30-09-2014

ABB to build $216M gas treatment plant in Tunisia

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has been awarded a $216 million contract to deliver a gas treatment plant to the South Tunisian Gas Project (STGP).The order was awarded by OMV Tunisie Production GmbH, a subsidiary of Austrian energy group OMV, and was booked in the third quarter.

ABB will be responsible for the turnkey delivery of the Nawara gas treatment plant (GTP) including gas separation and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) extraction units. It will also provide key automation, communications and power components, including the control system and transformers and switchgear for the electrification of the plant.

The GTP will separate commercial natural gas from heavier hydrocarbons, which will then be fractionated to produce propane, butane and LPG used in many industrial, commercial and manufacturing applications. The plant will have a design capacity of 2.7 million standard cubic meters per day, and is expected to start production by October 2016.

“The award of the Nawara project to ABB reflects our focus on delivering turnkey solutions for medium-sized plants in the upstream and midstream oil and gas segments,” said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, head of ABB’s Process Automation division. “We do this by leveraging our core expertise in project management, industrial processes and the delivery of modular solutions, gained from executing more than 300 turnkey projects.“

He added: “The high modularization content of Nawara allowed us to significantly shorten the construction time and be competitive in winning this order.”

The project will be executed in a consortium with the Canadian company, Thermo Design Engineering Ltd. The total contract value is $291 million.

The STGP is a strategic infrastructure project that is being carried out by a 50/50 joint venture between ETAP, Tunisia’s state-owned oil and gas exploration and production company, and OMV Tunisie. Once complete, STGP will allow the country to increase its domestic production of low-carbon gas as well as its hydrocarbon exports. The overall project includes central processing facilities at the Nawara well site, a 370 km pipeline and a gas treatment plant in the Ghannouch industrial district near the coastal city of Gabès.

ABB was recently awarded another turnkey project to upgrade the power generation capacity at Zirku island oil and gas processing plant in Abu Dhabi for ZADCO, a consortium comprising the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ExxonMobil and the Japan Oil Development company.