Development of the Greek-Bulgarian IGB gas grid interconnector is expected to commence in mid-2018 as documentation concerning two project tenders, one for construction, the other for pipeline procurement, has been finalized, according to sources.
Both tenders are expected to be announced in January, which would enable the project to begin midway through next year, as ICGB, the project’s consortium, currently plans.
A number of key institutions, including the European Investment Bank (EIB), have expressed an interest in the project’s financing. Participation by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) has not been ruled out.
The IGB is expected to be completed by 2020 along with TAP, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, a project to transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe, through a route crossing northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, to southern Italy.
State-controlled Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) holds a 50 percent stake in the ICGB consortium, while DEPA, Greece’s public gas corporation, and Italy’s Edison control 25 percent stakes.
The IGB interconnector, a project to measure 180 kilomteres in length and offer a 4.3 bcm capacity with upgrade options, is budgeted at approximately 220 million euros.
Its development promises to offer Azerbaijani natural gas an alternative route into southeast European markets. Procedures are already in motion for an extension to Serbia. The project will also enable LNG supply to regional countries currently subject to limited gas supply and facing major energy security issues.
French oil and gas company Total said on Thursday that production had resumed gradually at its 338,000 barrels-per-day refinery and petrochemical platform in Antwerp, Belgium after a $1 billion (£0.74 billion) upgrade.
The upgrade, which includes a new refining complex to convert more heavy fuel oil into low-sulphur light products, would improve the competitive edge of the site in the heart of Europe’s main petroleum products markets, it said.
A new de-asphalting unit and a hydrocracker would increase output of clean and high-value-added products, Total said, adding the new complex would reduce the high-sulphur heavy fuel oil yield ahead of new marine fuel rules taking effect in 2020.
The capacity of Antwerp’s steam cracker, which uses petroleum or gas derivatives to produce ethylene and propylene for the plastics industry, was expanded to use more feedstock.
The steam cracker has the capacity to process 1.1 million tonnes.
A new unit was built to convert rich gases produced by the refinery into cracker feedstock, while one of the two steam crackers have been adapted to import and process 200,000 tonnes of ethane per year from Norway, Total said.
“Antwerp’s steam crackers will now be able to process up to 60 percent advantaged feedstock derived from gas, which are cheaper than naphtha, derived from oil,” said Bernard Pinatel, head of Total’s refining and chemicals branch.
Rival ExxonMobil said a $1 billion upgrade of its Antwerp refinery would be completed by mid-2018.
Total said Thursday’s inauguration completed an upgrade programme launched in 2013 to make its Antwerp complex one of the largest integrated refining and petrochemicals platforms in Europe.
The Director of The State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources, Yagshygeldy Kakayev, the chairman of State Concern Turkmenneft, Tachdurdy Begdjanov, and Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, today signed an addendum to the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with respect to the onshore Nebit Dag Area located in West Turkmenistan.
The agreement was signed in the presence of the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.The addendum extends the duration of the PSA to February 2032 and a 10% stake out of the contractor share is transferred by Eni, operator of the block, to Turkmenneft. Eni will keep the remaining 90% interest stake in the PSA. This agreement will enable further E&P investments in Burun and other satellite fields of the Nebit Dag block.
In a separate agreement, Eni and the Turkmen State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources signed a Memorandum to explore the possibility of extending Eni’s activities to Turkmenistan’s offshore sector of the Caspian Sea.
These strategic agreements strengthen Eni’s presence in Turkmenistan, a country with a high exploration upside, where it began activities in 2008, and consolidates Eni’s cooperation with the national authorities and the State company Turkmenneft.
PJSC LUKOIL has made a final investment decision on the delayed coker complex at Nizhny Novgorod refinery. The complex includes the construction of the delayed coker unit itself, the diesel hydrotreatment unit, the gas fractionation unit, the sulfur and hydrogen production units and other infrastructure. The designed capacity of the complex is 2.1 million tpy.
Construction of the complex and related operations optimisation will improve the refinery's light product yield by more than 10% while reducing the fuel oil production by 2.7 million tpy. The planned launch of the complex in 2021 will lead to the new technology intensive workplaces in the region.
PJSC LUKOIL has already developed the project documentation and signed contracts with CB&I and Kinetics Technology for the development of technical documentation and the delivery of the main long lead items. "While working on this project, we are extensively relying on our successful track record of the construction and use of the similar unit at our refinery in Perm.
“Thanks to that, the preparation of the project documentation and the receipt of necessary state approvals took us less than a year. The accumulated expertise also allows us to optimise the time and the costs of the facilities' construction. The partnership with CB&I and Kinetics Technology gives us an opportunity to implement the project's technical solutions in a time-efficient and a high-quality way. The Russian companies with the necessary expertise will be involved in the construction," said Vladimir Nekrasov, First Vice-President of PJSC LUKOIL.
China Energy Group and Bosnian construction material supplier Lager have signed a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a mine and thermal power plant complex, RiTE Kamengrad, in Bosnia's Sanski Most valued at over 1.0 billion marka ($607.8 million/511.3 million euro), Bosnia's foreign investment promotion agency, FIPA, said.
The loan agreement was signed on the sidelines of a meeting of the heads of government of China and 16 Central and East European countries, or the 16+1 Summit, held over the weekend in the Hungarian capital Budapest, FIPA said in a statement on Monday.
The agency said last month that TPP Kamengrad will have two units with a planned capacity of 215 MW each.
Coal reserves at Kamengrad mine, a town within the Sanski Most county, are estimated at 420 million tonnes.
Sanski Most is located in the northwestern part of the Federation, one of Bosnia's twp autonomous entities. The other entity is the Serb Republic.
