SK Advanced to restart PDH plant in Ulsan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Advanced is likely to brought on-stream its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company has planned to complete maintenance at the plant by mid-December, 2017. The plant was taken off-line for turnaround on November 20, 2017.

SK Advanced, a joint venture of South Korea?s largest LPG supplier SK Gas and Advanced Petrochemical Company (APC) of Saudi Arabia.

Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the plant has a propylene production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in May 2016, SK Advanced Co. began trial production of propylene at its completed PDH plant in Ulsan, South Korea. Commercial operations started in the second quarter of 2016.

SK Advanced, a joint venture of South Korea's largest LPG supplier SK Gas and Advanced Petrochemical Company (APC) of Saudi Arabia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Chinese state companies are shipping diesel to new buyers in the Middle East and Latin America as exports of the fuel head towards a record, and independent refiners could help raise the outbound sales even higher next year, multiple sources said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

At least one of the independent refiners is looking to invest in fuel storage in southern Malaysia and others are setting up offices in Singapore, anticipating that Beijing is going to ease its export policy for the independent companies, said the sources involved in the shipment of diesel from China.

The world's second-largest oil consumer exported 13.2 MMt of diesel over January to October, up nearly 9% from a year ago, according to customs data. Monthly exports hit a record high in March, and exports for 2017 are on course for the most ever for a year. If Beijing lifts its ban on China's independent refiners exporting refined fuel, diesel exports could hit another record next year, the sources said.

"(China's Ministry of Commerce) may award more product export quotas for 2018 and include independents, (though) volumes are unlikely to be massively higher than the 44 MMt issued this year," said Nevyn Nah, a Singapore-based analyst at Energy Aspects.

China's diesel surplus comes amid an expansion of its refinery capacity and a slowdown in domestic demand. Chinese refineries have also upgraded to meet new fuel standards, and that means the nation's exports can increasingly be sold into Europe and Australia, traders said. For instance, Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest oil refiner Sinopec, started diesel exports to Europe this year and is shipping what is likely the first Chinese-origin cargo to New York harbor.

Unipec has also started shipping diesel to Latin America, exporting a few medium-range sized cargoes in the second half of the year, said a source familiar with the matter. China's state-owned Zhenhua, a unit of defense conglomerate China North Industries Group Corp (NORINCO), has for the first time won a tender to supply about 25% of the nearly 2.4 MMt of diesel required by Iraq in 2018.

"The Chinese are likely to increase their market share in both North and South America as they take advantage of arbitrage opportunities," Energy Aspects' Nah said. Several teapots have set up offices in Singapore and are growing their presence in the oil-trading hub.

At least one of them is looking to invest in oil product storage in southern Malaysia, a source close to the matter said, adding that details are still being worked out. "We expect the Chinese government to allow exports next year or by 2019, so we want to be ready when that happens," the source said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced today that Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) will use a range of process technologies from Honeywell UOP for the expansion of its refining and petrochemical complex at Al-Zour, south of Kuwait City, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Honeywell UOP will supply technology licenses, design services, key equipment, and state-of-the-art catalysts and adsorbents to produce clean-burning fuels, paraxylene, propylene and other petrochemicals.

"When completed, this will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant ever constructed in Kuwait," said John Gugel, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment at Honeywell UOP. "In addition to aromatics and propylene, the Euro-V fuels it will produce will be the cornerstone of Kuwait’s clean fuels initiative."

The project includes a 50 Mbpd RFCC complex with ethylene and propylene recovery, and a 24 Mbpd Honeywell UOP Selectfining unit to produce low-sulfur gasoline. Two Honeywell UOP Merox units will be used to treat propane for propylene production, and isobutane to make clean-fuels blending components, including MTBE produced by a UOP Ethermax unit. Also included is a Butamer unit to convert normal butane to isobutane.

The contract also includes a 66 Mbpd CCR Platforming unit with a 74 Mbpd naphtha hydrotreater to make gasoline blend stock, and an LD Parex aromatics complex--including the Honeywell UOP Sulfolane, Isomar and Tatoray processes - to make 1.4 MMtpy of paraxylene, a primary ingredient in plastics.

In addition, an Oleflex propane dehydrogenation unit will produce 660 Mtpy of polymer-grade propylene - another basic component in the production of plastics, synthetic rubber and gasoline additives.

