Valero awards engineering pact to Foster Wheeler for Pembroke refinery in UK

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler has signed an evergreen agreement with Valero Energy for the provision of home office engineering and project support services to Valero’s Pembroke refinery and other facilities in the UK, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and bookings will be recorded as work is released by Valero.

Foster Wheeler will provide home office front-end engineering design and detailed engineering design services to support new development and modification projects at the Pembroke refinery and other facilities.

Foster Wheeler will also provide other support services including project control and cost estimating. Valero acquired the Pembroke refinery in 2011.

"We know this refinery well, having executed projects for the refinery since the 1980s," said Umberto della Sala, chief operating officer of Foster Wheeler.

"The combination of our knowledge of the refinery, together with our in-depth refining expertise, particularly in revamp projects, and our flexible and responsive team, give us an excellent opportunity to build a strong, long-term relationship in the UK with Valero," he added.

"We have already successfully executed projects for Valero elsewhere, particularly in the US."

As MRC wrote earlier, Foster Wheeler has become the direct supplier of the FW Graf Wulff circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) scrubber technology to the North American market. Although Foster Wheeler has provided this technology globally for more than a year, it was previously offered in the North American market exclusively through a third party under a licensing arrangement.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --The licensing enables Cryo to design and offer Air Products' unreacted olefin recovery technology, which has been proven through the development, testing, and successful operation of three full-scale facilities that Air Products designed and supplied to PP and PE producers in the US, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Air Products has licensed its proprietary adsorption-based monomer recovery technology to Pennsylvania-based Cryo Technologies, a global supplier of custom engineered process equipment.

Air Products says its process for unreacted olefin recovery combines partial condensation with pressure swing adsorption to deliver two product streams: a recovered hydrocarbon product for recycle and subsequent polymer production, and a nitrogen stream for reuse in facility operations, such as polymer degassing and pneumatic transportation.

The Air Products technology, developed with Department of Energy (DOE) support under an industrial technologies program, enables nearly 100% recovery of hydrocarbons and nitrogen from the feed, creating a high-purity nitrogen product.

The technology license agreement enables Cryo Technologies to design and offer Air Products’ unreacted olefin recovery technology, which has been proven through the development, testing, and successful operation of three full-scale facilities that Air Products designed and supplied to polypropylene and polyethylene manufacturers in the US.

As MRC wrote earlier, Air Products has agreed to acquire all of DuPont's interest in DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials, the two companies' 50-50 joint venture serving the global semiconductor and wafer polishing industries. The venture state-of-the-art applications and formulation laboratories in the US and Taiwan.

Air Products is a worldwide supplier of industrial gases and equipment, specialty and intermediate chemicals, and environmental and energy systems.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --DSM has opened its first application development technical center for engineering plastics in Japan on 26 March 2013 in Yokohama City, informed the company on its site.

The launch of the DSM Engineering Plastics Japan Technical Center is fully in line with DSM’s strategy to support and grow business not only with customers in Japan but also with overseas Japanese Transplants, for which material specifications are determined in Japan. DSM recognizes the importance of developing new innovative and more sustainable applications together with its customers in Japan.

Having the new technical center, DSM can provide fast and specific test data for its products, and can collaborate more closely with existing and new customers.

The main subjects for examination at the center are highly functional engineering plastics used in automotive, electrical and electronics, and flexible food packaging industries.

The center possesses a wide variety of equipment for material and application testing including injection molding, physical property testing and thermal and chemical analysis in order for DSM to conduct integrated application development in Japan in close cooperation with its customers.

Rein Borggreve, Global Research and Technology Director of DSM Engineering Plastics, explains: "With this new technical center in Japan, DSM now has five technical centers for engineering plastics around the globe. Other centers are located in Europe, USA, China and India. Together they function as important corner stones of our global research and technology network. They allow us to serve our global customers in the best way as well as to be present near our important regional clients."

As MRC reported earlier, DSM is going to invest about EUR100 million in three new R&D facilities in Delft and Sittard-Geleen (both in the Netherlands) over the next two years.

DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, has unveiled its intentions to remain a world energy powerhouse for the foreseeable future, partly by exploiting new technology which has unlocked vast quantities of oil and natural gas in North America, informed Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Saudi Arabia will push ahead this year with exploratory drilling of shale and other unconventional gas reserves which could be twice the size of its conventional gas reserves, which total 286 trillion cubic feet, Minister of Oil Ali al-Naimi said.

Exploiting unconventional and renewable energy will allow Saudi Arabia to meet rising domestic demand while maintaining crude-oil exports, add Mr. al-Naimi.

"This year alone we are going to test seven wells for shale. We have rough estimates of 600 trillion cubic feet of unconventional shale gas. The potential is very huge and we plan to exploit it," he said during a Credit Suisse conference.

Mr. al-Naimi didn't offer a forecast of how quickly Saudi Arabia might achieve commercial production of shale gas or shale oil, or describe how it will supply the large amounts of water used in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the process used to extract oil and gas from shale.

Saudi Arabia is known more for its massive crude-oil exports than its modest gas output, and so far it hasn't managed to increase gas production enough to replace oil as feedstock in planned petrochemical or electricity-generating projects.

Natural gas output from state giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, averaged 9.9 billion cubic feet/day in 2011, up from 9.4 billion cubic feet/day in 2010. Aramco CEO Khalid al-Falih said in December that the company plans to drill seven natural gas exploration wells in deep and shallow water in the Red Sea, off the coast of the northwestern city of Tabuk.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late 2012, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world's largest petrochemical maker,
unveiled its plans to invest in companies in the U.S and elsewhere that have technology to turn shale gas into chemical products.

The growth in U.S. shale-gas exploration and production has lowered domestic gas prices and enables producers there to use gas as feedstock. That has put pressure on petrochemical producers in Saudi Arabia who get gas for a government- subsidized price of USD0.75 per million British thermal units.
MRC

MOSCOW (ICIS-MRC) -- Russian producers aim to increase the price of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in April after price rises for March, despite the weak demand in the domestic market, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Cold weather still limits the demand for low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in the Russian market, that is why converters doubt that the producers will be able to undertake the price increase, citing the oversupply in the market.

At the same time, the difficulties of the transportation and turnarounds of the plants will affect the price forming. The traffic of trucks will be restricted in the Republic of Bashkortostan from 1, April, and from the middle of April the same traffic restrictions will be seen in Tatarstan.

Kazanorgsintez stops its LDPE capacities on almost month's turnaround from 18, April. According to unconfirmed information, Ufaorgsintez plans to stop its LDPE capacities in mid-May on 10-days maintenance.

However, market sources report that Kazanorgsintez and Ufaorgsintez plan to increase the prices of LDPE for April by Rb1,500 - 2,000/tonne. The companies have not confirmed this information, but at the same time did not deny it.

MRC