Contracts & Projects: July 2011

Watson-Marlow has supplied more than 20 of its 520 and 620 series peristaltic pumps for upstream and downstream pilot plants at the new National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) in Dublin. The Euro57m Institute replicates a GMP simulated, operational manufacturing environment. Also in use in the NIBRT is a Flexicon FPC50W aseptic peristaltic filling and capping system from the Watson-Marlow group.

Sasol has awarded Foster Wheeler a contract for the technical portion of a feasibility study for a planned gas-to-liquids facility in Canada, on behalf of the Sasol/Talisman Energy partnership. The technical portion of the feasibility study is expected to be completed during Q4/11. The facility would convert shale gas to GTL naphtha, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas using Sasol’s GTL technology. As well as the technical work on the feasibility study, FW will also develop a cost estimate to allow the Sasol/Talisman Energy JV to assess the feasability of the planned facility, with a decision expected in H2/12.

Magnox Ltd has awarded AMEC a framework contract to provide nuclear consultancy services at its sites across the UK. The two-year contract, the value of which has not been announced, will see AMEC provide both specialist nuclear and safety case services across the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) estate. Magnox operates 10 sites (on behalf of the NDA). AMEC will provide expertise in radioactive waste, chemistry, physics, sludge handling, encapsulation of waste, contaminated land studies, characterisation, technical option studies and safety case services, as well as test rig and lab capabilities and specialist site teams such as remote sampling and handling.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is to provide engineering consulting services for the full planning stage of the Greater Dublin Drainage Project (GDD) - Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, Marine Outfall and Orbital Drainage System. Jacobs was awarded the two-year contract in partnership with Tobin Consulting Engineers. The scheme involves the provision of a regional wastewater treatment plant and marine outfall at a site in the northern part of the Greater Dublin Area, in addition to the provision of an orbital drainage system linking the regional WwTP to the existing regional sewer network.

KBR and Shell Global Solutions International BV have formed an alliance in which KBR will globally market, sell and provide technology and design packages with Shell on hydroprocessing solutions. ’Refiners use hydroprocessing to meet stringent product specifications and emissions legislation, maximizing the value from bottom of the barrel processing, while enjoying the higher unit availability of owner/operator developed technology,’ KBR stated.

Westinghouse has installed a replacement steam dryer at Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant, a single-unit GE-designed boiling water reactor (BWR), near Minneapolis. The Westinghouse Sweden steam dryer design is in use at more than 11 BWR plants in Europe. BWR steam dryers are used during the final stage of moisture removal to provide the high quality steam to the turbine. The new unit will support Monticello’s renewed operating license, which extends through 2030, and its proposed capacity increase of 70 MW.

Aker Solutions has secured an NOK650m contract for subsea compression topside modifications of the Åsgard A and B platforms with Statoil. The modification is to supply electricity to the Åsgard subsea compressor units, which will be installed in 2013. In Q4/10, Statoil awarded Aker Solutions the NOK3.4bn contract to develop the world’s first full scale subsea compression system. Scope of work includes building and installing an 800t module and integration work on the Statoil-operated Åsgard A and B platforms in the North Sea. The work will be executed as an EPC and installation contract, for delivery in Q4/14.

Yokogawa has won an order from PT. Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk. (CAP) to replace the legacy DCS and safety instrumented system (SIS) at its ethylene and polyethylene plant in Cilegon, western Java. Yokogawa is also to replace the legacy DCS at a 340ktpa styrene monomer plant, about 40 km from the CAP plant. For these projects, Yokogawa will provide its Centum VP DCS and ProSafe-RS SIS along with engineering, installation, commissioning, and engineering and operator training. These projects are expected to take 10 months.

A Merseyside feed processor achieved significant energy savings following a free energy survey by Rewinds and J Windsor. Electricity consumption at the plant was close to £94k/year. After the survey, 12 motors and motor/fan units were identified as offering the greatest potential payback. RJW built and installed 12 inverter drive panels. The initial saving from the £14k investment was a £17k reduction in electricity costs, with cost per tonne of end product down 18%.

To comply with regulations proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, American Electric Power plans to retire nearly 6,000MW of coal-fueled power generation; upgrade or install new advanced emissions reduction equipment on another 10,100MW; refuel 1,070MW of coal generation as 932MW of natural gas capacity; and build 1,220MW of natural gas-fuelled generation. AEP’s compliance plan could cost $6-8bn in capital investment through the end of the decade.

