Hindustan Petroleum refinery to use Honeywell UOP technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced that Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is using technologies from Honeywell UOP for the expansion and modernization of its refinery at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on the southeast coast of India, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Included in the project are licensing, basic engineering design and other associated services for a Penex isomerization unit, which helps make cleaner burning high-octane gasoline, and a Unicracking hydrocracking unit to produce cleaner burning diesel fuel.

"HPCL chose these solutions from Honeywell UOP due to their superior economics and our successful track record with these technologies," said Mike Millard, VP and general manager of Honeywell UOP’s Process Technology and Equipment business. "UOP has licensed more than 160 Penex units, and more than 220 Unicracking units – more than any other licensor in these applications."

The Penex process upgrades light naphtha feedstock to produce isomerate, a cleaner gasoline blend-stock that does not contain benzene, aromatics or olefins. The process uses Honeywell UOP’s portfolio of isomerization and benzene saturation catalysts.

The Unicracking process uses catalysts, unit design and reactor internals to produce higher yields of cleaner-burning fuels from a wider range of feedstocks. The unit’s fractionation section includes a configuration to more efficiently separate the products, reducing capital costs and significantly lowering utilities and operating expense. In addition, the unit’s heavy polynuclear aromatics management allows the unit to achieve nearly 100% conversion throughout the entire cycle length.

India’s gross domestic product currently is growing at 7% to 8%, driving robust growth in demand for gasoline -- particularly as automobile sales increase – and diesel fuel, driven by growth in commercial and agricultural production. To meet tightening global emissions standards, the Indian government has proposed a 35% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 by adopting Euro-IV fuel specifications by 2017 and BS-VI (roughly equivalent to the Euro-VI specification) by 2020.

As per MRC, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) shelved a plan to build a refinery in Andhra Pradesh, although it will go ahead with a proposed petrochemical unit.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic and Sinopec have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to study opportunities for joint petrochemical projects in Saudi Arabia and China, said Apic-online.

Under the agreement, the companies are planning -"for the first time" - to study a joint venture with Chinese investment in Saudi Arabia, the companies noted.

The agreement, which supports Saudi Vision 2030 and China's One Belt, One Road initiative, also seeks to explore opportunities for further investments at the existing Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical Co. (SSTPC) joint venture.

SSTPC started up a 1-million-t/y ethylene cracker in Tianjin, China, in 2010, and in 2012 it began construction on a new 260,000-t/y polycarbonate plant at Tianjin, which was expected to begin operations in 2015.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) said it had started trial operations at a new rubber plant it has built as a joint venture with a unit of ExxonMobil.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Atos and Siemens announce they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and will leverage their portfolios to help customers establish an integrated first line of defense against cyber-attacks, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Siemens and Atos work together in the area of cybersecurity for industrial companies, providing customers in the manufacturing and processing industries with comprehensive security services and products, the companies said in a press release.

The Atos and Siemens partnership in the US is part of a global agreement around cybersecurity including common go-to-market and shared research and development efforts to target Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) security for any market.

As utilities increasingly use software to become more efficient and reliable, there is a corresponding need to boost cyber defenses – going beyond compliance regulations to secure operations. In oil and gas, digitalization brings a convergence of IT and OT connectivity that enables data to travel from the field, to the control room to the enterprise network – underscoring the need for a unique set of solutions to address the crossover between IT and OT.

A recent study from the independent Ponemon Institute shows that nearly 70 percent of US oil and gas cyber managers said their operations have had at least one security compromise in the past year, resulting in the loss of confidential information or OT disruption – highlighting the need for the oil and gas industry to increase its cyber defenses.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to expand the Siemens and Atos relationship as US utilities, oil and gas industries are realizing the extent of cybersecurity challenges when moving into a digitized and connected ecosystem," said Michel-Alain Proch, Group Senior Executive V.P. and CEO North America, Atos. "With our combined end-to-end suite of solutions and innovative approaches to security analytics and better detection and response capabilities, customers will see tangible advantages in cost and risk reductions, as well as enhanced performance and flexibility gains."

