PETRONAS RAPID P29 Isononanol Plant

Fluor was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract by PETRONAS for a new 250-kilotons-per-annum Isononanol (INA) plant in July 2016. The INA plant was the last unit of the PETRONAS Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project to be awarded.

Client's Challenge

PETRONAS is developing the $27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex in Johor, Malaysia. RAPID is at the heart of the complex, with a 300,000-barrels-per-day refinery and a petrochemical complex with a combined 3.609-million-metric-tons-per-year production capacity. The Pengerang Integrated Complex is the largest project ever undertaken by PETRONAS and the largest single construction project in the country of Malaysia.

Fluor's Solution

Kicking off in December 2013, Fluor, in a joint venture with Technip, served as the overall program manager for RAPID. Fluor and Technip also formed a JV (OUI JV) that was subsequently awarded the EPCM scope for the Utility, Interconnecting and Offsite (UIO) facilities for this massive project. Fluor’s Manila office provided design services for the UIO, supported by Malaysian engineers from Technip’s Kuala Lumpur office. At site, the construction management team peaked at over 1,000 staff with Fluor members being mobilized from across the globe.

The Fluor Shanghai team was already familiar with the INA technology from BASF, having previously designed and built a $400 million INA facility for BASF in Maoming, China. The challenge this time was how late the INA plant was awarded in the overall program. When detailed engineering kicked off in Shanghai, the UIO and other plants were already under construction.

Conclusion

Although the INA plant engineering kicked off later in the overall program, the project achieved mechanical completion on time in June 2019 and ahead of other units because of the exemplary teamwork demonstrated by the respective team members from PETRONAS and Fluor to achieve this challenging goal and serve as a template for future project execution.