PKN Orlen lets contract for Plock petrochemicals expansion

Polski Koncern Naftowy SA (PKN Orlen) has let a contract to Fluor Corp. to provide technical consultancy and project management contractor (PMC+) services for a project to expand olefins production at its 327,300-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Plock, Poland.

As part of the technical consultancy and PMC contract, Fluor will deliver end-to-end project management across all functional areas—from managing its timescales, costs, contractors and risks, through ensuring work safety, technical support, and supervision of technical design standards, to managing procurement and actual execution, PKN Orlen said.

The project will engage a fully integrated team made up of PKN Orlen employees and a PMC+ consultant, according to the operator.

“We have taken another major step towards the key milestone in our plans to develop the petrochemical business, which is the olefin plant extension. Petrochemicals have enormous potential we are determined to make the most of. Our capital projects to develop the petrochemical area will solidify our position on the European market while providing tangible benefits to the Polish economy, turning it from an importer into a net exporter of petrochemicals,” said Daniel Obajtek, president of PKN Orlen’s management board.

While it disclosed no further details regarding the contract, PKN Orlen said the value of the petrochemicals and base plastics market is forecast to double by 2030, with demand for petrochemicals set to rise, fueled by the world’s expanding population, economic growth, and shifts in demand for industrial raw materials.

PKN Orlen’s Petrochemicals Development Programme (PDP) positions the company to take full advantage of its potential in petrochemicals, the operator said.

The company said it expects investments under the PDP to add some 30% to PKN Orlen’s existing capacity, while ensuring a marked improvement in Poland’s overall trade balance in petrochemicals.

Launched in 2018 and requiring an estimated investment of about 8.3 billion zloty, the PDP will be implemented through yearend 2023.

Alongside launching a new research and development center in 2020 to generate a range of proprietary technologies, PKN Orlen also said ongoing PDP projects to expand the phenol capacity and construct an aromatic derivatives plant are also at an advanced stage.

This latest contract for the Plock petrochemicals expansion follows PKN Orlen’s earlier award to Honeywell UOP LLC to provide process technology designed to increase production of ethylene and aromatics, as well as improve flexibility of gasoline production, at the Plock integrated complex (OGJ Online, Sept. 13, 2019).

As part of the project, which is currently in the basic engineering stage, Honeywell UOP is licensing its proprietary MaxEne process, which separates full-range naphtha into a stream of normal paraffins ideal for steam crackers because they produce high yields of light olefins, and a second stream of isoparaffins, naphthenes, and aromatics ideal for catalytic reforming units because they produce high yields of aromatics.

Further details regarding the specific capacities associated with the ethylene and aromatics expansions have yet to be disclosed.