Pipelines Timeline

In 1915, Fluor received a significant contract to build a compressor station for the Industrial Fuel Supply Company, helping Fluor to later win other contracts from the oil and gas industry.

Significant oil finds in east Texas and booming gas operations throughout the midwest allowed Fluor to expand past California for the first time. Fluor was contracted by the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company for the construction of compressor stations on a pipeline between Panhandle, Texas and Indianapolis, Indiana. After completion of the project, Fluor opened an office in Kansas City to handle mid-continent contracts.

Williams Brothers was named the principal contractor to construct two War Emergency Pipelines. The pipelines connected the East Texas oil fields to New Jersey ports. First oil arrived at port in 1944.

The Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) was a significant industrial project bolstering the global petroleum trade. Fluor assisted Saudi Aramco with the construction of the Abqaiq pump station and power plant. In addition, Williams Brothers built a section of the main pipeline and the Sidon Terminal.

Williams Brothers constructed 350 miles of the 1,115-mile Interprovincial Pipeline. The Interprovincial Pipeline was the first to serve oilfields in Western Canada.

The Korean Oil Cooperation hired Fluor to construct the grassroots Ulsan Refinery. The Korean company laid cross country pipelines between the refinery and the crude terminal area, a distance of nearly 3 miles. The refinery supplied demands for gasoline, light and heavy oils and other petroleum by-products.

Fluor announced the formation of Fluor Ocean Services, Inc., a new organization for offshore and ocean structures, facilities, vessels and systems. Fluor Ocean Services designed, procured and constructed marine pipelines, shore terminals and all related marine support facilities.

Mobil Oil Corporation awarded Fluor Ocean Services (FOS) a contract for the installation of more than 37,000 feet of subsea pipeline in Singapore. Under terms of the contract, FOS laid six pipelines from Mobil's refinery at Jurong to a tank farm under construction on the island of Pesek. In addition, FOS laid three lines from Pesek to existing unloading facilities on the island of Ayer Chawan. The lines ranged from 14 inches to 30 inches in diameter.

Fluor provided engineering management services for an 834-mile, 34-inch natural gas pipeline extending from the Cooper Basin fields of South Australia to the Sydney region of New South Wales. Services provided included route selection including environmental studies; detailed design; project management; planning, scheduling and cost control; procurement of materials and equipment including expediting, vendor inspection and arranging transportation; construction management, supervision and inspection; and commissioning and startup.

Fluor provided engineering, procurement and construction management for the Shedgum Gas Plant, which was part of an overall Saudi Arabian gas program undertaken by Saudi Aramco to utilize natural gases previously considered waste product. In 1977, it was the largest gas-treating program ever undertaken. The Shedgum Gas Plant used Fluor’s proprietary process, Improved EconamineSM, to remove carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and carbonyl sulfide from the gas. The main function of the plant was to remove sulfur from the natural gas and to partially fractionate the gas, splitting it into dry and liquid streams for shipment via pipeline to Ju’aymah. The dry gas, mostly methane, was used for fuel and feedstock, while the liquid stream of C2 and heavier hydrocarbons were further fractionated.

Fluor was responsible for the engineering and construction management of Saudi Aramco's Ju'aymah Terminal, one of the world's largest crude oil storage and loading facilities at the time. Pipelines that extended from shore to the offshore platforms included four 35,000-foot, 56-inch crude lines and two 24-inch bunkering lines. Twin 48-inch submarine crude lines and a single 18-inch bunkering line connected the offshore platforms to each of the single-point moorings.

Fluor's initial assignment for this enhanced oil recovery project included reservoir review and modeling, followed by engineering and economic analyses of several alternative enhanced recovery methods. As a result of the study, Turkish Petroleum Corporation began implementation of a large-scale pilot program of enhanced oil recovery by CO2 and water injection. The test involved production of 60 MMSCFD from a carbon dioxide field in a mountainous region of eastern Turkey. The gas was processed for removal of hydrogen sulfide and water at the production site and compressed and delivered to the test oil field via 50 miles of pipeline for injection. Due to the site’s remote location and the limited construction season, all major equipment was designed as pre-fabricated skid packages.

Fluor acted as managing contractor for the construction of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand’s complete gas treatment and transmission system to transport natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand to onshore. The project consisted of 360 miles of offshore and onshore pipelines, a compressor station, offshore platforms, receiving terminals at Bangkok and Bang Pakong power stations, a distribution network and other equipment and facilities necessary to constitute a complete gas transmission system. The gas stream from UNOCAL's offshore field was transmitted 260 miles from the Gulf to Sattahip, Thailand through a 34-inch pipeline. At the time of its construction, it was the longest submarine pipeline in the world.

