Citgo Tier II Clean Fuels Project, Lake Charles

In October 2002, Citgo's Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex began construction of the Tier II project. The project consisted of two catcracker gasoline hydrotreaters that are designed to reduce the sulfur in gasoline from an average of 400 ppm to below 30 ppm.

This enables the gasoline to burn cleanlier and reduce air pollution. These units were required so the refinery could conform to new Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Originally the Tier II project was to be performed concurrently with another major venture, the CVEP project. During the early stages of the project, the refinery market conditions changed, requiring the CVEP project to be delayed. As a result, Citgo decided to use Harmony as the construction manager and utilize more local manpower.

This required construction management personnel from both Harmony's Baton Rouge and Lake Charles offices to join forces and provide a team that could execute the purchasing, receiving, subcontract coordinating, safety, planning, scheduling, cost control and field management functions along with the mechanical direct hire scope.

These positions were filled immediately with construction personnel experienced with Citgo policies and procedures. In addition to this, the team was challenged by 27 subcontractors already involved in the project, many of whom usually compete against one another on a daily basis.

A total of 620,600 manhours were performed by Harmony, which represented 40 percent of the total.

The Harmony and Citgo project team faced and overcame obstacles and still completed the project three months ahead of schedule.