MHI completes polyethylene plant in Mont Belvieu for ExxonMobil Chemical

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA), a fully owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has completed the construction of a large-scale two-train polyethylene plant in the U.S., as per the company's press release.

The construction order was placed in 2014 by ExxonMobil Chemical Company, an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation specializing in petrochemical products.

The plant will be able to produce 1.3 million tons of polyethylene per year and is situated near an existing plant operated by ExxonMobil in Mont Belvieu, Texas. It is equipped to perform reaction processing, final finishing, packaging, and shipment.

Commenting on the completion of the new plant's construction, Yoichiro Ban, Senior Vice President of MHI, noted, "We are delighted that the plant has been completed smoothly, on schedule and with an excellent safety record. The construction process of the new plant is testament to the high level of project management provided by MHI Group."

MHI Group is also constructing a large-scale polyethylene plant at ExxonMobil's petrochemical complex in Beaumont, Texas, representing the third polyethylene plant project conducted by MHI Group for ExxonMobil. The first polyethylene plant was installed at ExxonMobil's Singapore complex in 2011.

The U.S. is currently experiencing a buoyant market for chemical plants, driven by expanding production of shale gas. In April 2016, MHIA relocated its headquarters from New York to Houston, where many chemical plant-related customers are concentrated. In January 2017, MHIA also established a new Oil & Gas Division to oversee business development in this field. Through these activities, MHI will continue to strengthen its relationship with its customers as it moves steadily forward in developing the North American market for chemical plants.

As MRC informed earlier, in November 2016, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced it received a contract from ExxonMobil Chemical Company to provide engineering, design and construction management services as part of a new 650 kTa polyethylene facility to be located at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont polyethylene plant.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vina SCG Chemicals Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siam Cement Group (SCG), has approval to proceed with its planned investment in Long Son Petrochemicals Co. (LSP) in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as per Apic-online.

The project, estimated to cost about USD5.4-billion, will include a 1-million-t/y ethylene cracker with flexible gas and naphtha feed, which will have the capacity to pro-duce up to 1.6-million t/y of olefins, depending on the feedstock mix.

Also included in the project, is the downstream production of about 2.7-million t/y of high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene and polypropylene. Construction is expected to take four and a half years and commercial operations are an-ticipated by the first half of 2022.

SCG said LSP would issue a Letter of Award to key contractors on 14 July 2017, with the final contract sign-ing planned this year. No announcement was made as of PCN's press deadline.

SCG holds a 71% indirect interest in LSP (53% through Vina SCG and 18% via Thai Plastic and Chemicals). PetroVietnam holds the remaining 29% stake.

As MRC informed before, in September 2016, Russia's Rosneft signed a contract to supply 96 MMt of crude oil to PV Oil, an affiliate of state oil and gas PetroVietnam, starting 2017.

SCG Chemicals is a subsidiary of SCG and is one of SCG’s 3 core businesses consisting of Chemicals, Paper and Cement-Building Materials. SCG embarked upon the chemicals business in 1989. At present, SCG Chemicals manufactures and supplies a full range of petrochemical products ranging from upstream petrochemicals such as Olefins, intermediate petrochemicals such as Styrene Monomer, PTA, and MMA, to downstream petrochemicals such as Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, and Polystyrene resins. SCG Chemicals is now one of the largest integrated petrochemical companies in Thailand and a key industry leader in the Asia-Pacific region.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) is seeking additional land from the West Bengal government for setting up an upstream refinery plant in order to reduce the imports of primary feedstock naphtha, as per Plastemart.

"We want to set up an upstream refinery plant here and we are getting ready for that. We seek more land for the project," the company's Executive Vice President and head of the plant Ashok Kumar Ghosh said. HPL used to procure about 20% of its naphtha requirement from the refinery here. "The refinery (at Haldia) can supply up to 20% of our requirement even if it (refinery) runs in full capacity. We are importing the rest of our naphtha requirement from Gulf countries. This is a huge penalty for our plant," he said.

As MRC informed earlier, in the first week of May 2017, HPL brought on-stream its HDPE/LLDPE swing plant at the petrochemical complex located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The plant was restarted following an unplanned outage. The company had encountered technical glitch at the LLDPE line of the swing plant and was shut in end-February 2017.

