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Rebis Plant Design Software to be Used on C$2 Billion Expansion of
Canadian Oil Sands Refining Facility
Walnut Creek, CA, November 3, 1999 - Rebisr, a leader in plant design and management software, announced that its AutoPLANTr plant design software and its AutoPIPEr pipe stress analysis application provide a comprehensive design and engineering solution for members of the Millennium Alliance, Bantrel Inc., Delta Hudson and SNC-Lavalin, on the Millennium Project; the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning and start-up of the C$2 billion expansion of a major oil sands plant at Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Bantrel Inc. is one of Canada's largest engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) firms based in Calgary, Alberta, with extensive refining, oil sands and petrochemical experience. Bantrel is responsible for the design and construction of five process units, interconnecting pipeways, and utilities and offsites requirements for the Millennium project. Bantrel's efforts represent an approximate value of C$1.2 billion. According to Robert Hall, Plant Layout and Piping Supervisor for Bantrel, "AutoPLANT is Bantrel's software of choice for AutoCADr based projects. Our experience on past projects showed that use of the Rebis software contributed to a realization of less than 1% field rework. In addition, we were able to present "real time visualization" of the project to our client before the plant was built resulting in easier client "buy-in" to the final design." Delta Hudson, part of the McDermott group of companies, is a Calgary-based engineering, procurement and construction management company serving energy industries worldwide. "Delta Hudson's standard 3D plant design software is Intergraph PDS," says Osama Elshafey, Manager of Engineering for Delta Hudson, "but on the Millennium project, the company is now using Rebis plant design software applications for the detailed engineering, procurement, module fabrication and construction of the environmental units which include sour water stripper, Amine (absorption and regeneration), sulfur recovery, and tail gas treating units, and a thermal oxidizer." SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is one of the leading engineering and construction firms in the world, and a key player in the ownership and management of infrastructure, with activities in the industrial, transit systems, power, infrastructure, building, telecommunications, aerospace, defense and environmental sectors. SNC-Lavalin's work in the Bitumen Production Area of the Millennium project will be carried out by its Calgary-based mining and metallurgy division. Bitumen production incorporates three major steps in an overall process that takes raw mined oil sands and ends up with a final product of upgradeable bitumen. The major steps in the bitumen production process are ore preparation, extraction and froth treatment. According to Lee Cooper, CADD Coordinator at SNC-Lavalin, "The decision to use Rebis plant design software for the detailed design was based on two factors. It was a standard decision amongst the Millennium Alliance partners to use Rebis applications ensuring a shared base of technology. This means that it is only necessary to develop one set of piping specs, custom equipment and custom setups for use by all project participants." Cooper adds, "The second reason is that the software enables the engineering firm and the client to see a complete picture of the plant long before it is built. This allows both parties to easily address design concerns before they can actually become a problem. Along with the visualization tools, Rebis software also automatically generates Bills of Materials and ISOs from the 3D model which reduces design time of these deliverables dramatically." For the Millennium project, Bantrel, Delta Hudson, and SNC-Lavalin are jointly using 221 Rebis software modules on Windows NT 4.0 equipped PCs installed with AutoCAD R14. The Millennium Alliance uses several Rebis applications: AutoPLANT Piping for 3D piping design and modeling; AutoPLANT Equipment for 3D equipment design and modeling; AutoPLANT ISOGEN for automatic isometrics generation; Multi-Steel for structural drafting and modeling; and AutoPIPE for pipe stress analysis. The Millennium Project is designed to increase production at the Fort McMurray oil sands plant to 220,000 barrels of oil per day in 2002, more than doubling its current production. The project also involves further development of an existing base plant mine built to replace reserves due to run out in 2001, conditioning of tar sands in a new slurry pipeline, upgrading facilities, and increased requirements for steam, water and electricity. The project is expected to provide an important economic investment for the Wood Buffalo region and Alberta, including up to 3,000 construction jobs during peak construction and approximately C$1.2 billion in household income in Alberta as the project is developed. Oil sands, also referred to as tar oil sands, are bitumen-coated sands. Western Canada contains monster oil sands reserves, estimated to be more than 300 billion bbl of oil sands deposits, more than Saudi Arabia's proven oil reserves. Sand is mined with shovels and dump trucks, then bitumen is separated from the aggregate, and upgraded in facilities specially designed to process heavy ends.
William G. Beazley, Editor |