• Tight oils crude sources are not conducive for needle coke production, as noted the need for aromatic feedstock to pro- duce the needle structures. In summary, without the necessary infrastructure of spe- cific crude, sweet decant oil, and market potential, the ben - efit of competing with existing producers and providers can be a challenge. A Matthew Stephens, Senior Manager of Economic Engineering, Imubit, matthew.stephens@imubit.com: There is an opportunity to convert fuel-grade cokers to needle coke production, but it will also require additional equipment at refineries to reduce metals/contaminants in the coker feed while providing the required aromaticity. This could mean adding a unit such as a visbreaker or thermal cracker with additional vacuum fractionation to provide these clean and aromatic coker feeds. This seems like a particularly good fit for sites with multiple cokers where the dirty portion of the remaining coker feed could still be fed to a fuels coker. There will also be the need for increased specialty coke calcining capacity to provide the incremental final processing of this material. A Marcio Wagner da Silva, Consultant, marciows30@ gmail.com: The needle coke market is very attractive nowadays, and some short-term capital investment could be made to opti - mise brownfield delayed coking unit (DCU) performance to maximise needle coke or even greenfield capital investment for new DCUs. It is important to consider the possibility of producing needle coke just by using specific feeds with high aromaticity, depending on the refinery configuration and the processed crude. An example is to use FCC decanted oil as feed to the DCU. It is nonetheless necessary to consider the global impact over refinery-wide production planning when considering that FCC optimisation to maximise decanted oil output reduces the yield of intermediate streams considered of high added value. Q Engineering and construction cost indexes remain high according to IHS Markit Insights, along with global increases in shipping and equipment costs, particu- larly electrical machinery - how is this affecting refinery revamp planning? A Gordon Lawrence, Regional Manager Turnaround and Project Assurance, Becht, glawrence@becht.com: We have seen astonishing increases in equipment costs and shipping times. This has been affecting our clients across the globe, not just in North America or Western Europe. It has caught a few owners out, leading to project or turn- around budget busts when prices are higher than estimated and schedule busts when shipping times are longer than planned. But in general, the increases in equipment cost and shipping time have been well signalled in advance. This has meant that those project or turnaround owners who con- tinue to follow the time-honoured rules of good and timely front-end definition have been able to ensure their budgets and lead times reflect the current reality.
Developing a good-quality estimate, with budget or firm quotes on price and delivery from vendors before going for a Final Investment Decision is as important as always. The issues with shipping also bring into focus the value of hav - ing in-house procurement and expediting resources and not leaving those tasks solely to the engineering contractor. It is important to keep an eye on deliveries and ensure your orders are not ‘shunted to the back of the queue’ by other customers who are shouting louder for their orders. However, the area where teams are perhaps not yet fully grasping the implications for the future is the recognition of the impact of escalation. For a turnaround, with its shorter lead time, this has perhaps a slightly lesser impact. But for large capital projects, trying to take account of the latest inflation figures in the escalation allowance for a project budget is an interesting exercise in ‘crystal ball gazing’. A Kevin Clarke, Chief Strategy Officer, Imubit, kevin. clarke@imubit.com: As the energy industry progresses with the transition toward low and zero-carbon emissions, the growth in proj - ect volume for sectors such as renewable energy, hydrogen production, carbon capture, and e-fuels will begin to com - pete for manufacturing capacity with traditional energy industries. As mentioned, there is obviously competition for electrical machinery with renewables installation and elec - trical grid upgrading. However, it can be expected that there will, for example, be a sharp growth in demand for very high pressure, thick-walled storage vessels and compressors for hydrogen applications, so equipment items that were his - torically deemed to be easily accessible within the market are increasingly long-lead items that will drive the project timing and delivery schedule. For those facilities looking to switch toward green hydro - gen, supply of electrolysers will be increasingly constrained by manufacturing capacity as OEMs gradually build out giga-factories in the future. Thus, one can envisage a situ- ation where, in the case of some of these equipment items, the actual project scale and concept, technology selec- tion, and vendor selection could be driven more by what equipment each supplier could provide within the project timeframe. The traditional technology selection process or vendor competitive bidding process may be less relevant in this environment, so procurement divisions should be cognizant of the possibility that there may only be one bid - der able to supply these critical equipment items in the timeframe. Q Against a backdrop of contractors and subcontractors challenged with staffing up in advance of a refinery or petrochemical facility revamp, can you comment on what is needed to increase the quantity of well-qualified crafts - men in the post-pandemic era? A Gordon Lawrence, Regional Manager Turnaround and Project Assurance, Becht, glawrence@becht.com: Finding well-qualified craftsmen has been a concern in North America and Western Europe for some time. The recent pandemic has merely increased a pre-existing
6
Revamps 2022
www.digitalrefining.com
Powered by FlippingBook