CPC is likely to shut RFCC unit for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CPC Corp, Taiwan is in plans to halt operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit in Dalin, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit is expected to be taken off-stream on September 8, 2017. The planned maintenance is expected to remain in force until mid-November 2017.

Located at Dalin in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the RFCC has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 14 October 2016, CPC Corp resumed operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit following a planned maintenance. The unit was shut on October 6, 2016. Located at Dalin in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the RFCC has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — US refiner Phillips 66 has requested a Jones Act waiver to allow it to use foreign vessels to move crude or products to and from its 260,000-bpd Alliance refinery in Louisiana after Hurricane Harvey, the company said on Sunday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Jones Act requires all goods transported by water between US ports be carried on US-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by US citizens, and crewed by US citizens. Waivers can only be granted based on interest of national defense such as national emergencies.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, waivers were issued to allow foreign vessels to transport oil and natural gas between domestic ports. Texas governor Greg Abbott has said the population size and number of homes affected by Harvey is bigger than for Katrina or Hurricane Sandy.

"We can confirm the Jones Act waiver request to supply Alliance. The request is still pending," the company said in an email, referring to its refinery south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Phillips 66 on Saturday said it was preparing to resume operations at its Sweeny refinery, as well as at its Old Ocean and Beaumont oil terminals in Texas and its Pasadena refined products terminal.

It also said its fractionation plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas suspended operations due to lack of storage capacity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering Group (TOYO) has been awarded a construction project from PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical company, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This project involves construction of a polyethylene production unit of HDPE, LLDPE and mLLDPE with a total capacity of 400,000 tpy at CAP’s existing petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten, on the western tip of Java, Indonesia.

Toyo Engineering Corporation and Toyo Engineering Korea Limited are in charge of detailed engineering and offshore supply services. On the other hand, PT. Inti Karya Persada Tehnik, TOYO’s Indonesian subsidiary is responsible for domestic procurement and construction work, respectively. The plant is scheduled for completion in 2019.

This is an EPC project following the front end engineering design (FEED) contract awarded to Toyo-Korea at the beginning of this year. TOYO’s long-term relationship with CAP and various attractive and aggressive proposals under FEED were highly evaluated, leading to the awarding of this project.

Based on the long-term relationship from the original ethylene plant in the 1990s, and a butadiene plant as well as ethylene expansion in the last half decade, TOYO is now executing several projects such as a synthetic rubber plant with a total capacity of 120,000 tpy for PT. Synthetic Rubber Indonesia (a JV between Michelin and PT Styrindo Mono Indonesia, a subsidiary of CAP) and butadiene expansion project to increase total production capacity from 100,000 tpy to 137,000 tpy for PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia (PBI), a subsidiary of CAP.

As MRC reported before, in September 2016, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) signed an agreement with Univation Technologies, LLC, located in the United States, to use the UNIPOL PE Progress for a new world scale 400KTA polyethylene (PE) plant at its integrated naphtha cracker complex in Cilegon, Banten. The agreement covers process design package, including licence, to produce linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and metallocene LLDPE (mLLDPE).

Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) is the largest vertically integrated petrochemical company in Indonesia with facilities located in Ciwandan, Cilegon and Puloampel, Serang in Banten Province. CAP is Indonesia's premier petrochemical plant incorporating world-class, state-of-the-art technology and supporting facilities. At the heart of CAP lies the Lummus Naphtha Cracker producing high quality Ethylene, Propylene, Mixed C4, and Pyrolysis Gasoline (Py-Gas) for the Indonesian as well as regional export markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen, Russia's major polyolefins producer, began the process of shutting down its polypropylene (PP) production for a long turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report with reference to the plant's customers.

Yesterday, on 6 September, Stavrolen started to take off-stream its PP production for a scheduled long maintenance. The plant's clients said the outage is to be conducted during two months.

It is also worth noting that Ufaorgsintez intends to shut its production for a turnaround on 10 September. The outage will not be that long and will last for two weeks. The plant's annual production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

Stavrolen, Lukoil's subsidiary, is Russia's second largest high density polyethylene (HDPE) after Kazanorgsintez and the fifth largest PP producer. Stavrolen's production capacities for HDPE and PP are 300,000 and 120,000 tonnes/year, respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Interruptions in the supply of plasticizer dioctyl phthalate (DOP) in the Russian market have been seen since the beginning of summer. But the supply shortage became very serious in September, and prices reached record levels, as per MRC analysts.

Traditionally, the lack of supply in the Russian market of plasticizers DOP begins in the summer, the current year was no exception. A shortage of the Russian plasticizer was managed to be closed by supplies from South Korea in August, but the problem of the shortage of local raw materials was fully closed in September due to external supplies. Prices for DOP have reached a record level.

Market participants said the shortage of the Russian DOP was a result of the production problems at Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, forcing the producer to close its August contract shipments in September. Other Russian producers have also limited production volumes due to a shortage of raw materials - alcohol, diethylhexanol (DEG).

Due to the deficit of DOP, prices in the beginning of September increased to Rb115,000-116,000/tonne, including VAT and delivery, for Russian and South Korean plasticizers.

Some companies fearing problems in the future, began to actively contract the South Korean DOP for deliveries in October. Deals are done in the range of Rb103,000-104,000 /tonne, including VAT and delivery.

MRC