Oil & Gas Journal’s semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows a decline in construction activity compared with the previous edition of the report (OGJ, Nov. 17, 2008, p. 24).
Many companies have delayed their target completion dates for projects reported to OGJ in previous surveys. Some projects listed in the earlier report have been canceled.
OGJ subscribers can download free of charge the 2009 Worldwide Construction Update tables at www.ogjonline.com: Click on OGJ Subscriber Surveys, then Worldwide Construction. This link also includes previous editions of the update. To purchase spreadsheets of the survey data, please go to www.ogj.com/resourcecenter/orc_survey.cfm or email [email protected].
Following are project details from the new survey, which is available on line (see box).
Refining
Marathon Oil Corp. plans to delay the expansion of its 100,000 b/d refinery in southwest Detroit (OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2009). The company originally intended to finish the project in fourth-quarter 2010, but a slowdown in gasoline demand and a delay in the company’s Canadian crude production pushed the completion date to mid-2012. Construction, which began in June 2008, will not stop but will continue at a slower pace, says the company. Due to the delay and other factors, Marathon raised its cost estimate for the project to $2.2 billion from the original estimate of $1.9 billion.
Motiva Enterprises LLC has delayed the completion target for a project that will make its 285,000-b/d refinery at Port Arthur, Tex., the largest in the US (OGJ Online, Mar. 18, 2009). Motiva, a joint venture of Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Refining Inc., originally planned to complete the $7 billion expansion in late 2010. The project will be completed in first-quarter 2012.
It will add a single-train crude distillation unit with a capacity of 325,000 b/d and other units. The expanded facility will be the country’s largest refinery producer of sulfur and largest producer of petroleum coke. The main project contractor is a joint venture of Bechtel and Jacobs Engineering Group. The largest US refinery now is ExxonMobil’s 572,500-b/d facility in Baytown, Tex.
Meanwhile, Kuwait has canceled plans to build a 630,000-b/d refinery at Al Jour on the Persian Gulf coast near the Saudi Arabia border (OGJ Online, Mar. 23, 2009), according to Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah. The refinery, which would have been the country’s fourth, was expected to cost $15 billion and scheduled to start in 2013 (OGJ, Nov. 12, 2007, p. 32). Work on the grassroots refinery, which would have produced low-sulfur fuel oil for the country’s power plants, was officially halted at the Council of Ministers Mar. 23 meeting after contractors had been notified.
Vietnam opened its first refinery, a $3 billion project designed to meet a third of Vietnam’s fuel demand in 2010. The 148,000- b/d plant in Dung Quat Bay will be operated by state-owned Vietnam Oil & Gas Group (Petrovietnam). This is a continuous catalytic reforming unit under commissioning. Photo from Technip, by Patrick Zachmann/Magnum Photos.
Mozambique’s OilMoz plans to build an $8 billion oil refinery in the south of Maputo, designed to reduce the country’s dependency on imported fuel, says the company. OilMoz expects to start production by 2014. OilMoz Chief Executive Fausto Cruz said the refinery, with an estimated capacity of 350,000 b/d is expected to benefit both Mozambique and countries in the region which rely on imports of fuel. The company has identified five potential refinery sites.
Cruz said OilMoz will work in partnership with Shell Global Solutions International BV for the study and design of the project. Mozambique’s only oil refinery closed 24 years ago.
China National Petroleum Corp. began construction on a 53,000-b/d refinery in Chad. CNPC will hold a 60% stake in the refinery, and Chad’s Ministry of Petroleum will hold the remaining 40%. Construction will be completed in 2011.
Petrochemical
Kazakhstan’s JSC Trade House Kaz- MunaiGaz has selected Axens’ ParamaX Technology Suite for the first major aromatics complex to be located at the Atyrau Refinery in Kazakhstan. The new 629,000 tonne/year (tpy) grassroots plant will produce 496,000 tpy of para- xylene and 133,000 tpy of benzene. Plant start-up is scheduled for 2012-13. The front-end engineering designs are led by JSC Omskneftekhimproekt of Russia.
