Engineering and construction firm Fluor Corp. has been named as project management contractor for the construction of a new oil and gas processing and petrochemical complex in Azerbaijan.
The country's state-owned oil company, SOCAR, said that following a competitive tender Fluor was selected as project management contractor for the gas processing and petrochemical plants that will form part of the new complex.
The site is located at Sangachal, 60 km (37 miles) south of Azerbaijan's capital city, Baku. The first phase of construction, set to take place from 2016 to 2021, will include the gas processing plant with a capacity of 12 billion cubic meters per year, the petrochemical plant with a production capacity of about 850,000 tons per year, and the utilities, associated offsite facilities and power plant.
During the later second phase, the refinery with an initial capacity of 8.6 million tons per year will be constructed and put into operation.
Fluor's UK office in Farnborough will oversee implementation of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activities for the gas processing plant and utilities and offsite facilities, as well as front-end engineering design and EPC activities for the petrochemical plant.
Industry sources quoted by Reuters said that the new petrochemical complex will allow Azerbaijan to profit from processing oil rather than just exporting it.
