Oil & Gas Journal's semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows a decline in construction activity compared with the previous edition of the report (OGJ, Nov. 17, 2008, p. 24). Many companies have delayed their target completion dates for projects reported to OGJ in previous surveys. Some projects listed in the earlier report have been canceled.

Following are project details from the new survey, which is ava liable online (see box).

Refining

Marathon Oil Corp. plans to delay the expansion of its 100,000 b/ d refinery in southwest Detroit (OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2009). The company originally intended to finish the project in fourth-quarter 2010, but a slowdown in gasoline demand and a delay in the company's Canadian crude production pushed the completion date to mid-2012. Construction, which began in June 2008, will not stop but will continue at a slower pace, says the company. Due to the delay and other factors, Marathon raised its cost estimate for the project to $2.2 billion from the original estimate of $1.9 billion.

Motiva Enterprises LLC has delayed the completion target for a project that will make its 285,000-b/d refinery at Port Arthur, Tex., the largest in the US (OGJ Online, Mar. 18, 2009). Motiva, a joint venture of Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Refining Inc., originally planned to complete the $ 7 billion expansion in late 2010. The project will be completed in first-quarter 2012.

It will add a single-train crude distillation unit with a capacity of 325,000 b/d and other units. The expanded facility will be the country's largest refinery producer of sulfur and largest producer of petroleum coke. The main project contractor is a joint venture of Bechtel and Jacobs Engineering Group. The largest US refinery now is ExxonMobil's 572,500-b/d facility in Baytown, Tex.

Meanwhile, Kuwait has canceled plans to build a 630,000-b/d refinery at Al Jour on the Persian Gulf coast near the Saudi Arabia border (OGJ Online, Mar. 23, 2009), according to Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah. The refinery, which would have been the country's fourth, was expected to cost $ 1 5 billion and scheduled to start in 2013 (OGJ, Nov. 12, 2007, p. 3 2). Work on the grassroots refinery, which would have produced low- sulfur fuel oil for the country's power plants, was officially halted at the Council of Ministers Mar. 2 3 meeting after contractors had been notified.

Vietnam opened its first refinery, a $3 billion project designed to meet a third of Vietnam's fuel demand in 2010. The 148,000-b/d plant in Dung Quat Bay will be operated by state-owned Vietnam Oil SiGas Group (Petrovietnam).This is a continuous catalytic reforming unit under commissioning. Photo from Technip, by Patrick Zachmann/ Magnum Photos.

Mozambique's OilMoz plans to build an $8 billion oil refinery in the south of Maputo, designed to reduce the country's dependency on imported fuel, says the company. OilMoz expects to start production by 2014. OilMoz Chief Executive Fausto Cruz said the refinery, with an estimated capacity of 350,000 b/dis expected to benefit both Mozambique and countries in the region which rely on imports of fuel. The company has identified five potential refinery sites.

Cruz said OilMoz will work in partnership with Shell Global Solutions International BV for the study and design of the project. Mozambique's only oil refinery closed 24 years ago.

China National Petroleum Corp. began construction on a 53,000-b/ d refinery in Chad. CNPC will hold a 60% stake in the refinery, and Chad's Ministry of Petroleum will hold the remaining 40%. Construction will be completed in 2011.

Petrochemical

Kazakhstan's JSC Trade House KazMunaiGaz has selected Axens' ParamaX Technology Suite for the first major aromatics complex to be located at the Atyrau Refinery in Kazakhstan. The new 629,000 tonne/ year (tpy) grassroots plant will produce 496,000 tpy of par axylene and 133,000 tpy of benzene. Plant start-up is scheduled for 2012- 13. The front-end engineering designs are led by JSC Omskneftekhimproekt of Russia.