French oil and gas major Total on Tuesday signed a $5 billion deal with Saudi Aramco to build a giant petrochemical complex at their 440,000 barrels-per-day Jubail Satorp refinery.
Saudi Aramco holds a 62.5 per cent stake in the refinery, while Total holds the other 37.5 per cent. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on the sidelines of a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris.
"The project will represent an investment of around $5 billion. The two partners are planning to start the front-end engineering and design in the third quarter of 2018," Total said in a statement.
Total added that 8,000 jobs would be created by the deal.
The complex will comprise a mixed-feed steam cracker with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units, the statement said.
The cracker will feed other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants representing an overall amount of $4 billion investment by third party investors, it said, taking the total investment to $9 billion.
"This project illustrates our strategy of maximizing the integration of our large refining and petrochemical platforms and of expanding our petrochemical operations from low-cost feedstock, to take advantage of the fast growing Asian polymer market," said Total's chief executive Patrick Pouyanne.
Wood has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for Statoil’s Mongstad refinery near Bergen, Norway.
As per the contract, which has been awarded under an existing framework agreement, Wood will be responsible for the design, engineering and analysis for modifications to reduce sulphur content in gasoline produced at the refinery.
Wood Europe, Africa, Asia & Australia Asset Solutions business CEO Dave Stewart said: “This new contract also supports Wood’s strategic focus on expanding our footprint in the onshore market in Norway and across Europe, providing engineering and technology for the refining process.”
Additionally, Wood’s in-country engineering teams, by leveraging the company’s experience in the onshore process market, will be responsible for a design to upgrade the refinery’s naphtha hydrotreating and storage systems to meet new fuel specifications on the sulphur content of gasoline.
The Statoil’s Mongstad production facility involves an oil refinery, an NGL processing plant (Vestprosess), a crude oil terminal, a cogeneration plant and the technology centre for CO2 capture from flue gases.With a production capacity of almost 12 million tons of crude oil per year, the refinery is one of the two largest refineries in Norway, according to Statoil's website.
The Mongstad refinery’s half of the production output is exported as it far exceeds total operating consumption in Norway. It also produces petroleum coke, which is used for anodes in the aluminum industry.
The first part of the refinery at Mongstad in Nord-Hordaland started operations in 1975. In 2015, Statoil signed a six-year main contractor framework agreement worth approximately $400m with Wood to deliver maintenance and modification services to its installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
With operations in more than 60 countries and employing around 55,000 people, Wood is involved in the delivery of project, engineering and technical services to energy and industrial markets.
BP is set to begin the second phase of development at its sprawling Khazzan gas field in Oman to produce a total of 1.5bn cubic feet per day (cfpd) of gas.The Ghazeer project is set to come onstream in 2021 following the start-up of phase one of the Khazzan project in September 2017.The phase one development is made up of about 200 wells and recently reached its design capacity of 1bn cfpd of gas. Ghazeer will add a further 0.5bn cubic feet to daily gas volumes as BP drills another 100 wells.
The Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production holds a 40 per cent interest in the $16bn (£11.3bn) project, which was BP's biggest unconventional gas project outside the US last year.
BP used the fracking know-how it picked up extracting shale gas in the US to unlock the Khazzan field's tight gas reserves, which require both vertical and horizontal wells to be drilled.
Yousuf Al Ojaili, the president of BP Oman, said: “Following the successful startup of Khazzan, we are pleased to announce the sanction of Ghazeer, BP’s first project FID [final investment decision] of 2018.
"Through the transfer of industry-leading skills and technology from BP’s global portfolio, we look forward to futher developing this gas field that is expected to support Oman’s energy needs for many decades to come," Al Ojaili said.
Both phases of the project are expected to deliver total production of 10.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and around 350m barrels of condensate through to 2043, when the agreement with the government of the Sultanate of Oman ends.
The scope of work includes the engineering, construction, transportation, installation and pre-commissioning of 20 kilometres of 24-inch pipeline that will transport hydrocarbons from the Idoho platform to an onshore terminal; 2 kilometres of 24-inch pipeline between the Edop and Idoho platforms; and the necessary topside modifications and tie-ins.
Nigerstar 7, a joint venture between Subsea 7 and Jagal Group, will begin engineering and procurement work immediately, while offshore work using the Seven Antares pipelay vessel will begin in Q3 2018. It is expected to be completed in Q1 2019.
BP has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to TechnipFMC for the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the Tortue/Ahmeyim gas project on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal.
The FEED contract can be transitioned into an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the FPSO at a later stage, as per the terms of the agreement signed by the companies.
Under its contract, TechnipFMC has to define the technology and equipment scope of the FPSO. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
TechnipFMC onshore/offshore business president Nello Uccelletti said: “We are very honored to be awarded this contract in West Africa which further demonstrates our leading position in offshore gas monetization.
“We look forward to collaborating with BP to unlock the full potential of this important project.”
Initially, the subsea infrastructure of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will connect the first four wells via production pipelines that will lead to the FPSO. From the vessel, the liquids are separated and the export gas is sent out through a pipeline to the floating liquid natural gas (FLNG) hub terminal where it will be liquefied.
Contained in the C-8 block off the shore of Mauritania and the Saint-Louis Profond block offshore Senegal, the Tortue/Ahmeyim gas field is estimated to hold 15 trillion cubic feet of gas.BP, which has a stake of around 60% is the operator of the gas field and is partnered by Kosmos Energy, Petrosen and SMHPM.
Last month, BP selected McDermott International and Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) for undertaking front-end engineering design (FEED) studies for the offshore LNG project.The two companies were also given an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract, valued around $500-750m.
Under this contract, McDermott will work on establishing the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) scope for the gas project during its initial engineering phase. BHGE, on the other hand, will work on the subsea production system (SPS) scope.