Fire hits California refinery; local gasoline prices could rise

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An explosion and fire at an oil refinery in Torrance, California, on Saturday forced the partial shutdown of the plant, leading oil traders to expect a spike this week in West Coast gasoline prices, said Reuters.

Police and the plant owner said no one was hurt in the fire, which was extinguished by local firefighters. Two years ago, a fire at the same plant led to its closure for several months and a sustained increase in West Coast gasoline prices for more than a year. After the fire on Saturday, a group of local residents worried about pollution and accidents protested at the refinery. The event had been planned to mark the anniversary of the Feb. 18, 2015 incident.

Catherine Leys, one of the protesters, lives 1.4 miles from the plant and said industrial ash drifted down on the playground near her home after the 2015 blast.

The plant supplies 10 percent of California's gasoline. Traders said they expected local gasoline prices to jump this week. "I expect prices will be firming on Tuesday, maybe 5 cents or 15 cents a gallon," a West Coast refined products trader said. He was talking about wholesale gasoline prices in the Los Angeles market. In California, pump prices normally follow wholesale price movements within hours.

PBF Energy owns and operates the refinery in the city of Torrance, just outside Los Angeles. PBF purchased it from ExxonMobil Corp in 2016.

PBF shuttered the plant's crude distillation unit after the pre-dawn blaze, energy industry intelligence service Genscape reported. The unit refines 155,000 bpd, turning it into gasoline and diesel among other products.

PBF told state regulators it was forced to use its safety flare system on an emergency basis after the incident. The crude distillation unit, which produces motor fuel, is the workhorse of the refinery. Within 24 hours of the Feb. 18, 2015 explosion, wholesale gasoline prices initially jumped 10 cents a gallon.

A RAND study found drivers ultimately paid an extra USD2.4 billion for gasoline because of the 2015 Torrance refinery outage.

The Torrance refinery had at least two outages in 2016 after a power outage at a local utility knocked the facility offline. In October, PBF received a violation notice from the California's air regulator for excessive flaring following one of the outages.

California gasoline prices are frequently among the highest in the United States. Only Hawaii residents pay more.

California requires cleaner-burning fuel than most other US states do. The state is geographically isolated with no pipeline connections to major refining centers on the Gulf Coast and Midwest, leaving the market tightly balanced between what West Coast refineries can produce and what can be shipped in.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More than 100 of the coatings industry’s leading scientists are being brought together by AkzoNobel in a new EUR12.6 million research and innovation hub which could revolutionize the company’s portfolio, said the producer on its site.

Located in Felling in the UK, the facility will be home to teams of scientists and technical experts who will work on developing protective coatings for the energy, mining, infrastructure and oil and gas industries. The main focus will be on delivering cutting edge innovations and efficiencies for protecting steel and concrete structures from damage caused by corrosion, abrasion and fire.

The new innovation hub will also offer a world class testing and simulation facility, enabling tests to be carried out in conditions experienced in the world’s most extreme environments.

The facility is expected to be operational at the end of 2018. "Our work at the state-of-the-art lab will have an important impact on our most critical industries,” said Conrad Keijzer, AkzoNobel’s Executive Committee member responsible for Performance Coatings. “More than 100 top scientists and technical experts will be working on future solutions that will offer essential protection to a wide variety of products for our customers."

Added Greg Clark, UK Secretary of State for Business: "Having grown up in the north east of England, I am very aware of the strengths of the chemical sector in the region. AkzoNobel’s significant investment in establishing a new technical innovation hub is further proof that Britain is open for business and underlines the growth we want to see and support in our local economies. As we develop our industrial strategy, we are determined to build on the diverse strengths of all of Britain’s cities and regions."

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jet fuel will be the most widely used product from Qatar's Ras Laffan Refinery 2 and a pipeline connecting it to Doha's Hamad International Airport is expected to be completed by next year, said Reuters, citing Qatar Petroleum chief executive Saad al-Kaabi.

Kaabi was speaking to reporters. The condensate refinery, in which Qatar Petroleum, France's Total and Japan's Marubeni Corp, Idemitsu Kosan, Cosmo Energy and Mitsui & Co hold stakes, began production towards the end of last year.

The refinery has a total processing capacity of 146,000 bpd and makes products such as jet-A1, naphtha and ultra low-sulfur diesel, according to Marubeni.

As MRC informed before, Qatargas plnned to start operations at its new Ras Laffan 2 condensate splitter by the end of October 2016, doubling the Gulf state's capacity to process condensate.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Titan, a local petrochemical unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, plans to start construction of a USD4 bln naphtha cracker plant in Indonesia next year, as per Plastemart with reference to jakartaglobe.com.

The project, which has been delayed for three years due to land acquisition problems, will help Indonesia reduce expensive chemical imports, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said.

The company plans to complete the front-end engineering design this year and start construction next year. The plant will have a capacity to produce 1 million tons of ethylene and 600,000 tons of propylene annually.

The facility will be located close to another that is owned by Chandra Asri Petrochemical - controlled by Indonesian tycoon Prajogo Pangestu's Barito Pacific and SCG Chemicals - which is currently being expanded to double its annual production capacity to 2 million tons of ethylene.

As MRC wrote previously, sround 40% of the total investment needed for the new plant would be taken from the company’s internal cash, while the rest would be from bank loans.

The Lotte Group currently has a presence in Indonesia via its subsidiary, Honam Petrochemicals, which acquired Malaysia’s polyolefin major Titan Chemicals in July 2010. Included in the acquisition was Titan’s Indonesian subsidiary - PT Titan Petrokimia Nusantara (TPN), which has a polyethylene (PE) production capacity of 450,000 tonnes/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) received the Distinction for its excellent sustainability performance and has been recognized as one of the top-scoring companies in the Chemical Industry globally, said the company on its site.

The Company has also been included in the 2017 edition of RobecoSAM’s Sustainability Yearbook, the world’s most comprehensive publication on corporate sustainability. This global recognition reaffirms IVL’s long-term commitment to sustainability and demonstrates excellent performance in the area of economic, environmental, social and corporate governance.

Each year, more than 3,000 of the world’s largest companies are invited to participate in RobecoSAM’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Inclusion in the Yearbook is limited to companies within the top 15% of their industry and must achieve a score which is within 30% of the best-performing companies in its industry.

As MRC informed earlier, Indorama Netherlands B.V., a 100%-owned subsidiary of Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 100% equity stake of Polyplex Turkey from Polyplex Europa Polyester Film San. ve Tic. A.S, Turkey, a 100% owned subsidiary of Polyplex (Thailand) Pcl., and Polyplex (Asia) Pte Limited, Singapore.

Indorama Ventures is a leading producer in the polyester value chain in Thailand with strong global network and manufacturing across Asia, Europe and North America. Its products serve major players in diversified end use markets, including food, beverages, personal and home care, health care, automotives, textile, and industrial. The company’s main products are PTA, PET and polyester fibre, which are distributed across the world.
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