Technip of France in mid-2007 won the combined front-end
engineering and design (FEED) and project management consultancy (PMC)
package on the grassroots al-Shaheen refinery. It is the first major
package awarded on the project, with Technip beating off competition
from Foster Wheeler. The FEED is expected to take 12 months and
construction a further three years.
The refinery will have capacity of 250,000 b/d and will process
crude from the offshore al-Shaheen oilfield (see
gmt10QatrFieldsSep3-07). It will produce distillates, bitumen and green
coke, as well as other fuels. The project will involve installation of
naphtha hydrotreaters and splitters, twin catalytic reformers,
isomerisation units, distillate hydrotreaters, vacuum distillation
units, hydrocrackers and fluid catalytic crackers (FCCs).
The Mesaieed Complex: Mesaieed is an industrial zone where
Qatar's oil refining and petrochemicals plants are located. The
refining complex consists of two plants: Mesaieed-1 was built in the
1960s and had a capacity of 12,000 b/d, which was later upgraded to
13,000 b/d. Mesaieed-2 came on stream in 1983 with a 50,000 b/d capacity
which was improved and expanded in the subsequent years. With the two
plants operated as a single unit including a 5,500 b/d isomerisation
facility, the complex was expanded to 137,000 b/d in early 2002 by Lurgi
of Germany and GS Engineering & Construction of South Korea. The
FEED was done by Parsons Process Group of the US, through its UK office.
Mitsui & Co. of Japan is the main offtaker of the surplus products
as it has participated in the financing of the expansion (see background
in Vol. 57, DT No. 10, and Vol. 61, DT No. 10).
The complex includes two plants processing stabilised but sour
condensates which come from the North Field gas. One of these plants is
a conversion of existing facilities. The other is a wholly new unit.
Both produce middle distillates, for which local demand is expected to
rise rapidly. Both plants have been on stream since late 2001.
A new 28,000 b/d FCC and a hydrotreater have cut fuel oil supply
from 19,000 b/d to 3,000 b/d and raised the output of gasoline from
13,000 b/d to 50,000 b/d. The expansion has enabled the complex to
produce 21,000 b/d of naphtha, raise the LPG output from 2,500 b/d to
7,500 b/d, raise jet fuel output from 9,000 to 26,000 b/d and gasoil
production from 14,000 b/d to 25,000 b/d. The gasoil is with less than
0.2% sulphur.
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