4Pump Industry Analyst August 2008

Fluor secures 2 Valero hydrocracker projects

Under contracts worth US$1.2 bil-lion with Valero Energy Corp,

Fluor Corp is to provide engineering, procurement, construction and con-struction management services for Valero’s Unified Hydrocracker (HCU) Program projects at its St Charles, Louisiana and Port Arthur, Texas refineries in the USA.

The two projects are part of a major growth program for Valero at its St Charles and Port Arthur refineries. The two refiner-ies have been designed to capitalise on the production of ultra-low sulfur diesel trans-portation fuels through the addition of two hydrocrackers.

Fluor is currently executing the engineer-ing, procurement, and construction work for three other hydrocracker projects in the US.

New Middle East power, desal project for GDF Suez

GDF SUEZ has won the contract and signed a 20-year power and

water purchase agreement for the Shuweihat 2 power generation and seawater desalination plant in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Shuweihat 2 is a greenfield, natural gas-fired installation that will deliver 1500 MW of electricity and 454 610 cubic metres of water per day. Completion and start-up of the Shuweihat 2 plant is scheduled for 2011.

GDF SUEZ owns 40% of Shuweihat 2, with the remaining 60% owned by Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA), which issued the tender.

ADWEA is planning to launch a similar project, Shuweihat 3, within the coming months to cope with the country’s energy and water needs.

• South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has signed an US$800 mil-lion EPC contract for the Shuweihat 2 desal-ination plant in the United Arab Emirates. Doosan will be overseeing the process from production and installation of equipment to test operation.

MINING

Bechtel signs up for smelter upgrade

Bechtel has signed a US$200 mil-lion EPC management agreement

with Rio Tinto Alcan for the Kitimat Smelter modernisation project in Kitimat, British Columbia.

The proposed US$2.5 billion Kitimat modernisation project would increase pro-duction capacity at the smelter by 40%, taking it up to 400 000 tons per year and increase Rio Tinto annual global primary aluminum production capacity by more than 3%.

First metal from the upgraded smelter is expected in 2011.

WATER & WASTEWATER

Pöyry awarded �7mnproject in Nepal

Finland’s Pöyry is to provide design and construction supervision

services for Melamchi Water Supply Development Board’s US$350 million water project in Nepal.

Pöyry’s �7 million contract covers work on the headworks and a 26.5 km long diver-sion tunnel. The tunnel will divert 170 mil-lion litres of water daily from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu Valley to ease chronic water shortages in that area. Construction of the water tunnel will start by the beginning of 2009 and should be completed by 2013.

The Melamchi project is funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank and the Nordic Development Fund. Other donors are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Nordic Development Fund and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development. The Government of Nepal is contributing US$90 million to the project.

Veolia selected for 2 UAE wastewater plants

Veolia Water has signed a contract with the Abu Dhabi Water and

Electricity Authority (ADWEA) for the

financing, design, construction and operation of two new wastewater treatment plants in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

This is to-date the biggest signed for wastewater contract in the Middle East. Over a 25-year period, the project is expected to contribute �364 million to Veolia’s revenues.

The Belgian group Besix will carry out the civil engineering part of the construction and will be involved in one third of the operating services. After the initial construction period, which will take 2.5 years, Veolia Water will operate both wastewater treatment plants for 22.5 years.

The plants will be equipped with Multiflo, the Veolia Water lamellar settling process. The Abu Dhabi plant will have a treatment capacity of 300 000 cubic metres per day, and the Al Ain facility can treat 130 000 cubic metres of water per day.

Thames Water outlines £6.5bn water plan

Thames Water has drawn up a £6.5 billion investment programme for

2010–2015.The plan, which has been submitted to

the independent water regulator Ofwat for examination, will be the largest ever pro-gramme of investment undertaken by a UK water company.

IDE to build China’s largest desal plant

Israel’s IDE Technologies Ltd is to build China’s largest desalination

plant for energy firm Tianjin SDIC, in a deal worth US$119 million.

The seawater desalination facility, which is expected to begin operation towards the end of this year, will be erected at a power plant 200 kms northeast of Beijing. The facility, comprising 4 MED units each with a capacity of 25 000 cubic metres, will sup-ply 100 000 cubic metres of fresh water per day to the station’s generators and drinking water. Additionally, the saline brine rejected from the seawater will be processed into table salt.

China is a significant strategic target for IDE, which has built more than 360 desali-nation plants around the world.

MARKET PROSPECTS