A contract to supply columns to a linear alkaline benzene (LAB) expansion project of Gulf Farabi Petrochemicals Company is nearing completion, the company making the columns has said.

Inma Steel, maker of process equipment, has said it expects to complete in July the columns requisitioned by Gulf Farabi Petrochemicals. Inma Steel has been working on fabricating the columns for about a year for the new plant that will annually produce 100,000 tonnes of LAB, a basic ingredient in the formulation of synthetic detergents.

Global Engineering and Construction Group won the project management consultancy contract while Uhde India bagged the order to design and implement the LAB expansion.

Around the time it will deliver the columns to the Gulf Farabi plant, Inma Steel will be supplying filters it was commissioned to make for a Marafiq utilities project.

In March of next year, Inma Steel will complete the fabrication and supply of traps for the Shaybah natural gas liquids project for which Samsung Engineering won EPC turnkey contracts for four EPC packages.

Bottom section of a 50 m high boiler exhaust stack

Inma Steel is also working on building a debutaniser column for the Wasit Gas Programme and expects to deliver it in the same month. Saudi Aramco selected SK Engineering and Construction Company and Samsung Engineering for various packages.

Another key project Inma Steel is working on is the supply of piping to a refinery being set up by Satorp, the Saudi Aramco-Total Refining and Petrochemical Company. The refinery, coming up in Jubail, will process Arabian heavy crude and have capacity of 400,000 barrels per day. It will also process annually 700,000 tonnes of paraxylene, 140,000 tonnes of benzene and 200,000 tonnes of polymer-grade propylene.

Among major contracts completed in recent years was one in which Inma Steel supplied scrubbers to the Maaden phosphate plant in Ras Az Zour. This was completed in late 2009.

A specialist manufacturer of custom-built process equipment, Inma Steel has been operating for nearly 20 years. The product range includes pressure vessels, heat exchangers, columns, reactors, flare stacks, silencers, skid-mounted process systems, tanks, pressure piping and associated auxiliary structures. It has extensive experience in the welding of ferrous and non-ferrous alloys, clad steels and exotic materials.

Inma-made equipment being transported

The company has won ASME accreditation and ISO 9001 certification and its manufacturing facilities are located close to major oil and gas production, refining and petrochemical industries in Jubail.

High-profile clients
Over the years it has successfully executed projects for many local and international clients. These include Saudi Aramco, Sabic, Metito, Hitachi, Zosen, Technip, LG Construction, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Tecnimont, Daelim, Mitsui, Techint, McDonnel Dowell, Amec-BKW, JGC, Mustang Tampa and Snamprogetti.

Its products have been shipped to many neighbouring Gulf states.

After a decline in business for some time, Inma Steel sees a silver lining. 'The Saudi economy continued its thrust out of recession and a lot of new companies have come to work in Saudi Arabia. In 2010 we were invited to bid on many big and small projects and many overseas companies have come from far to gain business in the kingdom, increasing competition for local manufacturers,' said Inman Steel business development manager Faisal Tulbah.

He termed as challenges the rising cost of raw materials and newly arrived international competition from the Far East.

Inma Steel is a member of the Khalid Ali Alturki & Sons group of companies. The group’s subsidiaries and joint venture firms provide specialised products and services for major industrial sectors such as construction, oil, gas, petrochemicals, utilities, power and telecommunications.