Petrochemical Projects Research Articles

Adjusted TextRank for keyword extraction in petrochemical project correspondence documents

A large petrochemical construction project is typically executed by multiple parties, all bound by contract agreement. During the execution phase, issues and problems may arise because the work details are not clearly specified in the contractual agreement. These issues are formally communicated and documented through written correspondence letters. By identifying important keywords within these formal letters, a comprehensive narrative of the project, including its associated issues, can be identified and analyzed. In this research, we introduce an adjusted TextRank algorithm that integrates external features from the Indonesian FastText language model and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) scores to identify important keywords within a dataset of correspondence letters of petrochemical projects. This enhancement involves refining phrase detection, semantic relationship estimation between words, and part-of-speech (POS) identification for words or phrases. Our results show that the proposed adjustments result in improved evaluation scores compared to the baseline standard TextRank and standard TF-IDF, respectively by 24.1% and 25% in terms of F-1 scores.

Land Acquisition and Community Empowerment through the CSR Program of PT Pertamina Refinery and Petrochemical Project (PT PRPP) For the Construction of the Oil Refinery Grass Root Refinery in Tuban Regency

Land Acquisition and Community Empowerment through the CSR Program of PT Pertamina Refinery and Petrochemical Project (PT PRPP) For the Construction of the Oil Refinery Grass Root Refinery in Tuban Regency

Improvement of Strategic Investment Decision Making Process in Petrochemicals Industry

Joint ventures, commercial conglomerates, and public-private partnerships must go through various stages of planning prior constructing mega-petrochemical projects. One of the most important steps is the Final Investment Decision (FID). Before approving and ordering large-scale petrochemical project construction, corporations and project partners must follow these steps. FID comes after careful preparation and before project implementation. Market attractiveness, proven production technology, and high investment return affect FID. The project's investment return—determined by IRR, NPV, and PP—is the main factor. An approved FID shows the company's willingness to invest and make a profit, while an unapproved FID prevents further losses if the project goes ahead. NPV, IRR, and PP not meeting criteria prevents a final investment decision. Economic return failure is caused by high taxes, total investment costs, product spread, capital costs, and operating costs. This study aims to improve the current techno-economic model in the petrochemicals industry's final investment decision process by investigating the main parameters of existing FID techno-economic models, developing a new model for the industry, and validating its accuracy. This study began by populating relevant final investment decision criteria, assembling production technology techno-economic data, and determining techno-economic parameters. This study is expected to improve the current techno-economic model and allow more projects to achieve successful FID for long-term profit, while preventing further losses if the economic return is still unfavourable by incorporating sensitivity and real option analysis. An improved techno-economic model should meet the needs of the petrochemical industry and provide prominent outputs for business risk management by allowing precise input consideration.

Alujain lets contract for new petrochemical project at Yanbu

Alujain lets contract for new petrochemical project at Yanbu

Finance for fossils – The role of public financing in expanding petrochemicals

The petrochemicals industry (mainly plastics and fertilizer production) is expanding, despite increasing attention to the environmental impact of petrochemicals. In our paper, we explore the role public finance plays in the petrochemicals industry. We do so by mapping the public and private financial flows into large-scale petrochemical projects for the decade 2010–20 and discuss the role of public financial institutions for the development of the industry globally. Secondly, we provide a detailed analysis of the roles international and national public finance has played in enabling two prominent petrochemical projects: namely the Sadara plant in Saudi Arabia and the Surgil plant in Uzbekistan. The cases are illustrative of the dynamics of state interest and involvement in fossil fuel producing countries as well as of lending and guarantees from foreign export credit agencies (ECAs) and development finance institutions, and how such public finance plays an important role in leveraging private finance. Our findings show how public finance for petrochemicals is highly globalized and to a large degree originates in developed countries. As petrochemical industrial infrastructures are designed to last decades, the public finance thus strongly contributes to the carbon lock-in of the sector and limits the possibilities for low-carbon investments needed to comply with the UN Paris Agreement.

