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assigned as field engineering team at dif- Projects

ferent project phases in order to retrieve
existing documentation, to take measu- Foster Wheeler (now Wood) has been working at Antwerp for more than 50 years,
rements of existing facilities, to develop establishing a long-lasting relationship with many top-ranking companies opera-
related engineering deliverables and to ting in the area. Total has been a repeat customer for decades; actually the first
discuss and to agree with Refinery per- work completed by Foster Wheeler was the Refinery Expansion for S.I.B.P. in 1968
sonnel on different possible technical al- (S.I.B.P., in later years, became a Total Company).
ternatives. The main recent projects executed by the Milan office for Total, in Belgium and in
Engineering activities for the Sour Water France, include, but not only:
Stripper and Steam Boiler units proceeded
almost in line with planned schedule whilst • Horizon Project – FEED at Donges, France
the Off-sites & Utilities part suffered a sub- • Above mentioned OPTARA Project
stantial modification of the scope of work, • Hydrodesulphurisation 4 Revamp - FEED at Antwerp, Belgium
causing a delayed completion, mainly due • D11 Unit Revamp – FEED + EPCm at Gonfreville, France
to the infeasibility of assumptions made at
FEED definition that required extra effort
by both the teams to resolve and finalize.
We were also responsible for all the pur- ped involving mainly European vendors, tes for each inquiry, based on the different
chasing services, from the issue of the in- employing a competitive bidding appro- commercial categories.
quiry to the delivery of the goods to site. ach. Due to the size of the project, to avoid
Since inquiries were issued in the name The bidder lists were prepared starting overloading the contractors with a scope
and behalf of Total and the orders placed from a contractual Master Vendors List, greater than their capabilities and their
by Total, its team was involved in all the integrated with a number of qualified sup- manpower availability, the overall project
different procurement phases, and their pliers that, based on positive past expe- was subdivided in two parts, the grass-ro-
approval was required for the most critical riences, would have guaranteed excellent ots units (Sour Water Stripper and Steam
steps. performance in terms of price, compliance Boiler) and the Off-sites & Utilities revam-
The procurement campaign was develo- with required delivery date and quality. The ping part.
inquiry phase lasted This subdivision was also supported by
several months, ave- the main differences between the two are-
ragely five months per as.
order, to arrive at the In fact, the two parts were subject to a dif-
required technical ali- ferent permit regime, being HPB and SWS
gnment, to avoid pro- in grass-roots or brown-field area, whilst
blems and delay du- the Off-sites & Utilities scope was mainly a
ring the manufacturing revamp of or in existing areas.
phase, and to obtain Moreover, as far as the schedule is con-
the best market price. cerned, completion and hand-over of
Notwithstanding tho- grass-roots units was contractually reque-
se premises and pre- sted several months earlier than the O&U
cautions, most of the portion.
vendors’ performan- Piling, civil and a portion of electrical-
ces were lower than instrumentation works were assigned to
expected, with an ave- local contractors.
rage delay in delivery of Electrical and instrumentation works for
two months, both for the Sour Water Stripper and Steam Boiler
bulk material and for were assigned to an Irish company.
equipment supply. Despite the other inquiries, and mainly
In some cases, the due to a lower cost compared with other
goods were delivered solutions, the mechanical works, that
with a greater delay, also included associated activities like
therefore deeply affec- lifting, scaffolding, insulation, painting,
ting engineering and non-destructive test, etc. were assig-
construction progress. ned to a single joint-venture, composed
Among the others we of an Italian and a Belgian company, for
can highlight the sup- both grass-roots units and Off-sites &
ply of high pressure Utilities revamp.
boilers and of natural Other than lower cost, as advantages, the
gas station. single point of contact for all the mecha-
Also, the subcontrac- nical works minimized possible interferen-
ting campaign was ba- ces, decreased coordination efforts and
sed on a Total Master increased synergies and flexibility.
Subcontractors List, For the construction assistance, we pro-
from which we ex- vided on a reimbursable basis the ove-
Lifting of interconnecting pipe-rack module tracted the bidding sla- rall supervision team, integrated with few

24 Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2018