A Thermal Cracker for Saudi Aramco; an FCC unit for China Petroleum

Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company (Sasref) has awarded a contract to Foster Wheeler Italiana S.p.A. (Milan) for a multi-million-dollar, advanced-technology thermal gasoil unit (TGU), to be installed at Jubail Industrial City. This TGU is a visbreaker/thermal cracker integrated with a gas-turbine cogeneration system. Foster Wheeler, which announced the deal, says that the unit will increase Jubail's conversion capacity to fully match the refinery capacity of 310,000 bbl/d. The combined TGU and cogeneration system will be completed in late 1999. Scope of the project for Foster Wheeler includes engineering and procurement of imported materials.

Meanwhile, a press report from AsiaPort Daily News says that the No. 1 Company of the China Petroleum & Natural Gas Corp. has successfully offloaded a 1.8-million-m.t./yr heavy-oil catalytic cracker for the Daqing oilfield. The unit is said to be the largest in Asia, and will crack heavy petroleum to alkenes and aromatics. The contractor was not identified.