Foster Wheeler Moving on Cost Saving $275 Million Coker for Valero

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources,Inc.; Houston Texas). Engineering on the $275 million contract for a Delayed Coker and associated facilities project for Valero Refining Company, a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) (San Antonio, Texas) is currently under way with Foster Wheeler USA Corporation (NYSE:FWC)(Clinton, New Jersey). The coker is being built to modify Valero's existing refinery located in Texas City, Texas, and will enable the facility to process heavy, sour Maya crude.

The company's scope of work will consist of the design and construction of the 45,000 Barrel a day delayed coker, a new sour water stripper, miscellaneous offsites and utilities to support the new units plus unit revamps of the amine and plant water supply systems.

The project will utilize Foster Wheeler}s proprietary SYDEC(SM) delayed coking technology and process a combined feedstock of Maya vacuum tower bottoms and pitch from Middle Eastern Crude. The project is expected to lower Texas City Refinery feedstock costs by over $1 per barrel and should raise the return on capital employed by three per cent.

Site preparation is currently underway with commercial startup scheduled for January 2004.