Honeywell UOP is a leading licensor of process technology for the production of aromatics. As of last year, Honeywell UOP licensed more than 100 complexes and more than 700 individual process units for the production of aromatics, including more than 300 CCR Platforming process units, 158 Sulfolane units, 80 Isomar units, 58 Tatoray units, 100 Parex units and 60 Oleflex units worldwide.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) is a new subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) set up by State of Kuwait to manage refinery, petrochemicals and LNG import operations in the Al-Zour complex.

As MRC informed before, in early March 2017, Honeywell announced that Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Company, Ltd. had started its UOP Advanced Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) unit during a 10-day test to confirm successful operation. It has an annual production capacity of 833,000 mtpy, making it the largest single-train MTO unit in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Two Russian refiners are avoiding export duty on fuel oil and vacuum gas oil by renaming them as an oil product that is exempt from the charge, according to a Reuters analysis of customs and refining data, and four industry sources, said Reuters.

The practice takes advantage of a loophole in customs rules and has this year saved the refiners tens of millions of dollars which would otherwise have gone into the state budget, according to the government data and sources.

Novoshakhtinsky and Mariysky refineries shipped a total of 2 MMt of reclassified fuel in the first nine months of this year, saving about USD170 MM in tax, according to the data and sources. Novoshakhtinsky said in a statement that in producing and selling its products it acted in complete compliance with customs legislation.

Mariysky’s owner, New Stream Group, denied the refinery was avoiding customs duties on its oil products and said it was in compliance with customs legislation.

The Federal Customs Service (FCS) did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Russia’s Association of Oil Refiners and Petrochemists said it had no comment.

Fuel oil and vacuum gas oil are low-value refined oil products known among refiners and exporters as "dark oil" products, and are mostly used either for shipping fuel or as ingredients to make more complex products.

The duty for dark oil products has been USD86.7/t this year on average, and stood at USD96.1 in November, according to publicly available customs data. However there is zero duty on exports of fuel defined as products “containing more than 50% aromatic hydrocarbons."

The loophole lies in the fact that fuel oil and vacuum gas oil can be included in that latter definition, and therefore exported without duty under that customs code, according to the sources. The four people—a customs broker, two commercial executives at refiners and a refining engineer—asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of matter.

A fifth source, an FCS manager, also told Reuters that dark oil products were being exported under the zero-duty customs code, but did not identify the refineries involved.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Clean Technologies has signed contracts with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) for five grassroots STRATCO alkylation units at five Sinopec refineries in China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The scope of these contracts includes the license, engineering and supply of proprietary equipment for grassroots STRATCO alkylation units. The most recent awards include one of China’s leading suppliers of olefins and aromatics, Sinopec Yangzi Company (YPC), as well as Sinopec Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company (ZRCC). In the months prior to these awards, DuPont was commissioned to supply grassroots STRATCO alkylation units for three other large-scale refining facilities at Sinopec Tianjin, Sinopec Qilu and Sinopec Zhongke.

Sinopec is looking to DuPont Clean Technologies for help in complying with the strict gasoline emissions regulations introduced as part of the China V standards in January 2017. The STRATCO alkylation technology enables refiners to produce cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, extremely low sulfur content, low Rvp and zero olefins. The five STRATCO alkylation units commissioned by Sinopec range in size from 7,700 bpsd to 10,300 bpsd alkylate production and will be built in Tianjin municipality and Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces. Startup for the first four alkylation units is expected by mid to late 2018.

STRATCO alkylation technology is the established global leader in the industry with more than 90 units licensed worldwide and more than 850,000 bpsd of installed capacity. The STRATCO alkylation technology is a sulfuric acid catalyzed process that converts olefins and low-value isobutane into high-value alkylate, a key desirable component for clean fuel. With units built more than 80 yr ago still in operation, the STRATCO alkylation technology is a highly effective, reliable solution for producing cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, low Rvp, low sulfur and zero olefins.

As MRC reported earlier, on 31 August 2017, Dow Chemical Co and DuPont said successfully completed their planned USD130 billion merger to form DowDuPont. Post-merger, Dow and DuPont are expected to break up into three independent, publicly traded units.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
MRC