Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with renewable drive to diversify energy mix

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia aims to produce 10% of its power from renewable sources in the next six years as it pushes ahead with a multi-billion-dollar plan to diversify its energy mix and free up more crude oil for export, said Reuters.

The drive by the world's top oil exporter will see the kingdom developing 30 solar and wind projects by 2023 to boost its electricity generation and reduce crude oil burning. Saudi Arabia is targeting 9.5 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy by 2023. The renewables initiative involves investment estimated between USD30 B and USD50 B.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih kicked off the massive renewable program in Riyadh on Monday by announcing the beginning of the bidding process for a 300 MW solar power project, which is expected to come online by 2018-2019. "The energy mix to produce electricity will change, today the kingdom uses large quantities of oil liquids, including crude, fuel oil and diesel," Falih said. "So the percentage of renewable energy by 2023 (will be) 10% of total installed capacity in the kingdom."

Under an economic reform program launched last year, known as Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is seeking to use non-oil means to generate much of its additional future energy needs to avoid running down oil resources and diversify its economy.

The kingdom is restructuring its energy sector as part of Vision 2030 and a focus on renewable projects is a pillar of this transformation as it would help develop the private sector and create thousands of jobs.

"Since the restructuring of the energy sector ... one of our key priorities is to engage with the private sector," Falih said, adding he was confident the program would be delivered.

Saudi Arabia has short-listed 27 companies for its solar power project and 24 firms for its wind project, the energy ministry said last week. France's EDF Energies Nouvelles, Japanese companies Marubeni Corp and Mitsui & Co and Saudi Acwa Power are among the firms which have qualified to bid for the 300 MW solar PV project in Sakaka, the al-Jouf Province in the north of the kingdom.

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), GE, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsui & Co., JGC Corp, SNC Lavalin Arabia and Iberdrola Renovables Energia are among those qualified to bid for the 400 MW wind farm project in Midyan in the northwest.

The kingdom also plans to launch a second bidding round for 400 MW of wind power at a project in Domat al-Jandal in al-Jouf Province by the fourth quarter of this year, which will be followed by 620 MW of solar power, Turki Shehri, head of the renewable energy project development office at the energy ministry told reporters on Monday. "This will come in stages. It (wind power project) will come in the fourth quarter of this year with Domat al-Jandal, and then the 620 MW (solar) will come immediately after that in phases," he said.

The projects will be tendered on a build, operate and own basis, meaning the companies which win the projects will retain ownership for 20 years for the solar plants and 25 years for the wind, Shehri said. State oil giant Saudi Aramco would be interested in investing in the second bidding round for renewable projects as it aims to play a major role in the sector, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, senior vice president for downstream at Aramco said.

Aramco, which is preparing to list up to 5% of its shares by next year, has created a department for renewables within the company to develop wind and solar projects.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- March output of the main products from polymers and rubber in Russia grew by 7.1% year on year, whereas output of these products increased by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2017, reported MRC analysts.

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, March production of plastic pipes, hoses and fittings rose to 38,100 tonnes, up by 24.6% from a month earlier. Overall output of these polymer products reached 94,200 tonnes in the first quarter of 2017, down by 5.6% year on year.

Last month's production of unreinforced and non-combined films was 90,200 tonnes versus 77,300 in February. Output of film products grew by 7.4% year on year over the stated period, totalling 230,300 tonnes.

March production of boards, sheets and non-porous sheets rose to 28,000 tonnes, compared to 27,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of these products grew to 76,800 tonnes in January-March 2017, up by 9.8% year on year.

Last month's production of boards, sheets and porous polymer films was 20,000 tonnes, whereas this figure was 17,400 tonnes a months earlier. Total production of these polymer products dropped by 5.6% year on year in the first three months of 2017 to 52,500 tonnes.

March production of plastic windows and window sills remained at the level of February, totalling about 1.2 million square metres. Output of these products was slightly less than 3.2 million square metres in the first three months of 2017, down by 8% year on year.

Last month's production of plastic door blocks and doorsteps rose to 67,300 square metres, compared to 62,100 square metres in February. Overall output of these polymer products fell by 7% year on year in January-March 2017 to 177,100 square metres.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yunlin County government has conditionally approved a one-year extension of 8 operating licenses for using bituminous coal and petroleum coke at the Sixth Naphtha Cracking Complex run by Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) in the Mailiao Township of the southern county, as per Plastemart.

Of the eight operating permits, six were renewed to allow five sets of cogeneration facilities and one petrochemical production line at the No. 3 plant in the complex to burn bituminous coal and another two renewed to permit the use of petroleum coke at the No. 1 plant.

After screening applications filed by the FPG to renew the operating permits based on relevant environmental rules and regulations, the county government approved the renewal on the condition that FPG carry out a seasonal pollution emission reduction project from October to next March and march toward the use of clean or renewable energy according to a top official with the county's Environmental Protection Bureau.

Lin Chang-chao, director of the bureau, said that the county government had asked FPG to gradually reduce the use of bituminous coal at its naphtha cracking plants since 2015, with the reduction amount totaling 2,312,726 metric tons over a period of two years, for a reduction rate of 14.1%.

As MRC informed earlier, in July 2015, Formosa Plastics Corporation, U.S.A. unveiled its plans to build a new, state-of- the-art polypropylene (PP) production line at its Point Comfort, Texas site. This will be the first new PP production to be built in the US in many years. It continues the company’s longstanding commitments to its customers, its employees and the communities in which it operates. No details on the plant’s investment, capacity, technology, construction or anticipated completion/startup was released then.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas Chemical Group (PCG) has postponed maintenance shutdown at its high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit in Kerteh, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company has delayed the outage of its 120,000 mt/year unit until May 2017. As per earlier plans, the plant was supposed to shut on April 16, 2017 for around a week.

Located at Kerteh in Terengganu, Malaysia, the plant has a total production capacity of 240,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2015, Petronas awarded the Johor port operatorship for its Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (RAPID) project to Johor Port Bhd (JPB). As the port operator, JPB will manage the operations and logistics functions at the material offloading facility (MOLF) for Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang.

Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor. RAPID includes a 300,000 bpd refinery and a petrochemical complex with a 3 million tpa steam cracker, and is expected to come onstream in mid-2019. The petrochemical complex will have the capacity to produce 7.7 million tpa of petrochemical products.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, now offers enhanced formulations of CESA-extend masterbatches that restore important material properties to recycled condensation polymers including PET, PLA, and polycarbonate (PC), as per Plastemart.

This means even high percentages of regrind can be incorporated with virgin resin without significantly reducing physical properties required in food-contact and other high-performance packaging applications.

The latest CESA-extend masterbatches provide a simple, low-cost solution for increasing molecular weight and restoring physical properties, melt strength, and processability that are lost when PET and PLA polymer chains break down during processing and recycling. When added to these recycled materials during processing, CESA-extend masterbatches react with, and re-link, broken polymer chains. Long polymer chains are essential in both PET and PLA extrusion because they give the extruded material the tensile strength essential for good performance when formed into packaging materials.

"CESA-extend masterbatches give processors an affordable, sustainable way to meet growing market demands for higher levels of recycled content in food packaging applications. One of our customers was even able to achieve acceptable results using 100% regrind," says Peter Prusak, Clariant Head of Marketing for North America.

Pelletized CESA-extend masterbatches are available in standard and custom formulations, and can be used to control or enhance a range of material parameters, including melt-flow index (MFI), intrinsic viscosity, hydrolytic stability, mechanical properties and clarity. They can also be custom formulated to provide both linear and branched chain extension.

As MRC informed before, in March 2017, Clariant announced that it had been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin® catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC