Name and Location
Limbe refinery upgrade and modernisation project, Cameroon.

Project Description
The 37 000-bl/d Société Nationale de Raffinage (Sonara) refinery, located in the port city of Limbe at the foot of Mount Cameroon, is the source of Cameroon's petroleum products. The facility has in the past used its alternate capacity to refine petroleum products for export to Europe, Latin America, the US and other African nations.

The refurbishment will allow Sonara to market value-added products, such as kerosene and diesel, on completion of the overall project. The new port will allow tankers with capacity as large as 90 000 t access to the refinery.

Value
The upgrade will cost about €25-million.

Duration
The project is scheduled for completion in 18 to 19 months.

Client
Sonara, 66% of which is held by the government of Cameroon, with the remaining 34% belonging to TotalFina Elf, ExxonMobil, Shell, and ChevronTexaco.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Cegelec (engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract) and Foster Wheeler (phase one front-end engineering design and EPC management services).

Latest Developments
Sonara has signed a turnkey EPC contract with France-based Cegelec to upgrade the refinery's management system and replace the existing instrumentation and control system.

Cegelec will replace the pneumatics found in most of the refinery's 22 units with numeric controls, and will also install a secure programmable logic controller to improve supervision and safety. The units will be operated from a new blastproof control room.

The EPC contract comes a year after Cegelec received a contract to manage and supervise the construction of the control room, for which the firm performed the architectural and ergonomic design in 2008.

Foster Wheeler's scope of work includes the revamping of the existing crude distillation unit, the addition of a new vacuum distillation unit, a new catalytic reformer unit, power generation and associated offsites and utilities facilities for the first phase of the project.

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Cegelec, tel +33 1 58 69 4000 or fax +33 1 58 69 4001.
Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures, tel + +237 22 20 9864/9865, fax +237 22 20 9869/4651 or email info@snh.cm.