Global downstream construction update: end of September

Brazil

A partnership between Petrobras of Brazil and PDVSA of Venezuela to construct a new refinery in the north east of Brazil has been scrapped. Plans to jointly build the Abreu e Lima refinery has been under debate for sometime, and Petrobras have now decided that as of 1^st November it will become one of their business units. Construction of the plant begun in 2007 and has been continually in waiting for a 40% contribution from the Venezuelan company.

Colombia

An end has come to the three day strike of construction workers at the Cartagena refinery. Workers were part of the construction project at the facility and walked out over a pay dispute. On Monday 23^rd September workers were due to return to the project after a pay increase was agreed upon. CB&I who are a third party contractor for the project are reportedly increasing wages between 40 and 100%.

India

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has confirmed that it will go ahead with plans to build a petrochemicals plant without forward movement from its joint venture partner LG Chem. The Kochi plant is expected to cost Rs 50 billion. BPCl and LG Chem signed a Memorandum of Understanding in mid 2012 but LG Chem’s participation in the project has not been confirmed since.

USA

As part of new chemical and petrochemical production capacity in the US Gulf Coast region, US based Graham Corporation has received an order for tow surface condensers. An additional surface condenser is also included in this deal for the expansion of an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia The order is order is worth approximately US$ 7.5 million. It is expected that the equipment will be shipped during the second half of the 2015 fiscal year.

Shell has picked a location in Louisiana for the construction of natural gas plant. The US$ 12.5 billion investment will turn natural gas into diesel, jet fuel and other liquids, however, the project has not yet been declared a ‘sure thing’. The proposed plant will create 740 jobs directly and 3900 indirectly if it is completed.

Enterprise Products Partners LP has announced an additional expansion of the LPG export terminal located on the Houston Ship Channel. The expansion will increase capacity to load fully refrigerated, low ethane propane. By enhancing the refrigeration capacity of LPG at the export facility, Enterprise will increase its loading capacity by an additional 11.5 million bbls, or three cargoes a month. This will increase total design capacity to approximately 9 million bbls a month upon completion of the expansion project, which is expected in the first quarter of 2015.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd.

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