Contracts & Projects - June/July 2012

Alfa Laval has won an SEK60m order to supply a “unique” evaporation system to an AkzoNobel chemical plant in Germany. The system - to concentrate caustic soda based on evaporation and condensation heat exchangers make it feasible to concentrate caustic soda in a four-effect evaporation system, enabling energy savings of 25%.

Yokogawa has won an order from Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd to supply a control system for the Jaypee Nigrie supercritical coal-fired power plant, being built at Nigrie, central India. The supercritical pressure coal-fired power plant will have a total output of 1320 MW (two 660 MW units), and the first unit is to start operation in April 2013. The order includes the Centum VP integrated production control system for the power plant’s boiler and turbine auxiliaries.

BP Exploration has selected Emerson as automation contractor of choice for offshore oil and gas operations in BP’s North Sea Region. Emerson will be BP’s preferred supplier of integrated control and safety systems for five offshore fields in the UK continental shelf, including the new Clair Ridge platforms and the Quad 204 floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

Aker Solutions has been awarded a frame agreement by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS. The frame agreement covers engineering, procurement, construction and installation for ExxonMobil’s operated assets on the Norwegian continental shelf. The fixed contract duration is five years from 2012 to 2017, with options for two additional five year periods. The frame agreement will be managed from Stavanger.

Wood Group GTS has secured a 10-year term maintenance agreement valued at approximately $15m with Sime Darby Power Co. in Laem Chabang, Thailand. The scope of work includes new gas turbine parts supply, component repair and field services for three GE Frame 6B units across two power stations.

Alfa Laval has received an order to supply of its Packinox heat exchangers from a refinery in South Korea. The order value is about SEK120m and delivery is scheduled for 2013. The heat exchangers will be used in catalytic processing sections in the production of mixed Xylenes used for synthetic nylons and PET bottles, among other products.

Gases and engineering company BOC is to take a 15% stake in 2Co Energy Ltd’s development of the UK’s flagship Don Valley CCS (carbon capture and storage) power project in south Yorkshire. (Read more)

BP has awarded Emerson a $23m contract to supply integrated control and safety systems for two new bridge-linked platforms for the Clair Ridge project in the North Sea to the west of the Shetland Islands, UK. The project is being developed by BP and its co-venturers ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell. (Read more)

CNIM Group is to employ Metso’s DNA automation systems at its North Hykeham greenfield waste-to-energy plants the plant in Lincolnshire, UK. The Finnish group is also to automate a plant being built by SITA in Billingham, UK. (Read more)

Thamesteel Ltd has been sold out of administration to a new company owned by the Al-Tuwairqi Group, joint administrators for the Sheerness steel producer announced 8 June. (Read more)

ELGA Process Water has supplied a two-stage membrane water purification system to E.ON’s Castleford Power Station to recover harvested rainwater for use as boiler make-up. The 56MWe combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station, with its 45-bar boiler, needs very high purity make-up water. (Read more)

Alfa Laval has won an order from a Technip Samsung Consortium to supply desalination units, heat exchangers and filters to Shell’s pioneering Prelude FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) facility. The desalination units will convert sea water into fresh water to be used for steam generation, process water and potable water. The heat exchangers will use seawater in the cooling applications within the gas liquefaction process.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has won a two-year framework contract to support to NuGen’s development of a 3,6GWe new build nuclear power plant project in West Cumbria, UK. Jacvobs will provide environmental consultancy and engineering support to NuGen’s engineering consortium – comprising Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion SAU, jointly with its UK subsidiary, and Tractebel Engineering from the GDF SUEZ Group.

Shell Canada Energy has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group a five-year contract to provide main mechanical maintenance services to its Canadian operations, including the Scotford upgrader and manufacturing facilities near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta; Corunna Refinery near Sarnia, Ontario; and Albian Jackpine and Muskeg River Mines near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Jacobs is to perform mechanical maintenance, including small capital project construction and turnaround activities.