Dow Technology Licensing and Saudi European Petrochemical Co. (Ibn Zahr)—a Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) joint venture—started up what they say is the world’s largest single polypropylene train at Al Jubail on the Persian Gulf coast (OGJ, Nov. 17, 2008, Newsletter). Nameplate capacity is 500,000 tpy of polypropylene resins. To manufacture homopolymers and random copolymers, the facility uses the Unipol PP process.
In India, ONGC Petro addition Ltd. (OPaL) awarded Samsung Engineering in consortium with Linde an engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract for a dual-feed ethylene cracker unit and associated units worth about $1.43 billion. The plant will be the largest and the first ethylene project in India able to use naphtha and gas as feedstocks, constructed to produce 1.1 million tpy of ethylene and 340,000 tpy of propylene. Scheduled to be completed during the end of 2012, the plant will be in the Special Economic Zone Notified Area in Dahej, Gujarat.
Total Petrochemicals began operations at its upgraded styrene unit in Gonfreville-l’Orcher, near Le Havre, France, making it one of the largest in Europe (OGJ Online, Jan. 22, 2009). The company expanded the unit’s capacity at its petrochemicals complex by 210,000 tpy, bringing it to 600,000 tpy.
LNG
At the end of 2008, the first expansion of the Isle of Grain LNG import facility began commercial operations, according to owner and operator National Grid Grain LNG Ltd. The UK project received its first shipment of LNG at the end of November as part of final cool-down and commissioning. CB&I was the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor. The expansion increased Grain LNG’s annual capacity to 9.8 million tpy.
The Sakhalin-2 LNG liquefaction plant at Prigorodnoye, Russia, was completed in February (OGJ Online, Feb. 13, 2009). The plant can produce 9.6 million tpy of LNG, with 60% of it bound for Japan. Under contracts of as long as 20 years, Russian LNG will account for 7% of Japan’s total LNG imports.
CNOOC Fujian LNG Co. Ltd. awarded a contract to CB&I for storage expansion at the 2.6 million-tonne/year LNG terminal in Fujian Province, China. CB&I will design and build two additional 160,000 cu m, full-containment LNG tanks. Photo from CB&I.
The first LNG cargo arrived at the South Hook LNG receiving terminal in Milford Haven, Wales, according to ExxonMobil Corp. (OGJ Online, Mar. 23, 2009). The terminal will have the capability to deliver as much as 2 bcfd of gas into the gas grid when it reaches full operations later this year. South Hook LNG Terminal Co. Ltd. is owned by Qatar Petroleum 67.5%, ExxonMobil 24.15%, and Total SA 8.35%.
The terminal forms part of the wider Qatargas II joint venture, which uses gas from Qatar’s offshore North field. The terminal, which is being completed in two phases, includes five LNG storage tanks, a regasification plant, ship unloading systems, and a jetty to allow berthing of the world’s largest LNG vessels.
Gas processing
GS Engineering & Construction Co. completed the construction of a $2.1 billion gas processing plant in Assalouyeh, southern Iran, in mid-March. The facility has a production capacity of 19 million tpy of gas liquids, says the company. GS led a consortium that included two Iranian companies for the project, which began in 2003.
Enterprise Products Partners LP started operations at its Meeker II gas processing plant in Colorado’s Piceance basin (OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2009). The expansion doubles capacity at the Meeker complex to 1.5 bcfd with the capability to extract as much as 70,000 b/d of natural gas liquids.
Enterprise also started operations at its recently expanded Shilling and Thompsonville gas processing plants in South Texas. The Meeker complex is supported by long-term commitments from 10 of the largest producers in the Piceance basin. Current inlet volume at Meeker is 750 MMcfd, with 38,000 b/d of NGL being extracted. Gas volumes are projected to reach 1.1 bcfd by yearend, when NGL production is expected to reach 60,000 b/d.