Grimley Smith Associates Ltd has won a “circa £50m” EPC contract the South Refineries Co. (SRC) of Iraq, part of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, for the site utilities at an existing refinery in Basra, Iraq. The turnkey project is to upgrade the refinery utilities over two years and will involve the design, construction and installation of: two boilers each capable of 100te/hour continuous production of 33 barg steam; boiler feed water plant including demineralised water, de-oilers, deaerators; air compressors to supply instrument and service air at 2500m3/h per skid; a cryogenic N2 system to supply 300 Nm3/h GAN with 150Nm3/h being liquefied.

Lagan Construction is to deliver the civil and building package for a wood pellet and biomass power plant, being built at Girvan, Scotland by Land Energy. The project will include the construction of an onsite biomass CHP plant to supply the new wood pellet factory, where pelleting and organic rankine cycle power turbine technologies are being brought together. Belfast-based Lagan is to adapt the former textiles site: converting three existing buildings, by Q1/12.

Marine Well Containment Co. has selected AMEC to design and deliver components of an expanded containment system. AMEC’s role covers project management, engineering, fabrication, integration, and commissioning of modular equipment. The expanded containment system, scheduled for delivery in 2012, is designed to operate in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico, and capture up to 100k barrels of fluid and 200m cubic feet of gas per day.

Alfa Laval has received an SEK65m order for a complete solution to a vegetable oil plant in India. Delivery is scheduled for 2012. The order includes products such as separators, mixers and heat exchangers, which will be used in refining different types of crude oils, such as soya bean.

Tecnimont SpA has won two EPC contracts, together worth $440m, on a lumpsum turnkey basis for polyolefin plants in Dahej, Gujarat State, India. The client is ONGC Petro additions Ltd – a JV between energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. and Gas Authority of India Ltd. The two contracts cover the implementation of a 340ktpa polypropylene plant and two HD/LLD swing polyethylene plants of 360ktpa capacity each. Ineos’ Innovene PP process will be used for the PP plant and the Ineos Innovene G process will be used for the two LL/HD swing PE plants.

Grimley Smith Associates is to design and construct a new national research facility at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Centre (TTC) in Middlesbrough, UK. The £5m facility, for Centre for Process Innovation and Tata Steel, is to develop high-temperature technologies and ways of turning waste products into fuels and raw materials. Alongside GSA, Fabricom has secured the construction phase of the contract which includes; construction and structural erection, ME&I installation, site establishment and project management.

Emerson has completed a long-term project at NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) which is upgrading controls at its Groningen gas field in The Netherlands. The Groningen natural gas field is one of the world’s largest and NAM has been working with an alliance of contractors to optimise production by renovating the control and monitoring of 300 gas wells. Read more

Wood Group PSN has extended its contract with TAQA Bratani Ltd for a further five years. Under the services contract Wood Group PSN will provide operations & maintenance support and engineering & construction services to TAQA’s Cormorant Alpha, North Cormorant, Tern and Eider platforms in the northern North Sea. The contract marks a continuation of the previous duty holder and integrated facility management services contract awarded to Wood Group in Q4/08. Wood Group PSN has about 600 personnel under the contract with TAQA - 200 onshore and 400 offshore.

Linde Group has closed a long-term deal with PT. Krakatau POSCO (PTKP) – a JV between the South Korea’s POSCO and Krakatau Steel. Linde will invest around Euro88m in an air separation unit to supply PTKP, which is constructing a 3000ktpa, integrated steelworks at Cilegon, 100km west of Jakarta. Due on stream in Q4/13, the ASU will have a daily capacity of around 2kt of oxygen. and will also generate liquid nitrogen and argon – including for local markets.

Babcock and Bechtel JV Bechtel Babcock Nuclear Solutions (BBNS) has won the contract for the pile fuel cladding silo retrieval project, silo doors & retrieval modules (SDRM) by Sellafield Ltd. The SDRM contract covers detail design, procurement, manufacture, works testing, delivery to site, installation and commissioning of silo doors and retrieval and waste handling modules, together with a hole cutting system. The £120-150m project involves three phases over a period of around six years. 

Italian chemical company Polimeri Europa, part of Eni, and Novamont, a supplier of biodegradable plastics, have formed a 50:50 JV, named Matrica SpA, to build a bio-based chemical complex in Porto Torres, Sardinia. The Euro500m project consists of seven new plants – an integrated production chain from vegetable oil to bio-plastics - to be completed within the next six years. Eni also plans to invest an Euro230m in a biomass power station to provide the electric power.

Metso has supplied its 300th RM3 retention analyzer to the paper and board industry. It was installed on BM 2 at Stora Enso Imatra Mills’ Kaukopää production unit in Imatra, Finland, in May. The wet end of the machine that produces packaging and graphic grades was equipped with a total of three analyzers for measuring white water consistency of all layers online. The delivery also included two Metso MCA microwave consistency sensors for measuring total consistency after the machine chest.