Aker Solutions has awarded Emerson a multi-million dollar contact to deliver its Roxar subsea instrumentation to Lundin Petroleum’s Brynhild field in the North Sea. The contract covers Roxar subsea multiphase meters, subsea Sencorr pressure and temperature sensors, subsea chemical injection valves, and sand monitors.

Anglian Water has selected Atlas Copco’s low-pressure ZS blowers to supply air to the aeration diffusers at four of its wastewater treatment re-development sites. A total of 22 ZS90 rotary screw blowers will be installed at the sites in Colchester, Letchworth, Bedford and Flag Fen, near Peterborough as part of Anglian Water’s initiative to find innovative ways of reducing its energy costs.

Arla Foods, one of Europe’s largest dairy co-operatives, is to ‘merge’ with Milk Link, which claims to be the UK’s leading dairy farmer co-operative. The deal will create the largest player in the UK dairy market, which will process over three billion litres of milk per annum and have a combined turnover in excess of £2bn.

Valero Energy Corp. has signed a licencing deal allowing it to use of Invensys’ ACA.HF advanced alkylation measurement technology, which monitors and measures hydrofluoric acid levels in real time by analysing differential responses from online sensors. This can help improve the safety, reliability and environmental performance of the refinery and reduce operating costs. Valero will initially implement the patented technology at seven refineries globally.

Microchannel Fischer-Tropsch reactor technology developed by the Oxford Catalysts Group has been chosen for use in a Rosneft gas-to-liquids (GTL) demonstration plant in Russia. (Read more)

Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Ma’aden) has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. a contract to provide a ‘bankable’ feasibility study/FEED for its Umm Wu’al phosphate project in the Sirhan-Turaif region, Saudi Arabia. (Read more)

Tata Steel has reduced energy bills on the finishing process at its steel plant in Stocksbridge, south Yorkshire, which supplies industries including aerospace and oil & gas. (Read more)

A JV led by SNC-Lavalin (70%), and including GyM SA (15%) and Techint Int. Construction Corp (15%) is to provide Minera Panama SA for a contract to provide detailed EPCM services for the project infrastructure component of the Cobre Panama copper mine in Panama. The JV’s scope of services is around $355m in fees, and covers project infrastructure estimated at $3.2bn. The overall capital cost of the project is estimated at $6.2bn.

HES Tractec has supplied 20 Comer gearboxes to Molson Coors, the UK’s biggest brewer, to power the rotating floors of four germination vessels at its Maltings site, Shobnall, in Burton-upon-Trent. (Read more)

SC Manfula in Lithuania has selected HRS Heat Exchangers Ltd to supply a DTR double-tube heat exchanger for its Alytus town municipal wastewater treatment and biogas plant. Previously the Alytus WWTP used an intermediate water loop, which reduces the level of heat recovery available. The HRS unit - with a removable inner tube for better heat recovery and cleaning capability - is designed for sludge and wastewater applications and so could meet the strict requirements of the site.

Klinger UK is to recruit ten graduates over the next five years as part of its graduate training programme with the Universities of Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds. This to support export of its specialist industrial gaskets, including to new markets in Kazakhstan, Baku, Nigeria, Angola, Libya and Qatar. The Bradford company has also added new builds and refinery upgrades to its installation maintenance business.

Toyota Tsusho Corp. is paying C$602m to acquire a 32.5% interest in an Encana Corp. coalbed methane (CBM) project, which covers about 480,000 acres, mainly in Wheatland Co., Alberta - Canada’s largest CBM play, with a current gas potential of more than about 1 Tcf. The lands currently produce about 120 MMcf per day of gas from about 4,000 existing wells. Over the next seven years, about 1,500 wells are to be drilled and about 1,600 recompleted to increase output. Peak production is expected to be about 140 MMcf per day.

AUMA is to supply 1,900 electric actuators for the automation of Mochovce NPP power plant in Slovakia. The units will be commissioned as part of reconstruction of the plant’s third and fourth units. Located close to the towns of Nitra and Levice, the existing reactors are both 470 MW. The additional two units being automated will achieve 6,000Gwh a year of electricity. AUMA was put forward by the instrumentation and DCS contractor Areva-Siemens which has overseen the supply to date of 657 actuators.

