Bahrain has awarded the multi-billion-dollar engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract for the Bapco Modernisation Programme (BMP) to a consortium led by TechnipFMC, according to the kingdom’s Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

The contract, believed to be worth $4.2 billion, has been won by TechnipFMC along with Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Spanish general contractor Tecnicas Reunidas.

The Bapco Modernisation Programme is slated for completion in 2022.

The project is located on Bahrain’s eastern coast and entails the expansion of the capacity of the existing Sitra oil refinery from 267,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 360,000 bpd, improve energy efficiency, valorisation of the heavy part of the crude oil barrel (bottom of the barrel), enhancing the products slate and meeting environmental compliance.

The project will be executed on a lump-sum turnkey basis and includes the following main units: residue hydrocracking unit, hydrocracker unit, hydro desulphurisation unit, crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, saturated gas plant, hydrogen production unit, hydrogen recovery unit, sulphur recovery unit, tail gas treatment unit, sour water stripper unit, amine recovery unit, bulk acid gas removal unit, sulphur solidification unit and sulphur handling facilities. Utilities and offsites are also part of the scope.

The project will also include a delayed coker unit, said the minister in his welcome address at the Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference (BBTC 2017) organised by Euro Petroleum Consultants.

The unit is intended to produce coke from heavy refining residues (tar, fuel oil), which is a raw material in electrodes production for the aluminium industry. The coke produced can be used by the nearby Aluminium Bahrain’s (Alba) calcine unit.