First shipment of fracked shale gas set to arrive in UK

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The first ever shipment of shale gas from the US is set to arrive in Britain less than 24 hours after the Labour party vowed to ban fracking, the method by which the controversial energy source is extracted, TheGuardian.

Ineos, the petrochemical company founded and chaired by a billionaire, Jim Ratcliffe, will take delivery of a tanker full of ethane at its Grangemouth plant in Scotland on Tuesday, marking the first fruit of a USD2bn investment.

The gas has travelled more than 3,500 miles via a "virtual pipeline" of eight tankers to reach Grangemouth, where Ineos has built an import terminal as part of an overhaul costing GBP450m. The ethane will be fed into "crackers" that convert the gas into ethylene, used in the production of a range of plastic products.

"Shale gas can help stop the decline of British manufacturing and today is a first step in that direction," said Ratcliffe.

But consignments such as this one, due to arrive on a giant tanker named the Ineos Insight, will be the only source of shale gas for Grangemouth if the Labour party wins a general election.

Speaking at Labour’s annual party conference the shadow energy minister, Barry Gardiner, said the party would ban fracking and focus on low carbon energy sources if it wins the next general election. "Fracking locks us into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to clean energy," said Gardiner. "So today I am announcing that a future Labour government (would) ban fracking."

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader, has previously said that fracking is "not compatible" with tackling climate change.

Although Ineos has begun importing from the US, where an abundance of shale gas has left the world’s largest economy with more than it needs, it would like to become the leading player if fracking takes off in the UK.

Ineos, which slashed its tax bill by moving its headquarters to Switzerland in 2010, was awarded 21 new licences in December, including sites in North Yorkshire, the north-west and east Midlands.

The awards increased the area of land over which it holds licences to 1m acres, nearly twice the area of the Yorkshire Dales national park.

But Ineos’s ambitions have been curtailed by slow progress in obtaining planning permission, which is necessary before it can exploit the licences.

A spokesperson for Ineos said earlier this year that it hoped to have 30 planning applications lodged before the end of the year but the company has since scaled back its plans to five, followed by a further 25 over the next 12 months.

As MRC informed earlier, on 23 March 2016, Ineos confirmed that its vessel, the INEOS Intrepid, arrived at the Ineos petrochemicals plant at Rafnes in Norway, carrying 27.500m3 of US shale gas ethane. This is the very first time that ethane from US shale gas has ever been exported from the USA and the first time it has been imported into Europe. It gives the continent the chance to benefit from US shale gas economics which did so much to revitalise manufacturing in the USA.

Ineos Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical is likley to brought on-stream its Polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) units, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is expected to resume operations at the units on September 27, 2016. The units were taken off-line on August 11, 2016 for a planned maintenance.

Located in Tianjin city, China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year, the HDPE plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year and LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Russian petrochemical company Sibur is in talks with shareholder Sinopec about investing in a planned gas chemical plant in Russia's Far East, said Reuters, citing Sibur boss Dmitry Konov. Sibur plans to buy gas from fields which Russia's Gazprom will develop in Eastern Siberia.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, through its Healthcare Packaging business unit, is introducing desiccant canisters with bright red labeling to better differentiate them from drug products, said the producer on its site.

Displaying an easy-to-understand pictogram and the words "Do Not Eat" in multiple languages, the colored labels offer a further option to support packaging safety. Drop-in style desiccants, such as canisters and packets, are the most widely used method of controlling moisture in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical bottle packaging applications.

"All desiccant canisters are marked with warnings to help avoid accidental ingestion," explains Philippe Depois, Head of Sales, Clariant Healthcare Packaging. "However, depending on the color of the drug there may not be a sharp contrast. The distinctive and vibrant color of the red canister label can help patients more easily recognize the desiccant."

