Aker Kvaerner lands contract for copper project in Peru
Meanwhile, the EPC firm is planning to change its name to Aker Solutions ASA
Peru Copper Syndicate has awarded Aker Kvaerner Metals, Inc. (Tuscon, Ariz.; www.akerkvaerner.com) a $11.5-million contract for the provision of technical services for basic engineering and additional testwork for the Toromocho Project — a large copper-molybdenum open-pit mine, located east of Lima, Peru. The plant capacity is 117,000 ton/d. The duration of this work is anticipated to be 8 to 10 months.
The proposed Aker Kvaerner team will be comprised of personnel from Tucson, Arizona, Toronto, Canada and Santiago, Chile offices. These teams worked on the Definitive Feasibility Study, which has been recently completed. The engineering, procurement and construction management services are expected to run for a duration of 48 months.
Meanwhile, Aker Kværner ASA’s board of directors has resolved to propose to the annual general meeting that the company change its name to Aker Solutions ASA. The change has received verbal support by all deciding parties.
BASF producing natural gas in Siberia with Gazprom
Production launch at the Yuzhno Russkoye gas field
BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and OAO Gazprom (Moscow, Russia) today officially launched production operations at the Russian natural gas field Yuzhno Russkoye. This is the first time that a German company has been directly involved in the production of natural gas in West Siberia.
The Yuzhno Russkoye field in West Siberia has recoverable reserves of more than 600-billion m3 of natural gas, which makes it about three times the size of Achimgaz, another joint venture project between Gazprom and Wintershall — a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF — to produce hydrocarbons in Siberia. Gazprom currently supplies Germany with about 40-billion m3/yr of natural gas. Based on this figure, the Yuzhno Russkoye gas field alone could therefore supply all Russian gas exports to Germany for another 15 years.
The gas from the Yuzhno Russkoye field will, among other routes, be delivered to Europe via the planned Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline that will provide a direct link between the Siberian gas reserves and Germany. Plateau production of 25-billion m3/yr of natural gas is expected to be reached as soon as 2009. The Yuzhno Russkoye gas field, which lies about one kilometer below the surface, was discovered in 1969.
BASF’s shareholding in the gas production in Siberia is part of an assets swap, which has now been completed. Wintershall received 25% minus one share of the company OAO Severneftegazprom (SNGP), which holds the license for the Yuzhno Russkoye natural gas field in West Siberia. In addition, Wintershall received a non-voting preferred share in the original capital of OAO Severneftegazprom, which gives BASF a 35% share in the economic rewards of SNGP. The issue of shares has been registered. In return, Gazprom has increased its shareholding in the natural gas trading joint venture WINGAS GmbH from 35 to 50% minus one share. Gazprom has received a 49% share in a Wintershall subsidiary that produces oil in two onshore concession areas in Libya.
Topsøe to license hydrocracking technology
Slovnaft in Slovakia and OVM/Petrom in Romania have signed contracts with Haldor Topsøe
Two European refining majors — Slovnaft in Slovakia and OVM/Petrom in Romania — have signed contracts with Haldor Topsøe (Lyngby, Demnark; www.topsoe.com) for hydrocracking technology.
Topsøe has licensed its hydrocracking technology to Slovnaft for revamp of the full conversion 20,000 BPSD hydrocracking unit at the Bratislava Refinery. The objective is to revamp the hydrocracker to maximize production of high quality middle distillates while at the same time improving the on-stream factor of the unit. Slovnaft belongs to the MOL group, and Topsøe was first contracted by MOL/Slovnaft to perform a revamp scoping study, which identified several options for achieving the revamp objectives.
OMV/Petrom has licensed Topsøe’s hydrocracking technology for a 34,000 BPSD grassroots hydrocracking unit at the Petrobrazi Refinery in Romania. The unit will provide a high conversion of a mixture of heavy-vacuum gasoil and heavy coker gasoil into high quality diesel and jet fuel products. The new hydrocracker forms part of an overall project for expanding the capacity of the Petrobrazi Refinery to 6-million tonnes of crudes per year. OMV/Petrom selected Topsøe’s hydrocracking technology after Topsøe had demonstrated, in a feasibility study, the most cost-efficient solution for maximizing the production of a flexible range of high value middle distillate products.
