With an estimated contract value of over US$200 million, GE Oil & Gas will provide SONHOE with reactors, centrifugal and reciprocating compressors, centrifugal pumps and air coolers. These items of equipment represent a significant proportion of the key equipment for the facility that underpins its performance reliability and capital cost.

The new plant will upgrade low-quality heavy oil into premium-quality, ultra low sulfur diesel, kerosene and petrochemical naphtha in a 200,000 bbl/day facility that is planned to come on stream in 2013/14. SONHOE plans to source the acidic, sulfurous and low API crudes from a number of regions including the North Sea, Latin America, Middle East and West Africa.

Claudi Santiago, GE Senior Vice President and President and CEO of GE Oil & Gas said:

"This is a major and important energy infrastructure project in the United Kingdom and we have been working with SONHOE for some time to understand their needs and validate the development. We have a good understanding of its critical success factors and, by entering into a supplier of choice agreement with SONHOE, we can work together to mitigate risk, support the technical design and achieve schedule advantage in terms of lead-time length and predictability. We are very pleased to be associated with this project and look forward to continuing our relationship with the SONHOE team."

The facility will comprise as its major components a 110,000 bbl/day hydro-cracking capability and a gasification complex that will produce over 500 tonnes/day of hydrogen & over 240,000 therms/day of synthetic gas.

The Upgrader has been designed with the metallurgy and processing capability to process low quality, heavy crude oil at scale thereby uniquely positioning itself to process the increasing volumes of such crudes that are being discovered around the world into premium distillates for the European market and elsewhere.

Mike True, Managing Director of SONHOE commented:

"To say that SONHOE is delighted with this relationship with GE is very much an understatement. We are privileged that GE is a partner in this major development and we value the technical capability, engineering quality and commercial integrity that GE brings. GE has a deep understanding of the fundamentals of the Upgrader project and we look forward to their continued support and contribution to its success."

GE's Oil & Gas business is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all segments of the global oil and gas industry. Based in Florence, Italy, the company offers complete solutions for production, LNG, transportation, storage, refineries, and petrochemicals, as well as pipeline integrity solutions including pipeline-related software and pipeline asset management. Through its recent acquisition of VetcoGray, GE Oil & Gas has added products, systems and services for drilling, completion and production within onshore, offshore and subsea applications.

SONHOE Development Company Ltd is based in London and specializes in the development of hydro-carbon processing and infrastructure facilities.