The contract, valued between USD170-180 million, will be led from Aker Kvaerner's Solent office in the United Kingdom. The scope of work comprises basic engineering, the supply of offshore equipment and materials, together with technical advisory services, for two 530 ktpa (thousand tonnes per annum) PTA plants. The project will utilise INVISTA's (formerly DuPont's) advanced and proven PTA technology.
Wim van der Zande, President of AK Process, Aker Kvaerner's European Process business, said, "We look forward to working on these very substantial and complex facilities. We are also pleased to continue our close working relationship with INVISTA; this is the seventeenth PTA project we have undertaken using their technology. We are continuously improving project execution of the PTA projects."
ENDS
For further information:
Media: Geir Arne Drangeid, Senior Vice President, Aker Kvaerner, Group Comms. Tel: +47 913 10 458. Email: geirarne.drangeid@akerkvaerner.com
Vanessa Mourant, Aker Kvaerner, London, UK: Tel : +44 (0)20 7339 1064. Email: vanessa.mourant@akerkvaerner.com
Investor relations: Tore Langballe, Vice President, Aker Kvaerner, Group Comms. Tel: +47 67 51 31 06. Email: tore.langballe@akerkvaerner.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Aker Kvaerner is a leading global provider of engineering and construction services, technology products and integrated solutions. Group activities span a number of industries, including Oil and gas upstream and downstream, Process, Pharmaceuticals, Metals, Power, Chemical Pulping, Environmental and Shipbuilding. Aker Kvaerner is a multi-local group of businesses with nearly USD 6 billion of annual revenues and around 30 000 employees in more than 30 countries. The Aker Kvaerner group consists of many legally independent entities, constituting their own separate identities. Aker Kvaerner is used as the common brand or trademark for most of these entities.
2. AK Process is a trading name of Aker Kvaerner Projects Ltd, the legal entity responsible for the execution of the work.. AK Process is one of the core businesses of the Aker Kvaerner group in Europe. AK Process serves the chemicals and polymers, refining and onshore oil & gas industries. It provides the full life cycle of a project from concept studies, through to design, engineering, project management, delivery of process technologies, procurement, construction and maintenance services. As a pure project execution/EPC specialist, AK Process can provide customers with strategic 'one-off' services or full turnkey solutions under a single project management control.
We work with our customers in the development of major technological innovations, having participated in the conceptualisation and implementation of ideas, which are the foundation for world-class production facilities.
3. PTA is a fine white, free-flowing powder produced by a two-stage process in which paraxylene is initially oxidized in the presence of air and a catalyst/acetic acid to produce a crude intermediate. This, in turn, is purified using hydrogen reduction to yield the final product, which is well above 99.9 percent pure.
Whether used alone in polyester fibres or in blends with natural and other synthetic fibres, PTA helps to provide an easy care fabric. PTA is also used in polyester bottles and also films, which have a wide variety of uses including photographic film, and audio, video and data storage tapes