DARWIN will have a new condensate processing plant at a cost of $1.2 billion in a joint venture between McDermott and Darwin Clean Fuels.

This will be first new refinery built in Australia in 45 years, reversing a trend that has seen multiple refineries shuttered or mothballed over the past decade-plus as Australia opted to send crude to and import petroleum from Asia's burgeoning supply of new, low cost mega-refineries.

It will also be the first in Australasia that will be entirely devoted to condensate, which Australia currently sends to the UAE in large quantities according to a recent Resources and Energy Quarterly.

The new processing plant will supply high quality petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel to the domestic market, with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day of condensate and 10,000bopd of LPG and will be the Top End's first refinery.

The project is being delivered through a joint venture between McDermott and private company Darwin Clean Fuels.

Engineering giant McDermott signed the memorandum of understanding with DCF yesterday. Under the agreement McDermott will conduct a feasibility study, technology, front-engineering design and engineering procurement and construction for the condensate processing plant.

"The refinery would leverage our proprietary technologies, including alkylation and sulphur recovery, and is evidence of McDermott's technology-led EPC capabilities," McDermott Asia Pacific senior vice president Ian Prescott said.

"Our engineering feasibility studies often serve as the essential underpinning of client decisions about moving forward with major investments."

Source: Energy News Bulletin

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