October 2003
Pump Industry Analyst
new and revamped offsites and utilities, including the upgrading of the power plant up to 60 MW production. Technip has already completed basic and front end engineering and the selection of licensors and services for the procurement of long lead equipment. Completion is set for March 2005.
MARKET PROSPECTS
CHEMICALS DEGUSSA SELECTS ANTWERP Degussa AG is planning to build a further plant at its facility in Antwerp, Belgium, for the production of the essential amino acid DLmethionine for use in animal feed. The methionine production facility will cost about 350 million and will have a capacity of 150 000 tonnes per year when completed by 2005. The additional production facility will allow Degussa to meet the growing global demand for this animal feed protein over the long term. To guarantee maximum production efficiency and supply security, all the preliminary stages involved in the production of methionine will also be expanded in line with the capacity of the new installation.
METHANEX PULLS PLUG ON METHANOL FACILITY Methanex Corp is not going ahead with the construction of a 1.3 million tonne per year methanol plant in the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia. The company said that capital costs for the proposed project had escalated to an unacceptable level. Methanex
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will take a one-time, non-cash charge of approximately US$40 million to write-off the costs incurred in developing the project.
AKZO NOBEL EXPANDS SWEDISH UNIT Akzo Nobel is investing an undisclosed amount in its industrial products plant in Stockviksverken, Sweden, increasing the production capacity of Expancel expandable microspheres. Expancel microspheres are small, spherical plastic particles consisting of a polymer shell encapsulating a gas. When the gas inside the shell is heated, it increases in pressure and the thermoplastic shell softens, resulting in a dramatic increase in the volume of the microspheres.
PETROCHEMICALS MW KELLOGG SECURES WORK ON BRINDISI LNG PROJECT London-based MW Kellogg Ltd (MWKL) has been awarded a contract to provide front end engineering design (FEED) services for Brindisi LNG SpA's proposed 390 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal project in Brindisi, Italy. The project involves developing an LNG receiving terminal with a capacity of 8 billion cubic metres per annum. The FEED contract consists of the development of the basic engineering for the proposed facility and the preparation of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) invitation to bid for the execution phase of the project. Design services will be carried out in MWKL’s London office. FEED work is
scheduled for completion by November 2003 and the EPC contract is set to be awarded in early 2004. The terminal is expected to be operational by 2007.
POWER GENERATION STONE & WEBSTER AWARDED NY EPC CONTRACT Stone & Webster Inc has secured a US$570 million negotiated fixed price EPC contract from Astoria Energy LLC for Phase I of a 1000 MW power project in New York City. The Astoria project is a fully-permitted facility which is scheduled to be constructed in two phases. The first phase is a 500 MW combined cycle dual fuel (natural gas and fuel oil) turbine power plant to be located in the Astoria section of Queens, New York.
COMBINED HEAT, POWER PLANT FOR BASF LUDWIGSHAFEN Construction work has started on a new 240 million combined heat and power plant at BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The power plant will supply 440 MW of electricity and 650 metric tons of steam per hour to BASF’s Ludwigshafen production facilities from the end of 2005. Siemens Power Generation is building the power plant, which will consist of two gas turbines, one steam turbine, three generators, mechanical equipment and components with two heatrecovery steam generators, as well as electrical systems and equipment, instrumentation and control systems.
790 MW POWER PLANT FOR IOWA Kvaerner Songer Inc has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hitachi America Ltd to construct MidAmerican Energies’ 790 MW power generation unit in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Under the agreement, Kvaerner Songer and Hitachi America will work exclusively together to reach a final contract for the site construction services valued at approximately US$300 million. The project will be released to Kvaerner Songer in three phases: civil, turbine and boiler. The overall construction program is expected to be completed in early 2007. This is one of the largest coal fired generating power plants to be built in recent years in North America.
CEMENT FL SMIDTH TO MODERNIZE IRANIAN CEMENT PLANT The partly privatized Iranian Khazar Cement Co (FKCC) has placed an 14 million contract with the FL Smidth Group to upgrade its Khazar cement plant, near Tehran. This is the third order that FL Smidth has recently won from the Iranian cement industry confirming the need to upgrade the country’s many cement plants. The upgrade will double the production capacity of FKCC’s cement plant to 4000 tonnes of cement per day. The machinery and equipment will be delivered over the next 15 months and the plant is expected to come on stream in the summer of 2005.