Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq:FWLT) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been selected by Farabi Petrochemicals Company to undertake a concept study and technology selection contract for the Jazan Petrochemicals Project in Saudi Arabia.

Foster Wheeler’s scope of work will include development of the overall concept for the project, which is planned to include a world-scale linear alkyl benzene plant and a range of units producing specialty chemicals derived from diesel feedstock. Foster Wheeler will also recommend the technology for the production of low aromatics solvent and for the treatment of heavy fuel oil, as well as develop a capital and operating cost estimate and the invitation to tender for the front-end engineering design. The study is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2014.

“We are delighted that Farabi Petrochemicals Company has awarded this important strategic study to Foster Wheeler, continuing a relationship that stretches back over a decade,” said Umberto della Sala, President and Chief Operating Officer, Foster Wheeler AG. “We look forward to making a key contribution in assisting our client to progress this significant investment, and delivering a strong performance that will position us well for subsequent phases of the project.”

“Farabi Petrochemicals are pleased to award this contract to Foster Wheeler and look forward to working with them to develop this key investment in our company’s future,” said Mohammed Al-Wadaey, President, Farabi Petrochemicals Company.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that Yokogawa Electric International, a subsidiary that oversees Yokogawa’s IA and control business outside Japan, has received an order from Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation (SIPSC)*1 to supply the monitoring system for a large water distribution pipeline that the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC)*2 is building in Saudi Arabia between the cities of Yanbu and Medina. This is Yokogawa’s first order from SIPSC for a water distribution pipeline project.

Yanbu is a Red Sea port and a center of industry in Al Madinah province, and Medina is the capital city (population 1.1 million) of that province. When completed, the new water distribution pipeline will stretch 610 km from a seawater desalination plant in Yanbu to the city of Medina and its surrounding districts, and will be capable of supplying 709,000 m3 of potable water per day. This is one of the largest-ever international water distribution projects to be undertaken by SIPSC.

This order includes the FAST/TOOLS SCADA*3 software and the STARDOMTM network-based control system for monitoring the pipeline, the PRM® integrated device management software package for instrumentation monitoring and online diagnosis, pipeline leakage detection systems, and a telecommunicaions system. Yokogawa Electric International will be responsible for engineering, supervising the installation of, and commissioning these products. These products will be delivered by July 2014 and the new pipeline will become operational the following month.

Tetsuya Murai, General Manager of the Sales Division’s Power & Utilities Department at Yokogawa Electric International, said, "The countries of the Middle East and emerging nations in other regions are facing water shortages due to rapid industrialization and population growth, particularly in urban areas, and thus need to build seawater desalination plants and water distribution pipelines. Encouraged by winning this order, we will forge a track record with SIPSC and other EPC*4 contractors that are actively developing their business in the international market, and will expand our IA and control business by targeting water infrastructure."

Foster Wheeler has announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Aramco Overseas Company B.V. (AOC) to perform the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a gas compression project that is part of AOC’s Master Gas System Expansion in Saudi Arabia.

The Foster Wheeler contract value was not disclosed and was included in the second-quarter 2013 bookings.  Foster Wheeler will be responsible for developing a FEED package on a fast-track basis, initially for two compressor stations. AOC plans to develop up to three additional compressor stations in a subsequent phase of this expansion.

“Foster Wheeler is very pleased to be awarded further work for Saudi Aramco,” said Umberto della Sala, President and Chief Operating Officer of Foster Wheeler AG. “This latest win reflects our client’s confidence in our team, our performance track record on their projects and, in particular, our ability to execute a fast-track schedule.”

Iraq has shortlisted 12 international companies and consortiums to build the country's first oil export pipeline in decades, and will ask them to submit their bids by the end of this year for an $18 billion project that will make the country less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, two oil industry sources said Wednesday.

Iraq's oil ministry has chosen these companies out of more than 80 international companies which submitted their credentials to build a section of the 1, 680-kilometer pipeline stretching from the oil hub of Basra in southern Iraq to Jordanian port of Aqaba in the Red Sea, sources said.

The short-listed companies and consortiums are: Lukoil OAO Holdings, China National Petroleum Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Toyota Tsusho, Punj Lloyd (India) and Mass Global International (Iraq), Saipem, Daewoo International Corporation, Consolidated Contractors Company, or CCC (Greece), Go Gas, L&T and Fuis Capital Ltd., Petrofac and Stroygazconsulting, or SGC, and Orascom and Petrojet (Egypt).

SCOP will invite the short-listed companies to receive the tender package, the second person said. SCOP will also propose that companies need to submit their offers by November or December, sources added.

Iraq and Jordan signed a preliminary agreement in April to build the section of the pipeline that would stretch from an Iraqi oil pumping station in Haditha, west of Iraq, to Aqaba. The rest of the pipeline, which is 680 kilometers long, linking a Basra pumping station with the one in Haditha would be built and financed by the Iraqi oil ministry.

Iraq hopes the pipeline will make it less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, providing the country with an alternative route if Iran closes the Strait of Hormus. Tehran has threatened on several occasions to close the strategic waterway through which 35% of the world's shipborne oil is exported, most recently in response to international sanctions over its suspect nuclear program.

Last year Iraq started design and feasibility studies on the pipeline that's expected to carry 2.25 million barrels a day. The country is now preparing to start work on the section from Haditha to Aqaba, with a capacity of 1 million barrels a day. A third section of the pipeline, running to Syria's Banias port in the Mediterranean, has been postponed because of the conflict in the neighboring country. It would have a capacity of 1.25 million barrels a day.

Under the agreement signed in April, Iraq would supply energy-poor Jordan with 150,000 barrels a day to feed its Zarqa refinery near Amman. Iraq will also supply Jordan with 100 million cubic feet a day of gas via another pipeline that will be built parallel to the oil line.