Indian refiners bet big on petrochemicals as industry reshapes

MOSCOW (MRC) — India's state oil refiners—long focused on churning out transport and cooking fuels—are planning a USD35 B push into petrochemicals to meet an expected surge in demand for goods ranging from plastics to paints and adhesives, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The drive comes as the government seeks to promote durable, cheaper materials in industries such as farming and food packaging, while refiners eye long-term threats to their business from renewable energy and a shift to electric vehicles.

India's per capita consumption of synthetic polymers, for instance, used to make various grades of plastics, is just 22 lbs a year, compared with a global average of about 32 kg. "India is one of the fastest growing economies globally, but our petrochemical use is one-fourth the world average. We import half of our petchem consumption," said S. Mitra, executive member at trade body, the Chemical and Petrochemical Manufacturing Association.

He estimated demand would jump from 30 MMt to 40 MMt in the 3 yr to 2019–2020, growing the country's petrochemicals market to around USD65 B–USD70 B.

India's Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in July the government wants to set up petrochemical clusters in the eastern, western and southern regions around refineries. The government is still formulating a national policy for petrochemicals after a white paper that proposed a fund to boost investment and encouraging the use of plastics in areas like packaging and farming wasn't taken forward.

However, India's big three state refiners, Indian Oil Corp (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), already plan to spend about USD35 billion to boost their petrochemicals business, according to interviews with senior company executives.

As part of efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, India's government has proposed a 15-yr roadmap for rolling out electric vehicles, and has been aggressively auctioning solar power generation as part of a push to triple renewable power generation capacity by 2022.

"Large portions of the future refineries should be in petrochemicals to spread the risk of a reduction in diesel consumption," said R Ramachandran, head of refineries at Bharat Petroleum Corp.
MRC

Australia antitrust regulator raises flags on BP Woolworths petrol buyout

MOSCOW (MRC) — Australia's antitrust regulator said on Thursday it was concerned BP Plc's plan to buy the petrol stations of grocery giant Woolworths Ltd would hurt competition, a sign it may block the USD1.4 B deal, said Reuters.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the buyout would cut the number of major rivals selling petrol, reducing the incentive to keep retail prices low. "As a result, motorists may end up paying more at the pump," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

Woolworths and London-based BP announced the deal in December 2016, a major component of the Australian retailer's effort to cut non-core businesses and concentrate on a supermarket price war with rival Coles, owned by Wesfarmers.

Woolworths issued a statement noting the regulator's concerns and said it would "continue to work with BP and the ACCC to progress the merger clearance process."

The ACCC said Woolworths appears to influence fuel prices in large Australian cities, either by leading price cuts or quickly following competitors' price cuts, and "we are concerned that BP would not follow Woolworths's pricing strategy."

The regulator said it will publish a draft decision later this month, with a final decision scheduled for Oct. 26.
MRC

Amec Foster Wheeler JV enters Australian petchem market with ammonia facilities contract

MOSCOW (MRC) — Clough AMEC has won a landmark contract to provide maintenance services to ammonia facilities in Western Australia that supply international and domestic fertilizer markets and explosives used in the mining industry, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 5-yr deal, with an option to extend to 2027, is Clough AMEC's first entry into Australia's petrochemicals sector.

The JV will provide maintenance planning support and routine maintenance services and shutdowns, as well as the supply of management, tools and systems, to the Yara Pilbara Fertilizers Pty Ltd (YPFPL) and Yara Pilbara Nitrates PTY (YPNPL) facilities located near Karratha.

Owned by Yara Pilbara Holdings Ltd., YPFPL is one of the world's largest ammonia production facilities, with a capability of approximately 850,000 mtpy. Output from the plant is sold in the Australian domestic market, as well as South-East Asian market such as Indonesia and Korea. Liquid ammonia is a vital raw material for the manufacture of fertilizers.

Adjacent to this is YPNPL, a technical ammonium nitrate facility opened last year that cost AUS USD800 MM (?487 MM) to build. This plant produces ammonium nitrate used for explosives in the domestic mining market.

As MRC informed earlier, Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering contract by ISAB Srl, a Lukoil Group Co., as part of a major turnaround at their refinery in Priolo, Sicily, Italy.


MRC

Iraq wants to reopen old Saudi crude exports pipeline

MOSCOW (MRC) — Former Iraqi oil minister Ibrahim Bahr Al Olum said it was necessary for Iraq to regain an old pipeline that used to export Iraqi crude through Saudi Arabia, Saudi-owned Al Hayat newspaper reported on Thursday, as per Reuters.

"I have discussed this issue before with the Saudi side," said Bahr Al Olum, who is currently a member of parliament, adding that he expected that Riyadh would have a more "positive response" towards this issue given an improved political environment between the two major OPEC producers.

Current Iraqi oil minister Jabar Luaibi is now on an official visit to Saudi Arabia and is due to hold bilateral talks with Saudi Minister of Energy Khalid al-Falih on Thursday.

The Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA) has not carried Iraqi crude since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. The pipeline was confiscated by Saudi Arabia in 2001 as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia had used the IPSA pipeline to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country for years before test opening it in 2012, giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz.
MRC

Environment concerns to boost take-up of PET recycling market

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic recycling basically denotes to a procedure in which the plastics which are discarded are converted into forms that can be reused later, as per Plastemart.

Plastics which are discarded can be both rigid and non-rigid type. The former one includes containers and bottles and the later one comprises wrappers and films. Plastic reusing market is fragmented on resin form such PET. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is the most well-known thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester group and are utilized as a part of fibers for apparel, thermoforming for production, and containers for foods and liquids. There many leading companies operating in the market such as KW Plastics, Nan Ya Plastics Cooperation, M&G Polymers USA, DAK Americas, and PET Recycling Plant. The sectors that the established PET recycling industry comprises are flake production, waste logistics, and flake processing.

The principal uses for reused PET are non-food containers, strapping, and polyester fiber. Most thermoplastics can be reused; the recycling of PET bottle is applied largely than other plastic applications since selective utilization of PET for broadly utilized carbonated beverages and bottling of. Recycling of thermoplastic can be done using two procedures. The initial one incorporates the reusing back to the underlying raw materials where the structure of the polymer is totally decimated; and the alternate process incorporates the recycling where the actual polymer properties are being kept up.

The reusing of thermoplastics is a maintainable activity. A lot of plastics squanders are corrupting the condition of the environment, thus, an activity for cleaning and arranging the squanders is the need of the hour. In thermoplastics reusing industry, the reusing of the jugs is principle part, which are utilized as a part of a wide range of fluid bundling like carbonated beverages, household chemicals, detergents, sauces, beer, juices, and water. Bottles are anything but difficult to separate due to the shape and consistency. Bottles isolate from squander plastic streams either via programmed or by hand-arranging procedures. The core factor that is anticipated to fuel the growth of the global PET recycling market is the growing demand from the packaging and automobile industries for manufacturing of light weight vehicles.

Recycling Polyester staple Fiber (RPSF) is an important segment in recycling PET and it has been anticipated that the RPSF will be the fiber of the years to come in the complete textile industry. It is framed by re-melting the thermoplastic PET containers and after that thick material is squeezed as the residue being fibers. Fibers can be utilized as unlimited strings and cut into length-characterized filaments for spinning in yarns.
MRC