Woodside has achieved LNG production and first cargo at its Pluto LNG Project in Australia, Foster Wheeler WorleyParsons (FWW) JV has announced. FWW was responsible for the EPCM of the onshore portion of the project which comprises a single LNG processing train with a forecast production capacity of 4,300ktpa of LNG.

SC Manfula in Lithuania has selected HRS Heat Exchangers Ltd to supply a DTR double-tube heat exchanger for its Alytus town municipal wastewater treatment and biogas plant. Previously the Alytus WWTP used an intermediate water loop, which reduces the level of heat recovery available. The HRS unit - with a removable inner tube for better heat recovery and cleaning capability - is designed for sludge and wastewater applications and so could meet the strict requirements of the site.

Mitsubishi HiTec Paper Europe GmbH has chosen Honeywell’s Experion MX to replace its current quality control system (QCS) to help improve quality control in machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD) variations of its paper products. This, said Honeywell, will allow production targets to be set with greater accuracy, helping to reduce production losses at its production facility in Bielefeld, Germany.

Flygt, part of Xylem, has recently supplied four 90 kW pumps to power two new Flow-Rider wave machines at XSCAPE indoor surf centre in Yorkshire. The high volume-low head propeller pumps, which are installed horizontally, project up to 50,000 gallons of water per minute. This produces a three-inch-deep sheet of water, which is propelled at a rate of 20-30 miles/hour over a curved surface designed to emulate an ocean wave.

JP Kenny Norway has signed a FEED contract with Norske Shell for the high temperature, high pressure Linnorm project in Norway. The $9m deal is part of a global enterprise frame agreement awarded to Wood Group Kenny earlier this year by Shell Global Solutions International BV. The Linnorm FEED study will be carried out at the JP Kenny Norway offices in Stavanger and Oslo and is the single largest project to be executed by JP Kenny Norway to date. The project involves the provision of a full subsea, umbilical, riser and flowline (SURF) work scope.

Eni has announced a new giant natural gas discovery offshore Mozambique, at the Coral 1 exploration prospect. The Coral discovery is estimated to contain between 7 and 10 tcf of gas in place, exclusively located in Area 4. With these new results at Coral 1, Eni estimates that the resources exclusively located in Area 4 range between 15 and 20 tcf of gas in place. The new discovery further increases the total potential of the Mamba complex discovered so far in Area 4 Offshore Rovuma, which is now estimated to hold between 47 and 52 tcf of gas in place.

Drax Power Station is a month away from completing the largest steam turbine modernisation programme in UK history. The Siemens-led, five-year project, which has cost £100m, is expected to reduce plant emissions of carbon dioxide by 1m tonnes a year. (Read more)

Eni has renamed its Polimeri Europa division Versalis, as part of a major new investment strategy for the chemicals and polymers unit. From 2012 to 2015, Eni will invest €1.6bn - 60% more than previously planned - mainly to develop Italian sites serving its elastomers business, and to facilitate entry into new business areas. (Read more)

Confidence in the UK’s upstream oil and gas industry has risen to 64 points on a 100 point scale, Oil & Gas UK’s Q1 2012 business confidence index shows. This is the highest since the survey was launched in Q1 2009. However, the leap in optimism is driven by contractors rather than operators and is tempered by concerns about shortages in skilled personnel and cost inflation in the face of current high activity levels.

Foster Wheeler has signed an Asian enterprise framework agreement with Shell Global Solutions for the provision of engineering and project management services for Shell’s downstream projects in Asia. The agreement is for a five-year period, with an option to extend for another five years.

Evonik Industries AG has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group. a contract to provide basic engineering services for a grassroots polyamide 12 production facility in Asia. Jacobs has been working with Evonik’s project team in Marl, Germany to develop the conceptual design for the new plant, which is based on Evonik’s existing plants in Germany. Under a separate framework contract signed in 2011, Jacobs is providing engineering services as the owner’s engineer on Evonik’s process industry projects worldwide.