Texaco's Highlander Field development was a break-through in subsea technology that included universal trees and modular flowline connection concepts, a subsea slug catcher, retrievable pig launchers and receivers and diver-friendly designs for the 420-foot water depth. Subsea development of the marginal oil field included a 1,200-ton, 12-slot subsea template with remote wells, five pipelines, umbilicals, subsea slug catcher, riser systems and topside modifications. Fluor performed conceptual and detailed engineering, procurement and construction planning for the development of the Highlander Field oil and gas subsea production facilities.

Fluor was responsible for design, engineering and construction management for two offshore drilling platforms and one production platform in the Prinos field, a drilling and processing platform in the Kavala Field and a pipeline to the onshore processing plant and onshore storage and shipping facilities. A 12-inches-in-diameter gas line piped sweet gas from the Kavala Field and sour gas from the Prinos Field to the onshore processing plant. An eight-inch pipeline separately channeled crude oil from Prinos Field after it was separated and dehydrated at the platform there.

The Sonatrach Alrar Project, engineered and designed by Fluor, included extensive gas gathering and distribution systems. These pipeline systems, located in remote eastern Algeria, delivered feed gas to the Alrar Gas Treating Plant and distributed products from the plant to their desired destinations. Two main pipelines were included in the system. The Stah/Mereksen Pipeline, 60-kilometers long and 16-inches in diameter, transported gas from two producing fields to the Alrar plant. The pipeline was designed for a pressure of 96.7 bars at 71.1 degrees C. A 10-inch diameter, 45-kilometer condensate pipeline ran between Alrar and an existing pipeline at Ohanet. Designed for a pressure of approximately 69 bars, it could deliver up to 11,300 Nm3/day of hydrocarbon condensate.

Fluor performed design, procurement support and construction services on a 46-mile, 40-inch diameter Strategic Petroleum Reserve pipeline that follows the Texas coast from Bryan Mound to an ARCO terminal in Texas City. The pipeline route was 75 percent within the 100-year floodplain. Design support included 13 drilled crossings, 137 foreign pipeline crossings, 17 highway/road crossings and 9 railroad crossings. Fluor handled most of the environmental and design permitting activities including a cultural resources survey, which found four archaeological sites. Three of the sites were avoided by directional drilling, while the other was fenced with the pipeline routed around it.

This product pipeline system from Karachi to Multan included 533 miles of 16-inch pipeline, an 11-mile, 20-inch transfer line from a products terminal, 8.1 miles of 8-inch spur lines from local refineries, a 360,000-bbl initiating tank farm (with provision for later expansion to 960,000 bbls), products metering facilities and two pump stations. The pipeline ran parallel to the Indus River for roughly 400 miles. Other portions of the pipeline ran through mountains, deserts and flooded areas. The design of the communications facilities for the pipeline system included 17 microwave sites, a complete mobile radio system, automatic telephone exchanges and a block-valve radio control system.

Kern River Gas Transmission Company awarded Fluor a contract to supply engineering services for a mainline compressor, field gathering stations and meter stations on the Wyoming-to-California gas pipeline system. The 700-million SCFD natural gas pipeline system ran from Opal, Wyoming, to Daggett, California, where it interconnected with the Mojave 42-inch pipeline system for delivery of Midwest and Canadian gas to consumers in Kern County, California. The system consisted of 688 miles of 36-inch pipeline, three compressor stations involving four 12,600-hp Solar Mars-driven centrifugal compressors, two gathering stations and twelve meter stations. Fluor's scope of work included detailed engineering design, project management and assistance with material procurement.

The Mojave Pipeline Operating Company contracted with Fluor for the pipeline from Topock, Arizona to Bakersfield, California. The pipeline was 386 miles long, with a 30- to 42-inch mainline and capacity of 1100 million cubic feet per day. Approximately 30 plant and animal species listed as "endangered" or "threatened" had potential to be encountered along the route. Environmental awareness training was provided to more than 1,500 construction workers. In 1991, the project was completed on time and under budget, with no exceedances of federally imposed environmental limits and no lost time due to environmental constraints.

Yukong Limited, Korea’s largest refiner of petroleum products, contracted with Fluor to increase its crude import capacity. Fluor performed overall project management, detailed pipeline design, management of the Single-Point Mooring (SPM) / Pipeline End Manifold (PLEM) design, technical input for procurement and construction management on the submarine pipeline. The 42-inch-diameter pipeline, 4.5 kilometers in length, was installed to cross a shipping fairway, a 2-meter-diameter sewer outfall, traverse about one kilometer of rocky shore and 0.5 kilometer onshore to end at the booster station. The SPM buoy and pipeline accommodate tankers up to 325,000 deadweight tons. The pipeline system’s capacity is about 58,000 barrels-per-hour, which enables tankers to unload in about 36 hours.

