SABIC launches new thermoplastic composite tape for pipe and pressure vessel reinforcement

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic, a global leader in the chemical industry, is introducing the newest addition to its expanding portfolio of UDMAX unidirectional fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite tape products, said the producer in its press release.

Commercially available worldwide, the new glass-filled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) grade is designed for reinforcing industrial applications, such as pipes and pressure vessels, offering unmatched tensile strength. This novel product has one of the highest glass content available in the industry today combined with optimal thermoplastic resin impregnation, thanks to Sabic’s proprietary high-pressure fiber impregnation technology (HPFIT). By using UDMAX tape to reinforce oil, gas and water pipes, boilers and storage tanks, customers can significantly increase mechanical performance while reducing weight and help improve corrosion resistance in the most demanding environments.

"As pipe and pressure vessel manufacturers face rising demand for higher performance, longer life and greater safety, advanced thermoplastic composite technologies from SABIC can offer a practical solution for various industrial applications," said Hans Warmerdam, commercial director, SABIC Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics (FRT). "Our new UDMAX GPE 46-70 tape delivers the exceptional strength needed to meet tough industry challenges, and promotes more efficient pipe and pressure vessel designs for transport and installation. This new product also illustrates how SABIC continues to invest in technological innovations that give our customers an ever-increasing selection of strong, lightweight thermoplastic composites in place of traditional materials."

The UDMAX GPE 46-70 tape offers exceptionally lightweight and high strength and is a replacement for metal and other traditional materials. Featuring SABIC’s HPFIT that quickly and precisely enables the spread and combination of thousands of glass or carbon fibers with a thermoplastic matrix, the UDMAX GPE 46-70 tape has 70 percent fiber by weight content - one of the highest available today. "Maximizing fiber content can raise tensile strength up to 957 MPa, which in turn affects the burst pressure resistance of a pipe or vessel - a key performance indicator," said Joris Wismans, technical director, SABIC FRT.

Reinforcing pipes and pressure vessels with UDMAX tape offers designers new options for achieving desired performance. For example, the use of UDMAX GPE 46-70 tape can enable pipes to withstand higher loads, while reducing the number of tape layers for less-demanding environments, lowering overall weight for easier transport and installation.

As MRC informed before, in September 2017, Sabic continued its global expansion with the inauguration of a new polypropylene (PP) pilot plant in Geleen, the Netherlands, and the announcement of a new investment in a state-of-the-art PP extrusion facility to be built at the same location.

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) -- Russian petrochemical group Sibur is in talks with Saudi Aramco to set up a venture to produce synthetic rubber, its chief said in a move highlighting growing cooperation between OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and Russia, the biggest non-OPEC oil exporter, reported Reuters.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have forged closer ties in the past two years as part of efforts to prop up oil prices by curbing output.

The deal between OPEC and Russia has opened the door to political dialogue and has also encouraged talks on broader bilateral investment in the energy sector.

"The Saudi-Russian dialogue has probably accelerated the project, even though we started discussion some four years ago," Sibur head of management board Dmitry Konov told reporters.

The two companies signed a cooperation memorandum last year when Saudi King Salman visited Russia but so far have not disclosed project details.

Konov said Sibur was looking to export its synthetic rubber technology because of low feedstock availability in Russia and low domestic demand growth.

Good feedstock availability in Saudi Arabia and growing Asian markets could make the project attractive, Konov said.

He said the venture would likely involve other companies as it would require technologies which Sibur or Aramco do not possess.

Sibur focuses mainly on serving clients in the former Soviet Union but its exports of polymers are set to rise with the launch of a new USD9 billion plant in Tobolsk in Siberia over the next couple of years.

It also wants to build a major complex in east Siberia in the next decade to serve Asian markets as part of a broader plan by gas export monopoly Gazprom to supply gas to China.

Konov said he saw global competition rising steeply due to the U.S. shale oil boom, which provides cheap feedstock to the local petrochemical industry.

The International Energy Agency raised its outlook for U.S. shale oil growth this week, saying the country was poised to grab market share from rival OPEC and further develop its chemical industry.

The IEA also said petrochemicals would become one of the main sources of global oil and gas demand growth.

Konov said that despite rising U.S. output, global demand for polymers was set to grow faster than U.S. capacity additions, meaning the market was unlikely to face a significant glut anytime soon.

"People are more concerned about having not enough projects rather than having too many," he said.

As MRC informed before, SIBUR Tobolsk, Russia's largest PP producer, manufactured 47,700 tonnes in January 2018 versus 46,400 tonnes and 46,700 in January and December 2017, respectively. Overall PP production at the Tobolsk plant exceeded 510,500 tonnes last year.