Located at Haldia in the eastern Indian state of west Bengal, the complex can produce 700,000 mt/year of ethylene and 350,000 mt/year of propylene and provides feedstock to a 330,000 mt/year high density PE plant, a 370,000 mt/year HDPE/linear low PE swing plant and a 350,000 mt/year polypropylene unit.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has received environment clearance for expansion and debottlenecking of its Dahej petrochemical facility in Gujarat at a cost of Rs 13,250 crore, reported Plastemart.

The petrochem major plans to expand its Dahej facility in view of erratic supply of feed stock, change in the government’s policy to prioritise domestic supply over industrial sector, adequate supply of Shale gas ethane from the US, besides meeting demand-supply gap of petrochemicals in India.

“Based on the recommendations of the Expert Appraisal Committee (Industry), the Environment Ministry has given the environmental clearance for RIL’s expansion project yesterday,” a senior government official said. The green nod to the proposed project, which will be carried out within the existing plant area of 700 hectare, is subject to some conditions, the official said. The fuel used for the proposed project would largely be ethane, lean gas and off gas.

The power required for the project will be met from the existing captive power plant. As per the proposal, RIL Dahej facility presently utilises a mixture of ethane and propane to produce downstream products and by-products. Dahej facility proposes to modify its feedstock ratio of ethane and propane in the gas cracker plant owing to the availability of shale gas ethane imported from the US. This change in feedstock mixture will result in higher production of ethylene.

The RIL’s proposal also include setting up of new plants including Chlorinated Poly Vinyl Chloride (CPVC), Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM), Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) and a dedicated Ethane storage tank.

As MRC wrote before, according to industry sources, RIL will start up its new monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at Jamnagar by the month end. The production capacity of the new MEG plant is 750,000 mt/annum. The new plant is in addition to the existing 750,000 mt/annum MEG output capacity that RIL has from multiple lines.

Reliance Industries Limited is the largest petrochemical company in India. The company is engaged in a wide range of activities, ranging from oil and gas production to production of polyester and polymer goods, including the production of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and textiles.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Bharat Petroleum Corp has made its first purchase of US oil, buying high sulfur crudes Mars and Poseidon in a tender, its head of refineries R. Ramachandran said, reported Reuters.

BPCL is the second Indian refiner to buy US Gulf crude after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington last month when President Donald Trump said the United States looked forward to exporting more energy products to the world's third-biggest oil buyer.

BPCL has bought a cargo containing 500,000 bbl each of Mars and Poseidon for delivery from Sept. 26 to Oct. 10.

Ramachandran said the landed price of the American oil cargo would be "reasonably competitive" to the delivered price of the high sulfur oil from the Middle East.

Earlier this month Indian Oil Corp, the nation's top refiner, bought 1.6 MMbbl of Mars.

A trade source said BPCL has bought the cargo from Shell.

Refiners in India, the world's third biggest oil consumer, are diversifying crude imports as cheaper alternatives have emerged due to a global supply glut despite OPEC and some non-OPEC producers cutting output to jack up prices.

Share of Middle Eastern crude in India's imports shrank in June to the smallest since October 2015, while that from south America, Africa and Central Asia including Russia rose.

Current market dynamics are also helping India's plan to deepen energy ties with the United States.

West Texas Intermediate oil prices are depressed relative to Middle East benchmark Dubai because of rising US shale oil production and as the OPEC cuts have reduced the amount of Middle East medium, sour crude.

Global oil output in June is 1.2 MMbpd above a year ago, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday in its latest monthly report.

"We are also looking at buying low sulfur oil from America if priced competitively. Our refineries need both low sulfur and high sulfur oil," he said, adding the latest purchase was a trial cargo.

BPCL aims to operate its Kochi refinery in Southern India at expanded capacity of 310,000 bpd from September, he added.

India is the latest Asian country to buy US crude after South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Taiwan after the OPEC cuts drove up prices of Middle East heavy-sour crude, or grades with a high sulfur content.

As MRC wrote previously, BPCL plans to spend USD6.75 B through 2022 to raise refining capacity by 62% to meet rising fuel demand in the world's fastest growing major economy.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian state-controlled oil and gas company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The Corporation operates two large refineries of the country located at Mumbai and Kochi.
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