WESTERN Australian engineering firm AGC has won an $11 million contract to fabricate a mobile biofuels plant for Natural Fuel Australia’s $45 million biodiesel facility in Darwin. Under the contract, AGC will fabricate, install piping and assemble all the equipment and specialised components for the biodiesel plant, using the common user facility at the Australian Marine Complex. The plant is scheduled for completion by September 2006 and, when operational, will manufacture approximately 105,000 tonnes of biodiesel a year – a fuel derived from natural vegetable oil, which can be used to replace mineral diesel fuel. Other notable achievements by AGC’s oil and gas business unit include the successful completion of the EPC contracts for both the Linda and John Brookes developments for Apache Energy and the recent Pohokura Jacket for Shell Todd Oil Services (STOS New Zealand). It was the first-ever jacket fabricated and exported out of Australia. From 2000 to 2003, the state and federal governments combined to finance the development of the $180 million AMC common-user facility, primarily to provide infrastructure capability to fabricate the structures and modules for the offshore oil and gas industry in WA.