SIBUR is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I has announced it has been awarded a contract valued at approximately USD70 million by JG Summit Petrochemical Corporation (JGSPC) for the Stage 1 Expansion project in Batangas City, Philippines, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

CB&I's scope of work includes the engineering, fabrication and construction of ten traditional field erected storage tanks, one double-wall liquefied petroleum gas storage tank and three spheres. Additional scope of work includes technical evaluation to service multiple tanks on the project.

"CB&I has a long-standing relationship with JGSPC and more than 45 years of experience in the Philippines," said Richard Heo, CB&I's Executive Vice President of Fabrication Services. "CB&I previously provided a technology license, basic engineering package and heater supply to the project. This award underlines JGSPC's confidence in CB&I's vertically integrated capabilities and further strengthens our presence in the region."

As MRC wrote before, in March 2017, Clariant was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Investment in new projects to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) fell sharply in 2016 and 2017: the industry-sanctioned under 10 million tons of annual capacity in two years, an 80 percent reduction relative to 2011–2015, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This slowdown raises many questions. Is the industry investing enough to meet future demand, and if not, will that lead prices to spike later? Governments are asking whether they should offer concessions to support projects; and if so, how far should they go, especially given pressures from constituents who were promised jobs, investment, and revenue from projects that are now stalled. And at a geopolitical level, strategists are asking what places will win and what places will lose—and with what consequences? What might the world’s energy map look like in 10 or 20 years.

To answer these questions, we must first understand why investment has slowed down. In part, this is just a cycle: periods of high investment are often followed by periods of low investment. This cycle is amplified by a mismatch between prices and costs—prices have fallen by much more than costs, and so, many projects in the development queue are not profitable enough to be sanctioned. Some projects have even been cancelled outright, a rarity in LNG where projects usually just languish. This is how bad the market has been in recent years.

But this is not just a cyclical correction. There are three broad forces that further hinder investment. The first is price uncertainty. Historically, gas prices in much of the world have been linked to oil. The uncertainty in oil prices has thus meant uncertainty for gas prices. More importantly, there is a slow move away from oil-indexed prices: in 2005, 63 percent of the gas that crossed a border was priced in relation to oil; in 2016, it was 49 percent. This move is welcome—gas should have its own price. But this is a planning nightmare: how to forecast a price with less history and more unknowns? In a world with tight margins, even modest price uncertainty can be a big obstacle.

The second uncertainty is demand. This is partly demand writ large: how much gas will the world use, especially given competition from coal and renewables? But demand is also uncertain at the company level since many markets are opening up. In Europe, incumbents lost significant market share due to liberalization. No Asian market is that far advanced in its liberalization schedule or quite as far-reaching in its liberalization ambitions. But companies that buy LNG from a new project are placing 25-year bets, which is long enough to make any planner think twice.

Third, the market is becoming more liquid (even though, from 2012 to 2016, the spot and short-term market for LNG did not grow). Companies are becoming more comfortable relying on the short-term market, and there is a growing market for reselling gas on a long-term basis. All this means that buyers are not just thinking whether they might need gas in the future; they are also wondering whether they should commit to buy that gas today or wait to buy it later from the secondary market.

There is, in other words, a cyclical correction, as the industry digests high levels of investment during 2011–2015. But this cyclical correction is amplified by an imbalance between prices and costs and by deep uncertainty about prices, demand, and future liquidity. When might this drought end? We do not know, but three concurrent forces will lead investment to restart.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dongming Hengchang Petrochemical has selected Spheripol polypropylene (PP) technology from LyondellBasell for implementation at a plant in Heze City, Shandong Province, China, as per Chemicals-technology.

The plant will be capable of producing 200,000mt of PP per year. Grades of PP produced using the Spheripol process are often used to make film for the safe storage of food and plastic pipes for the delivery of drinking water, as well as wastewater removal and sterile syringes in the healthcare sector.

LyondellBasell global manufacturing, refining, projects and technology executive vice-president Dan Coombs said: “The Spheripol process is recognised globally as the benchmark in polypropylene process technology.

"It provides our customers with an elegant and economical method to efficiently and reliably produce a wide range of premium-quality polypropylene grades. "

The new technology includes numerous process improvements that are intended to further increase operational efficiency. It also supports the production of a number of homopolymers, random copolymers, heterophasic and specialty impact copolymers, in addition to terpolymers.

PP products produced by Spheripol are thin-walled and commonly used for light and rigid packaging items, packaging containers that preserve food and polypropylene pipes for the safe transportation of water.

Dongming Hengchang Petrochemical Company Strategic Planning and Engineering general manager Zhang Juchao said: "LyondellBasell is the global leader in polyolefins technology and we value the company‘s long-term commitment to its clients, continuously investing in its technologies."

LyondellBasell’s Spheripol PP process technology has more than 22 million tonnes (Mt) of licensed capacity.
MRC