ExxonMobil Fawley Upgrade Preparations Ramp Up
ExxonMobil and Fluor are commissioning off-site construction work and recruitment related to the $1 billion Fawley refinery upgrade, say sources -- although the project has yet to receive planning permission from its local
government council.
Despite the absence of planning permission for the project, known as FAST, the super-major is ramping up work in preparation for constructing a new hydrotreater and hydrogen plant, which will allow Fawley to produce 38,000 b/d more diesel.
Sources say the project's main contractor, U.S. construction giant Fluor, has commissioned work on a process column in India.
"There's the 1,300-ton tower, the process column, being built in India, which will be brought into Fawley power station by barge and then shipped up the road all in one piece. They have farmed out the work to a company with a base in India," the source said.
The source said the process column work was detailed by Fluor in the first half of the year and that other parts of the new units will be imported after being constructed outside of the UK.
"There are talks with Marchwood (Military Port) about using their jetty to get a unit in there when it comes," another source told OPIS in July. "And then from there it will be taken around on barges to Fawley power station and then from the power station it will be brought up through Fawley into the bottom of the refinery."
Marchwood Military Port is a British government military base on the English south coast.
Asked whether physical work in India has started on the process column, a spokesman for ExxonMobil said: "We don't normally comment piecemeal about the progress of our projects."
Sources described a range of recruitment activities taking place over the summer, with some of the work to construct facilities for FAST project workers scheduled to begin at the end of last month.
One previous local job advertisement sought "a substantial number of contract personnel for a multi-million-pound construction project ready for the planned upgrade of Fawley oil refinery." The job ads included those for JCB operators and electrical foremen.
The advertisement read: "The project will involve building a number of temporary buildings, including offices, canteens, welfare facilities, (a) medical room, warehouses and a training facility in support of the main
construction and engineering project due to commence later in the year. The positions are temporary and likely to last well into November."
One OPIS source said at the start of July that commencement of the work was planned for the end of August, and the advertisement appeared to bear that out.
"Candidates must have sufficient transport to the Fawley refinery site in Hampshire and be able to start no later than Monday 26 August," the advertisement read.
The OPIS source said that Fluor was due to appoint the main contractor for the worker facilities close to the FAST site at the end of July.
"I believe at the end of this month, July, they are actually appointing the main contractor (for the facilities buildings) and will be letting out small packages of work, so it'll be getting serious at the end of August," said the
source.
"The impression we got from everyone there is that everything's been given the clearance, the go-ahead, it's all planned and it's all starting.
"The concrete work has been going on for quite some time," said the source, with respect to the actual site of the two new units. ExxonMobil had previously obtained permitted development rights to do some work on the site, New Forest District Council told OPIS earlier this year.
OPIS understands that tomorrow afternoon will see the release of the report by the planning officer at New Forest District Council, offering his opinion as to whether the council should approve the $1 billion project.
Final approval of FAST will then rest with New Forest District Council's planning committee comprised of 20 locally elected councillors. The planning committee is set to meet on 11 September, according to a source.
"It's likely now to go to our September committee," said a source at New Forest District Council.
"Natural England, the statutory body that deals with ecological issues, need to agree any appropriate assessment we undertake before we can come to a positive recommendation," said the source.
Earlier in the summer, OPIS contacted the planning officer at New Forest District Council tasked with writing the official report.
Asked whether ExxonMobil and Fluor had received informal assurances that the project would be approved, given their recruitment activities for the worker facilities, the planning officer replied: "Not in the full picture no. We've
said that physically, visually there's no issue with the development. There's lots of other sensitive issues that we need to consider properly having received consultee responses and we haven't had all of those yet, so we can't
conclude until we've had all those."
"We haven't given them a green light because we can't do that because there's no planning permission. There are too many ecological issues that need to be looked at closely as well. We can't give them a definitive answer at this
stage," the planning officer added.
Fluor has not publicly acknowledged that it is the main contractor at Fawley and has not responded to phone calls and e-mails about its work at the refinery.
OPIS first reported at the start of February that Fluor had been handed the EPC contract, and several sources have since talked to OPIS about its activities at the site.
OPIS revealed back in October 2017 that ExxonMobil was considering making an investment of over a billion dollars in two new units at Fawley, the U.K.'s largest refinery.
Other media outlets reported the story 11 months later, when the Financial Times was granted an interview with the refinery's manager.
"A significant investment in the site" was being guided by "a big team," the refinery's manager, Simon Downing, told the London-based newspaper.
--Anthony Lane, alane@opisnet.com
Copyright, Oil Price Information Service
