US-based KBR, the global engineering, construction and services company, features strongly in recent contracts for projects in the cities of Jubail and Yanbu.

 The company will present its expertise in developing an operator training simulator (OTS) for Saudi Kayan's grassroots phenol plant, provide engineering, procurement and supply of proprietary equipment for Al-Bayroni's existing ammonia plant located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and submit detailed engineering and procurement services for the utilities package and the interconnecting systems and pipe racks for the Yanbu Export Refinery Project.

KBR, which is also the technology licensor for the phenol plant, will develop a customised, high-fidelity simulator to be used for the initial training of Saudi Kayan phenol plant operators and for continual refresher training after plant startup. The overall system will consist of custom dynamic models developed by KBR that will accurately mimic the actual behavior of the phenol plant. The models will be connected to a set of dedicated control system hardware and operator consoles that will allow plant operators to train in a realistic environment without disrupting normal plant operations. The goal is to significantly reduce downtime and sustain high on-stream factor for Saudi Kayan's first phenol plant in Saudi Arabia.

'KBR is pleased to continue building on our strong relationship with Saudi Kayan for this OTS system implementation.' said Tim Challand, president, KBR Technology. 'The award exemplifies the diversity of services KBR offers our clients and allows us the opportunity to showcase our expertise in advanced chemical engineering applications.'

Ammonia plant
The contract for the ammonia plant was awarded by Al-Jubail Fertiliser Company (Al-Bayroni), a Sabic affiliate.
Under the contract, KBR will provide engineering design, procurement and installation support services for a new auxiliary boiler and a reformer convection section for the ammonia plant, which was originally built in the 1980s utilising KBR's ammonia technology.

Yanbu project
KBR also won a contract to provide detailed engineering and procurement services for the utilities package and interconnecting systems and pipe racks for the Yanbu Export Refinery Project (Yerp).

The contract was awarded by ConocoPhilips and Saudi Aramco. The project consists of a 400,000 barrel-per-day, full-conversion refinery in Yanbu Industrial City.