Shell OKs first UK North Sea project in six years

MOSCOW (MRC) - Royal Dutch Shell gave the green light on Monday for an expansion of the Penguins oil and gas field in the UK North Sea, its first major new project in the ageing basin in six years, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Shell said the development, which includes the construction of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, reaffirmed the Anglo-Dutch company's commitment to the region after it sold around half of its assets there last year. "Penguins demonstrates the importance of Shell's North Sea assets to the company's upstream portfolio," said Andy Brown, director of Shell's oil and gas production, known as upstream.

The FPSO is expected to produce up to 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). The Shell-operated Penguins redevelopment is the first major project Shell has announced since 2012, when it made a final investment decision for the Fram field in the central North Sea.

The project will generate a profit even with oil prices below $40 a barrel, Shell said in a statement, making it competitive against other offshore basins and most of North America's shale production. We struggled to make it economic until the last couple of years when we closely worked with supply to redefine and redesign the development to reduce costs," Steve Phimister, head of Shell Upstream in the UK and Ireland, told Reuters.

After Penguins, Shell is expected to decide on a number of new projects in the central North Sea in the next year or two, Phimister said. Shell gave no details on the cost of the project, which analysts at Bernstein last September estimated would be up to USD2.5 billion.

Production in the UK North Sea has steadily declined since the late 1990s but has seen a modest recovery in recent years thanks to a number of new projects, including the BP-operated Quad 204 field in the western Shetlands last year, in which Shell holds a 55 percent stake. Operators have drastically reduced operating costs as a sharp drop in oil prices since 2014 forced companies to become more efficient and service providers to slash costs. Shell's production is currently around 135,000 boe/d in the UK North Sea after completing the sale of a USD3 billion package of assets to private-equity-backed Chrysaor last November, Phimister said. The company intends to maintain its production at this level into 2030, he added.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic, a global leader in the chemical industry, has unveiled a new line of high-clarity, high-heat, injection moldable polycarbonate copolymer resins, as per the company's press release.

LEXAN CXT resins can offer a unique balance of high temperature resistance, high flow and excellent color stability under extreme molding conditions, together with a high refractive index.

LEXAN CXT resins can be used in optical applications in the electronics, consumer & industrial, and healthcare industries. Typical products in the first two areas include lenses and small sensors that detect visible light; in healthcare, the materials answer the call for excellent optical quality and the ability to resist high temperatures involved, for example, when over-molding clear face shields with silicone rubber.

Global industry trends such as miniaturization and the need to integrate more functions into less space are driving a growing demand for the level of performance offered by LEXAN CXT resins. With Vicat B120 softening temperatures as high as 190 C and glass transition temperatures (Tg) of up to 195 C, LEXAN CXT resins can provide converters with the potential to injection mold parts that can withstand demanding assembly processes, such as cold reflow or wave soldering onto printed circuit boards. Parts will also stand up to prolonged exposure to high service temperatures.

LEXAN CXT resins, which can have a refractive index (RI) over 1.6 as well as high transparency (greater than 89% in the visible and infrared spectra at a thickness of 1 mm), can help enable the production of very small lenses (such as those used in mobile phones) that can be assembled onto a PCB that then goes through various soldering operations. The very good thermal stability of the LEXAN CXT resins can help prevent deformation or discoloration.

Feedback from Sabic customers over the course of the development of LEXAN CXT resins indicates numerous other potential benefits. These potential benefits include: improvements in productivity and system costs through shorter cycle times; improved dimensional accuracy; fewer production stoppages and lower reject levels; and the potential to create components with more complex geometries, thinner and longer walls, and improved textural definition.

"The launch of this new portfolio is the result of us taking heed of the current and future needs of our key customers in different segments and then implementing key innovations in resin and product technology to respond to these challenges," said Joshua Chiaw, Director at Sabic.

The new LEXAN CXT resins will complement existing LEXAN polycarbonate copolymer specialty resins, which include EXL, XHT and SLX resins. These can be distinguished, respectively, by particularly good low-temperature impact resistance, heat resistance in clear and opaque forms, and high weatherability.

