Foster Wheeler Energy Limited has been awarded a contract by Qatar Petroleum for front-end engineering design (Feed) and project management consultancy (PMC) for a new linear alkyl benzene (Lab) plant in Qatar.

The new plant will have the capacity to produce about 88,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of n-paraffin and 110,000 tpy of Lab.

The Lab plant will be built within the Qatar Petroleum Refinery battery limits to benefit from use of existing utilities such as electric power, cooling water, instrument air, and jetty, to reduce the project's capital cost.

The project will include construction of new tanks for intermediate and finished products, utilities and product-distribution facilities.

The estimated project cost is $240 million. It will be commissioned during the fourth quarter of 2005.

Lab, widely used in household detergents, will be produced from n-paraffin and benzene, using UOP technology. The n-paraffin will be designed to process hydrotreated straight-run kerosene from Qatar Petroleum Refinery.

Foster Wheeler Energy Limited is the UK subsidiary of Foster Wheeler Ltd.