Amec Foster Wheeler Announces Contract on Front-end Engineering Design (FEED)

The British construction company Amec Foster Wheeler announced that it was awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to modernize the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR) in Baku, Azerbaijan. The contract, awarded by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), is part of a major investment to increase the refinery’s capacity and improve the quality of the fuel produced.

Amec Foster Wheeler in alliance with SOCAR Foster Wheeler Engineering won the contract and will execute it in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The scope of work is for the development of a number of facilities and the integration of technologies by other providers at HAOR. This will include new facilities for diesel hydro-treatment, isomerisation, methyl tertiary-butyl ether, fluid catalytic cracking gasoline treatment, sour water stripper, amine treatment and sulphur recovery. A number of existing facilities will also be revamped, including those for crude and vacuum distillation, fluid catalytic cracking and continuous catalytic reforming.  

Roberto Penno, Amec Foster Wheeler’s Group President for Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Southern Europe, said:

“We have successfully delivered a number of projects for SOCAR, both in Azerbaijan and in other countries and look forward to continuing our partnership with this contract for the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, a particularly important facility for the Country.”

Amec Foster Wheeler’s scope of work is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2017, while the process of modernization of the refinery is expected to be completed within several phases till early 2020.

The contract sum is not reported. But earlier SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said the overall cost of the project, which will involve a number of foreign companies, will be $ 1.3 billion.

Abdullayev said that the company intends to dismantle one of its two refineries, Azerneftyag, and invest in the modernization of the refinery named after Heydar Aliyev. This is done due to lack of funds for the construction of a new gas processing and petrochemical complex (OGPC).

Modernization of the refinery will increase the processing capacity from 6 million to 8 million tons per year and meet the needs of high-octane gasoline in Azerbaijan till 2030.

Amec Foster Wheeler (www.amecfw.com) designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for its customers across the global energy and related sectors.

Employing around 40,000 people in more than 55 countries and with 2015 revenues of £5.5 billion, the company operates across the oil and gas industry – from production through to refining, processing and distribution of derivative products – and in the mining, clean energy, power generation, pharma, environment and infrastructure markets.

Amec Foster Wheeler offers full life-cycle services to offshore and onshore oil and gas projects (conventional and unconventional, upstream, midstream and downstream) for greenfield, brownfield and asset support projects, plus leading refining technology.

Amec Foster Wheeler shares are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Both trade under the ticker AMFW.

Amec Foster Wheeler has had a joint venture in the Republic of Azerbaijan with SOCAR since 2011. The joint venture is SOCAR Foster Wheeler Engineering.

Amec Foster Wheeler became the first British-listed engineering and construction services contractor to establish a permanent presence in Baku, Azerbaijan, responding to the growing market need for engineering services in the Caspian region. It has had a presence in Azerbaijan since 1997.  ----0----