Serbia Awards Delayed Coker Unit Contract at Pancevo Refinery

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Serbia's Naftna Industrija Srbije a.d (NIS Petroleum) (Belgrade) has awarded a contract for the construction of a delayed coker unit at the 98,000-barrel-per-day (b/d) Pancevo refinery to CB&I Incorporated (NYSE:CBI) (The Hague, Netherlands).

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract follows on from an earlier award to CB&I for the technology license and front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the delayed coker that will be integrated with the refinery's existing CB&I fluid catalytic cracking unit and Chevron Lummus Global hydrocracker. Chevron Lummus Global is a joint venture between CB&I and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California).

"CB&I is pleased to have been selected for this significant project following the successful completion of an extensive process planning study for the NIS Pancevo Oil Refinery," said Philip K. Asherman, CB&I's President and Chief Executive Officer. "NIS and CB&I have a history of successful collaboration, and we look forward to working with them on this modernization that will provide for the refining of heavy oil residues."

Industrial Info estimates that the delayed coker contract, which is running more than three years late, is worth roughly $200 million and construction is expected to kick-off next year.

NIS is 56.15%-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and 29.9%-owned by the Serbian state. It is one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies in southeast Europe, operating in the exploration, production and processing of oil and gas, as well as the production and retail sales of a wide range of petroleum products.

Earlier this month, NIS finished 7 million euro ($7.8 million) of modernisation works at the refinery. NIS stated that the improvements, which involved 2,000 workers and more than 500,000 man hours, would improve the energy efficiency and reliability of the facilities as well as boost output of higher quality petroleum products. Nearly all of the process units were subject to the overhaul including primary refinery units, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, mild hydrocracking and distillate hydrotreating unit (MHC/DHT) and hydrogen unit. In addition to that, maintenance works were carried out on the largest refinery unit for producing petrol components and gases, as well as the secondary refinery units.

"By additionally modernising the Pancevo oil refinery, NIS is strengthening the competitiveness of its processing facilities and, despite the long-running crisis in the oil industry, it continues to implement key development projects, including a further development of crude oil processing facilities," said Vladimir Gagić, Director of Refining at NIS. "We take pride in the fact that this makes it possible for the refinery in Pancevo to stay among the most modern ones in this part of Europe, not only in terms of the quality of the products it provides to the market, but also in terms of strict compliance with ecological standards in the process of oil refining," stated Vladimir Gagić, Director of Refining at NIS j.s.c."

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