Total Deep Conversion Refinery - EPC

Fluor provided comprehensive services to Total for its refinery upgrade and modification in Port Arthur.

Services included the initial feasibility study through commissioning support. The project was carried out to add flexibility to process heavy sour crudes into cleaner burning fuels for the U.S. market.

Client's Challenge

Total is one of the largest international oil and gas companies in the world. Its Port Arthur refinery, with a capacity of 174,000 crude barrels per day, was upgraded to enable processing of heavier sour crude oils. The changes required new process units and modifications to existing units to allow the conversion of deep cuts of heavy products into lighter, more useful transport fuels (thus, “deep conversion”).

The modernization comprised six new process units: a Delayed Coker Unit consisting of four coke drums, a Coker Naphtha Hydrotreater, a Cracked Distillate Hydrotreater, Vacuum Distillation Unit, PSA and a Sulfur Block.

Also included were two new substations at 230 kV and 69 kV and all the utility and offsite additions and changes needed to support the new process.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor performed the initial feasibility study, front-end and detailed engineering, procurement, self-perform construction and construction management, and precommissioning and commissioning support.

Fluor built the Coker Naphtha Hydrotreater, Cracked Distillate Hydrotreater and Delayed Coker units with a combination of self-perform (civil, structural, mechanical and piping) and subcontract construction (electrical, instrumentation, painting and insulation).

The team reached a total craft staffing level of more than 4,500 and at one point worked more than 5.2 million hours without a lost time incident. Over the course of the project, the team worked in excess of 12 million hours safely.

Fluor personnel were seconded to a Total-led team for management of the construction of the brownfield and sulfur block portions of the project.

During their time onsite, Fluor personnel became a vital part of the community. For example, they volunteered for area cleanup after Hurricane Ike and took donations for aid organizations at the refinery turnstiles. Some of many recipients of contributions and / or participation from the project team members were the Port Arthur Retirement Home, the Rescue Mission, Junior Achievement, local welding schools, Lamar College, and the Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont, and the Southeast Texas P-16 Continuing Education Committee.

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Conclusion

Total and Fluor worked as an integrated team to achieve the ambitious goals set for project safety, quality, cost, and schedule.

Fluor drove many cost-saving measures and strategies to achieve success. These included modularization of interconnecting pipe racks, work sharing, and strategic partnerships with contractors and suppliers.

Upgrading and modernization added more flexibility to process sour crudes and produce higher-grade fuel products at the Total Port Arthur refinery.