Foster Wheeler Wins FEED Contract for StatoilHydro's Carbon-Dioxide/Amine Project in Norwegian Sea

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Foster Wheeler Energy Limited (Berkshire, United Kingdom), a subsidiary of the global engineering and construction major Foster Wheeler Limited (NASDAQ:FWLT) (Clinton, New Jersey), recently secured a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract from StatoilHydro ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavanger, Norway) for a carbon-dioxide/amine project being implemented at the Asgard B offshore production platform in the Norwegian Sea. StatoilHydro is one of the world's largest offshore oil and gas companies.

The companies have not disclosed the value of contract, but Foster Wheeler is expected to include it as part of its first-quarter bookings for the fiscal year 2009.

The objective of the project is to maximize absorption and secure storage of carbon dioxide at the Asgard B offshore facility. Foster Wheeler will provide FEED services for debottlenecking operations at the existing amine unit. The company will also offer assistance in procuring equipment with long lead times of delivery.

Asgard B is one of the world's largest floating gas semi-submersible production units, located in Haltenbank in the Norwegian Sea, south of Statoil's Heidrun field. The unit exports 38 million cubic meters per day of rich gas and has a capacity to produce 94,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of condensate based on feedstock from the Smorbukk and Midgard fields. The facility is also capable of producing 41,000 BBL/d of partially stabilized crude oil.

In November 2008, Foster Wheeler secured a contract to conduct feasibility studies for the project. The firm successfully completed the feasibility study in January 2009, covering the assessment of StatoilHydro's existing facilities at Asgard B, identifying bottlenecks and limitations of current operations, evaluating process efficiencies, and providing cost estimates for implementing the proposed modifications.

StatoilHydro has been operating a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, at the Sleipner gas field for the past 13 years. The project, the first carbon sequestration project for the company in Norway, was initiated as a cost-effective measure after the Norwegian government imposed carbon emission fees on greenhouse emissions. CCS, a key process for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, captures carbon dioxide and stores it beneath the sea surface. At the Sleipner gas field, StatoilHydro extracts nearly 2,600 tons of carbon dioxide and stores it 1,000 meters below the sea surface.

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