Contracts & Projects Tracker: February 2012

Virtalis has designed and installed two virtual reality systems for the new Nuclear AMRC, which was set up in Sheffield to support the UK nuclear supply chain for the new generation of nuclear reactors. (More on Process Engineering)

Aker Solutions has been awarded a frame agreement for engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPCI) for Talisman Energy’s maintenance and modifications projects on the Norwegian continental shelf. The fixed contract duration is three years from January 2012 to December 2014, with an option for six further years. Studies, EPCI and maintenance and modifications will be managed from Stavanger, and prefabrication will take place at Aker Solutions’ Egersund-yard.

North west England-based Industrial Purification Systems (IPS) has reported a surge in demand for its water filtration technology with orders of over £250k secured in the past two months alone. This includes orders from Tata Steel.

Metso will supply Mälarenergi’s combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Västerås, Sweden, with the world’s largest recovered fuel fired boiler. The new boiler with a fuel input of 167 MW will utilise circulating fluidised bed technology and it will serve as a base unit to meet the disctrict heating power needs of Västerås and Hallstahammar municipalities. Metso’s delivery will account for about 30% of the approximately Euro300m modernisation project of the CHP plant.

Foster Wheeler has won a contract for a new LNG receiving terminal to be built in Ennore Tamil Nadu, India. The contract was awarded by India’s national oil company, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL). The scope includes basic design, FEED and the preparation of capital and operating cost estimates for the new LNG import, storage and regasification terminal, which will be designed to process 5,000ktpa of LNG. The terminal facilities are planned for completion by 2015-16.

CB&I has been awarded a contract, valued in excess of $750m, by Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Ltd. for work on the Kearl Expansion Project in Alberta, Canada. CB&I’s scope on the expansion project includes the engineering, procurement, module assembly and construction of a second bitumen extraction plant, froth tank farms, multiple storage tanks, and six froth settling units.

Severn Trent Water is considering expanding its use of peristaltic pumping following the recent introduction of the technology on three chemical dosing schemes.The peristaltic pumps, from Watson-Marlow, were deployed as part of a temporary dosing rig constructed by engineering group, Costain. Severn Trent had previously employed conventional metering pumps in this application. (More on Process Engineering)

Fulton, a manufacturer of steam, hydronic and thermal fluid heat transfer products has acquired Costerm Swiss AG, an industrial burner and engineering company based near Zurich, Switzerland. Costerm supplies large burners under the trade names ŒRTLI Induflame and Indufire burners, which are used for air heaters, asphalt processing, industrial applications and with large horizontal fire tube and water tube boilers.

Bayer MaterialScience has commissioned a new Euro5-million technical center for the development of isocyanate production processes at Chempark Dormagen. The facility is focused on hydrogenation technology for the production of precursors to diphenylmethane diisocyanate and toluene diisocyanate. All Bayer’s global research activities related to the production of aromatic isocyanates have now been pooled in the new hydrogenation technical centre.

Sulzer Pumps has acquired Hidrotecar SA, a privately owned pump company based in Burgos, Spain, with sales of Euro13m and 50 employees. The deal adds complementary products to Sulzer’s product range and reinforces its presence in the attractive water markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Sulzer supplies centrifugal pumps for the oil & gas, hydrocarbon processing, power generation and water/wastewater and pulp & paper sectors.

Petron Corp. has awarded Foster Wheeler a contract for the Petron Refinery Master Plan-2 Project in Bataan, Philippines. Foster Wheeler will execute detailed engineering and procurement services for the delayed coker unit (DCU), including the engineering and material supply of two double-fired Terrace Wall coker heaters. The DCU will have a design capacity of 37,500 barrels per stream day and is a key part of this significant refinery upgrade. This award follows an earlier award for the process design package and technology license for the DCU, which will use the company’s leading Selective Yield Delayed Coking (SYDECSM) process – a thermal conversion process used by refiners to upgrade heavy residue feed and process it into transport fuels.

