Honeywell awarded equipment contract for Dangote’s largest single-train refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UOP LLC, a division of Honeywell International Inc. announced that it has won a contract from Dangote Oil Refinery Company Ltd. for critical equipment, technology licensing and design services for a world-scale integrated refinery and petrochemical plant, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

When completed, the integrated complex in Lekki, near the capital of Lagos in Nigeria, will be the largest single-train refinery in the world.

Included in the agreement is proprietary specialist equipment required for UOP LLC’s licensed RFCC, Unicracking, CCR Platforming, Penex and Butamer processes.

The proprietary specialist equipment includes catalyst regeneration and dryer regeneration control systems, high-performance column trays, and heat exchanger tubes. The packaged equipment includes a modular CCR unit, catalyst coolers, a Third-Stage Separator System for the RFCC unit—which upgrades heavy oil—and two pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units to purify hydrogen.

"Nigeria has the second-largest proven oil reserves in Africa—more than 37 billion barrels—but currently imports most of its refined products because it has limited domestic refining capacity," said Mike Millard, vice president and general manager of UOP LLC’s Process Technology & Equipment business. "This new refinery will help Nigeria meet its own growing demand for fuels and petrochemicals while raising the profitability of the nation’s crude oil."

The Lekki facility will be the largest single-train refinery in the world producing Euro-V quality gasoline and diesel, as well as jet fuel meeting international aviation specifications along with world-scale quantities of polypropylene, a primary component used in plastics and packaging. The plant’s RFCC unit will be the largest in the world.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Nigeria in 2015 produced 2.3 MMbpd of petroleum and other liquids, about 2 MM of which was exported. That same year, Nigeria relied on imports of refined fuels to meet more than 70% of its domestic needs.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has entered into a licence agreement with Germany’s Resysta International GmbH which will provide RIL with exclusive rights to produce and market RelWood, a natural fiber polymer composite, in India, as per Plastemart.

This compound will be the raw material in the production of sheets and various profiles used in a wide range of wood and plywood replacement applications. “Through this strategic partnership with Resysta, RIL is looking forward to producing the RelWood compound exclusively in order to meet the fast-growing demand of real alternative to tropical wood,” said Vipul Shah, COO, petchem, RIL.

Resysta succeeded where many others failed by developing a weather and waterresistant material which truly has the look and feel of wood, which is not affected by termites, does not splinter or rot over time, is obtained using a renewable resource and is fully recyclable. It even weathers salt water, sun and wind. The material is a key innovation that was needed to address the crisis of shrinking rainforests, as well as the inferior quality of wood composite products that were used before. This is based on a unique technology which allows the dispersion of natural fiber within the polymer matrix.

Bernd Duna, CEO of Resysta International, said, "We are currently licensing our technology across the world, and have found in Reliance Industries our perfect partner for India. By manufacturing the Resysta Compound locally, the products become even more environment friendly and easily available. As a leading petrochemicals manufacturer in India, RIL is ideally poised to manufacture on a par with our high worldwide standard. We look forward to continuing Resysta’s success story in India in partnership with RIL."

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, RIL was awarded a contract worth Rs. 100 crore to Petron Engineering Construction Ltd for its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Gujarat. The LLDPE plant is part of RIL's J-3 project in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The J-3 project boasts of a petroleum refinery and allied petrochemical plants for the production of plastics and fibre intermediates.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US conglomerate DuPont announced that its first quarter GAAP earnings per share rose 9% on a yearly basis to USD1.52 on 5% higher revenues of USD7.7 billion, said Nasdaq.

The Delaware-based company's operating earnings per share jumped 30% to USD1.64.

The statement said the highest increase in sales was recorded in agriculture, performance materials and electronics and communications. Agriculture sales grew 4% due to "benefits from local price and volume." It was the sector that best performed with operating earnings rising 12% to USD1,236 million.

"The strength of our new product introductions and increased demand in key markets together resulted in top-line increases in almost every business," said the chemical corporation's chief executive and chairman Ed Breen. He added that they "expect to close the merger [with Dow] in August of this year and quickly begin working on the 500-plus projects already identified to deliver the targeted $3 billion in cost synergies."

The stock added 0.92% upon the release of the first quarter results while it soared over 20% in the past year.

DuPont, in its fourth-quarter call, said that it expects earnings (on a reported basis) for first-quarter 2017 to decline roughly 18% year over year. The guidance includes an expected charge of about 15 cents per share for transaction costs related to the planned merger with Dow Chemical DOW .

The company expects adjusted earnings for the first quarter to increase around 8% year over year factoring in the benefits of cost saving actions and the impact of the change in timing for seed deliveries, mostly related to the southern U.S. route-to-market change in Agriculture, partly masked by an expected reduction in planted corn acres in the U.S. DuPont also expects flat sales for the first quarter on a year over year basis.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) announced today the startup of its fourth and final polyethylene unit, the High Pressure Low Density Polyethylene (HP-LDPE) Train. This marks a significant milestone for the company as it continues to bring its world-scale manufacturing facilities on stream, said the company on its web-site.

The HP-LDPE Train joins the two Linear Low Density PE trains (PE Trains 1 & 2) and the one Elastomers train (PE Train 4), which came on stream over the last 15 months, to complete the company’s plastics plants.

Ziad Al-Labban, Sadara CEO, commented on the occasion, saying, "The successful startup of the fourth and final Sadara Plastics plant is a milestone achievement for the Sadara team and illustrates the results of successful teamwork at both the company and shareholder levels. The products from the Plastics plants will provide feedstocks which will support the development of secondary and tertiary manufacturing investments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

Each of Sadara’s four Plastics plants has world-class capacity and flexible capabilities for producing highly specialized grades of plastic products. PE Trains 1 and 2 produce a wide variety of Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) product grades, while PE Train 4 is the first facility in the Kingdom to produce Elastomers, a very low density form of polyethylene, and has the flexibility to produce LLDPE as well.

In addition to supplying international markets, Sadara’s products will be utilized for downstream applications by investors located in the adjacent PlasChem Park in Jubail, which is a collaborative effort between Sadara and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu. Located next to Sadara’s chemical complex, PlasChem Park leverages advantages of the strong industrial and services infrastructure in Jubail, secure feedstock, proximity to growing and emerging markets, and a qualified local workforce. Collectively, these factors offer investors unprecedented growth and development opportunities, the potential to create thousands of sustainable jobs, and make a positive and lasting impact on the Saudi economy.

PE Train 3 is one of 26 manufacturing units located in the multi-billion dollar Sadara Chemical Complex in Jubail Industrial City II in Saudi Arabia. Of these units, 14 will deliver products that are completely new to being produced in the GCC.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French energy group Total has approved its first major project in three years and raised its interim dividend thanks to a more than 50 per cent climb in net profits at the start of the year, as per The Financial Times.

In a first quarter trading update, Total said it notched up a 56 per cent rise in its adjusted net income to USD2.6bn in the three months ending in March, up from USD1.6bn in the same quarter last year and beating a forecast of around EUR2.4bn.

Total has been boosted by a 58 per cent climb in Brent crude prices over the period to USD53.7 a barrel and said it would be raising its interim dividend for the first time since 2014 by 1.6 per cent.

The company also approved the development of its Argentinian shale site at Vaca Muerta – its first major project since 2014.

"The strength of the balance sheet and relentless pursuit of cost reductions allows the Group to launch new projects and acquire resources while fully benefiting from the ongoing deflation in the oil sector", said chairman and chief executive Patrick Pouyanne.

MRC