Gulf Construction Online - Alba Line 6 pots handover complete

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Alba marked the handover of the remaining pots under the Alba Potline 6 expansion project.

Alba Line 6 pots handover complete

01 August 2019

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium producers in the world, last month marked the handover of the remaining pots under the Alba Potline 6 expansion project in the presence of Alba chairman of board of directors Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa. Shaikh Daij also inspected the Line 6 construction which is in its final stages.

With the first hot metal from Potline 6 achieved on December 13 last year, Alba is now amongst the one-million-tonne smelters in the world.

It is one of the biggest brownfield developments in the Middle East region. Upon completion this year, the Line 6 Expansion Project will boost Alba’s per-annum production by 540,000 tonnes, bringing its total production capacity to 1.5 million tonnes per year.

With a Capex of $3 billion, the project involves the construction of a sixth pot line using EGA’s proprietary DX+ Ultra Technology, a 1,792 MW power station (Power Station 5) utilising the world’s first H-class General Electric (GE) 9HA gas turbine (GT) and other industrial services.

Alba Potline 6 was commissioned last year, ahead of schedule; and since then, there has been a gradual ramp-up with the successful start-up of 106 pots on March 26 this year and 212 pots thereafter on April 18.

Commenting on the occasion, Shaikh Daij said: “I would like to thank all Alba employees and contractors for the continued success on the safe start-up of Line 6. I am confident that the Line 6 start-up team will continue to take Extreme Ownership on Safety as we approach the final stages of the ramp-up,” he added.

Bechtel is the EPCM contractor for the Line 6 expansion project smelter. For Power Station 5 (PS 5), GE and Gama Consortium was awarded the EPC contract, while Siemens is the power distribution system contractor.