Sheffield Forgemasters has made two 290-tonne castings for the export to Venezuela, as part of a larger multi-million pound contract. The castings will create a large scale mill housing to roll plate steel for German company SMS Siemag, part of the SMS group. Production involved a six-ladle pour each with 100 tonnes of molten steel into a specially designed mould.

Punj Lloyd has gained an EPC contract from NPCIL worth Rs 678 crore for critical nuclear piping work at four pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) of 700MWe each. The scope includes engineering, procurement, erection and commissioning of nuclear equipment and piping for all the systems inside the nuclear reactor buildings. Two PHWRs are located at Kakrapara Atomic Power Project, KAPP 3&4 near Surat in Gujarat and the other two are at Rajasthan Atomic Power Project, RAPP 7&8 near Kota in Rajasthan. The contract is to be completed in four years.

Shell has awarded Jee a three-year contract extension for subsea engineering training of Shell employees worldwide. Jee has worked with Shell for the past four years, providing training globally to engineers. Jee claims its tutors are both experts in the field, and work on technical engineering projects every day. It has offices in London, Aberdeen and Abu Dhabi and provides pipeline, riser and subsea engineering and training services. 

Metso will supply automation and environmental technology for five biomass power plants to be built by Dalkia in France. The first plant, in Limoges, is due to start up in February 2012. The other ones in Angers, Orleans, Tours and Rennes will be completed later in 2012. The Limoges unit will have a capacity of 7.5MWe of electricity and 17MWt of district heat, and will supply electricity to the national grid and district heat to urban areas in Limoges. Metso’s delivery will consist of the DCS system and an emission monitoring/reporting system for gas emission control.

Wood Group Wagners has won the A$40m project management services contract for the GLNG Pipeline Project in Queensland, that will process coal seam gas (CSG) into LNG. It will provide over 40 personnel to the project management team, as well as engineering and design, construction, HR and admin personnel. The 420km pipeline is a major element of the development to transport CSG from the existing and future fields to a planned LNG plant on Curtis Island.

Metso said it is to build the ’world’s largest’ biomass gasification plant – a 140MW bio-gasification plant for Vaskiluodon Voima Oy in Vaasa, Finland. The plant, which will be adjoined to an existing 565MW coal-fired power plant, will mainly use forest residues for fuel. The biogas produced will then be combusted with coal. The Euro40m project will enable Vaskiluodon to replace 25-40% of the coal it now uses. (More on Process Engineering)

In a ’first’ for the whisky industry, two 60m³ BioWayste reactors are generating biogas and achieving over 95% COD removal at the Bruichladdich distillery on the Hebredian island of Islay. The process for pot ale and spent lees has also achieved over 90% copper removal. Unlike conventional industrial anaerobic digestion plants, which take around 30 days to break down a single tanker of waste, BioWayste claims its process takes just 12-24 hours. 

Alfa Laval has won an SEK70m order for compact heat exchangers from a refinery in Russia, for delivery in 2012. The units make it is possible to reuse heat from one part of the process for preheating another, recovering up to 95% of the heat that otherwise would be wasted – a 40% efficiency increase compared with competing shell-and-tube technology, the vendor claims.

Statoil and Scottish and Southern Energy plc are to enter into a 10-year supply agreement for an annual volume of 0.5bn cubic metres of natural gas, to SSE’s Peterhead, Scotland gas power plant, from Q4/12. The Peterhead plant consumes around 1,500m cubic metres of gas a year. Statoil and SSE are already jointly involved in the Aldborough gas storage facility in Yorkshire. Statoil has a 16-18 % share of the UK gas market. Natural gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf is delivered through the pipelines Vesterled, Langeled and FLAGS via Tampen Link.

AkzoNobel Functional Chemicals is modernising its speciality chemicals production facility in Herkenbosch, The Netherlands, using Emerson’s DeltaV digital automation system Version 11. The project includes modernising the process control of 7,000 I/O by replacing outdated PLCs. The first phase includes 600 I/O for batch-related processes to ensure S88 compliance, along with 250 I/O devoted to Emerson’s DeltaV SIS process safety system. The 1950s-built plant currently runs on a PLC-based control system.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a contract from DuPont Titanium Technologies to provide full engineering procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the company’s Mexico titanium dioxide capacity expansion project. The agreement covers full EPCM services for the upgrades to one of DuPont’s titanium dioxide sites in Mexico. The facility will receive an investment of more than $500m.

