Chilean coker contract

announced today that its Madrid-based subsidiary Foster Wheeler Iberia, has been awarded a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a new delayed coker complex at Empresa Nacional de Petroleo's (ENAP) Aconcagua refinery at Concon, Chile.

The project, which will use Foster Wheeler's SYDEC delayed coking technology, will be executed by a consortium led by Foster Wheeler, with two other international companies.

ENAP, Chile's state-owned oil company, and its refining unit ENAP Refinerias, will have a combined 49% stake in the special-purpose company ENERCON (Energia Concon), and Foster Wheeler and its two consortium partners will each hold 17%.

“Using our delayed coking technology, ENAP will be able to process cheaper, heavier crudes and to upgrade the heavy fuels it produces into lighter, more valuable products, such as liquefied petroleum gas, naphtha and diesel," commented Jesus Cadenas, managing director of Foster Wheeler Iberia.

The new $430 million facility includes a new 20,000 barrels per stream day delayed coker, auxiliary units, including sulphur recovery, sour water stripper, amine regeneration, coke handling and wastewater treatment, as well expanded utilities.

Foster Wheeler Iberia, in collaboration with its consortium partners, will execute the project on a lump-sum turnkey basis. The process design package has been prepared by Foster Wheeler's coking centre of excellence in Houston. The new complex is expected to start up in the first half of 2008.