Yukong Fluid Catalytic Cracking Project

Yukong awarded Fluor a scope of work on the $1 billion Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) project. Starting in 1994, Fluor was responsible for basic engineering, worldwide procurement, licensor review, supervision of detail design and supervision of the construction contractors. Fluor also performed detail design of the critical reactor/regenerator unit for the FCC project.

Located in Ulsan, a major industrial center located on the southeast coast of the South Korean peninsula, the project was completed in world-class cycle time of 34 months from start to on-spec product in storage, setting a new global benchmark for completion of a project with this magnitude and complexity.

Client's Challenge

Yukong Limited is one of the largest oil and petrochemical companies in South Korea. The FCC expansion allowed Yukong's Ulsan refinery to operate in excess of 800,000 barrels per day of crude, making the refinery one of the world's largest at the time. It also provided increased output of gasoline and other value-added products for both the domestic transportation fuels market and export.

The FCC project involved the construction of many new process units including: a 60,000 barrels-per-stream-day (BPSD) resid desulfurization unit, 50,000 BPSD resid FCC unit, hydrogen plant, alkylation unit, sulfur unit, methyl tert-butyl ether unit, polypropylene recovery unit, spent acid regeneration unit, 30-megawatt power plant and a full slate of offsites, utilities and auxiliary facilities.

Fluor's Solution

To meet the expedited schedule, Fluor coordinated the organization and communication to minimize the project risk involved with the extensive overlap of the project phases. The sheer number of entities involved in the project presented coordination challenges: seven process licensors, three Korean detail design engineering firms (Daelim, Sunkyong and Samsung in Seoul), two Korean main-contract constructors (Sunkyong and Samsung at Ulsan), three project management locations for Yukong and Fluor (Houston, Seoul and Ulsan) and worldwide procurement coordination.

Conclusion

Mechanical completion was achieved in July 1996. The FCC project accomplished commissioning and start-up, with on-spec and full-capacity product, in October 1996. The Yukong FCC project was the recipient of the distinguished Fluor Daniel Excellence Award in 1996.