Petronas signs EPCC contract for Pengerang Integrated Complex Flexi-HDPE plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has signed the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract for Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC)’s Flexible High-Density Polyethylene (Flexi HDPE) plant, as per Plastemart.

Petronas said it signed the contract with the Chinese consortium of Tecnimont S.p.A, China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Co Ltd, TECNIMONTHQC S.c.a.r.l and TecnimontHQC Sdn Bhd.

The Flexi HDPE plant is the first of its kind in Petronas and Malaysia, utilising the Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process Slurry Technology for Multi-modal HDPE, licensed by Lyondellbasell. The plant, with 400,000 metric tpa capacity, would produce a range of multimodal HDPE products, complementing Petronas’ polyethylene portfolio, upon completion.

The Flexi HDPE, produced in the form of pallets, enables custom-made production of very-high-molecular-weight polymers desirable for end-products such as pressure pipes for drinking water, gas, industrial and general purposes, as well as household containers and bottles.

As MRC informed before, in November 2015, Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd awarded a USD482m contract to build a polypropylene (PP) plant at its new world-scale RAPID refining and petrochemicals site in Malaysia. The engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract was awarded to Italy’s Technimont and China’s Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering.

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) -- Reliance is executing major projects in its energy and materials chain at Jamnagar covering Para-Xylene, Cracker complex along with downstream plants and Gasification, said the company on its site.

Jamnagar is one the largest contemporary project sites globally with some of the largest and most complex process units ever built anywhere in this industry. These projects will add significant value to Reliance’s Refining & Petrochemical business and enable Jamnagar complex to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

The benefits of integration at the Jamnagar complex will set a new paradigm of scale and value addition in the Refining and Petrochemicals industry.

Para-Xylene, Cracker and downstream projects (MEG, Linear Low density and Low density Polyethylene) as well as Gasification which is linked to RIL’s DTA refinery, have now been installed, mechanically complete and are in various stages of pre-commissioning and commissioning.

Reliance is pleased to announce the successful and flawless commissioning of the second and final phase of Para-xylene (PX) comprising of PX Crystallizers trains, Trans-alkylation and Aromatic Extraction units at Jamnagar.

Earlier in December 2016, RIL had announced successful commissioning of the first phase comprising Train 1 of PX plant. Train 2 as part of second phase has been commissioned earlier this month and the last Train 3, is at an advanced stage of commissioning and will begin production later this quarter.

This plant is built with state-of-the-art crystallization technology from BP which is highly energy efficient. With the commissioning of this plant, RIL’s PX capacity will be more than double. Reliance will emerge as the world’s second largest producer of PX with about 11% of global production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Reliance Industries Limited or RIL will make its first term paraxylene export to China from the second phase of its new 2.2 million mt/year plant at Jamnagar at end April, reported Apic-online with reference to industry sources.

Of the 35,000 mt of PX due to load from Sikka in Gujarat on the MT Bunga Angelica, 15,000 mt will be discharged at Dalian in China under term contracts, sources said.

The rest will form part of Reliance's regular shipments to the region.

The volume en route to China is output from the second phase of Reliance's aromatics plant, which a source close to the company said had been ramping up since early April and was operating at a "fairly high rate now."

The first phase of the plant was commissioned last December.

In addition, 10,000 mt of benzene output from the plant was heard to have been sold on a spot basis for May loading, industry sources said, although further details could not be verified.

The No.2 Reliance plant at Jamnagar has a nameplate production capacity of 2.2 million mt/year of PX and 500,000 mt/year of benzene.

It more than doubles RIL's PX production capacity to 4.2 million mt/year, making it the world's second-largest PX producer with 9% of global PX capacity and 11% share of global production, the company said in a statement announcing the commissioning the first phase of the plant last December.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2015, RIL successfully put into operation two plants in Dahej, Gujarat, India. The first was a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin plant, which consists of two lines with a combined manufacturing capacity of 650 KTA. The plant was built with Invista technology for continuous polymerization and Buhler AG technology for solid state polymerization. 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 company said. The second facility was 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 increased 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) -- Honeywell International Inc. ( HON ) reported Friday that its first-quarter attributable net income grew to USD1.33 billion from last year's USD1.22 billion. Earnings per share increased 10 percent to USD1.71 from USD1.56 a year ago, said Nasdaq.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of USD1.62 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company said its earnings per share, at 25% tax rate, excluding 2016 divestitures, were USD1.66, compared to USD1.50 last year.

Further, for fiscal 2017, the company raised the low end of guidance by 5 cents. The company now anticipates that 2017 earnings per share will be USD6.90 to $7.10, up 7 percent to 10 percent, excluding divestitures, any pension mark-to-market adjustments, and 2016 debt refinancing charges.

For the full year, analysts expect earnings of USD7.04 per share.

Darius Adamczyk, President and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell, said, "Honeywell reported a strong start to 2017, with over 2 percent organic sales growth, 70 basis points of segment margin expansion, and free cash flow of nearly USD800 million that was more than six times greater than 2016. ...Each of our businesses contributed."

As per MRC, Honeywell announced that Wantong Petrochemical Group is producing ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel using Honeywell UOP’s new HYT-6219 hydrotreating catalyst.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil sales from storage tanks around Singapore rose to an 11-month high in March, with nearly half of the volumes going to China and traders clearing inventories ahead of record shipments to Asia expected to arrive in April, said Reuters.

Traders sold a total of 22.6 MMbbl of crude from storage in Singapore, southern Malaysia and northern Indonesia in March, Thomson Reuters Eikon trade data showed. Around half of the volumes went to China, partly to help quench the still-growing demand from the country's independent refiners.

"Strong demand from the teapots played its part, as they feared delays to their June quota renewal, and so (they) over-bought during Q1 2017," said Virendra Chauhan, oil analyst at Energy Aspects.

China started granting independent refiners, sometimes called teapots, crude oil import rights from 2015, resulting in a surge of overseas orders in 2016. That has continued into this year, with China's overall March crude imports hitting a record at nearly 9.2 MMbpd.

Despite the large sales this pulled from Singapore storage, the inventory drawdown does not necessarily indicate that an effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut production to tighten supplies and prop up prices is bearing fruit.

"It's too early to say (if this means the OPEC output cut is working). Of course China buying almost 600,000 bpd more crude in Q1 2017 has helped, but we don't see that as a sustainable pace of growth," Chauhan said.

There are also concerns that while China's surging imports eat up crude volumes, they may contribute to a fuel overhang as Chinese refiners churn out more products like gasoline and diesel than the market can absorb.
MRC