Meanwhile, Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC let a contract to Fluor WorleyParsons Arctic Solutions for the design of the gas treatment plant for gas delivered from Alaska through its proposed 4 bcfd pipeline to the Lower 48, Alaskan, and Canadian markets (OGJ Online, Feb. 11, 2009).
Fluor WorleyParsons will do the work under a multimillion-dollar preliminary front-end engineering and design (pre-FEED) contract. It will be the world’s largest gas treatment plant with process modules weighing up to 9,000 tons. The 5 bcfd plant on the North Slope will remove carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen sulfide, and other impurities from the gas.
Apache Corp., operator of a $585 million natural gas venture in Western Australia, awarded Clough Ltd. a contract for the engineering of the onshore processing plant after resuming work on the project. The contract involves the engineering, design, and procurement of equipment for the Devil Creek gas plant. Clough had been working on the project before it was suspended in December.
The plant, southwest of Dampier, will process gas from offshore Reindeer field developed by Apache and Santos Ltd. Shipments of gas will start in the second half of 2011. The plant will have the capacity to produce about 202 MMcfd of gas, says Santos. Apache holds 55% interest in Reindeer and Devil Creek, while Santos holds the rest.
Sonatrach let a €1.3 billion contract to Saipem SPA to develop a gas processing facility at the Hassi Messaoud oil and gas complex in central Algeria, about 900 km southeast of Algiers (OGJ Newsletter, Nov. 24, 2008). Sonatrach signed a lump-sum, turnkey contract with Saipem covering engineering, procurement, and construction of three LPG production trains with a total capacity of 8 million cu m/day. The project will be completed by first-half 2012.
Other gas
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd. let a contract to Foster Wheeler for FEED and technical services for a coal gasification island in South Korea. The subcontract underpins a coal-based integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant, which will be operational at the end of 2014. Foster Wheeler will use Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s technology for the gasification plant to produce electricity from solid or liquid fuel. Doosan is the EPC contractor for the IGCC plant. The project is partially supported by the Korean government as a part of a national research, development, and demonstration program.
Oneok Partners’ 119-mile Guardian Pipeline expansion and extension went into service in February, supplying natural gas to two Wisconsin utilities. Photo from Oneok.
AGL Resources’ Golden Triangle Storage has started construction of a 12-bcf working gas capacity salt dome natural gas storage facility at Spindletop in Beaumont, Tex. (OGJ Online, Nov. 18, 2008). The storage site will be able to receive onshore, offshore, and LNG deliveries. Golden Triangle says the first storage cavern will be ready for operation in 2010 or early 2011, with the second cavern following roughly 2 years later. Capacity can be expanded to as much as 28 bcf. The company expects a third 6-bcf cavern to be added shortly after completion of the second. Five brine-disposal caverns are also being drilled on Golden Triangle’s site.
Sulfur
In the US Virgin Islands, Black & Veatch is working on sulfur projects for Hovensa. A project in St. Croix involves a 300 tonne/day tail gas treater and a revamp of a 500 tonne/day sulfur recovery unit. Completion is scheduled for 2014.
Black & Veatch is also working on sulfur projects in Argentina, China, India, and Qatar.
Pipeline
In March, China started construction of its third gas pipeline connecting the remote west to the country’s eastern cities. The link will have capacity of 20-30 billion cu m/year, said Su Shifeng, chief consultant at China National Petroleum Corp.’s pipeline unit.
Enterprise Products Partners LP and Duncan Energy Partners LP completed construction on the 174-mile Sherman Extension expansion of the Enterprise Texas Intrastate natural gas pipeline system, which extends through the Barnett shale play of North Texas. Throughput on the Sherman Extension is about 360 MMcfd and is expected to reach 950 MMcfd.
The 36-in. diameter pipeline connects a delivery point on the partnerships’ Texas Intrastate gas pipeline system near Morgan Mill, Tex., southwest of Fort Worth, with Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP’s Gulf Crossing pipeline near Sherman, Tex.