AGE ENERJ? Yat?r?mlar? A?, one of Turkey’s major energy companies has engaged Metso to automate a greenfield combined-cycle power plant in Denizli, Turkey. The 206MW greenfield power plant fuelled by natural gas is due to start up by the end of 2012. (Read more)

KBR has won a general works contract for the construction of a 200m standard cubic feet per day sweet natural gas processing plant near Fort St. John, British Columbia. Canadian subsidiary, KBR Wabi, will execute all mechanical, structural, architectural, concrete (structural and other), electrical and instrument works for the project which will commercialise recent shale gas discoveries.

Aker Solutions has opened a carbon capture plant at the CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) - one of the world’s largest development facilities for carbon capture technologies. The centre is operated by TCM DA, a JV between Gassnova - on behalf of the Norwegian government - Statoil, Shell and Sasol. The TCM employs two different post-combustion technologies. Aker Solutions designed and delivered the amine plant, which is one of the two plants at the centre, and has a capture capacity of about 80ktpa. (Read more)

A Fluor Corp. JV with WorleyParsons, the Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas and KazGiproNefteTrans Engineering Co. has been awarded a contract by Tengizchevroil LLP for its wellhead pressure management project in Kazakhstan, which will support ongoing operations of the Tengiz field. The Fluor-led venture is to train and enhance the engineering and construction skills of the local workforce with a high priority on safety.

Kincaid Generation LLC, part of Dominion Resources, Inc, awarded the KBR a contract to provide EPC services for a dry sorbent injection (DSI) system to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions at its power station in Kincaid, Illinois. This will include sodium bicarbonate (SBC) rail unloading facilities, SBC truck unloading facilities, Nol-Tec Systems technology DSI system, and onsite SBC milling and storage. The project is due for completion in late 2013.

Severn Trent Services - Apliclor is to supply Capital Controls gas feed systems for a drinking water treatment works in Urziceni, Romania. The contract highlights the company’s growing sales activity for its disinfection solutions in the region.

KSB is to supply four 52-tonne waste water pumps for the construction of the Lee Tunnel in London. The £675-million project - the UK’s most expensive water project - is to prevent an untreated mix of stormwater and sewage from entering the Thames during periods of heavy rainfall. The pumps order was placed by MVB - a consortium of civil engineering contractors Morgan Sindall, VINCI Construction Grands Projects and Bachy Soletanche – which is working with Thames Water to build the Lee Tunnel.

Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) has commenced early technical and environmental studies to examine the feasibility of constructing a power station in Yorkshire. The proposed project – reportedly a 1500MW unit, costing $1,2bn, at a former chemical works site at Knottingley near Leeds –  would use natural gas to generate electricity using combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) technology.

Fluor Corp. has won a contract from Teck to provide EPCM services for the Highland Valley Copper Mill Optimization project in British Columbia, Canada.

Metso is to supply its IQ quality control system to Stora Enso Skoghall. The system will be installed on BM8, one of the largest board machines in the world with a production of over 400ktpa. One of the main criteria for the choice of supplier was to minimise the risk of production losses, both during the project phase and during normal operation of the board machine.

INEOS Technologies has recently licensed its Innovene PP process to China Shenhua, Coal to Liquid and Chemical, Beijing Engineering Co., for the manufacture of propylene-based polymers. The 300kta plant, located in Yulin City, Shaanxi province, will serve China’s PP market. China Shenhua is a major coal chemical producer and the first company to commercialise the MTO (methanol-to-olefins) process. This Innovene PP plant will be part of its seconnd MTO complex.

PepsiCo is hiring 110 employees in Leicester, UK, as part of a major £15.2m investment in its Walkers manufacturing campus, covering its Bursom and Leycroft Road sites. The investment, said the company, will support the introduction of a new production line at Leicester, making kettle-fried potato crisps.

Shell has awarded Siemens Industry Automation Division a single-source, global contract to supply gas chromatography (GC) units and related systems such as analysis cabinets and shelters. The five-year deal also covers associated services such as front-end engineering and after-sales service. It covers Shell companies, subsidiaries and JVs around the world. GC is used to improve product quality and increase the yield and energy efficiency of processes.