INPEX Corp. and Total SA have awarded the JKC JV between JGC, KBR and Chiyoda the EPC contract for its Ichthys LNG project – an integrated natural gas field development project in Australia. Feed gas from the Ichthys Field, in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia , will be exported to the onshore LNG processing facilities in Darwin via an 889km pipeline. Participating interests in the downstream Ichthys LNG Project are INPEX group companies (76%) and Total group companies (24%).

Foster Wheeler has purchased Graf-Wulff GmbH, a German maker of circulating dry ash flue gas scrubbing technology for boilers in the power and industrial sectors. Graf-Wulff supplies proprietary multi-pollutant scrubbing technology for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulates, heavy metals, acid gases and other pollutants.

National Grid has awarded a JV between AMEC, Babcock Networks Ltd and Mott MacDonald Group a five-year extension to its existing five-year Electricity Alliance West contract to upgrade overhead power lines and underground cables across the western half of England and all of Wales.The extension, valued at around £650m, will see the JV continue to provide engineering, management and construction services to 2017. AMEC and Babcock International Plc are the major partners with 47.5% share each.

Foster Wheeler has a limited notice to proceed for the design and supply of two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) to Técnicas Reunidas SA (TRSA). The HRSGs will be installed in a combined cycle power plant that TRSA will build near Budapest, Hungary . The plant will be owned by CM European Power Int - a JV between Czech Republic utility company CEZ and Hungarian oil & gas company MOL. FW will design, supply and provide advisory services for erection and start-up of two HRSGs, which will be coupled to two Siemens combustion turbines model SGT5-4000F, with a total installed capacity of 860 MWe (gross megawatt electric). Delivery of the HRSGs is scheduled for mid-2013.

Statoil has selected Honeywell to deploy its Experion Process Knowledge System and distributed system architecture at its Valemon platform in the North Sea. The DSA will allow Honeywell to integrate Experion with Statoil’s existing Kvitebjørn platform to enable remote command of the facility. With production planned to begin in 2014, the gas extracted from the Valemon field will be sent via existing pipelines to supply European gas consumers. Honeywell’s integrated control and safety system means work can be continuously controlled and the safety of subsea and topside operations monitored without the need for personnel on site..

Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH has engaged Jacobs Engineering Group to provide EPCM services to support the “Connect” project in Rhineland, Germany, to be completed early in 2013. Jacobs’ scope includes piping tie-ins, instrumentation, steel structures, pump stations, and other infrastructure components. An onsite Jacobs/Shell team of about 50 personnel is executing the work supported by Jacobs’ office in Mumbai, India.Shell is constructing two tunnels under the Rhine River to integrate its two Rhineland refinery sites, 3.8km apart, and so increase its production of clean fuels. Jacobs is designing and installing the infrastructure inside the battery limits of each refinery site to connect each facility to the tunnels.

Dow Chemical Co. is to convert shale gas-derived propane into polymer-grade propylene at a new facility to be built at its site in Texas. The 750-kilotonnes-per-annum plant will based on C3 Oleflex technology from Honeywell UOP. The facility, which is scheduled to start up in 2015, will be the first of its kind in the US and the largest single-train propane dehydrogenation plant in North America, according to a UOP statement. Oleflex technology will feature in the facility’s propane dehydrogenation process.

Jacobs Engineering Group has been awarded a contract by IDEA Soda Ash and Calcium Chloride Co. (ISACC) to provide engineering and project management services for the construction of a $300m soda ash and calcium chloride production facility in Jubail’s second industrial city, Saudi Arabia. Jacobs’ offices in Winnersh, UK; Mumbai, India; and Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia are supporting the pre-contract award activities. Following award of the engineering, procurement and construction contract, Jacobs is also providing the project management services up to the plant start-up.

Petroplus Holdings AG is in critical talks with its lenders to secure new funding and liquidity arrangements. The Swiss group, which owns five refineries in Europe, has had a revolving credit facility suspended and restrictions placed on its certain to pledged bank accounts, pending the outcome of negotiations. The talks, it said, involve reviewing strategic options and securing other sources of liquidity.