LyondellBasell is to purchase around 200 miles of pipeline near Houston from BP via its Equistar Chemicals subsidiary. The pipelines and metering stations transport ethylene and propylene production from Channelview to Equistar’s storage terminal at Mont Belvieu, and facilities in Deer Park, La Porte and the Bayport industrial district. The deal also includes an NGL supply line into Channelview. Equistar currently operates and maintains some 1,200 miles of pipeline in Texas, and transports about 20bn pounds of product and 80m barrels of feedstock annually.  

Solutia Inc. is expand its diphenyl oxide production capacity at its operation in Chocolate Bayou, Texas, to help meet the increased demand across a range of end markets, including the concentrating solar power market. The expansion is anticipated to increase production capacity by more than 30% by early 2012

Sacramento Municipal Utility District Financing Authority has renewed a five-year contract with Wood Group GTS for the operations & maintenance of two GE frame 7FA gas turbines at the Cosumnes Power Plant in California. Under the $46m contract, Wood Group GTS will take on the oversight and running of the 500MW combined cycle gas-fired plant, overseeing day-to-day operations, routine maintenance, and coordinating major maintenance of its equipment.

Foster Wheeler has won the 2010 National Prize of Industrial Engineering (engineering project category) by the Spanish National Society of Professional Industrial Engineers, for its work on the refinery expansion project for Repsol Petróleo SA in Cartagena. FW is EPCm contractor for the vacuum distillation unit and a delayed coking complex, which uses its SYDECSM delayed coking technology. The EPC’s work is due to be completed during Q4/11.

Denca Controls Ltd of Widnes, UK, has won the E&I controls contract for a new IPB2 facility designed by lab and cleanroom specialist T Squared, for its end user SAFC – a biochemical and organic chemical products major, based in Irvine, Scotland. The scope is to build and automate a cell culture media, reagents and buffer solutions manufacturing system, CIP system, WFI/SIP system and filling system at the SAFC facility. Denca will supply a control system consisting of E&I design, manufacture of system control panels,  system software and validation documentation to GAMP, installation and testing/commissioning.

Showa Denko Carbon Inc. has awarded Fluor Corp. an EPC contract to expand its graphite products manufacturing facility in Ridgeville, South Carolina. The Showa Denko plant produces graphite material for the steel and automotive supplier industries. Products include premium graphite electrodes for
electric arc furnace steel production, and the expansion will allow the company to meet the increasing demand for its products.

GEO Specialty Chemicals Inc. is to acquire BASF’s Bisomer monomer business – hydroxy methacrylates, multifunctional methacrylates (MFMs), and speciality adducts – and Cognis UK conventional contact lens business. The deal includes a manufacturing facility in Hythe, UK, that produces hydroxy methacrylates, MFMs and specialty adducts, polyalkylene glycols (PAG) and PAG-based lubricants. Around 140 employees are expected to transfer to the new owner.

Vattenfall said it could invest up to Euro1bn in renewable energy in France when the country offers hydropower concessions later this year. Last year, the group sold about 6TWh electricity in France – the second largest market in Europe in terms of installed hydropower capacity (25,000 MW). Renewal of the concessions for 5,300MW until 2015 would represent more than 20% of the total capacity. Vattenfall aims to obtain concessions for 1,000 MW.

IMS Research has upgraded its forecast for the industrial automation electronics equipment (IAEE). The global IAEE market is now projected to grow 12.9% to reach $97bn in 2011, helped by a strong performance in the important machinery production, particularly in eastern Europe and China. Process equipment markets, meanwhile, put in an impressive first quarter, suggesting that capital expenditure levels will be strong in 2011, added IMS.

Aker Solutions’ subsidiary STEP Offshore has won an NOK25m contract to deliver an integrated cuttings re-injection (CRI) system to Maersk Drilling’s jack-up rig Maersk Reacher. Aker and STEP will supply a complete system for slurrification and re-injection of drill cuttings. The scope of supply includes process equipment, control system, installation supervision, commissioning, offshore start-up assistance and training. The CRI Unit will be delivered in Q2/11.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) has implemented Honeywell Process Solutions’ mobile stations at a new, $200m fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) project at its Mumbai refinery. HPCL had previously experienced delays in commissioning activity associated with the use of handheld transceivers to communicate with the control room. Read more

Severn Trent Water has selected grit removal kit from Ovivo to prolong the life of mechanical equipment at its Minworth Sewage Treatment Works, Birmingham. Four bridge-mounted, 13m-diameter ’Detritor’ units and reciprocating rake classifiers are removing several large skips of abrasive grit a week. They are part of an upgrade to improve process performance of the 1bn litres/day plant – the UK’s second largest STW.