Fluor provided engineering, procurement, survey, construction and maintenance services to ARCO/AGIP for the development of the Villano field in a virgin Ecuadorian rain forest. The project involved production facilities and an export pipeline for 30,000 bpd crude oil development. The facilities included: well-site facilities; central processing facilities; electrical power generation facilities; a 40-kilometer, 12-inch flow line; a 40-kilometer power transmission line; 130-kilometers of an 16-inch oil export pipeline; pump stations; and a produced water handling and injection system. This project received ARCO's Environmental Achievement Award and was cited as an outstanding success by the Ecuadorian Government. Fluor helped the client save $50 million by using an innovative monorail system to transport the pipe along the fragile right-of-way. This "invisible pipeline" was constructed on a 3-meter right-of-way.

The pipeline is part of an integrated energy project to provide natural gas as fuel for a power generating plant in Chile. The pipeline is 585 miles of 20-inch natural gas pipeline, plus 62 miles of 12-inch pipeline, from Northern Argentina to the West Coast of Northern Chile. Fluor provided the project engineering, procurement and construction management. CMS Gas Transmission and Storage Company, an affiliate of CMS Energy, is a major member of the consortium of U.S., Chilean and Argentine companies who undertook the project. The pipeline crosses tropical rain forest in Argentina, transverses severe mountain terrain, crosses the Andes Mountains at an elevation of 16,500 feet and crosses the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, in northern Chile.

Fluor was selected to provide engineering, inspection and procurement services that included design, survey, mapping, field engineering, material handling and right-of-way management. The pipeline was to deliver natural gas from U.S. and Canadian sources to markets across the southern tier of New York State and the New York City metropolitan area. The pipeline diameter is 36 inches for the first 385 miles and 24 inches for 45 miles. Designed to 1440 psig for the 36-inch portion and to 1000 psig for the 24-inch portion, using X-70 grade pipe, the line includes metering and regulating stations, remote actuated valves, and a 2-mile crossing of the Hudson River. Millennium was a consortium that included Columbia Gas Transmission, TransCanada, Westcoast Energy and MCN Energy Group.

Fluor provided preliminary and detailed engineering and design, procurement assistance and construction management on the new pipeline and related onshore gas and liquid receiving facilities for the National Gas Company (NGC) of Trinidad & Tobago. The project consisted of 65 kilometers of offshore 36-inch gas pipeline, starting at the foot of a riser on the Cassia B platform belonging to BP Trinidad and Tobago. New onshore gas/liquid receiving facilities, including an accumulator station, were to be built adjacent to an existing 30-inch pipeline facility at Abyssinia. The pipeline and new facility increased NGC’s gas capacity by 2 million standard cubic feet per day.

Located along the Gulf of Mexico, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil. Established after the 1973-74 oil embargo, the SPR has the capacity to store more than 700 million barrels of sour and sweet crude oil and maintains a minimum of 500 million barrels in reserves. This is estimated to be a 90-day supply for the entire U.S. in the event of a disruption in the supply chain. Crude oil has been withdrawn from the SPR three times, most recently in 2014 to verify how new pipelines and other infrastructure might affect the government's ability to transport the crude out of the underground caverns.

Fluor was awarded a contract by NEXUS Gas Transmission, LLC, to provide engineering, procurement and constructionmanagement services for an approximately 250-mile natural gas transmission pipeline in Ohio and Michigan. The pipeline is capable of transporting 2 billion cubic-feet-per-day of gas. In addition to the 42-inch mainline pipeline, Fluor is designing and managing the construction of up to four compressor stations in Ohio, as well as four meter stations. The NEXUS Project is designed to meet growing demand for natural gas by distribution and end use markets in the Upper Midwest and Canada.

A consortium including Fluor, Construcap CCPS Engenharia e Comércio S.A. (Construcap) and CFPS Engenharia e Projetos S.A. (CFPS), a joint venture of Fluor and Construcap, has met substantial completion on the Gavião Branco facility in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, turning it over to Parnaíba Gás Natural, Brazil's leading private gas exploration and production company. The consortium performed basic and detailed engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up of an 8.5 million-cubic-meters-per-day gas gathering system in the Gavião Branco field, as well as a 70-kilometer gas pipeline, under a demanding 12-month schedule. The project brings the Gavião Branco field into commercial operation, enables the tie-in of the Gavião Branco Sudeste field in the first quarter of 2016 and will provide the tie-in point for Gavião Caboclo and Gavião Branco Norte in the future.