For both projects Topsøe’s scope of supply includes hydrocracking technology license, basic engineering design, technical services, and both Slovnaft and OMV/Petrom will employ Topsøe’s unique hydrocracking-catalyst systems designed for maximum yield of high-quality middle distillates and Topsøe’s performance focused reactor internals technology.
Siemens I&S receives cement contract
The Saudi-Arabian project is valued at 20-million euros
The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S; Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com/cement) has received an order from Orascom Construction Industries (OCI; Cairo, Egypt), to engineer and supply all the electrical equipment for the new cement works of the Al Safwa Cement Co., Saudi-Arabia. The project is worth around 20-million euros and is scheduled for completion in Fall 2009.
OCI is a leading contracting company in the construction industry of the Middle East and has its own extensive cement-production facilities. It has cement works in Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Spain and Turkey with a total production capacity of 21-million m.t./yr. After the new equipment has been installed and the modernizations have been completed in 2009, the capacity will be about 36-million metric tons. The Al Safwa Cement Company is a joint venture of OCI and the Khayyat Group of Saudi Arabia. The new cement works is to be built near King Abdullah City, around 140 kilometers from Jeddah and, when completed, will produce 5,300 m.t./d of cement.
Siemens is responsible for planning, supply and commissioning of all the electrical equipment intended for the cement works. This includes the 5,300-KW slip-ring motors for the cement mills and the raw-mill blower drives with Robicon “Perfect Harmony” medium-voltage frequency converters. These systems are especially suitable for reducing harmonics. Sinamics G150 systems will be used as 690 V frequency converters. Power distribution, the instrumentation, a Simatic PCS7-based control system and the industrial software “Cemat” are also part of the project. In addition, Siemens is implementing auxiliary systems such as the lighting and the fire alarm systems. The mechanical equipment is being supplied by the French company, Polysius, and by ThyssenKrupp Foerdertechnik (Essen, Germany). OCI will be responsible for installation.
World’s largest gas turbine begins trial operation
This marks the beginning of a planned 18-month trial operation period at the E.ON Irsching 4 power plant
First firing of the world’s largest and most powerful gas turbine, developed by Siemens (Erlangen, Germany; www.siemens.com), was achieved as scheduled on December 20, 2007. This marks the beginning of a planned 18-month trial operation period at the E.ON Irsching 4 power plant near Ingolstadt, Germany. After successful completion of trial operation, Siemens will expand the plant to a high-efficiency, combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) with a total output of about 530 MW and a peak load efficiency of over 60%. Handover of the CCPP to E.ON Kraftwerke, a subsidiary of E.ON Energy, is expected to take place in 2011. E.ON and Siemens are investing a total of approximately 500-million euros in this endeavor.
Dr. Klaus-Dieter Maubach, chairman of the board at E.ON Energie AG, pointed out the significance of further technological development in power generation: “Combating climate change has become one of the cardinal challenges in our business. E.ON is planning investments totaling 60-billion euros by 2010. The major part of this will be in new and environmentally benign generating capacities. The Irsching location is an outstanding example of this: Irsching 4 will achieve an efficiency of over 60%, in itself a quantum leap in power-plant engineering. As a result, this power plant will emit approximately 40,000 m.t./yr of CO2 less than existing plants. In addition, we are investing in the latest technology for our advanced coal-fired power plants now under construction, and also for the renewable energy sector”.
KBR lands contract for large NH3 plant in Venezuela
The plant will be the first in Venezuela to utilize KBR’s proprietary KAAP ammonia process technology
KBR (Houston, Tex.; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a $57-million contract by MAN Ferrostaal AG (MFS) to provide basic and detailed engineering services for an 1,800-m.t./d ammonia plant for Petroquímica de Venezuela, S.A. (Pequiven).
The plant will be the first in Venezuela to utilize KBR’s proprietary KAAP ammonia process technology, for which Pequiven entered into a license agreement with KBR in July 2007. The plant will be part of a fertilizer facility located next to Pequiven’s existing petrochemical complex in Moron, Carabobo State, Venezuela and represents part of the country’s plans to invest more than $21 billion in petrochemical facilities over the next decade.
Pequiven previously awarded the overall fertilizer facility contract to MFS, Toyo Engineering Corp. and VEC Ingeniería y Construcción. MFS will oversee the ammonia plant portion of the project, for which KBR is providing services.