Imperial lets major contract for Strathcona renewable diesel complex

ExxonMobil Corp.’s majority owned affiliate Imperial Oil Ltd. let a contract to Fluor Corp. to provide a suite of engineering services for the operator’s proposed grassroots renewable diesel production complex to be built at the 196,000-b/d Strathcona refinery near Edmonton, Alta., in western Canada.

As part of the Oct. 24 contract, Fluor will use a modular-based execution approach to deliver front-end engineering and detailed design (FEED), engineering, and procurement (EP) services for the project, including design and integration of the new renewable diesel unit into the refinery, the service provider said.

Fluor’s scope of work also covers integration of utility tie-ins, electrical and control systems, and associated commodity storage, loading, and unloading structures.

Without revealing a value of the FEED-EP contract, Fluor did confirm the order has been booked as part of its third-quarter 2022 earnings.

This latest contract for the renewable diesel project follows Imperial’s previous award to Air Products Inc. for long-term supply of low-carbon blue hydrogen—or hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology—to support operations at the complex (OGJ Online, Sept. 6, 2022).

The proposed renewable diesel project will combine blue hydrogen with locally sourced renewable feedstocks and a proprietary catalyst to produce more than 1 billion l./year (roughly 20,000 b/d) of low-carbon, renewable diesel to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Canada’s transportation sector by about 3 million tonnes/year (tpy), or the equivalent of removing more than 650,000 passenger vehicles/year from the road, Imperial said.

With Imperial scheduled to take final investment decision (FID) on the project by yearend, the proposed complex—if approved—could begin production in 2024.

The planned renewable diesel complex at Strathcona forms part of Imperial’s commitment to supporting Canada’s transition to lower-emission fuels and the country’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.