State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar) has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Amec Foster Wheeler to upgrade the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery (HAOR) located in Baku.
Under the contract, Amec in partnership with Socar Foster Wheeler Engineering will be responsible for the plant upgrade, technology integration and fuel quality improvement processes.
Amec will develop various facilities and integrate technologies of other providers at the refinery.
The contract scope also includes addition of new facilities for diesel hydro-treatment, isomerisation, and methyl tertiary-butyl ether.
These facilities will also be used for fluid catalytic cracking gasoline treatment, sour water stripper, amine treatment and recovery of sulphur.
The contract is part of Socar’s plan to increase the refinery’s capacity and improve the quality of the fuel produced.
Amec will also revamp various existing facilities, including those for crude and vacuum distillation, fluid catalytic cracking and continuous catalytic reforming.
Amec Foster Wheeler Group president for Asia, Middle East, Africa & Southern Europe Roberto Penno said: "We have successfully delivered a number of projects for SOCAR, both in Azerbaijan and in other countries and look forward to continuing our partnership with this contract for the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, a particularly important facility for the country."
The work is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2017.
Owned and operated by SOCAR, the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery is designed to process 21 out of 24 grades of crude oil and 15 different petroleum products.
The refinery modernization project, which is estimated to cost $1bn, is expected to be completed within several phases till early 2020.
Image: Amec Foster Wheeler and Socar officials Photo: courtesy of Amec Foster Wheeler.