Assam petrochemical plant comes to abrupt halt on possible breakdown of cracker unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Barely two weeks after India's Prime Minister dedicated the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) to the nation, the petrochemical plant has come to a sudden halt, reportedly due to breakdown of the Ethylene Cracker Unit, said Assamtribune.

BCPL authorities said that the Ethylene Cracker Unit had to be stopped as a safety measure, as certain technical snags emerged in the chilling train during the stabilisation of the Ethylene Cracker Unit. The officials informed that assessment of the problem is being done and necessary steps were being initiated for identification and early restoration.

The BCPL management further said that the Ethylene Cracker Unit was under continuous operation for around a month and shutdown was necessitated as the storages of ethylene were full and its consumption in the downstream units were low as they were under the stabilisation process.

As it was informed earlier, Assam gas cracker project was commissioned by Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd (BCPL) in the early february 2016. It was initially expected to come on stream in 2012. The cracker, located in Lepetkata, is designed to produce 200,000 tonnes/y of ethylene and 60,000 tonnes/y of propylene using natural gas and naphtha feedstock. The project also includes facilities for the production of 220,000 tonnes/y of linear low-and high-density polyethylene and 60,000 tonnes/y of polypropylene. BCPL, a joint venture owned 70% by GAIL and 10% each by Oil India Ltd, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd and the Government of Assam, has attributed the project's delays to poor weather and labour unrest, as well as technology and design changes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Hengli Petrochemical has shut its No. 3 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production unit on Feb 19, company sources told TPS.

The unit was shut unexpectedly due to an air compressor failure, according to a company source.

"This cut in our operations will affect our consumption of paraxylene (PX)," the source added.

Hengli operates three units in Dalian that have an annual production capacity of 2.2 million mt/year each. The two remaining units are currently running at 100%.

"We do not expect a disruption in PTA supplies to our customers, as we have inventory," the source added.

The source was unable to estimate how long repairs will take.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in December 2015, Hengli Petrochemical's 74 billion yuan refining and petrochemical complex started construction in Changxing Island Industrial Zone, Dalian, Liaoning Province, marking the first private company entering the oil refining industry. The project locates in petrochemical industrial park of Changxing Island and is near the company's PTA plant. The project includes 4.5 mln tpa aromatics complex and 20 mln tpa refining and petrochemical facility.

PTA is feedstock which is used in production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Hengli is the second-largest PTA producer in China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of basic chemicals Russia increased by 4.7% in January 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. The growth in production was seen in all basic chemical products, the exception was only xylenes, as per Rosstat's data.

According to the Federal Service of State Statistics, January production of ethylene was 266,000 tonnes, while in Jan 2015 it was 230,000 tonnes (in December 2015 - 266,000 tonnes).

Russia's production of benzene increased to 115,000 tonnes in January compared to 106,000 tonnes in January 2015 (in December 2015, this figure amounted to 117,000 tonnes).

January output of xylenes fell to 50,400 tonnes compared to 51,200 tonnes n the same period last year (in December 2015 - 51,300 tonnes).

January production of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) rose to 98,800 tonnes (100% of the basic substance) against 85,600 tonnes in the same month in 2015 (in December 2015 - 104,000 tonnes).

Russia's production of mineral fertilizers in January was 1.803 mln tonnes (in terms of 100% nutrients), up 8.1% from the level in January 2015. In December 2015 the total volume of mineral fertilizers production amounted to about 1.837 mln tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Reliance Industries, owner of the world's biggest refining complex, is preparing to lift oil from Iran next month after a gap of about five years, said Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to an industry source with knowledge of talks between the two.

The Indian conglomerate, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, stopped Iranian oil imports in 2010 because it was worried that the threat of US sanctions on companies doing business with the Islamic republic would complicate its efforts to boost market share for its fuels in the US.

Now with an end this year to the Western sanctions that had halved Iran's oil exports to about 1 MMbpd, Tehran is trying to recoup lost market share and Reliance is keen to get Iranian barrels back into its crude diet.

Officials from India's biggest private refiner recently visited Iran to chalk out the details for resumption of trade ties with Tehran, the source said, and to begin with, National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) will be supplying a million spot barrels each of condensate and crude oil to Reliance in a single cargo.

The shipment will make Reliance Iran's first new Indian oil customer since the lifting of the sanctions.

Reliance is also talking to NIOC for a term deal to buy 100,000 to 120,000 bpd of oil, the same level it used to buy before sanctions hit its imports.

Reliance's sophisticated complex at Jamnagar in western Gujarat state can refine 1.24 million bpd of crude as varied as light West African to heavy sour Middle East and Latin American grades, allowing it to switch to whatever crude is cheapest.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in April 2015, Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) successfully put into operation two plants in Dahej, Gujarat, India. The first is a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin plant, which consists of two lines with a combined manufacturing capacity of 650 KTA. This is one of the largest bottle-grade PET resin capacity at a single location globally, and consolidates Reliance’s position as a leading PET resin producer with a global capacity of 1.15 MMTPA. The second facility is a new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant that provides a capacity of 1,150 KTA. With the commissioning of this plant, also built with Invista technology, Reliance’s total PTA capacity will increase to 3.2 MMTPA, and its global capacity share will rise to 4%.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vopak, in a partnership with SK Gas, said it has received its first cargo at the new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facility on Jurong Island, Singapore, marking the start-up of Southeast Asia's first independent LPG import and storage facility, as per Apic-online.

The facility, located at Vopak's Banyan terminal, has an initial capacity of nearly 80,000 cu m. ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, one of the anchor tenants of the Vopak terminal, will receive the first shipment, fully refrigerated propane.

"The LPG facility will help in providing us increased flexibility in securing advantaged feedstock for our inte-grated refining and petrochemical complex," noted Gan Seow Kee, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific.

"With this new LPG facility, crackers can now tap on alternative feedstock," said Damian Chan, executive director, energy and chemicals, Singapore Economic Development Board. "This will strengthen our integrated chemicals value chain and further enhance Jurong Island's attractiveness as a manufacturing location for high-value added chemicals," he added.

As MRC wrote before, in early 2014, ExxonMobil officially opened its multi-billion dollar Singapore chemical plant expansion on Jurong Island, to serve growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The expansion included a second 1-million-t/y steam cracker, two 650,000-t/y polyethylene plants, a 450,000-t/y polypropylene plant, a 300,000-t/y specialty elastomers unit, an aromatics extraction facility to produce 340,000 t/y of benzene, and a 125,000-t/y oxo-alcohol expansion.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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