Recent changes in ownership are enabling some long-delayed capital investment projects to begin in the UK petrochemical sector according to Protel, Takeovers such as those at Milford Haven, Pembroke and Stanlow refineries - by Murco, Valero Energy and Essar Energy, respectively - appear to have brought increased stability to the sector. (Read more)

Shell is reviewing the future of its last UK manufacturing site in Stanlow, Cheshire, according to trade union Unite. The move, it said, could mark the end of the group’s manufacturing effort in the UK. (Read more)

The UK’s Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £1m in SME-led feasibility studies to stimulate innovation in the oil & gas sector and accelerate the development and deployment of new technologies. Study proposals should focus on the areas of increasing oil and gas recovery efficiencies, improving asset integrity and extending the life of offshore installations.

Eni and Rosneft have signed a strategic agreement for the joint development of licenses in the Black Sea and the Barents Sea on the Russian shelf, the exchange of technologies and personnel as well as Rosneft’s acquisition of a stake in Eni’s international projects. Eni and Rosneft will set up JVs, with Eni holding 33.33% in each, to develop the Fedynsky and Tsentralno-Barentsevsky licenses offshore of the Barents Sea, and Zapadno-Cernomorsky license in the Black sea. Eni will fund the exploration needed to confirm the commercial value of the deposits, which are estimated to hold total recoverable resources of 36bn boe.

Kiewit-Kvaerner Contractors, a 50/50 joint venture between Peter Kiewit Infrastructure and Kvaerner, has been authorised by ExxonMobil Canada Properties (EMCP) to proceed with work on the Hebron Project gravity based structure project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This follows substantial completion of Feed services and awards the next phase, which includes detailed EPC-related services. Kvaerner estimates its share of this work to be about $125-150m.

CB&I has reported first quarter net income of $59.5m on revenues of $1.2bn for the first quarter of 2012, compared with $50.5m on $954m in Q1/11. New awards totaled $1.7bn compared with $1.0bn a year ago, increasing the company’s backlog to $9.6bn. Included in these new awards were several oil sands opportunities, a FEED study for a US LNG export project, and a US petrochemical expansion project.

Total has announced first production from its Islay gas field in the northern North Sea, 440km NE of Aberdeen. Mainly located in the UK sector and partly in the Norwegian sector and lying in a water depth of 120m, the field has estimated reserves of nearly 17m boe. It has already reached its expected production of 15k boe per day. Islay’s single well is tied-back to the Alwyn North platform via existing subsea infrastructure. This project will help extend the life of Total’s Alwyn production hub.

Drax has recently entered into a contract with the Shepherd Group for biomass-related construction works at its Yorkshire power station. Drax is to invest £50 million this year in new biomass storage and handling facilities and other plant modifications to support its existing co-firing facilities. Shepherd is to assist in delivering the capability to produce up to 20% of the power station’s output from sustainable biomass. (Read more)

China National Petroleum Corp. and Shell China Exploration and Production Co. Ltd have signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for shale gas exploration, development and production in the Fushun-Yongchuan block in the Sichuan Basin – the first shale gas PSC ever signed in China. The contract area covers around 3,500 square km. Shell said it would apply its advanced technology and operational expertise in the project.

Andrew Palmer & Associates, part of the Penspen Group, is to provide detailed design services to EPC Offshore Ltd in support of Ithaca Energy’s Greater Stella Area (GSA) development. The contract follows on from Penspen’s recent work for EPC Offshore on the FEED for this development. It covers the phase 1 subsea structures and associated tie-in infrastructure, consisting of the Stella main drill centre manifold, northern drill centre manifold, export riser base, oil and gas export tee assemblies

Total and the partners of the Bongkot JV have started of production from the Greater Bongkot South (GBS) gas and condensate field in the Gulf of Thailand. The JV is operated by PTTEP (44.45%), alongside partners Total (33.33%) and BG Group (22.22%). The offshore GBS development consists of a central processing platform, a living quarter platform and 13 wellhead platforms. The processing platform has a capacity of 350m cubic feet of gas per day and 15k barrels of condensate per day.

