Singapore Parallel Train Project, Jurong Island, Singapore

The Singapore Parallel Train (SPT) project is an integrated petrochemicals project which is to start construction in the refinery and chemical hub that is Jurong Island in Singapore. 30,000 personnel are employed at Jurong Island and this number is expected to increase to 65,000 by 2009.

The Jurong Island petrochemicals industry accounts for $25bn of the Singaporean economy.

The project has been instigated by ExxonMobil as an extension to their already major presence in the area with a 605,000bpd refinery – one of the largest in Jurong, which means that feedstocks would not be a problem. Singapore is the Asia-Pacific hub for ExxonMobil's downstream and chemical businesses.

SINGAPORE PARALLEL TRAIN (SPT)

The SPT will consist of a number of downstream units including a steam cracker ethylene complex and two downstream plants for the production of ethylene and propylene derivatives such as ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, acrylonitrile, propylene oxide, cumene / phenol, oxo alcohols, acrylic acid and isopropyl alcohol.

The new plant will integrate with existing ExxonMobil plants at the refining and chemical complex including their aromatics and oxo-alcohol units which will also be refurbished and expanded. ExxonMobil's goal is to push ethylene production in Singapore up to two million tonnes per annum; the new plant will allow them to achieve an increase in production to about 1.8 million tonnes per annum.

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which supports the SPT project would like to push the total ethylene production of Singapore's petrochemical industries up to six million tonnes per annum – the SPT will push the figure to about four million tonnes per annum.

THE PROJECT

In January 2006 Foster Wheeler (FW) was awarded the contract to work on the early phase of the project including the initial feasibility and the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) and project coordination and services.

The project was undertaken by FW in conjunction with a Joint Venture (JV) partner Worley Parsons.

In October 2007 the final investment decision was made on the $4bn complex and the FW / Worley Parsons JV were awarded a further contract for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of portions of the plant (all of the non-licensed technology but not the ethylene steam cracker).

The contract will involve construction of new units and their integration into the existing plant.

Steve Davies, chairman and chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Energy said: "Foster Wheeler is proud to be leading the joint venture team providing support to ExxonMobil for this planned major petrochemical facility in Singapore. This confirms our position as one of the leading engineering, procurement and construction contractors in Singapore, where we have been safely and successfully completing projects in the chemical, refining and pharmaceutical sectors for more than 30 years.

"We will bring the full depth of this experience to our joint venture to assist ExxonMobil. The work for this planned, world-scale project support will be undertaken on a global basis using staff resources located in the UK (Reading), USA (Houston) and Singapore."

The Shaw Stone and Webster joint venture were awarded a contract in June 2007 to construct an olefins recovery facility and power cogeneration unit for the SPT ethylene cracker (the Technip and Chiyoda JV were the losing bidders).

The contract will include provision of technology, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) services for a 800,000t to 1,000,000t a year olefins recovery facility and a 220MW power cogeneration unit for the SPT (cost of this section of the project was estimated at $1.3bn).

OTHER PLAYERS

The SPT will involve many lucrative contracts for locally based Asian engineering companies.

Hiap Seng Engineering has bids in on parts of the engineering and construction work and is expecting to hear about the contracts in early 2008.

Rotary Engineering is another Singapore oil and gas infrastructure services company which is expecting to win contracts worth $200m (the company has bid on the subcontract for the construction of the ethylene cracker) from ExxonMobil for the SPT. If Rotary are successful in their bid the work will begin in mid-2008 and be completed by 2010.

Rotary also has plans to invest about $30m in a fabrication yard at the Dalian Changxing Island Harbour Industrial Zone in China. This is because process equipment for the SPT, which will be a modular project, could be built more cheaply in China and then shipped easily to Jurong Island for installation. The 20ha fabrication facility has a 200m-300m waterfront.

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