ABU DHABI - ULG/LSGO Project.

Takreer is having a $500m two-phase project to produce unleaded gasoline (ULG) and low-sulphur gasoil (LSGO). (An earlier version of the project was tendered in 1998 but that was cancelled). The front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for this was done in 2002 by Bechtel. The project management consultant (PMC) is Parsons Int'l of the US. The main phase will be built at Ruwais and will be completed by mid-2005 (see below).

The second phase will be located at the Umm Al Nar refinery. To cost less than $20m, this will include a new ULG blending unit and integration with an existing blender, expansion of tank farms, upgrading a substation and offsite facilities. The 28-month engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was won on Nov. 25, 2002 by ADNOC affiliate National Petroleum Construction Co. (NPCC). The refinery is linked to a marine terminal which can handle tankers of 5,000-20,000 dwt. In April 1993, Technip of France won a $18.3m contract to install new management information systems, automated blending and handling systems, advanced control systems and improved instrumentation. The refinery's tank farm has also been expanded through the addition of three new storage tanks and renovation of the existing 11 tanks.

The Ruwais Refinery: ADNOC decided to build a second refinery in 1977, one year after the old Umm Al Nar plant was completed, because of rapid growth in demand for oil products. A contract was awarded that year to Snamprogetti of Italy to build the plant at Ruwais, 250 km east of Abu Dhabi and close to the Jebel Dhanna oil terminal, with a capacity of 120,000 b/d. Work was completed in early 1981 and the plant went on stream by June that year.

In January 1995 the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), in charge of the entire petroleum sector, approved a project to raise the refinery's capacity to 535,000 b/d at a cost of up to $2ybn. ADNOC later decided to limit the refinery's expansion to 400,000 b/d, by adding two 140,000 b/d condensate splitters, which were only to cost the company about $800m. It decided to delay the installation of a 135,000 b/d crude oil distillation unit and a number of upgrading facilities that were to cost over $1.2 bn. But the oil refinery now can run at more than 420,000 b/d.

The contract for the two identical 140,000 b/d condensate units was awarded in early August 1997 to Snamprogetti on a turnkey basis, with NPCC as sub-contractor. The first of the twin splitters, Train-1, came on stream in early June 2000. Train-2 came on stream in mid-September 2000 - two months later than expected because there was not enough condensate in production. Both plants began full production on Nov. 20, 2000.

The two splitters have the capacity to produce 50% full-range naphtha (almost 80% paraffinic), 30% jet fuel and kerosine, 15% gasoil, and 5% LPG and residue. The splitters have an 11,000 b/d LPG amine sweetening plant, two 46,500 b/d naphtha stabilisation units, and two 52,000 b/d kerosine sweetening units. Their support structures include 23 floating roof storage tanks, product blending units and shipping facilities. Asia, notably including Japan and South Korea, is the main market for the two splitters, with ADNOC's condensate exports now stopped.

The two trains' capacity is to be raised by 20% under a $50-60m project for which Snamprogetti is doing the process study. Expansion will be done through debottlenecking of the two units. The onshore condensate production systems now have a combined capacity of 281,000 b/d. These consist of the following streams: 131,000 b/d from Thamama OGD-1; 95,000 b/d from Asab AGD; and 55,000 b/d from OGD-2 which went on stream in September 2000. But actual production exceeds 300,000 b/d. OGD-3 and AGD-2 will raise condensate production to 450,000 b/d (see Gas Market Trends of this week).

On June 30, 2002, Technip-Coflexip won a $460m contract to build at the Ruwais refinery complex within 36 months a grassroots plant with a capacity to produce 81,000 b/d of ULG and LSGO. Units will include two continuous catalytic converters each of 120,000 b/d, heavy/light naphtha hydrotreaters with a combined capacity of 31,700 b/d, a 15,000 b/d gas/oil hydrotreater, a sulphur plant and utilities. On the same day, an EPC contract for a related tankage project worth $20m was awarded to CBI Eastern Anstalt, a unit of Chicago Bridge & Iron of the US. This is the first phase of Takreer's ULG/LSGO project, the second phase being built at Umm Al Nar (see above).