Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has announced that it has been selected by ExxonMobil to perform engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for its Crude Flexibility Engineering and Construction Project at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Beaumont, Texas.

Company officials did not disclose the contract value, but noted that this project is a release against an existing long-term agreement. The project aims to expand crude oil throughput at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refinery, increase production in the jet fuel unit, and optimize energy usage by enabling the crude unit to run different crude slates.

In making the announcement, Jacobs Group Vice President Manuel Junco stated, “We are pleased to build upon our long-term relationship with ExxonMobil and strengthen our presence at the Beaumont Refinery as we help them reach their goals on this project.”

Jacobs is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical professional and construction services.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it has created a corporate brand slogan to encourage the joint pursuit of activities with its customers that will create value and foster growth. The global rollout of this new slogan, Co-innovating tomorrow, is set for September 1, the 100th anniversary of Yokogawa's founding.

The decision to create this new slogan has its origins in dramatic shifts in our business environment that are the result of globalization, the transition to a multipolar world order, and the industry changes that are accompanying the increasing integration of things and information. In response, Yokogawa has drawn up a long-term business framework and formulated a vision statement that reads, Through "Process Co-Innovation*", Yokogawa creates new value with our clients for a brighter future. We are now accelerating our efforts to bring about a transformation that will allow us to sustain growth for another 100 years. To share the essence of this vision statement with our stakeholders and encourage all employees to join forces in the pursuit of this initiative, Yokogawa has established the corporate brand slogan of Co-innovating tomorrow.

The term Co-innovating conveys our determination to engage in the co-creation of value through the development of solutions in long-term partnerships with our clients. tomorrow expresses our resolve to move steadily into the future one step at a time.

Under this new slogan, Yokogawa will seek to establish even stronger bonds of trust with its customers by working with them to create value and stimulate growth.

* Process Co-Innovation: A concept for an automation business that will utilize all of Yokogawa's measurement, control, and information technologies. According to this concept, Yokogawa will seek not only to optimize production processes but also the flow of material and information within and between companies, including their value and supply chains. This concept will encompass the entire range of Yokogawa solutions and will entail a commitment to working with clients to create new value on their behalf.

Schneider Electric Software, a global leader in industrial software for the process industries, has announced that Shell has signed a global agreement for Spiral Suite that includes planning, scheduling and supply and distribution optimization modules.

Spiral Suite is the industry's only unified planning and scheduling environment designed from the ground up. It fully supports all supply chain work processes across large and small refineries, bringing together enterprise crude knowledge management, planning, scheduling and envelope optimization activities in a single software application. The result is a solution that better explores opportunities, reduces operational risk and shrinks the gap between planned and actual results. All activities are supported within a single application, with a single user interface and a single source of data with version and data management control. Spiral Suite enables information to be shared easily between users, improving understanding and collaboration between traders, planners and schedulers and replacing potentially disjointed point solutions.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Shell on this project. Spiral Suite promises to enhance the refinery business environment where diverse business groups can collaborate to understand how their decisions impact others and then cooperate to collectively unlock the maximum value of their economic forecasts,” said Ravi Gopinath, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Schneider Electric Software. “It increases transparency and collaboration across different business groups, enabling our customers to make the best overall decisions for safety and profitability while taking better advantage of new opportunities presented by the market.”

KBR and its wholly owned subsidiary Granherne announced today that they have signed an agreement to form an alliance with Subsea 7 to deliver Concept and Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) services to the global offshore oil and gas industry.

The alliance is a co-operation agreement between the companies where Granherne will support Subsea 7 on concept and FEED studies and Subsea 7 will support Granherne with subsea engineering and technology. The alliance will operate on a global basis using the existing resources of these two market-leading companies.

KBR's and Granherne's expertise in field development planning, concept evaluation and FEED will complement Subsea 7's subsea project management and engineering experience and the application of technology and know-how to enable improved cost-benefit evaluation for clients. The alliance will be able to engage early with clients to provide them with the most cost-effective solutions during the important concept evaluation phase of a project.

The alliance provides the opportunity for KBR and Subsea 7 to collaborate in the execution phase of offshore projects. The combined experience and capabilities has the potential to deliver the full scope of any project. The decision to collaborate will be on a project-by-project basis and will be based on a clear and differentiated value proposition to the client.

Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO, said: "This alliance combines the complementary skill-sets and know-how of two leading offshore contractors working together to ensure a greater contribution at the early stage of projects. Together, both companies can ensure that offshore oil and gas development becomes more economic and we look forward to continuing our already strong working partnership with Subsea 7."

Jean Cahuzac, Subsea 7 Chief Executive Officer, said: "This alliance will drive improvements in the offshore market with two leading independent companies working together to deliver greater value for clients worldwide. I look forward to strengthening our relationship with KBR through this alliance which provides the opportunity for early engagement in the project lifecycle when value creation can be optimised and where we can introduce enabling subsea technologies and know-how at the critical concept evaluation stage. This is key to assisting the offshore oil and gas industry to adapt to the lower oil price environment."