New York-listed Fluor Corporation has been awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract by South African Petroleum Refineries (Sapref) for its Clean Fuels 2 project, in Durban.
The contract, of which the value was undisclosed, was booked in the first quarter of the year.
“This award builds on our significant clean fuel expertise, as well as Fluor’s ongoing site support work with Sapref in South Africa for nearly 20 years,” said Fluor energy and chemicals group president Peter Oosterveer.
The project would enable a substantial upgrade of the Sapref refinery by improving the quality of transportation fuels through a reduction in the levels of sulphur, benzene and aromatics, thus meeting enhanced legislative requirements.
Engineering News Online reported last year that Sapref intended to initiate conversion projects in 2014 to start the legislated move to the Clean Fuels 2 specifications by 2017.
Government’s roadmap to cleaner fuel, released in March 2011, stated that fuel refineries must be compliant with the Clean Fuels 2 specifications, which are aligned with the State’s intention of further improving the quality of transportation fuels, by 2017.
The Clean Fuels 2 specifications aimed to reduce the aromatic and benzene content of petrol in line with Euro 4 emission standards by 2017, and included the reduction of sulphur from 500 parts per million (ppm) to 10 ppm, the lowering of benzene from 5% to 1% of volume, the reduction of aromatics from 50% to 35% of volume and the specification of olefins at 18% of volume.
The agreement between Fluor and Sapref allowed for the potential signing of an engineering, procurement and construction management contract at a later date.
The FEED contract would be the first executed in Africa under Shell’s enterprise framework agreement with Fluor, which encompassed engineering and procurement management services throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Sapref was a joint venture between Shell South Africa Refining and BP Southern Africa, and was the largest crude oil refinery in the region, representing 35% of South Africa’s refining capacity.