KBR technology selected for GS Caltex Grassroots Olefins Plant in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a contract to supply its proprietary SCORETM Ethylene Technology to GS Caltex Corporation for a grassroots mixed feed cracker (MFC) for its project in Yeosu, South Korea, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide its innovative Selective Cracking Optimum Recovery (SCORETM) technology license and basic engineering design services for a 700 KTA ethylene mixed feed cracker to be built by GS Caltex, a company owned by GS Energy and U.S. based Chevron Corp. The new plant will use naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas and refinery off-gases as its main feedstocks. It will be constructed in the South Korean southern city of Yeosu where GS Caltex's 790,000 barrels-per-day refinery is located. The project will use KBR's highly selective SC-1 furnaces for the highest yield and flexibility.

"We are honored to be selected as the licensor for GS Caltex's first ethylene plant," said John Derbyshire, KBR President, Technology. "SCORETMtechnology is highly flexible and enables producers to maximize profitability through superior yield, energy, and operational performance."

KBR has been a leader in olefin plant design, construction and technology development for more than 50 years. Since 1990 over 20 new ethylene plants with a combined capacity of 13 million metric tons per year have been brought on-stream using KBR's cost-effective cracking technologies and flexible plant designs to produce ethylene, propylene and other byproducts from a variety of feedstocks.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC, plans to build a receiving terminal of liquefied natural gas in the eastern province of Jiangsu that is expected to cost 14.4 billion yuan (USD2.17 billion), said Reuters.

The project, located in the city of Yancheng, will include a berth to anchor 100,000 ton vessels, land-based storage and a pipeline grid and is expected to be completed in December 2020, the official local newspaper Xinhua Daily reported, without saying how it received the information.

The storage tanks will each have a storage capacity of 220,000 cubic metres, or roughly 90,000 tonnes, the paper said, without giving the total planned storage capacity at the site.

CNOOC, parent of CNOOC Ltd, is China’s largest operator of LNG import terminals.

CNOOC did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR announced that it has been awarded a nitric acid plant revamp contract by Haifa Chemicals Ltd for its plant in Mishor-Rotem, Israel, as per the company press release.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR subsidiary Weatherly, Inc. will design, supply and commission a complete system for the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) of nitrogen oxides (NOx), with additional catalyst beds for N2O and NH3 slip abatement. The SCR system will be integrated into two existing Nitric Acid plants of 240 mtpd and 147 mtpd capacity that Haifa operates in Israel. Both plants were designed by KBR Weatherly and commissioned in 1987 and 1999 respectively.

"We are proud of these two successful plants that were designed by KBR Weatherly and we look forward to modifying them to meet stricter environmental regulations," said John Derbyshire, KBR President, Technology. "This revamp contract is a testimony to the trust placed by our clients in technologies from KBR Weatherly during the past six decades."

Weatherly Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR, has a distinguished history serving the fertilizer industry with over 250 installations worldwide including over 75 nitric acid plants.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission on Wednesday cleared U.S. chemical group Tronox to buy Saudi Arabia’s Cristal, on the condition that it sells its global business in titanium dioxide pigment for paper laminate, as per Reuters.

The Commission had investigated the market of titanium dioxide pigment, which is used in the production of products such plastics or paper, and found that the companies needed to divest a business to get approval.

"Tronox and Cristal are two of the four major players in this market but we can approve their merger because the companies offered a suitable remedy that fully addresses our competition concerns," the Commission, which oversees mergers in the European Union, said.

The Commission will have to approve the buyer of the business that Tronox will sell before clearing the deal.

Reuters reported in June that the deal would be approved.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sempra LNG & Midstream, a unit of Sempra Energy has announced that a TechnipFMC and Kiewit partnership has been selected as the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPC) contractor for the Energia Costa Azul (ECA) liquefaction project under development in Baja California, Mexico, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The TechnipFMC-Kiewit partnership will perform the engineering, planning and related activities necessary to prepare, negotiate and finalize a lump-sum EPC contract for the project, leveraging the two companies' extensive experience on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects worldwide.

"The ECA liquefaction project is one of three North American LNG export projects we are developing - two on the Gulf Coast and one in the Pacific Basin - to help meet global demand for LNG," said Joseph A. Householder, president and chief operating officer of Sempra Energy. "This project is an exciting part of our LNG growth strategy and geographically positioned to serve Asian natural gas markets."

Permitted to be built adjacent to the existing ECA regasification facility, the liquefaction project is being developed by Sempra Energy to provide customers with direct access to west coast LNG supplies.

"Having two highly qualified construction companies, TechnipFMC and Kiewit, with international liquefaction experience will contribute to the project's success," said Octavio M.C. Simoes, president of Sempra LNG & Midstream. "ECA liquefaction will help us achieve our LNG development objectives of having a world-class LNG export terminal on the west coast of North America."

Development of the ECA liquefaction project is contingent upon: obtaining customer commitments; completing the required commercial agreements (including a definitive EPC contract); securing all necessary permits and approvals; obtaining financing and incentives; reaching a final investment decision; and other factors associated with the investment and the size, phasing and schedule of the development.

In addition to the ECA liquefaction development, Sempra LNG & Midstream is developing a three-train, 14-million-tonnes-per-annum (Mtpa) liquefaction facility at Cameron LNG in Hackberry, La., that is currently in construction. Last week, Sempra LNG & Midstream announced that Bechtel was selected as the EPC contractor for a third project, Port Arthur LNG, a two-train 11-Mtpa liquefaction facility in Port Arthur, Texas. Completion of these projects is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2016, Technip, a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry announced the acquisition of Hummingbird ethanol to ethylene technology from BP Chemicals.

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.
Present in 45 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
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