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Articles about the construction of new refineries and petrochemicals plants tend to be popular topics in Rigzone’s downstream news section.
The popularity of such articles is evident in this first installment of Rigzone’s three-part review of its top downstream articles from 2018.
15.
As this staff-written article from December states, Meridian Energy Group, Inc. has selected McDermott International, Inc. to conduct the front-end engineering design (FEED) for its grassroots Davis Refinery in Belfield, N.D. Meridian, which broke ground on the 49,500-barrel per day (bpd) facility, also noted that it expects to award McDermott the contract to build the refinery following the FEED phase.
14.
2018 has been a year of transition for Baker Hughes, a GE BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast (BHGE) as it undergoes a separation from parent BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast GE. This Rigzone staff article from June details BHGE’s decision to close its gas processing facility in Schertz, Texas. It notes that most of the resulting 266 employee layoffs across multiple departments would occur from September through December. Although it was closing the Texas plant, BHGE pointed out that it was not exiting the gas processing business and would serve customers from other BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast sites.
13.
Once capable of processing 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Venezuela, the former Hovensa refinery on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands was shuttered in 2012. According to this Reuters article from early July, current owners ArcLight Capital Partners and Freeport Commodities plan to spend $1.4 billion refurbishing and restarting part of the facility. The companies expect the refinery, which will boast 200,000 bpd of capacity, to support 700 permanent jobs.
12.
Prior to its merger with McDermott International, Inc. in May, CB&I reported that it had won a contract to provide front end engineering design (FEED) services for IGP Methanol’s $3.6 billion Gulf Coast Methanol complex in Myrtle Grove, La. As this February staff-written article notes, the grassroots facility will be built in four phases on a 140-acre site along the Mississippi River. Each of the facility’s four methanol trains will boast a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year, and IGP anticipates oil rig flanges gulf coast production to start by the end of 2020.
11.
ThaiOil, a unit of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) Public Co., is increasing the capacity of its Sriracha refinery from 275,000 to 400,000 bpd. In October, Saipem announced that it – along with Petrofac and Samsung – won an approximately $4 billion contract for the expansion. Saipem pointed out that the contract covers engineering, procurement and construction.
Note that Rigzone’s 2018 Downstream Countdown lists the 15 most popular downstream-focused articles as of Dec. 13.
