CTCI awarded contract for Petronas RAPID project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With years of cultivation and development in the Malaysia hydrocarbon market, CTCI contracted RAPID P1 RFCC Project of PETRONAS in 2014 with a contract value of USD1 B. The strong innovative technological expertise and project execution capability of CTCI in the P1 Project has won the owner’s recognition and trust, which led PETRONAS to once again commission CTCI for the RAPID Package 28B EPCC of Euro 5 Mogas CNHT2, Isomerization, TAME and Tankage Project this November, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The contract signing ceremony has been held successfully in Kuala Lumpur.

PETRONAS Malaysia’s fully integrated oil and gas embarked on the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) which comprises of the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) and associated facilities. The project has attracted much attention from major international EPC contractors vying for the bid. By securing the Package 28B contract, CTCI becomes the only EPC contractor to win two refinery contracts within the PIC.

CTCI has established the CTCI Engineering & Construction Sdn. Bhd. in Malaysia back in 1983, aiming to explore and cultivate the local hydrocarbon market and get hold of the business opportunities of power plant constructions. Once the new project is delivered, the plant will produce high quality gasoline product in compliance with the stringent EURO-5 emissions standard, striking a balance between economic development and environmental protection in Malaysia.

As MRC wrote previously, in January 2017, Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad said its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019.

Among others, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India has raised the effective import duty on petroleum coke to 10% from 2.5%, according to a government order, days after the government told a court it was in favor of curbing the use of the dirty-burning fuel, reported Reuters.

The duty has gone up after the government ended an exemption to tax payable on importing the fuel that emits 11% more greenhouse gases than coal and also releases several times more sulfur dioxide, which causes lung diseases.

The Supreme Court in October banned the use of petroleum coke, better known as petcoke, in and around New Delhi in a bid to clean up the air in one of the world’s most polluted cities.

The court this week allowed petcoke’s use as feedstock by the cement industry in the region as it hears a plea to ban its import across the country.

India is the world’s biggest consumer of petcoke, with most of that coming from refineries in the United States. Local producers include Indian Oil Corp, Reliance Industries and Bharat Petroleum Corp.

The move could lead to higher prices charged by local petcoke suppliers.

The move is also expected to raise imports of coal by companies that use petcoke as a fuel, not feedstock, such as textile firms.

A country-wide import ban would require replacing 14 MMt of petcoke a year with 24 MMt to 31 MMt of coal, according to industry calculations, most of which would have to be imported.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland’s biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen PKN.WA launched a voluntary tender offer to buy the remaining shares in its Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol (UNPE.PR) to take full control and delist it from the Prague bourse, Reuters.

The Polish group said in a statement on Wednesday it was offering 380 crowns per share for Unipetrol, in which it holds 62.9 percent, a premium to Tuesday’s close and near record levels seen in the past month.

Unipetrol has been on an upswing in the past few years thanks to firming refining and petrochemical margins that have boosted profits to the strongest levels since PKN Orlen acquired the company in 2005, leading to the renewal of dividend payouts.

But PKN Orlen has had frosty relations with Unipetrol’s minority shareholders who have challenged decisions and sought bigger dividends because the company is debt-free.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian ESPO Blend oil exports to China via the Skovorodino-Mohe pipeline are expected to jump by 57% to 6.7 MMt in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the previous three months, sources familiar with the loading schedule told Reuters on Friday.

Russia has become China’s top supplier of oil with total deliveries exceeding 1 MMbpd as part of its policy to boost ties with the Asia-Pacific amid a political stand-off with the West.

Earlier this week, Urals crude differentials in northwest Europe rose to the highest level since August 2013 in response to concerns over supplies of the grade for loading in January because of Russian plans to boost overland oil exports to China in 2018.

Russia will supply 28.3 MMt of oil to China via the Skovorodino-Mohe pipeline in 2018 as part of an inter-governmental agreement, up from 16.5 MMt seen for 2017.

Sources said that Urals and Siberian Light oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk are seen unchanged, at 8.5 MMt in January-March.

Exports and transit of Urals oil from the Baltic Sea ports are seen declining to 19.1 MMt in the first quarter from 19.6 MMt in October–December, according to the sources.

They also said that Russian companies will likely further trim their seaborne Urals exports as Moscow has agreed to extend its oil production cuts until the end of 2018 as part of a global deal.

"I do not believe that the westward schedule will be fully completed," a trader said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) announced its advanced process control (APC) at the Bashneft oil refining complex (part of Rosneft Oil Company) has demonstrated high efficiency, paying for itself in the first year of operation, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Honeywell Profit Controller and Profit SensorPro allowed the Bashneft refineries to significantly increase the output of target products, decrease energy usage, improve the stability of their quality indicators and the overall plant operational efficiency. The APC software solutions are elements of the innovative Honeywell Profit Optimization Suite.

Profit Controller is software for multivariable technological process control based on a predictive model. The system contains the optimal set of algorithms for automatic control, using the data of the technological process and virtual analyzers as input signals, and allows users to track the quality of the products and the profitability of production in real time. Profit SensorPro is the auxiliary software that performs the function of virtual analyzers. In real time it calculates the quality indicators based on the measurable parameters (temperature, pressure, raw material consumption, etc.). This enables users to control the quality of products online without waiting, for example, for a manual sampling and laboratory analysis.

Tests and the pilot implementation of the system were conducted beginning in 2013 and were rolled out at several other facilities since that time. Currently, five advanced process control systems are in operation at the Bashneft oil refining complex.
MRC