Dow Chemical Co. has sold its Chemoxy International Ltd custom processing operation at Middlesbrough and Billingham on Teesside to a management buyout team. Chemoxy manufactures solvents for use in ’environmentally friendly’ paints and cleaning products, and provides custom manufacturing services to major petrochemical and speciality chemical companies. Dow had earmarked the company for divestment as it was no longer core to its business strategy.   

SCG-Dow Group, a JV between Dow Chemical Co. and Siam Cement Group, has finalised the start-up of its new propylene oxide (PO) facility in Thailand by successfully completing its full capacity performance test. The world-scale plant, located within the Asia Industrial Estates (AIE) site near Map Ta Phut, Thailand, has a name plate capacity of 390ktpa of PO via the innovative hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) technology.

Invensys Operations Management has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to deliver software solutions and services for Shell. Under a new corporate enterprise license, Invensys will provide a suite of its SimSci-Esscor simulation solutions to improve Shell’s global upstream, downstream and petrochemicals production. The agreement includes Invensys’ ROMeo integrated software platform for simulation, data reconciliation, optimisation and operations decision support, and its PRO/II, Pipephase and Dynsim software.

KBR has been awarded a contract by First Global Co, to revamp its North fertiliser plant in Baiji, Iraq. Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide a license for its proprietary ammonia process and related engineering services to increase the plant capacity to 120% of the original design. The original plant, which started up in 1989 was designed to produce 1000 MTPD ammonia.

Alfa Laval has won an order for compact heat exchangers from a refinery in Russia. The order, worth approximately SEK70m, is due for delivery in 2012.The units will be used in the refinery distillation process where crude oil is preheated in different steps. They will reuse heat from the process for preheating the crude oil, resulting in a very energy-efficient solution.

Tecnimont SpA has awarded KBR a contract by for the license and basic engineering design (BED) of a new ammonia plant to be built by Chemical Industries Holding Co. (Kima) in Aswan, Egypt. KBR is to provide a license for its proprietary Purifier ammonia technology and related engineering services for Kima’s new plant. The plant is being built on a fast-track basis and will support regional development plans in Aswan and Egypt’s drive to build modern fertiliser complexes.

Wood Group GTS has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by MC Systems Energy of Moscow for Surgutneftegas OJSC in Western Siberia, Russia to provide overhaul services for two Siemens SGT-200-1S (Tornado) gas turbines. It will provide all gas turbine parts, component repair and technical services to fully overhaul two 6.75MW gas turbine generators fitted with Dry Low NOx combustion systems. These machines provide local power for the Tyanskoye oil field and are fueled by well head gases. Wood Group GTS will support the Siemens gas turbine generators from its Aberdeen facility.

Parker Hannifin Corp. has signed an enterprise framework agreement (EFA) with Shell as a single source supplier for the provision of instrumentation valves, manifolds, process-to-instrument valves, fittings, tubing, protective enclosures and related products. Under the terms of Shell’s EFA - which runs for an initial period of five years - Parker’s Instrumentation Group will supply Shell and its affiliates worldwide with a broad range of process instrumentation products.

BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd has awarded Foster Wheeler an EPCM contract for its enhanced gas separation project in Scotland. The project, for which FW has already completed the pre-FEED and FEED, relates to the debottlenecking of the Forties Pipeline System crude degasification facilities at BP Exploration’s Kinneil terminal. (More on Process Engineering)

SNC-Lavalin has been awarded a contract by MacKay Operating Corp. (MOC) to provide detailed engineering and procurement services for the MacKay River Central Plant Project. The central processing plant will be designed to process 35k barrels per day of bitumen steam assisted gravity drainage production. The central plant will be located about 40km west of Fort McMurray, Alberta. MOC is a Calgary-based JV between PetroChina (60%) and Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. (40%).

BP Russia and the Skolkovo Foundation are to set up a research collaboration with Russia’s Boreskov Institute of Catalysis and Imperial College London. A three-to-five-year £9.3m energy efficiency research programme - to be co-funded by BP Russia and the Skolkovo Foundation - will focus on improving efficiency in the use and recovery of thermal energy in the oil & gas industry, particularly refining processes. Areas include heat exchange equipment and processes, catalysts, fouling mitigation, energy recovery and waste heat recycling.