As MRC informed before, in October 2016, Sabic announced that it had developed next generation low density polyethylene (LDPE) foram grades. The first product of a new generation of LDPE foam grades from SABIC was designed to increase production efficiency at the foam manufacturer.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the worldпїЅs top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro has announced that it has succeeded in reducing the residual monomer content of free monomeric diisocyanates to under 0.1 percent by weight through continual improvements to the manufacturing process, as per GV.

According to the company, products meeting these requirements can be recognised by the addition of “ultra” to the product designation. In the coming months Covestro wants to offer raw materials for solvent-based and solvent-free products (Desmodur ultra) as well as for aqueous coatings and adhesives (Bayhydur ultra), thereby replacing a significant proportion of the previous product portfolio. Further products should be added to the ultra line in the near future, said the company.

"With the new ultra products, in combination with the application of the usual safety measures, we are setting new standards for our customers in industrial hygiene," said Michael Friede, Global Head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro. "As a result, the new product line’s raw materials match the performance level of our conventional products."

As MRC informed previously, on 1 September, 2015, Bayer MaterialScience became known as Covestro. The plans for the carve-out of Bayer MaterialScience were announced in September 2014. And in September 2017, German drugs and pesticides group Bayer further reduced its holding in Covestro to 31.5% from 40.9% by selling 19 million shares in the plastics business for a total of EUR1.2 billion (USD1.4 billion).

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Praxair, Inc. has expanded its long-term hydrogen supply agreement with Motiva Enterprises LLC. Under this new agreement, Praxair will increase the amount of hydrogen it supplies to Motiva’s approximately 600,000 barrel per day refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Motiva completed a hydrocracker and diesel hydrotreater capacity expansion in 2016, and this agreement secures the additional hydrogen required to support that expansion, as well as the ongoing needs of the refinery.

Hydrogen is used by refiners to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel and other clean transportation fuels. Demand for these fuels continues to increase as companies comply with stricter environmental regulations and standards. Praxair began delivering hydrogen to the refinery in 1992 as one of the first customers on its gas hydrogen pipeline system. Since that time, Praxair’s system and capabilities have grown significantly and the refinery itself has undergone several expansions and it is now North America’s largest.

“Praxair is committed to being the preferred hydrogen provider in the Gulf Coast, and we are pleased to extend and expand our long-term agreement with Motiva,” said Dan Yankowski, Praxair’s president of Global Hydrogen. “Due to our record of safe and reliable supply, over many years we’ve enjoyed a mutually-beneficial commercial relationship with Motiva, and we look forward to continuing to meet the growing needs of their world-scale refinery.”
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - India’s Reliance Industries has declared a 30 percent increase in the installed capacity of its export-focused oil refinery, a government report showed, increasing the size of the world’s largest refinery complex. India’s Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) in its October report showed 35.2 million tonnes a year as the installed capacity of Reliance’s refinery in the special economic zone (SEZ) at Jamnagar, in northwest India, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

That is up from 27 million tonnes, or 540,000 barrels per day (bpd), as of April 1 that PPAC reported in an August 2017 report. The new capacity is the equivalent of 704,000 bpd of crude processing. Reliance built its first refinery at Jamnagar with an installed capacity of 660,000 bpd in 1999. This refinery sells most of its fuels in the local market. The SEZ plant was added in 2008 and turned the entire Jamnagar complex into the world’s largest oil processing site.

Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that Reliance has declared the increased SEZ capacity, which they said the company attributed to debottlenecking, or a by streamlining the processes at the plant. “They have declared enhanced capacity,” said one of the sources by telephone, without providing details on how the company raised the capacity.

Reliance has been consistently operating its export-oriented refinery at a rate higher than the nameplate capacity. Reliance had no immediate comment on the increase when contacted by Reuters. Although most of the products from the SEZ plant are meant for overseas market, some like cooking gas are sold in local markets. Reliance’s refineries are among the most complex in the world and have facilities that can maximize the production of diesel and gasoline from so-called heavy, or higher density, crude oil that typically sells for less than other crude grades.

Reliance, in a presentation to India’s Center for High Technology (CHT), said it wanted to raise the capacity of its Jamnagar complex to 100 million tonnes a year by 2030, sources last year told Reuters. CHT is a unit of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas that evaluates projects and assesses their technological requirements.
MRC