"As the energy industry benefits from digital technologies and solutions, there is a need to guard against growing cyber threats. This new cooperation is part of our broad effort to deliver cybersecurity solutions to America's energy sector. By bridging operational technology and information technology capabilities, we can strengthen our customers' defenses against costly and disruptive attacks," said Judy Marks, CEO Siemens USA and Executive Vice President of New Equipment Solutions for Dresser-Rand.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OPEC oil producers increasingly favor extending beyond June a pact on reducing crude supply to balance the market, sources within the group said, although Russia and other non-members need to remain part of the initiative, said Reuters.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is curbing its output by about 1.2 MMbpd from Jan. 1 for six months, the first reduction in eight years. Russia and other non-OPEC producers agreed to cut half as much.

The deal has lifted oil prices, but inventories in industrial nations are rising and higher returns have encouraged U.S. companies to pump more. A growing number of OPEC officials believe it may take longer than six months to reduce stocks.

"An extension is needed to balance the market," an OPEC delegate said. "Any extension of the cut agreement should be with non-OPEC." OPEC sources told Reuters in February that the group could extend the supply-reduction pact, or even apply deeper cuts from July, if inventories fail to drop to a targeted level.

The group wants stocks in the industrialized world to fall to the average of the past five years. According to the most recent data, for January, inventories of crude and refined products stood 278 million barrels above this level. Five other OPEC sources said it was increasingly clear that the market needed more than six months to stabilize but added that all producers -- in OPEC plus non-members -- had to agree.

"The ministers will meet in May to decide, but everyone has to be on board," an OPEC source from a major producer said. OPEC next meets to decide output policy on May 25 in Vienna. There will also be a gathering in May of OPEC and non-OPEC producers, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said last month. "Hard negotiations are on the way," another one of the sources said.

Russia, the largest of the 11 outside producers working with OPEC, has not publicly said whether it supports extending the supply cut, but is wary about the revival of U.S. shale output due to higher oil prices. "It's too early to know whether everyone will agree to this," a source from a non-OPEC participant in the deal said, referring to prolonging the output curb.

The revival of shale oil production -- whose growth added to the oversupply that battered oil prices in mid-2014 -- has restrained the rally this year and may worry OPEC leaders.

OPEC ministers and sources, however, have said they don't see a large rebound in 2017. One OPEC source said shale production was expected to grow by about 300,000 bpd this year -- a level the market could accommodate.

"OPEC heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia are not happy with the return of shale oil in full force and have to make a hard choice between losing part of their market share or steady income," said a source from a major non-Gulf OPEC producer. "They will more likely opt for income and will push to get help from non-OPEC."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Indonesia plans to file a World Trade Organization complaint this month against European Union anti-dumping duties on biodiesel exports from the Southeast Asian country, said Thestar.

Indonesia said in a statement the EU duties on biodiesel were inconsistent with the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement and disputed the calculations that they were based on.

"We are ready to file the suit at the first meeting in March 29-30 at WTO headquarter in Geneva," Indonesia's Director of Trade Security Pradnyawati said.

In November 2013, the EU set duties of 8.8% to 20.5% for Indonesian producers and between 22% and 25.7% for Argentine producers, to apply for five years in both cases.

The EU argued that by imposing duty on the raw product, soybeans in the case of Argentina and palm oil for Indonesia, they gave an advantage to domestic producers, which allowed them then to "dump" product at unfairly low prices.

Argentina and Indonesia, major exporters of biodiesel, have called the EU measures protectionist. Both have previously brought complaints before the WTO, with Argentina securing rulings in favor of several of its claims.

The cases have also brought legal challenges, with the General Court of the European Union, the lower of the two EU courts.

Indonesia said the EU duties had caused sales of biodiesel to slump from USD625 million in 2013 to an expected $9 million in 2017, according to Trade Map data.
MRC