Ineos plots energy plant to support Grangemouth refinery
Ineos AG, Rolle, Switzerland, is investing £350 million to build an energy-efficient electric power plant at its majority owned Petroineos Refining Ltd.’s 180,700-b/d Grangemouth integrated refinery complex on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, which as the country’s only refinery, supplies more than 80% of motor fuels to the Scottish market.
The energy plant—which will replace an existing power station that has provided steam and power to the Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plants for more than 40 years—will have the capacity to produce high-pressure steam to be used in the industrial processes undertaken at the complex, as well as generate electricity to support the site’s self-sufficiency and export activities as the site expands, Ineos and contractor Fluor Corp. said in separate releases.
Alongside ensuring a continuous availability of steam and power to the Petroineos refinery and Ineos Olefins & Polymers UK’s Grangemouth petrochemical plants, Ineos said the energy plant also will support its Ineos FPS’s Forties Pipeline System (OGJ Online, Jan. 15, 2018).
Already under way and progressing well, Fluor’s scope of work on the project includes design, procurement, construction, and commissioning support for three boilers to create superheated, high-pressure steam and a pipe bridge that will be built to provide a connection to the wider site, the service provider said.
Fluor also confirmed it previously undertook the front-end engineering design for the energy plant.
The power station forms part of the operator’s broader £1-billion investment in the UK to ensure ongoing development of the Grangemouth site as well as competitiveness of its British assets for another generation, Ineos said.
A timeframe for commissioning of the new energy plant was not revealed.
Other plans at Grangemouth
Announcement of the new power station follows Ineos Olefins & Polymers contract award to Linde AG subsidiary Selas-Linde GMBH, Pullach, Germany, to build a tenth furnace that will improve efficiency and increase production capacity of the existing Kinneil Gas cracker at the ethylene plant of the integrated Grangemouth refining and petrochemical complex (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2018).
Scheduled for startup by yearend 2020, the £60-million Grangemouth expansion will ensure the business can continue meeting growing demand for its products from the site, which in 2016, began receiving plentiful supplies of competitive US shale gas ethane under a long-term agreement.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
