Bechtel Corp. – Port Arthur Refinery Expansion
Texas is famous for doing things in a big way. So are Bechtel Corp. and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. Put them all together and you have the makings of an historic construction project. In Port Arthur, Texas, near the site of the famous Spindletop discovery where the U.S. oil boom began early in the 20th century, Bechtel and Jacobs have teamed to expand the venerable Port Arthur refinery for Motiva Enterprises LLC, a 50/50 joint venture of Shell Oil Company and Saudi Refining Inc.
The expansion will boost capacity from 275,000 to 600,000 barrels per day, making Port Arthur the largest refinery in North America and one of the largest in the world. The refinery is already the largest producer of high-quality lubricant base oils in North America.
Big, complex projects are nothing new for Bechtel or Jacobs. Both companies have a track record of major projects around the globe. From oil refineries, chemical plants and pipelines to mines and smelters, Bechtel and Jacobs have helped increase the supply of energy and essential commodities for a fast-growing world.
Expansion of Port Arthur
The Motiva Port Arthur Refinery, originally built in 1903, has been expanded and revised many times over the years. The latest expansion has required vast amounts of materials, equipment and personnel that might seem overwhelming to industry outsiders.
“The expansion includes eight integrated process and utilities units that are all world-class scale, as well as the required infrastructure to support them,” says Joe Thompson, the joint venture’s project director.
Bechtel, Jacobs and a number of other engineering firms designed and purchased the materials for the entire complex. “We had to have a joint venture management company and a number of supporting partners to get this done,” says Bob Foster, deputy project director for the joint venture.
Thompson and Foster say the extensive field construction activity consists of eight major general contractors and many subcontractors.
Global Sourcing Strategy
The Bechtel Jacobs team laid out design specifications for each piece of material and equipment and sent it out for aggressive international bidding. “A majority of the steel for this project was made in China,” Thompson says. “The equipment comes from as close as Houston to as far as Korea, and a lot of our compressors and pumps are from Europe. This project incorporated a global strategy from a quality, price and competency standpoint.”
Sixty-five percent of the project’s equipment, steel and pipe quantities were constructed in three U.S. module yards and one yard in Mexico. The Bechtel-Jacobs joint venture teamed up with module yard companies that include Cianbro in Brewer, Maine; Jacobs’ own modular facility in Charleston, S.C.; Kiewit in Corpus Christi, Texas; and Dragados in Tampico, Mexico, to build 326 modules weighing between 200 and 1,500 tons. All of these modules have now been successfully installed on site and connected together.
The next step is to finish installing piping, electrical and instrumentation to meet Motiva’s timeline of handover to operations starting in late 2011, with product in-tank in for the first quarter of 2012.
A Good Neighbor
The joint venture has engaged many businesses from the nine counties surrounding the plant. The expansion is generating billions of dollars in new economic development in Port Arthur, Jefferson County and the Golden Triangle of southeast Texas. Locally based employees make up half the workforce, which has reached 10,000 onsite workers. More than 300 local businesses are engaged as suppliers and sub-contractors on the job site.
Looking Forward
Bechtel and Jacobs are both looking forward to a safe and successful startup of the newly expanded facility starting later this year and continuing in the first quarter of 2012. It has been more than 30 years since a complete refinery has been built in the United States.
This landmark project strengthens the nation’s industrial base and provides transportation fuels and lubricants to a growing economy for years to come.