India sees scope for more integration among state energy companies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India could see more integration among state oil companies, its oil minister said on Monday, following top producer ONGC's USD5.8 billion deal last week to buy a majority stake in refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd., reported Reuters.

India wants to build bigger oil companies to better compete with global energy giants and withstand oil price volatility through integration of state-run oil firms.

"There is scope for more vertical integration in the sector," oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told a news conference.

He was speaking after Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) announced on Saturday that it was buying the government's 51.1 percent stake in HPCL to create India's first integrated oil and gas company.

Analysts have said that an integrated oil company would give Indian state-owned firms a bigger balance sheet to compete globally for assets. Last year state-run refiners Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd separately expressed interest in buying the government's stakes in explorer Oil India Ltd and gas utility GAIL India Ltd. ONGC's purchase of a majority stake in HPCL is expected to close by the end of this month and Pradhan said there was a possibility to combine HPCL with ONGC's petrochemical projects and its refining arm Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd .

MRPL operates a 300,000 bpd refinery in the southern state of Karnataka. After the deal, ONGC will control around 17 percent of India's 5 million bpd or so refining capacity.

HPCL Chairman M. K. Surana said on Monday that there could be a merger between his firm and MRPL to achieve synergy benefits in the refining and petrochemicals sectors, although he noted no discussions had yet taken place.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Scientists have created a catalyst that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide to ethylene, which is used to produce the most common type of plastic, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

At the heart of this work is the carbon dioxide reduction reaction, wherein CO2 is converted into other chemicals through the use of an electrical current and a chemical reaction, aided by a catalyst.

Many metals can serve as catalysts in this type of reaction: gold, silver and zinc can make carbon monoxide, while tin and palladium can make formate. Only copper can produce ethylene, the core component of polyethylene (PE) plastic.

"Copper is a bit of a magic metal. It's magic because it can make many different chemicals, like methane, ethylene, and ethanol, but controlling what it makes is difficult," said Phil De Luna, PhD student at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Researchers were able to design a catalyst and pinpoint the ideal conditions to maximize ethylene production while minimizing the methane output to nearly nothing. Paired with carbon capture technology, this could lead to an incredibly green production mechanism for everyday plastics, meanwhile sequestering harmful greenhouse gases.

"I think the future will be filled with technologies that make value out of waste. It's exciting because we are working towards developing new and sustainable ways to meet the energy demands of the future," said De Luna.

By identifying the precise conditions that maximize ethylene production during the reaction, it is possible to engineer a catalyst to meet those conditions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ARLANXEO, one of the world’s leading suppliers of synthetic elastomers, is expanding its global chloroprene rubber (CR) production at the site in Dormagen, Germany, as per the company's press release.

The production capacity there will be increased to as much as 70,000 tons per year overall that will be available to the market already during the first quarter of 2019. ARLANXEO is investing an upper single-digit million in the expansion project overall.

"The strong global demand for our chloroprene rubbers will continue in the coming years," said Stefan Rittmann, head of the ARLANXEO business line that produces CR and Managing Director of ARLANXEO Deutschland GmbH. Demand for chloroprene rubbers is growing by about four percent per year, particularly in Asia and especially in Greater China. Products with special properties are in particularly strong demand worldwide. "At the same time, this expansion represents a clear commitment to our biggest German site, Dormagen, from which we serve the global demand," explained Rittmann.

The capacity expansion will be undertaken from Q2 2018. Within the expansion a production line will be renewed and equipped with new reactors, having a higher capacity. This ensures ARLANXEO to optimize its existing processes and make its production processes more flexible.

ARLANXEO produces and markets its chloroprene rubbers under the Baypren and Baypren ALX brands. They are used, for example, in the production of cable sheathing, belts, conveyor belts and wetsuits, as well as in adhesive applications, and feature high weather, UV and oil resistance. Chloroprene rubbers are products of ARLANXEO’s High Performance Elastomers business unit.

As MRC reported earlier, in September 2017, ARLANXEO presented its product portfolio for adhesive applications and innovative solutions for the industry at last year’s FEICA, the most important European trade fair and conference for the adhesives industry.

ARLANXEO was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of ARLANXEO are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units. As MRC wrote before, in September 2015, Lanxess was in talks to put its main synthetic rubber business into a joint venture with petrochemicals group Ineos. Lanxess also held talks with Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Russia's NKNK and Sibur.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co said on Tuesday it had signed a three-year agreement with Lotte Chemical Titan, one of the largest polyolefin producers in southeast Asia, to sell the Malaysian firm up to 1 million tonnes of naphtha annually, reported Reuters.

"With this agreement we are implementing a new approach toward our sales of naphtha," said Abdulla Salem al-Dhaheri, ADNOC's director for marketing, sales and trading.

"Previously we have sold the product on shorter-term, one-year contracts. By switching to a three-year contract we are capturing long-term market access and securing offtake."

ADNOC produces over 12 million tonnes of naphtha annually.

As MRC informed before, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is planning to increase its crude refining capacity in UAE by at least 60% and triple its petrochemical production as part of its future growth strategy, its chief executive officer said in Abu Dhabi last week. "This proposed expansion will create a single largest integrated refining and chemical site in the world in Ruwais in the UAE," said then Dr Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber speaking at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum. "Once complete we will convert almost 20 per cent of our crude into chemicals, diversifying our range of higher value products and providing a natural hedge to oil price movements." He also said hydrocarbons will continue to play a vital role to meet global energy demand despite increase in the diversity of energy mix.
MRC

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, November 2017 PE imports to Belarus decreased to 9,100 tonnes from 10,300 tonnes a month earlier. Russian producers of high density polyethylene (HDPE) further reduced their shipments. Overall PE imports reached 112,400 tonnes in January-November 2017, compared to 118,100 tonnes a year earlier. Demand for low density polyethylene (LDPE) and HDPE increased, whereas linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) imports decreased.

The structure of PE imports to Belarus by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

November 2017 LDPE imports to Belarus grew to 3,600 tonnes from 3,200 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies slightly increased their PE purchasing in Russia. Overall imports of this PE grade to Belarus totalled 33,500 tonnes in January-November 2017, compared to 27,100 tonnes a year earlier.

November 2017 LLDPE imports were 1,400 tonnes versus 1,800 tonnes a month earlier, local companies reduced their purchasing of Middle Eastern butene grade PE. Thus, overall LLDPE imports to Belarus exceeded 33,100 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2017, whereas this figure was 49,300 tonnes a year earlier.

November HDPE imports fell to 4,000 tonnes from 5,300 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies had to reduce their PE purchasing from Russian producers because of export restrictions. Thus, HDPE imports totalled 45,800 tonnes in January-November 2017, up by 9.7% year on year.

MRC