Wood Group Kenny has been awarded a contract to carry out the FEED for the subsea development of Equus, Hess Exploration Australia’s first deepwater gas project in offshore Western Australia. The Equus project development consists of natural gas and condensate gas fields and is located 180km North of North West Cape and approximately 300km West of Karratha in the Northern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia, in water depths of up to 1,200m. The subsea and pipelines FEED contract award is valued at AU$8 million and will see Wood Group Kenny perform the subsea, umbilical and flowlines FEED.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has been awarded a contract from Honeywell to provide engineering services for the expansion of its Baton Rouge, La. manufacturing facility. The expansion enables the Baton Rouge facility, one of the leading refrigerants suppliers in the U.S., to produce Honeywell’s new low-global-warming-potential (GWP) blowing agent and propellant (technical name: HFO-1234ze) on a commercial scale. Production of HFO-1234ze is scheduled to begin in late 2013.

Environment Agency Wales (EAW) has commissioned Denca of Widnes, Cheshire, to replace the flood management control system at Llandudno Junction, Wales. The area is susceptible to flooding from the Afon Wydden and Gyffin rivers in addition to surface water and sewer flooding. The flood management scheme and its control system is required to channel water down from the surrounding hills and mountains and provide interim flood water storage whilst controlling the release of the water to avoid the possibility of dangerous surges and the consequent flooding of domestic and commercial property in the area.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a design and fabrication contract by Aurubis Bulgaria AD for two proprietary designed sulfuric acid coolers to be installed in its acid plant in Pirdop, Bulgaria. The scope of work involves the design and fabrication of drying and interpass anodically protected sulfuric acid coolers. The interpass cooler is being custom designed to operate in current operating mode, as well as allowing for use in a future heat recovery project. Jacobs worked with Aurubis engineering staff to develop a solution that would allow optimal performance in both distinctly different operating modes. These technical discussions also led to improvements in the process design for the water flow to the existing acid coolers.

Mustang, a Wood Group company, has been awarded the topsides detailed engineering, procurement support and equipment inspection for a truss spar floating production facility in the Lucius field development to be operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The facility will be located in the Keathley Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico, in approximately 7,100 feet of water, and will have a capacity of 80,000 BPD oil and 450MMSCFD gas.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a framework contract from Gassnova SF for its CO2 Capture Mongstad (CCM) project at the Mongstad refinery site in Norway. From its office in Leiden, The Netherlands. Jacobs is to support the installation of a large-scale CO2 capture plant for a CHP plant, which is integrated with the refinery and includes fuel gas/electricity exchange with the Troll gas field. The work involves individual call-off contracts which could include feasibility and concept studies, 3D modeling, interface coordination, detailed engineering and construction plans, HSE management and HSE engineering activities, including a site-wide noise control strategy, and cost estimates.

Shell is to build a 500-tonne per year demonstration unit to manufacture the chemical intermediate diphenyl carbonate (DPC). The unit will be located at Shell’s chemical plant in Singapore’s petrochemical hub on Jurong Island. It will manufacture sufficient volumes of DPC via a proprietary process, to supply selected customers in the polycarbonate industry for their evaluation and acceptance. (More on Process Engineeering)

Petroplus’ Coryton, UK refinery has recently experienced a problem that caused fouling at its FCC wet gas compressor. Repairs were completed 6 Dec, and the refinery was expected to return to normal operations within a few days, the Swiss group said.

Suzano Papel e Celulose is investing $3-bn to establish a major pulp production unit at Imperatriz, Maranhão state in north east Brazil - a project that has provided major contracts for Metso and Siemens. (More on Process Engineering)

Turkey’s state-owned Tüpra? refinery in Izmir, Turkey, has placed an order with Emerson for a tank gauging system that includes 85 wireless radar level gauges. The order follows testing of 21 additional devices in the same application, which requires accurate, reliable level measurements ona number of critical oil-movement tanks. (More on Process Engineering)

Haldor Topsøe has won the contract for a diesel hydrotreating unit for the Syzran refinery in Russia - one of seven refineries owned by Rosneft. The project is part of a Rosneft modernisation programme to produce clean fuels in accordance with Euro V specs to be introduced in Russia by 2015. Rosneft has previously installed a Topsøe HTCR unit for hydrogen production at its Kuibyshev refinery and several hydrotreating catalyst charges at refineries in Kuibyshev, Novokuibyshev and Syzran. The new unit will process 2,500ktpa feed into diesel with less than 10 wppm sulphur. The contract includes the basic engineering design package, reactor design, TK catalysts and reactor internals.