The new labels are made using FDA- and EU-compliant materials and include an outer varnish coating, so ink is not in direct contact with the drug. The canister labels can also be customized for specific color-differentiation or with a customer’s specific branding. Designed for high speed insertion, Clariant's full line of rigid canisters has become the solution of choice when controlled atmosphere packaging is required to control moisture, oxygen, odor and other volatiles. The active packaging platform is customizable with various sorbent materials including silica gel and molecular sieve.

Clariant has the capacity to produce over 1 billion desiccant canisters per year at its plant in Belen, NM, USA. Construction has begun on a new plant in Cuddalore, India, which will also produce labelled desiccant canisters, supporting customers’ Business Continuity Planning (BCP).

"The safety of the patients using our customers’ products is paramount to our mission," said Philippe Depois. "By color-differentiating the canisters, we are adding another layer of safety to protect our customers and consumers."

As MRC informed earlier, Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, inaugurated its new production plant for water-based pigment preparations in Mexico. The new plant located in Santa Clara doubles Clariant’s Mexico annual production capacity for water-based pigment preparations and enhances its ability to serve customers across North and Latin America.

Clariant is a global leader in pigment preparations, with worldwide production and technical service and support. Its broad range of products covers the whole color index.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran and Japan signed 320 million euro petrochemical deal with usance payment facility in a bid to promote economic ties, reported IRNA.

This is the first usance payment facility deal signed by the Iranian Persian Gulf Petrochemistry Holding and Japanese Marubeni.

It was also announced that another deal with the similar amount which can be increased to 640 million euros has been finalized to be signed in near future.

The Persian Gulf Petrochemical Holding is slated to attract 10 billion dollars joint venture foreign investment in petrochemical industry.

Currently, Iran has the capacity to produce 60 million tons of all types of petrochemicals and it intends to raise the amount o 120 million tons until 2025.

To this end, some 50 billion dollars is needed, large sections of which must be attracted from foreign investments.

As MRC informed previously, as of 2015, number of active Iranian Petrochemical complexes were 53, with total production capacity of 59 million metric ton, producing range of polymers, chemicals, aromatics & liquid gas, located mainly at Iranian south region, next to Persian Gulf, called Assaluyeh and Mahshahr Special Economic Zones.

At the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran is likely to launch a fresh round of negotiations with France’s Total and Britain’s Shell on the sidelines of OPEC summit underway in Algeria, reported Iranian news agency MEHR.

The 15th International Energy Forum (IEF15) is being held in Algiers from 26-28 September 2016.

In time with the fifteenth International Energy Forum in Algeria, Iran will hold talks with two European oil giants over inviting new tenders for the Iranian oil industry.

Accordingly, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh is expected to meet and talk with the chairman and CEO of Total Patrick Pouyanne as well as Mike Muller, the top trading executive at Royal Dutch Shell.

Zanganeh’s separate talks with officials of Total and Shell will revolve around oil sales as well as inviting new tenders for Iran’s oil and gas projects.

Recently, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ali Kardor had announced that the first tender for development of oil fields is going to be held in within ICP format in October; "the development project for South Azadegan will be first oil field to be put out to tender."

Deputy oil minister also pointed to the proposals received from Total for partnership in development of South Azadegan joint oil field as well as Phase 11 of South Pars gas field adding "three developmental contracts will be inked before the end of the current Iranian calendar year (began March 20)".

Presently, Iran is now selling a daily average of about 160 to 200 thousand barrels to Total of France while a contract has also been sealed to sell single-shipment cargos to Royal Dutch Shell of Britain.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2016, The National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran and Total signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build a petrochemical complex in Iran. Total sealed the cooperation agreement with NPC to build a petrochemical complex after signing a separate deal to buy 160,000 bpd of Iranian crude oil. The complex will include a world-scale steam cracker unit in the coastal area. It will be based on a combination of feedstocks comprised of ethane, naphtha and LPG, as well as other available feed. In addition to steam cracker unit, the complex will include relevant downstream units for supplying its products to domestic and international markets.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC