Jacobs Engineering Adds Methanol, Oil & Natural Gas Projects to Contract Slate

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) giant Jacobs Engineering Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Dallas, Texas) recently picked up some top-dollar business in the Oil & Gas Production and Chemical Processing industries, as the company has responded to service demand in the changing markets for methanol and crude-oil exploration. Industrial Info is tracking more than $94 billion in active projects involving Jacobs.

Among Jacobs' recent long-term awards was a five-year field services contract from The Chemours Company FC LLC (NYSE:CC) (Wilmington, Delaware) for its largest production facility, the Washington Works fluoropolymers plant in Washington, West Virginia. The plant produces fluoroproducts for the construction, semiconductor, automotive and aerospace industries. Jacobs will provide small capital construction, ongoing maintenance and turnaround development for the facility, including the $2 million maintenance turnaround program for 2017, which is slated to kick off soon. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Jacobs is at work on a major chemicals project roughly 100 miles to the south: US Methanol Corporation's (Aliso Viejo, California) $200 million LibertyOne and $175 million LibertyTwo methanol plants in Institute, West Virginia. Jacobs recently completed detailed engineering on LibertyOne, a 175,000-metric-ton-per-year unit. Also, it has been selected to perform engineering services for the 150,000-metric-ton-per-year LibertyTwo, which is undergoing economic evaluation and, if approved, would begin construction following the completion and start-up of LibertyOne. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on LibertyOne and LibertyTwo.

In recent years, several world-scale methanol plants have been proposed in the U.S., with plans to ship a majority of production to Asia to meet growing demand in methanol-to-olefins production. The US Methanol project in West Virginia fits a growing trend to meet future domestic demand for methanol with smaller-scale plants that are being proposed and built regionally. These plants are built at a fraction of the cost compared to billion dollar-plus world-scale plants; are located closer to end users; and meet regional demand more efficiently.

Jacobs also has continued to find new contracts in its global Oil & Gas Production business. Last month, Oil Search Limited (Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) sent Jacobs and joint-venture partner Monadelphous Group Limited (Perth, Australia) a letter of intent to enter into a proposed, five-year contract to provide brownfield EPC services for Oil Search Limited's production facilities in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In the second quarter of 2017, Oil Search Limited is scheduled to undergo a $6 million shutdown at its Kutubu Crude Oil & Natural Gas Central Processing Plant and a $1 million shutdown at its Agogo Crude Oil Production Plant, both in the Highlands. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the Kutubu and Agogo turnarounds.

Larger projects involving Jacobs in the Oil & Gas Production Industry include Royal Dutch Shell plc's (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, Netherlands) proposed $4 billion Vito Crude Oil & Natural Gas Production Platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The project, which would be in water depths of more than 4,000 feet, involves building a semi-submersible platform to handle production from the Vito field, which contains as much as 300 million barrels of oil equivalent; future tiebacks would be possible from other fields. At present, Shell is trying to determine which enhanced oil recovery techniques could boost production. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Also, Jacobs' Canadian subsidiary has been selected at the project manager on Athabasca Oil Sands Corporation's (TSX:ATH) (Calgary, Alberta) $1.2 billion second phase and $1.2 billion third phase for the Hangingstone SAGD Bitumen Production Field and Processing Plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta. For more information, including contact information and current schedules, see March 13, 2017, article - Athabasca Oil Sands Corporation Doubles Capital Spending in 2017, After Major Acquisition, and Industrial Info's project reports for Phase II and Phase III.

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