Middle Eastern projects move forward

A pair of big Middle Eastern petrochemical projects have been given the go-ahead. Saudi Aramco and TotalEnergies have made the final decision to invest in a new cracker complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The $11 billion complex will be integrated with the firms’ existing refining joint venture there. The cracker will have capacity to make 1.7 million metric tons (t) of ethylene per year. The project will also include two downstream polyethylene plants and a butadiene extraction unit. It will be majority owned by Aramco and go on line in 2027. Separately, Chevron Phillips Chemical and QatarEnergy have green-lighted a $6 billion project for Ras Laffan, Qatar. It will have a 2.1 million t per year ethylene cracker, the largest in the region, as well as downstream polyethylene plants.

Priorities for the development of the petrochemical industry as part of the fuel and energy complex of Kazakhstan

The article presents the results of a study on the development of the petrochemical industry, which is part of the structure of the fuel and energy complex of Kazakhstan. The development of the petrochemical industry of the country is carried out through the creation of a petrochemical cluster and the construction of plants for the production of petrochemical products (polyethylene, butadiene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate), which are geographically located in the western region of the country, where the main hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated, large oil and gas production enterprises operate, there are necessary infrastructure facilities. Forecast indicators of the development of petrochemistry, technical and economic characteristics of petrochemical projects are given. Information is presented on the development of the petrochemical cluster and the organization of the production of each petrochemical product separately. The authors carried out forecast calculations for import substitution and export in the implementation of petrochemical development projects in Kazakhstan. The purpose of the article is to conduct a predictive analysis of the development of the petrochemical industry in Kazakhstan, since this branch of the national economy is still at the stage of formation.

Comparative Study on Ground Improved by Stone Columns and Ground Improved by Hybrid Concrete Columns

This paper provides a detailed discussion and comparison of two deep ground improvement techniques, stone columns and hybrid concrete columns (HCC’s), in terms of design, construction procedure and performance, through a case history from a recent petrochemical project in Malaysia. Two full-scale group load tests (GLT’s) were conducted on test columns constructed prior to construction of production columns and used to calibrate the analytical models adopted for the design of stone columns and HCC’s. The ground improved by HCC’s shows a stiffer load-settlement behavior compared to the ground improved by stone columns as predicted by analytical models. In addition, the time-dependent settlement is more obvious in the stone column improved ground than in the HCC improved ground. Stone columns may act as a drainage path helping expulsion of pore water as the applied load increases whereas concrete columns transfer the load to the surrounding soils through the load transfer at the interface between a concrete column and the surrounding soil. The results of all four GLT’s on production columns confirm that the settlement predictions with the calibrated analytical models are satisfactory. This paper also summarizes the key calibration techniques adopted at the project site for quality control during construction. These calibration techniques can be considered as a useful guide for other project sites with similar ground improvement methods proposed in similar ground conditions.

Risk Allocation Optimization between Owner and Contractor in Construction Projects by Using the UTA-STAR Method

Project risk is an uncertain situation or event that, if it occurs, may have a negative or positive effect on one or more project objectives, such as scope, schedule, cost, and quality. Major industrial projects are increasingly facing complexity and uncertainty. The scope of this paper is related to petrochemical projects, in which risks directly affect the approved time, cost, and quality of the project. In such projects, there are risks that neither the owner nor the contractor has the main role in the occurrence or prevention of, and it is not easy to determine who is responsible for them. In such projects, there are risks that neither the owner nor the contractor has the main role in the occurrence or prevention of, and for which it is not easy to determine responsibility. Therefore, predicting, identifying, analyzing, and determining of the optimal allocation of risk responsibility between contracting parties is one of the most important steps before the start of the project. Suppose it is not correctly allocated among project stakeholders, then, in that case, risk responsibility imposes costs on the project that must be paid by the owner, contractor, and partnership, causing, in general, many problems for project management. Therefore, this paper presents a model to calculate the optimal ratio of risk allocation between the project parties in the concluding contract stage, using the UTA-STAR technique to obtain the owner and contractor utility function to create as much of a win-win relationship between them as possible.