Russia’s largest mineral fertiliser producer EuroChem is to equip five of its ammonia production units with Honeywell Process Solutions’ UniSim operator training simulation (OTS) system. The applications are to be at its Nevinnomysskiy Azot and Novomoskovskiy Azot facilities in Russia. (More on Process Engineering)

Alfa Laval is to supply engineering and equipment to an edible oil company in Indonesia. The order worth around SEK85m and delivery is scheduled for 2012. Alfa Laval will supply engineering and also equipment for two new refining production units as well as equipment to increase the capacity of two existing units. When completed they will be amongst the largest edible oil production plant in the world.

Wood Group GTS has completed a $2.7m contract to supply hot gas path capital parts to Formosa Plastics Corp. These critical spares are designed and manufactured under Wood Group GTS’ aAdvanced parts manufacture programme and were fitted to a GE Frame 7EA gas turbine located at Point Comfort, Texas.

Holroyd Machine Tools and Components of Milnrow, Lancashire, part of the Precision Technologies Group, has sold two TG 350E rotor grinding machines to a major state-owned Chinese company producing screw air compressors and refrigeration rotors with a total order value of £2m. Commissioning of the two new machines is scheduled for January 2012.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has received a five-year contract from Shell India Markets Private Ltd to establish an integrated organization with Shell Projects & Technology for its project design office in Bangalore, India. The new organization is to deliver a full range of engineering and design services for onshore upstream (oil & gas) and downstream major capital projects, mainly in the Middle Eastern and Far Eastern regions.

Litre Meter has shipped 43 VFF positive displacement flowmeters to Singapore-based Oakwell Engineering. The meters will be used in the flow measurement of wax dispersants and pour point depressants on a chemical injection skid for the Al Jalilah field off Dubai. They measure the flow of chemicals to an accuracy of 0.5 per cent, making it possible to control their use to a very high tolerance. (More on Process Engineering)

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is to provide engineering and procurement services for a newly formed JV between Honeywell and Sinochem. Production is expected to start in late 2013. The work is being executed by Jacobs’ operations in Mt. Laurel, N.J. and Shanghai, China. The JV, to be located in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, plans to produce HFC-245fa foam blowing agent. Honeywell’s newly launched HFO lower-global-warming-potential blowing agent may also be produced by the JV.

Qatar Petroleum and Shell have agreed to develop a world-scale petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. This is to include a world-scale steam cracker, with feedstock coming from natural gas projects in Qatar; a mono-ethylene glycol plant of up to 1,500ktpa using Shell’s proprietary OMEGA technology; 300ktpa of linear alpha olefins using Shell’s proprietary SHOP process; and another olefin derivative. Qatar Petroleum will have an 80% equity interest in the project and Shell 20%. Qatar Petroleum and Shell have delivered Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) and Qatargas 4 this year, two of the world’s largest projects built in Ras Laffan.

Linde is set to build and operate a new hydrogen plant in the Jilin Chemical Industrial Park in China: investing around Euro42m in the first phase of the project. The hydrogen plant is due on stream by Q4/13, supplying several companies in the Jilin chemical complex, including Evonik Industries and Jishen. The new hydrogen plant will use steam methane reforming (SMR) to produce 25,000 normal cubic metres of hydrogen per hour. Jishen, Evonik and Huntsman are investing around Euro390m to construct a chemical hub in Jilin that will produce propylene oxide. Evonik is building a 230ktpa hydrogen peroxide plant to supply Jishen’s 300ktpa HPPO plant. Jishen will then supply the HPPO to Huntsman for its polyol plant. The chemical hub will produce the building blocks for polyurethanes.

Contracts & Projects Dec 11 / Jan 12

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