Petrobras has announced in early November that it had selected WorleyParsons (Sydney, Australia) to take part in the largest industrial undertaking in the history of the company in Brazil. WorleyParsons’ services contract is valued at USD 110 million. The project aims to construct the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Industrial Project, COMPERJ, which will demand an USD 8.4 billion investment. COMPERJ is planned to increase heavy crude oil refining capacity in the South American state and produce first and second-generation petrochemical products not only for the internal but also for the external markets. WorleyParsons will perform integration of the overall project and project management services, execute front-end and off-site engineering design of the utilities, as well as provide other technical services in detailed design, commissioning, pre-operation, start-up and performance testing of the utilities and off-sites. WorleyParsons will be in charge of the preparation of planning for the implementation phase, cost estimation and documentation for contracting companies for the detailed design, procurement and construction phases of the facilities. The project is scheduled to come on stream in 2012 and have a 150,000bpd processing capacity of Brazilian heavy fuel oil. The industrial complex will house a first-generation refining unit for the production of basic petrochemical products such as ethylene, propylene, benzene and paraxylene. Basic products will be transformed into petrochemical products such as styrene, ethylene glycol, polyethylene, polypropylene and PTA at second-generation units that will be also part of COMPERJ, along with a utilities plant to supply water, steam and electrical energy for the whole complex.