North Refineries Co. has selected Honeywell as the main EPC contractor to upgrade the automation systems at its refinery in Baiji, Iraq: adding its Experion Process Knowledge System and Safety Manager, fully automating the facility and replacing its 30-year-old single loop instrument control system. The upgrade is to improve safety & security and productivity and support future technology upgrades. The project also aims to cut maintenance costs by up to 30%.

Northumbrian Water Ltd’s anaerobic digestion plant at Bran Sands, Teesside is now fully operational and generating expected volumes of biogas and electricity. Construction is now underway on a similar plant at Howdon, Tyneside – towards a target of generating 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2015. NWL has also started construction of reed beds at Hanningfield, Essex, its largest water treatment works, to dispose of water treatment sludge – a ’world first’ for a project of this scale.

SNC-Lavalin is to perform the FEED for Petróleos de Venezuela’s Rio Caribe-Mejillones gas-condensate development offshore Venezuela. (More on Process Engineering).

A framework contractor working on behalf of United Utilities contacted T-T’s division Aquaflow to help solve a problem of four persistently problematic valves which had become costly to maintain. (More on Process Engineering)

Aker Solutions is to supply three subsea production control umbilicals for the Chevron operated Jack & St. Malo field developments in the Gulf of Mexico. The umbilicals will provide hydraulic, electrical and fiber optic service to the subsea fields. Scope of work includes three electro-hydraulic steel tube production umbilicals totalling 65 km, or use in water depths of about 2,100m.

Aker Solutions has won two contracts, together worth $195m, to supply complete drilling equipment packages for two new deepwater drilling units that are being built by Cosco, a Chinese shipbuilder. The deals include options for a further two units. The equipment will be delivered to both units during 2012-13.

Alfa Laval has received an order in the US to provide its Packinox heat exchangers to ’the world’s largest’ concentrated solar power plant, for delivery in 2012. The specially developed units are for the thermal storage system where heat from solar power is stored in molten salt. They will allow the plant to operate for an extra six hours on stored energy – 50% above normal daytime solar power production.

Wood Group’s Alliance Engineering is to provide detailed engineering and design services for the Tamar Platform Project, including topsides facilities and deck structure. The Tamar natural gas field will be operated by Noble Energy and is located offshore Israel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea’s Levantine Basin.
The platform will be located in approximately 800 feet of water and will be designed to process 1.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day.

Moog Industrial Group has signed a new five-year contract with SCX Special Projects, Sheffield, UK to continue its support of the motion control system for the Wimbledon Centre Court Retractable Roof, London until August 2015. The contract is managed by Moog’s operation based in Tewkesbury, UK.

Siemens Energy Sector has ordered two cranes from Konecranes UK for the Knapsack II power project near Cologne, Germany, which is being constructed by Siemens for Statkraft of Norway. The contract is for a 400/20/3.2 tonne SMD crane and an 80/3.2 tonne SMD crane at 30.88 metres span for the turbine hall. The cranes will be delivered in November.

Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd has awarded CB&I has won a $150m contract for the detailed engineering of two fixed platforms for the Golden Eagle field in the U.K. sector of the North Sea. The scope of work includes detailed engineering design for the topsides facilities of a wellhead platform and a production utilities and quarters platform. CB&I’s contract is to be completed by Q4/12. CB&I recently completed the FEED for the project.

Siemens Water Technologies is to provide a system to treat wastewater at Sinopec Corp.’s Anqing refinery, in Anhui Province, China. The order includes a powdered activated carbon treatment (PACT) system, Zimpro wet air regeneration (WAR) hydrothermal unit, and a Hydro-Clear sand filtration system. It will be used to treat salty and oily wastewater from refining and petrochemical production activities from existing and upgraded units. The wastewater needs to meet the Chinese specifications for surface discharge. The system will start up in 2012. (More on Process Engineering)

BASF is to build the world’s largest single-train TDI (toluene diisocyanate) plant in Europe. The 300ktpa plant will be located at one of the company’s ’Verbund’ sites in Antwerp, Belgium or Ludwigshafen, Germany and will start production in 2014. It will be integrated with precursor production. Engineering is underway and the final site selection will be announced shortly, BASF said. (More on Process Engineering)

Insulating materials company Elantas Deatech (ED) has cut steam consumption at its site in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, following the installation of Thermal Energy’s Gemo steam traps. ED has now replaced all of the mechanical steam traps on its process, utilities and steam-distribution pipeline with the Gemo venturi orifice design. Thermal Energy has since won new orders for steam traps at Ascoli Piceno and the materials company’s site in China.