Problems and Countermeasures of Procurement Management in Petrochemical Project

Problems and Countermeasures of Procurement Management in Petrochemical Project

Chemical makers eye carbon capture in China

ExxonMobil, Shell, and CNOOC say they will evaluate a project to capture and store carbon at China’s Dayawan Petrochemical Industrial Park. Shell and CNOOC operate a petrochemical joint venture in the park, and ExxonMobil plans to build a large chemical plant there. ExxonMobil says the effort could capture up to 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and support China’s ambition of carbon neutrality by 2060. “The project could also serve as a model for the chemical industry as one of the first petrochemical projects to be decarbonized,” the firm says.

Big petrochemical project may come to the Gulf Coast

The US Gulf Coast may be getting a massive new petrochemical complex. The engineering firm KBR says it has signed an agreement to license its catalytic olefin and steam cracking technologies to an unnamed “leading midstream company” that will use them to build a large facility. Midstream companies provide services such as operating pipelines, terminals, and storage facilities for the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. They also fractionate chemical feedstocks like ethane from natural gas streams. Most don’t involve themselves directly in chemical production. KBR, one of the world’s largest petrochemical technology providers, says the facility will have 2.4 million metric tons (t) per year of light olefin capacity. That could make it larger than Dow’s new ethylene cracker in Freeport, Texas, which weighs in at 2 million t of capacity after a recent expansion and is billed as the largest facility of its kind in the world. KBR’s K-COT

Big petrochemical project may come to the Gulf Coast

Big petrochemical project may come to the Gulf Coast

Protection of rare and protected species of flora in large petrochemical projects

Protection of rare and protected species of flora in large petrochemical projects

Critical success factors in the management of petrochemical construction projects for contractors and subcontractors during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research identifies the critical factors of multinational enterprises affecting the successful performance of contractors and sub-contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these critical success factors, labour availability, site accessibility, shortage of construction resources, and inadequate epidemic prevention in construction planning caused by the lockdown policy were the most fundamental successes encountered in construction projects. The present study focuses on Thailand's construction industry with the aim of identifying critical success factors and finding the cause-and-effect relationship among these essential success factors. To understand these interdependent relationships, this study distinguishes between ‘driving’ and ‘dependent’ critical success factors. Mixed-methods were applied to investigate the mutual relationships that exist between these critical success factors. The results show that the critical factors driving contractors’ successful performance are related to 18 critical factors that must be considered during construction management. Interpretive Structural Modelling found that the success factors during the COVID-19 pandemic were effectiveness management, e.g. profitability and client satisfaction. However, important performance drivers of contractor success that are compatible with MICMAC strategic analysis and the construction action plan, and participation of contractors by increasing knowledge on construction management and internal monitoring, are crucial success drivers for contractors and sub-contractors.

Safety Management Strategy of Petrochemical Engineering Project Construction

Safety Management Strategy of Petrochemical Engineering Project Construction

Poland’s PKN Orlen plans big expansion

PKN Orlen is investing in what it calls Europe’s largest petrochemical project in 20 years. The $3.7 billion project, in Płock, Poland, will include an ethylene cracker with 740,000 metric tons of capacity, as well as new units for ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and other derivatives. As part of the effort, PKN will mothball a 40-year-old ethylene cracker on the site. The company aims to complete the project early in 2024.

Nova advances projects in Canada

Nova Chemicals says its petrochemical projects in Ontario are 65% complete and will start up late next year. The company is spending a total of $2 billion. It is expanding its ethylene cracker in C...

Nova advances petrochemical projects in Canada

Nova advances petrochemical projects in Canada

Common Problems and Treatment in the Construction Management of Petrochemical Process Pipeline Installation Project

Common Problems and Treatment in the Construction Management of Petrochemical Process Pipeline Installation Project