Technip has been awarded an engineering, procurement services and construction-management contract by Total to increase hydrocracker capacity at the Normandy refinery located in Gonfreville, France. This project, which is part of a larger investment plan for the refinery, is valued at more than €100 million (of which Technip’s share is 20%).

Technip’s scope includes debottle-necking of the hydrocracking plant and debottlenecking of the hydrogen unit needed to operate the hydrocracker. This extension will increase hydroconversion capacity to 10,000 tpd from the current 8,000 tons, thereby enabling production of more diesel fuel and kerosine.

BASF plans to expand its existing superabsorbent polymer-production capacities at its sites in Antwerp and Belgium, and at its Freeport, Texas, site. Gradual debottlenecking and technical expansion measures are to raise annual capacity by 70,000 tons to a total of 470,000 tons by 2012, with each site contributing an additional 35,000 tons

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG’s Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Kuwait Petroleum International Lubricants to provide detailed engineering services for a brown-field lube-oil blending plant to be built at Kuwait Petroleum’s facility in Antwerp, Belgium.

The lube-oil blending plant will substantially enhance the Antwerp facility’s ability to operate at European scale by increasing production capacity from 125 million lpy to 250 million lpy. The detailed engineering activities will be completed by mid-2011.

The State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and TURCAS Rafineri A.S. (STRAS), the joint venture of SOCAR and TURCAS Petrol A.S. (TRCAS), have awarded Fluor Corp. a project-management consultant (PMC) contract for a new refinery to be built in Aliaga, Turkey. The new planned refinery will be integrated at the Petkim petrochemicals site on the Aegean coast. As PMC for the SOCAR and TURCAS Aegean Refinery (STAR) project, Fluor will assist STRAS in selecting and managing the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor(s) and provide overall project and construction management.

Project work is underway, with the start of site preparation. EPC work is estimated to be in mid-2011, and construction startup is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2012.  HP