Ras Tanura Gets Off the Mark
- Pipeline
- Saudi Aramco News
- Industry News
Author: Aramco ExPats
Released 16 October 2006
Offerings have been made on the giant Ras Tanura refinery upgrade and integrated petrochemicals complex, with expressions of interest being submitted on October 11 for the joint front-end engineering and design (FEED), project management services (PMS) and construction management services (CMS) contract. Estimated at $16,000 million, the scheme is expected to be the largest standalone industrial complex ever built in the region.
The project will be implemented by Saudi Aramco, which is holding exclusive negotiations with the US Dow Chemical Company to act as the foreign partner on the development. Start-up is scheduled to begin in 2010.
Among the companies expected to submit expressions of interest are Bechtel, Fluor Corporation, Jacobs Engineering and Foster Wheeler, all US-based, and Australia’s WorleyParsons. Prequalification applications are due to be submitted on October 25, with request for proposals scheduled to be issued on December 6. The bid submission date is set for January 27. The client plans to award the contract in mid-March.
The main elements of the refinery upgrade and integrated petrochemicals project are:
- A 1.2 million-ton-a-year ethane/naphtha steam cracker
- A fluid catalytic converter (FCC), comprising an 80,000-b/d vacuum gas oil hydrotreater
- An aromatics complex fed with 70,000 b/d of reformate and pyrolysis gasoline (pygas) to produce benzene, toluene and paraxylene to feed downstream derivative units
- A chlor alkali facility producing about 640,000 tons-a-year of chlorine to feed downstream process units
- Downstream process units comprising 28 different world-scale units
- The scheme will require substantial offsites and utilities work, feedstock pipelines, an ethane pipeline from the Juaymah pipeline, a new import/export jetty and a materials handling facility.