CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) announced it has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $1.3 billion by Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, Inc. to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for an ethane cracker project located in Port Arthur, Tex. The new cracker will have an ethylene capacity of one million metric tons per year (m.t./yr). CB&I was previously awarded a contract for front-end engineering and design services and the ethylene technology license. The facility will utilize six SRT-III (Short Residence Time) pyrolysis heaters.
“This award is the result of substantial collaboration between our two companies that ensured the project design is fit-for-purpose, significantly reducing costs,” said Philip K. Asherman, CB&I’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “The cracker project, the fourth new ethane project for CB&I on the U.S. Gulf Coast, will allow Total to capitalize on the abundance of shale gas in the U.S. and realize significant operational synergies, and we look forward to helping them build on their global ethylene capabilities.”