Support for clean water technologies to benefit the oil and gas industry

MOSCOW (MRC) - Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is receiving almost USD600,000 from Western Economic Diversification Canada and USD200,000 from Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) to design and construct a high temperature, high pressure testing unit that Western Canadian companies will use to implement water technologies in oil sands, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The funding was announced today by Randy Boissonnault, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on LGBTQ2 issues, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada.

Today's investment will help establish a Membrane Technology Assessment Program (MTAP) at NAIT's Centre for Oil Sands Sustainability to support the design and construction of a membrane technology unit. The unit will test membrane and other water treatment technologies designed by companies in controlled conditions that simulate oil sands in situ operations.

The testing unit will help develop 12 industrial water technologies used in oil sands, and train and develop 12 highly qualified people. This will also enable at least six western Canadian oil companies the opportunity to test their technologies and more quickly implement innovations that create environmental and economic benefits.

A focus on clean technology, innovation and growth is a core element of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Through the Framework, Canada will focus on creating and maintaining globally competitive Canadian businesses as we transition to a low-carbon economy. Canada's Innovation Agenda promotes clean growth, good jobs and higher living standards for the middle class. The investments announced today are an example of this vision in action.

"This membrane testing unit continues a tradition of leading-edge applied research with industry partners, helping them to become more sustainable. I would like to thank the Government of Canada and Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance for supporting this project." - Dr. Glenn Feltham, President and CEO, NAIT
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Arabia has shortlisted New York, London and Hong Kong - singly or in a combination of two or even all three - for the international portion of the listing of national oil company Aramco, two sources with knowledge of the discussions said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The initial public offering (IPO) will also include the Saudi stock exchange, Tadawul, and is still set for late 2018, the sources said. The shortlist means Tokyo, Singapore and Toronto are no longer in the running for what is likely to be the world's biggest IPO. Riyadh could raise as much as USD100 billion in the sale of up to 5 percent of Aramco if it achieves a projected USD2 trillion valuation. A final decision has yet to be made by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom's economic and oil policies, the sources said.

One of the sources said a phased listing was being considered, with the local listing occurring first, followed by an international listing or listings at a later stage. The second source said it was possible that Aramco would be listed on all three international exchanges, as well as the Saudi bourse, but cautioned that no decision had been taken.

The first source said discussions involved listing on at least two of the three venues. "As far as Aramco goes, late 2018 remains the objective and the plan and everything is moving to deliver that," the first source said. Saudi Aramco said in response to a Reuters request for comment: "A range of listing options continue to be held under active review. However, no decision has been taken."

The Aramco listing is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan championed by Prince Mohammad to reduce the dependence of the Saudi economy on oil.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asahimas, part of Asahi Glass, has taken its No. 2 vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit off-stream for maintenance and debottlenecking exercise, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the company has commenced maintenance along with the capacity expansion at the plant on January 15, 2018. The plant is slated to remain off-line for a period of around 7 weeks.

Following the expansion at the capacity will be increased by 100,000 MT to 350,000 mt/year.

Located in Anyer, Indonesia, the No.2 VCM plant currently has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in mid-February 2016, Asahi Glass began shipping polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from the Anyer plant at Cilegon, Indonesia, following completion of an expansion program at PT Asahimas Chemical.

Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., more commonly known as AGC, is a global glass manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. It is one of the core Mitsubishi companies.

PT Asahimas Chemical is owned 52.5% by Asahi Glass, 11.5% by Mitsubishi Corp. and 18% each by the local Rodamas and Ableman Finance.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) has signed an agreement to supply SADIG-ILCO, a new Saudi-German joint venture focused on the manufacture of a wide range of speciality chemicals with ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO), said Worldofchemicals.

Under the terms of the supply agreement, SADIG-ILCO’s new PlasChem Park facility will offtake EO and PO from Sadara through the EO and PO pipelines that are being established by Sadara.

Using these products as feedstock, the company will manufacture a range of speciality chemicals, some of which will be produced for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will further enable the production of market-ready products in several areas, including coatings and adhesives, personal care products and many other industrial applications.

"With Sadara’s products now in the local, regional and global markets, we are able to show investors definitively that the Kingdom is an attractive destination for new and exciting downstream manufacturing opportunities. The speciality chemicals that SADIG-ILCO will produce locally will replace imports and encourage the development of new downstream speciality industries,” said Mohammad Alazzaz, director of Value Park for Sadara.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced that BASF has opened a state-of-the-art control room equipped with Honeywell Experion technology at its waste incineration complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The control room was officially inaugurated on November 28, 2017, by Dr. Uwe Liebelt, president, BASF European Site and Verbund Management, and Vimal Kapur, president of HPS.

Honeywell re-designed the plant's control room with BASF's Industrie 4.0 initiative in mind. Virtualization technology delivers consolidated plant information to operators via eight large-screen Experion Orion Consoles, which also embed traditionally separate Microsoft Office desktop applications alongside the distributed control system one. Two Experion Collaboration Stations enable BASF to run production meetings more efficiently by using real-time data and online documents.

As part of Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System, 29 C300 Controllers and 20,000 I/O modules facilitate plant-wide monitoring, improve safety and fire protection, and increase reliability. In addition, a new MediluX lighting system in the control room improves visual conditions for operators day and night, reducing eye strain and fatigue.
"This strategic project is a prime example of how Industrie 4.0 is transforming industrial operations," Kapur said. "Previously, BASF operators had to gather and piece together data to form a high-level view. Now, critical information is digitally consolidated and streamed onto central displays, transforming efficiency, productivity and decision-making."

The plant's six incinerators process hazardous waste that cannot be reused or recycled and convert it into steam and electrical power. The clean, reusable energy is channeled back into BASF's production processes, helping the company save resources and reduce emissions.

"Thanks to excellent cooperation with Honeywell, our 60-year-old plant now has one of the most modern control rooms in the world," said Dr. Karin Flore, head of waste incineration, BASF.

The incineration plant serves more than 200 BASF production facilities within the company's flagship,10-square-kilometer production site as well as facilities outside the BASF complex. The reliability of the plant is critical to BASF's wider production operations because any standstill could potentially affect the world's largest chemical complex as a whole.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, within the next five years, BASF plans to invest globally more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence. Plastic additives improve product properties such as scratch resistance or light stability, and optimize plastics manufacturing processes. As the leading global supplier of plastic additives with manufacturing assets in all regions, BASF is a major partner to the plastics industry.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC