Amec Foster Wheeler announces that it has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to modernise the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR) in Baku, Azerbaijan. The contract, awarded by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), is part of a major investment to increase the refinery’s capacity and improve the quality of the fuel produced.

Amec Foster Wheeler in alliance with SOCAR Foster Wheeler Engineering won the contract and will execute it in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The scope of work is for the development of a number of facilities and the integration of technologies by other providers at HAOR. This will include new facilities for diesel hydro-treatment, isomerisation, methyl tertiary-butyl ether, fluid catalytic cracking gasoline treatment, sour water stripper, amine treatment and sulphur recovery. A number of existing facilities will also be revamped, including those for crude and vacuum distillation, fluid catalytic cracking and continuous catalytic reforming.

Roberto Penno, Amec Foster Wheeler Group President for Asia, Middle East, Africa & Southern Europe:
"We have successfully delivered a number of projects for SOCAR, both in Azerbaijan and in other countries and look forward to continuing our partnership with this contract for the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, a particularly important facility for the Country."

Amec Foster Wheeler’s scope of work is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2017, while the process of modernisation of the refinery is expected to be completed within several phases till early 2020.

About Amec Foster Wheeler and Socar

Amec Foster Wheeler has had a joint venture in the Republic of Azerbaijan with SOCAR since 2011. The joint venture is SOCAR Foster Wheeler Engineering.

Amec Foster Wheeler became the first British-listed engineering and construction services contractor to establish a permanent presence in Baku, Azerbaijan, responding to the growing market need for engineering services in the Caspian region. We have had a presence in Azerbaijan since 1997.

About Amec Foster Wheeler

Amec Foster Wheeler designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for its customers across the global energy and related sectors.

Employing around 40,000 people in more than 55 countries and with 2015 revenues of £5.5 billion, the company operates across the oil and gas industry – from production through to refining, processing and distribution of derivative products – and in the mining, clean energy, power generation, pharma, environment and infrastructure markets.

Amec Foster Wheeler offers full life-cycle services to offshore and onshore oil and gas projects (conventional and unconventional, upstream, midstream and downstream) for greenfield, brownfield and asset support projects, plus leading refining technology.

Amec Foster Wheeler shares are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Both trade under the ticker AMFW.

About Socar

SOCAR is an integrated state oil & gas company of Republic of Azerbaijan and is involved in upstream, midstream and downstream operations encompassing exploration of oil and gas fields, production, processing and transporting oil, gas and condensate, marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets and supplying natural gas to domestic and industrial customers in Azerbaijan. SOCAR has its trading companies in Switzerland, Singapore and UAE and representative offices in a number of other countries.