Saudi Aramco affiliate Aramco Overseas Co. (AOC) and its joint-venture partners, ExxonMobil and Fujian Petrochemicals Ltd. (FPCL), recently signed the Project Management Contract (PMC) with a consortium of ABB Lummus and Sinopec Engineering Institute for the Fujian Integrated Project. The project will expand the existing refinery in the Fujian Province of China from 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 240,000 bpd, with significant product upgrading capability, using Arabian crude oil as feedstock. It will also include a new 800,000-ton-per-year ethylene steam cracker, polyethylene and polypropylene units and a new 700,000-ton-per-year paraxylene unit. The PMC contractor will have the overall responsibility for initially developing the front-end loading and engineering, procurement and construction packages. Later, the PMC will participate in managing the detailed design, procurement and construction of the multi-billion dollar Fujian Integrated Project. Front-end engineering is set to be completed in 17 months, and the entire project is planned to be completed in the second half of 2008. --MORE 1312 Local Time 1012 GMT
