OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2012. GE (NYSE: GE) will provide a wide range of equipment and services for a major plant upgrade of the Izmit Tupras refinery, located on the Gulf of Izmit in Turkey. GE technology will power a cogeneration site that will produce a reliable supply of energy and steam to meet the growing needs of the Tupras facility, which is among the most advanced oil refineries in the Mediterranean region.

GE will supply two Frame 6B gas turbines, one steam turbine and three generators to Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the Izmit Tupras upgrade project. The equipment contract also includes performance testing, services, spare parts and technical advisors.

GE also has signed a contractual service agreement (CSA) to provide maintenance services to Tupras for 12 years, enabling the plant to benefit from long-term high performance and GE’s latest technology and global experience. GE’s CSAs provide predictable maintenance costs while ensuring high availability and a steady flow of revenue from plant operations. GE has long-term agreements in place at more than 700 sites worldwide.

“With its locally available resources and broad base of technology and services, GE is an excellent partner for a project as challenging and complex as the Tupras refinery upgrade,” said Mr. Juan Llado, CEO of Tecnicas Reunidas. “This project builds upon the already successful relationship that has been established between our two companies.”

GE has been working with Tecnicas Reunidas for 30 years, supplying nearly 4.5 gigawatts of power generation equipment and oil and gas equipment including turbines, compressors, pumps and reactors for projects worldwide.

“Refineries have very stringent reliability and safety requirements. GE’s proven 6B gas turbine technology will bring added security and robust availability to the already high standards of Tupras’ petrochemical operations,” said Paul Browning, president and CEO—Thermal Products for GE Power & Water. “The upgrade project underscores GE’s commitment to supply the latest technology and services to meet the reliability demands of the petrochemical industry worldwide. Our ability to deliver the wide range of products and services needed for the Tupras project highlights the strength of the synergies that exist among many of the business units across the company.”

GE’s Frame 6B gas turbine has a strong record of performance in refinery and petrochemical applications worldwide. The models to be installed for the Tupras project will be equipped with GE’s latest dry low NOx (DLN) combustion technology to reduce emissions, extend maintenance intervals and enable the site to operate more flexibly. GE is an industry leader in emissions-reducing technology, with DLN systems installed on more than 1,900 heavy-duty gas turbines worldwide.

Tupras selected GE’s combustion technology to enable the refinery to meet Turkey’s new and more stringent emissions requirements. The new law calls for natural gas plants to limit emissions to 50mg/Nm3.

The GE (SANC1-6 model) 109K-250 VHP steam turbine package for the Tupras upgrade features heavy-duty reaction technology that provides a robust, well-proven solution combined with a high efficiency that makes it an ideal equipment package for the oil and gas industry. This type of unit allows the client to operate the plant across varying conditions, still having a high efficiency of power production.

The cogeneration plant for the Izmit Tupras refinery expansion will begin commercial operation in the first quarter of 2014. Tupras, Turkey’s largest industrial enterprise operates four oil refineries including the Izmit site. The four facilities total more than 28 million tons of annual crude oil processing capacity.

Tupras is the leading oil company in Turkey, with a crude oil processing capacity of 28.1 million tons per year throughout its four refineries. The KOЗ Group, owner of Tupras, is the largest business group in Turkey, with participation in industrial, commercial and financial sectors. Tecnicas Reunidas is among the leading international engineering and construction companies in oil and gas production, refining and petrochemicals and power generation projects.