PepsiCo has installed an integrated reuse solution from Siemens’ industry automation division at its snack food plant in Santiago, Chile. As part of a wastewater treatment plant upgrade, the plant is increasing its wastewater treatment capacity by 20% and incorporating environmental technologies. The Siemens system, which is expected to lower fresh water consumption by up to 70%, is due to start up this month. (Read more)

Anglian Water is employing a Börger pump to handle crude imported sludge at its Market Harborough STW. Supplied with a 5.5 kW motor, the Börger PL300 is fitted with long sealing line optimum rotors that increase longevity and volumetric efficiency. The rotary lobe pump replaced an old progressive cavity pump and macerator that kept allowing very stringy amounts of rags through, causing the unit to block up.

Aker Solutions is preparing for major growth in the subsea segment of the oil and gas industry. The company is investing $87m to double the capacity of its manufacturing plants in Tranby, Norway, and Port Klang, Malaysia. In addition, a new service base will also be established in Malaysia.

Emerson is to install its Ovation control system at a 660-MW power plant in Adipala, Indonesia. Due on stream in Q1/13, this is the first supercritical plant to be built by China National Technical Import and Export Corp. The technology will monitor and control the plant’s Babcock & Wilcox Beijing Co. Ltd boiler and Shanghai Electric Corp. turbine: managing some 11,000 I/O point, and the plant’s modulating-control, sequence-control, furnace-safety, feedwater turbine-control and electrical-control systems, as well as the supervisory and plant management system. Emerson will supply 19 Ovation controllers, nine workstations and its EDS enterprise visualisation technology.

CB&I has been awarded a $55m-plus contract for the design, fabrication and construction of storage tanks and associated works for Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC’s terminal located in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. The project is scheduled for completion in 2013.

A/S Norske Shell has awarded Kvaerner an NOK6-billion, EPCM contract for modifications and projects at the Ormen Lange/Nyhamna onshore facilities on the west coast of Norway. The contract is a framework agreement with duration of six years, and options for additional two plus two years. The Nyhamna gas plant processes natural gas from the Ormen Lange gas field located in the Møre Basin in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea. (Read more)

Atlas Copco has received one of its largest orders ever in South Africa, to deliver Pit Viper 351 blasthole drilling rigs for a value of around SEK250m to Kumba Iron Ore, a unit of Anglo American (AA). They will go to the Sishen Mine in Kathu – one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, which already has ten 351s. Atlas Copco is one of AA’s two preferred suppliers of surface drills with a drill diameter of over 165mm.

Alfa Laval is to supply plate heat exchangers to a fertiliser producer in Morocco. The SEK75m order is due to be finalised in 2014. The heat exchangers will be used in a cooling process in the production of phosphate-based fertiliser.

Emerson has installed its Ovation control system at two new 1,000-MW, ultra-supercritical, coal-fired power-generating units at the Huaneng Qinbei power plant in China’s Henan Province. The addition of Units 5 and 6 is part of an expansion project at the existing 4X600-MW facility. When the new units become operational during the first half of 2012, the power plant will produce a total of 4,400MW.

Finesse Solutions, a maker of solutions for managing complex bioprocess applications, is standardising its third-party data comms on MatrikonOPC technology. Using OPC, Finesse can integrate both large and small numbers of Sartorius Biostat DCU controllers into customers’ DeltaV control network, said Matrikon. This, it added, also allows users to develop more sophisticated control strategies using legacy equipment in a master-slave configuration with TruBio-SCADA.

The Shah Deniz consortium is to commence FEED work on the estimated $25bn Shah Deniz Stage 2 project in Azerbaijan, BP has announced. The project will bring 16bn cubic metres of gas per year from the Caspian Sea to markets in Turkey and Europe, with first exports due around the end of 2017. The FEED work will include refining engineering studies, drilling further wells and initiating construction contracts. The consortium will also finalise its selection of export routes across Turkey and into Europe.

