Petrochemicals recently signed a contract with Uhde Inventa-Fischer (UIF) to build a 550ktpa PET resin plant at OCTAL’s existing PET complex in Salalah, Oman. The contract for delivery of two lines unique to OCTAL will use UIF’s Melt-to-Resin MTR technology. UIF will deliver technology, know-how, engineering, all process equipment, reactors, auxiliary/utilities processes, site supervision and commissioning support for the PET polycondensation plant. In just a year after OCTAL has ramped up production at the world’s first integrated PET resin and PET sheet plant.

CB&I has announced today that a plant using the combined DMTO methanol-to-olefins technology of SYN Energy Technology Co. Ltd and Lummus Technology has started-up in Baotou, China. It is the world’s first methanol-to-olefins unit to be operated on a commercial scale. The plant is owned by China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co. Ltd. The technology enables licensees to produce ethylene and propylene from methanol. The plant is designed to produce 600ktpa of olefins from methanol. SYN licensed the reactor and catalyst technology used in the plant and Lummus Technology licensed the olefins recovery technology.

The US Dept of Energy has launched a $40m Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative involving national laboratories and regional university alliances. The goal is to use advanced modeling and simulation to develop science-based methods for lowering the cost of carbon capture while reducing risks associated with its storage.

AMEC has recently been appointed by South Hook LNG Terminal Co. Ltd to undertake a three-year term services contract for one of the largest and newest LNG terminals in Europe, the South Hook Terminal in South Wales. AMEC will be the design company for the newly completed terminal, providing it with essential engineering support to ensure round-the-clock delivery of gas into the national transmission system. AMEC’s scope of work includes engineering conceptual design, detailed design,procurement, construction, commissioning and project management services. AMEC will be working in collaboration with Black and Veatch Ltd, with whom it has a strategic partnering agreement and who will provide specialist LNG knowledge.