Refinery
| Client | STAR Petroleum Refining |
|---|---|
| Location | Map Ta Phut/Thailand |
| Completion | 1996 |
| Scope | EPCM |
| Capacity | 130,000 BPSD |
The Star Refinery Project was planned by Star Petroleum Refining, a joint venture between Caltex Trade and Transport Corporation (Caltex) and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT). The project involved constructing a large-scale grassroots refinery in eastern Thailand, including an atmospheric distillation unit, a light cycle oil hydrotreater (LCO HTR), and residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit facilities. The project aimed to help meet the rising domestic demand for petroleum products amid rapid industrialization and motorization. The refinery was the fifth constructed in the country.
Bidding for the project saw international competition between Japanese, American and European contractors. Though competition was fierce, JGC's experience with RFCC technology, our project finance proposal, and highly detailed cost-competitive engineering and fast track plans were highly evaluated by the client and we were awarded the contract in September 1993.
In order to complete the high quality project at as low a cost as possible within the short time span of 29 months, JGC worked to improve efficiency in a variety of areas to achieve efficient project execution. Thanks to our efforts and despite major flooding in Thailand and the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan posing huge challenges to project execution, we were nonetheless able to complete the project seven months ahead of the deadline envisioned by the client. In addition, we achieved a record 32 million consecutive man-hours without incident or injury, which earned us the further appreciation of the client, and led to receipt of more contracts from Caltex (presently, Chevron) down the line.
In the course of completing this project, we had to overturn everything we knew about deadlines for a grassroots refinery, adding to our store of knowledge, and improving our ability to tackle difficult circumstances on other projects in the future.
