Reliance Industries gets environmental approval for Dahej unit expansion project

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.
mrcplast.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CTCI and Invista have entered into a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to collaborate on possible purified terephthalic acid (PTA) projects around the world, and have agreed to work closely in pursuit of PTA licensing opportunities, according to Apic-online.

"With Invista's connection with clients in the polyester value chain, CTCI could have early involvement during client's project development stage," said CTCI, noting that it has worked with Invista in Taiwan and China for decades, and would like to expand the cooperation into new areas of the world.

"Over the past several years, we have been working closely with CTCI to execute major capital investments in PTA," said Mike Pickens, president of Invista Performance Technologies. "The signature of this agreement is another milestone in our evolving relationship. I look forward to a strong collaboration of both parties in creating long-term value in the PTA industry worldwide."

As MRC informed previously, Frames has recently been awarded an order from CB&I and CTCI to design and supply an acid gas treatment unit for the Liwa Plastics Industries Complex (LPIC) in the Sultanate of Oman. The unit, which is based on solid bed scavenger technology, will prevent hydrogen sulfide being emitted into the atmosphere. The unit is expected to be completed and handed over in the first half of 2018. The LPIC project involves developing a new petrochemical complex - split into four EPC Packages - for the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic). Its primary goal is to further increase the value-added that can be derived from Omani crude oil and natural gas. It will also enable Oman to produce polyethylene for the first time.

Invista is one of the world's largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, primarily for nylon, spandex and polyester applications. With a business presence in over 20 countries, Invista's global businesses deliver exceptional value for their customers through technology innovations, market insights and a powerful portfolio of global trademarks.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's Hanwha Total said on Monday its naphtha cracker in Daesan has been shut due to power outages caused by a lightning strike, reported Reuters.

No injuries were reported, it said.

The lightning strike happened in the afternoon at its plant in Daesan, some 81 mi southwest of Seoul, a company spokesman said.

It was unclear when the 1-MMtpy naphtha cracker would restart, the spokesman said. Naphtha is mainly used to make plastics.

The outages however did not impact operations at a condensate splitter that produces mostly naphtha and some distillates, the spokesman said.

As MRC informed before, in July 2015, Hanwha Chemical merged two of its chemical compounds businesses, Hanwha Next and Hanwha Compound. The combined entity, named Hanwha Compound, produces polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The company operates manufacturing plants in Yeosu and Suncheon, with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons.

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc., the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The University of Wisconsin-Madison and ExxonMobil have announced a 2-yr renewal of an agreement to research the fundamental chemistry of converting biomass into transportation fuels. The research is part of a broad effort to identify scalable and commercially viable solutions to help meet increasing global energy demand with a renewable resource, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

UW-Madison has long been known for its expertise in biomass conversion. George Huber, the Harvey D. Spangler professor of chemical and biological engineering at UW-Madison, is working closely with ExxonMobil’s scientists to build a stronger understanding of the basic chemical transformations that occur during biomass conversion into diesel and jet fuels.

Over the past 2 yr, research has focused on a multistep approach for converting cellulosic biomass to transportation fuels. A new approach with the potential to reduce the number of processing steps will be explored in this collaboration. This approach using solvents could potentially dissolve the entire biomass, which might make it possible to convert the whole biomass into fuel-sized molecules in a single reactor.

Another potential process that will be studied in this collaboration involves the catalytic transformation of bio-derived ethanol into bio-derived diesel and jet fuel. Ethanol is currently produced from a range of sources and is widely used as an additive to gasoline. This technology could potentially allow larger diesel and jet fuel molecules to be produced from renewable sources. Our research continues to focus on non-food sources like corn stover and other cellulosic feedstocks.

ExxonMobil’s work with UW-Madison is a recent addition in a series of partnerships the company has established with leading universities around the world as part of its ongoing research into early-stage innovative projects. This area of biofuels research adds to ExxonMobil’s broader advanced biofuels research portfolio, which includes joint research collaborations focused on algae-based biofuels with Synthetic Genomics, Inc., Colorado School of Mines and Michigan State. ExxonMobil is also exploring a variety of biomass-to-fuels conversion processes, which could be used with non-food based feedstocks such as cellulose-derived sugars, in collaboration with REG Life Sciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Renewable Energy Group (REG).

ExxonMobil also partners with MIT, Princeton, Michigan State, Stanford, University of Texas and Georgia Institute of Technology in a range of areas from the development of lower-carbon energy sources to energy-efficient plastics manufacturing.

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