Engineering and construction firm KBR (KBR) announced it was awarded a project management contract for the front-end engineering and design phase of a proposed oil and gas processing plant in Azerbaijan.

The plant is being developed by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, and represents the first direct engagement between it and KBR on a large world-scale capital project. The petrochemical complex will consist of a gas processing plant, currently in the FEED phase, with throughput capacity of 10 billion to 12 billion cubic meters annually, and a refinery plant with a capacity of 10 million tonnes per year, most of which will be targeted for export.

KBR's downstream president David Zelinski said, "KBR is proud to support SOCAR on their flagship onshore OGPC world-scale facility. This award confirms KBR's presence as one of the top engineering contractors in the region, specifically Azerbaijan."

The FEED phase of the project is expected to be completed by October, while the overall complex is expected to be operational by late 2020. Front-end engineering and design is an early stage planning process that irons out technical issues and roughly estimates the investment cost of the project. Financial details of the management contract were not disclosed.