The European Commission said on Tuesday it is providing a total of 252 million euro ($301 million) to help Romania improve its road and water infrastructure.
Some 76 million euro from the European Regional Development Fund will be invested in the works to be carried out on national road E79, which crosses the country, the European Commission said in a press release.
The E79 road connects Romania with Bulgaria, Greece and Hungary. The works will be carried out at sections of the road linking the cities of Deva, in the historical region of Transylvania in central Romania, and Oradea, at the border with Hungary.
"The road passes through the counties of Hunedoara, Arad and Bihor, before connecting with Bors town and will improve the access to the municipalities of Deva and Oradea, which will generate greater economic development and will stimulate employment and regional development in these counties," Corina Cretu, European Commissioner for regional policy, said.
Some 176 million euro from the Cohesion Fund will be invested in water management and distribution infrastructure in many urban areas in the Vrancea county, in eastern Romania. The European-funded project will allow 66,460 inhabitants in the region to have access to quality drinking water, while some 57,440 inhabitants will benefit from a modern wastewater collection and treatment system.
"Access to quality drinking water should not be a luxury, yet this was the situation for many Romanian residents before Cohesion Policy intervened," Cretu said.
At the beginning of November, the EU provided Romania with 17 million euro to improve access to drinking water in the Constanta, Ialomita, Gorj, Ilfov and Suceava counties.
In September, the Commission provided 284 million euro to Romania to finance projects for modernisation of water infrastructure in 12 counties.
Iraq plans to build a new pipeline that will ship oil from Kirkuk’s oilfields to the Ceyhan port in Turkey, the oil ministry said on Sunday.
The new pipeline will replace an old and severely damaged section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. It will start from the nearby city of Baiji city and span until the Fish-Khabur border area with Turkey, the ministry said in a statement.
Iraq stopped shipping oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in 2014 after the region was overrun by Islamic State militants and subsequently recaptured by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces over the past two years.
Oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi has asked the ministry to prepare to invite companies interested in building the new pipeline project, which will be implemented under an investment model build-operate-transfer, said the statement.
Exports from oilfields in Kirkuk have been on hold since Iraqi government forces took control of them from the Kurds last month in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence which was widely opposed by Turkey, Iran and Western powers.
Iraqi oil officials accuse Kurdish authorities of not responding to requests made by the oil ministry to use the Kurdish pipeline to resume exports from Kirkuk.
The Kurdish region operates a pipeline that connects to the twin Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at Khabur on the border with Turkey.
KBR announced it has been awarded the Concept and FEED (front-end engineering design) contract by Statoil for their ground-breaking Northern Lights Project, to develop an onshore carbon dioxide (CO2) – a known greenhouse gas – storage terminal in Norway.
The terminal is a key component of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration project being undertaken by Gassnova, where Statoil, in partnership with Shell and Total are responsible for transport and storage. The work will be performed by KBR in conjunction with its Granherne subsidiary. In addition to the CO2 storage terminal, the engineering scope will address the import jetty topsides, the CO2 re-injection lines and associated utilities.
The first phase of this project will provide storage for up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year. CO2 captured from onshore industrial plants in Eastern Norway, will be transported by ship to the onshore terminal. The project will allow for further expansion to receive additional CO2 volumes, with the aim of stimulating new commercial carbon capture projects in Norway, Europe and other countries around the world.
"We are excited to be part of this significant and ground-breaking project and to continue our long-standing and valued relationship with Statoil," said Jay Ibrahim, President, EMEA. "KBR is very supportive of continuing the spirit of innovation in CCS."
Construction of the full-scale project including the onshore terminal is subject to the Norwegian parliament making a positive investment decision, scheduled for 2019. Revenue associated with this project will be booked into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's E&C Business Segment in Q4 of 2017.
Croatian oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA-R-A] said on Monday it has launched a 2.5 billion kuna ($394.6 million/330.6 million euro) tender for construction of a heavy residue conversion unit at its Rijeka-based oil refinery.
INA has invited international companies to bid for the construction of a delayed coker unit, coke storage and a facility for product processing, as well as related pipelines and services, it said in a statement.
The tender is part of INA's continued preparations for investment in a heavy residue conversion unit at the Rijeka refinery, a project worth a total of 3 billion kuna.
"The DCU project in Rijeka is the future of INA’s refining business and the concentration of refining activities into that location will contribute to the project’s profitability, thus making it an important part of assuring long-term sustainability of the refining business," INA noted.
The contractor will be selected mid-2018. Construction works are expected to last three years.
Yokogawa Electric Corporation said it will deliver a control system for a flue gas desulfurization system that is to be installed at Bosnia's Ugljevik coal-fired power plant.
Thе flue gas desulfurization system, which will be the first of its type to be installed in the Western Balkans, is scheduled to start operation in October 2019, Yokogawa said in a statement on Wednesday.
The price of the deal was not disclosed.
The Ugljevik power plant, in northeastern Bosnia, has a capacity of 300 MW, which is sufficient to supply a quarter of the total electrical generation capacity of the Serb Republic, one of Bosnia's constituent entities.
The flue gas desulfurization system is expected to improve the environment and help Bosnia meet environmental standards, which is a requirement for joining the EU, Yokogawa explained.
The project will be managed by Yokogawa GmbH, the company's subsidiary in Austria, and Central East Europe and Ogranak Yokogawa Europe Branches Beograd, the Serbian office of Yokogawa Europe. Delivery of the CENTUM VP system will take place by August 2018.
In Central and Eastern Europe, Yokogawa products are being used in flue gas desulfurization systems at large coal-fired power plants in Bulgaria and Romania.
Funded in 1915, Yokogawa's global network of 113 companies spans 60 countries.
The Serb Republic is one of two entities that from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other is the Federation.