Article
By Alex C
Honeywell International says it eyes a market for readymade mobile refineries in oil producing countries such as Nigeria. Assembling the equipment off-site, experts say, may help energy companies solve the critical challenge of keeping large construction crews out of harm’s way while erecting infrastructure to tap oil fields in often unstable locations.
Nigeria, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is among markets where Honeywell eyes sales potential. The daily production capacity is expected to be about 10 percent of a big refinery that would have to be built on location.
Interestingly, the modular building of oil and gas equipment helps reduce cost overruns and construction time. It is also a way for Honeywell to boost sales of its energy technology. UOP already has experience building modular equipment for natural gas processing and is expanding that technology to crude oil refineries.
The company bought a 70 percent stake in Thomas Russell Co., a builder of modular natural gas processing plants, for $525 million in 2012.
The portable refinery, which takes about two years to build, will help restart stalled projects in Iraq. Although front-end engineering work has been done for large refineries, funding has not been available because partners are unwilling to risk operating in a country racked by violence.
In regions, including Southeast Asia, where it is challenging to build large projects and stay within budget, the small modular refineries also make sense. With the modules, the foundation work is completed at the site and Honeywell ships the equipment encased in a steel frame that’s ready to be installed.
The modular processors for natural gas, which separate the different gases contained in the fuel, reduce fabrication and rework costs by about 30 percent compared with building them from scratch in the field.
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