Tata Steel is drawing up plans to invest £800m in its plants in Wales over the next five years, according to a BBC report. The proposed spend is said to be further to the £185m already earmarked for refurbishing the no. 4 blast furnace at Port Talbot.

Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) has restarted the blast furnace at Redcar on Teesside, which it acquired from Tata Steel in a £290m deal. The former owner mothballed the Teesside Cast Products facility just over two years ago following the loss of major long-term orders. SSI has invested around £700 million in the 3,600ktpa faciilty. (Read more)

BP has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group a contract to provide engineering and procurement services, as well as engineering assistance during construction, commissioning and startup for a major shutdown of the fluid catalytic cracker unit (FCCU) at the 400,000 bpd Rotterdam refinery – Europe’s second largest refinery. Jacobs is currently executing a multi-year programme of micro, mid-sized and large projects at the refinery. For the FCCU shutdown, Jacobs is to replace the end-of-life power recovery train and regenerator ballistic separator and cyclones.

Jacobs Engineering Group is to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services for the upgrade of the Olefins 4 plant at SABIC’s petrochemical production complex in Geleen, The Netherlands. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2013 as part of the scheduled plant turnaround. The project involve modifications to the existing Olefins 4 naphtha cracker to increase its energy efficiency and ethylene production capacity.

Alfa Laval is to supply fresh water generators to an oil platform in the North Sea. The SEK50m order is due for delivery this year. The units will convert seawater into potable water, for consumption onboard an oil platform in the Norwegian part of the North Sea. The fresh water produced will also be used as process water onboard the platform. The oil platform is one of many operating the Greater Ekofisk area and this particular platform is being upgraded to prolong the “lifetime” with another 40 years.

Aker Solutions has entered a long-term agreement with Statoil to provide a full range of heavy well intervention and light drilling services on the Norwegian continental shelf. The $1.9bn contract period is for eight years, with options for three further two-year periods. Work will be performed from a new build category B well intervention rig, owned by Aker Oilfield Services.

INEOS has engaged KBR to design and construct an ethylene furnace for one of its its US operations. Upon commissioning the unit is expected to provide the highest achievable ethylene yields in the industry. The furnace design will add 465 million pounds per year of furnace production capacity to the INEOS Chocolate Bayou works olefins complex in Alvin, Texas. (More details

Aker Solutions has won a contract from Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd to supply a complete drilling equipment package for a new jack-up drilling rig, being built by the Chinese yard. The contract value is undisclosed. The new rig is of the 2000E jack-up design, and the contract includes options for a further three jack-up rigs of the same design. Aker Solutions will provide drilling equipment from its production units in Kristiansand and Asker in Norway as well as Houston, US and Erkelenz in Germany.

BASF has chosen Fluor Corp. as its engineering partner for chemicals capital projects across North America. The umbrella services agreement covers conceptual and FEED projects, detailed engineering, procurement, project management and construction management services. Fluor, which is already by BASF’s engineering partner in Asia and Europe, has multiple projects active for BASF including the FEED phase for its TDI project in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Smurfit Kappa has saved nearly £70,000 by using ABB motion control products in a refurbishment project on a cardboard sheet stacking machine at its facility in Mold, North Wales. The stacker is designed to allow the continuous stacking and discharging of cardboard sheets. It consists of two hydraulic lift tables, each fed via five conveyor sections. (More details)

The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has awarded Virtalis a £2.2m contract to provide multiple virtual reality (VR) facilities for its Daresbury and Rutherford Appleton Laboratories. The VR systems will include a quad channel, blended ActiveWall, two dual channel ActiveWalls, and an eight-channel ActiveWall featuring a 10.25m curved screen with both blending and warping. All the systems will feature tracking to give users a greater sense of immersion, as well as powerful 3D interaction capabilities.

DSME and STX, two of the world’s largest shipbuilders, have chosen to install Honeywell automation systems in five vessels commissioned by ship owners in Norway, Russia and the US for transporting LNG. The technology will manage the machinery and cargo areas of the vessels, including the cargo emergency shutdown system. The projects are valued at more than $8m.