Land acquisition woes thwart Indian mega refinery plan with Saudi Aramco

MOSCOW (MRC) -- At the International Energy Forum in Delhi in April, the world's top oil producer Saudi Aramco inked a preliminary deal to partner with a consortium of Indian players to build a USD44 billion refinery and petrochemical project on India's west coast, reported Reuters.

The huge project was touted as a gamechanger for both parties - offering India steady fuel supplies and meeting Saudi Arabia's need to secure regular buyers for its oil. Despite the obvious benefits, though, the prospects for the plan - in the works since 2015 - are growing dimmer by the day.

In April 2018, executives of Aramco and India's Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals - a joint venture of Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp - signed a memorandum of understanding to take equal stakes in the project in Maharashtra state.

Thousands of farmers oppose the refinery and are refusing to surrender land, fearing it could damage a region famed for its Alphonso mangoes, vast cashew plantations and fishing hamlets that boast bountiful catches of seafood.

"We earn enough to fulfill our needs and we do not want to surrender our lands for a refinery at any cost," says Sandesh Desai, standing amid his fruit-laden mango orchard in Nanar, a village in Ratnagiri district, some 400 km (250 miles) south of Mumbai.

Land acquisition has always been a contentious issue in rural India, where a majority of the population depends on farming for their livelihood. In 2008, for example, India's Tata Motors had to shelve plans for a car factory in an eastern state after facing widespread protests from farmers.

And while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to ease land acquisition rules to jumpstart delayed projects worth tens of billions of dollars, the government has faced resistance to amending populist laws enacted by his predecessors.

Like Desai, a majority of the farmers from 14 villages around Ratnagiri that need to be relocated for the refinery project firmly oppose the plan, a state government official told Reuters.

Opposition politicians and even a local ally of Modi's Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) support the farmer movement, complicating matters further for the government ahead of state and general elections in 2019.

The state government, which is responsible for acquiring the land for the project, has so far failed to secure even one acre of the roughly 15,000 acres needed for the refinery, Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai told Reuters.

"The state is not going to acquire land as a majority of the farmers are against the plan," said Desai, the minister, who is a member of the Shiv Sena, a regional party allied with the BJP in the Maharashtra state government. Under land acquisition rules at least 70 percent of the land owners need to provide consent for a project, he said.

Still, some believe that the opponents are only objecting to get better compensation packages for their land.

"Eventually all stakeholders will give their consent, but it will take time," said Ajay Singh Sengar, who heads a rival forum that supports the refinery project. A local government official in the area said he thought many farmers would agree to a deal once a compensation package was announced.

The Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPL), which is running the project, says the 1.2-million-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, and an integrated petrochemical site with a capacity of 18 million tonnes per year, will help create direct and indirect employment for up to 150,000 people, with jobs that pay better than agriculture or fishing.

RRPL, a joint venture between Indian Oil Corp (IOC) , Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, said suggestions the refinery would hurt the environment were baseless. It says it will continue to cultivate mangoes and cashews on some 4,500 acres of land around the project.

Despite the opposition, RRPL is hopeful the project will proceed.
MRC

Rockwell Automation gives operators single view of process and electrical system data

MOSCOW (MRC) — Process and electrical operators have traditionally accessed their data through two separate systems, making timely and proactive decision-making difficult. A new offering from Rockwell Automation helps solve this challenge, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The IntelliCENTER Integration Unit integrates the intelligent electrical devices from the electrical distribution system into the process-automation control and software environment. Integrating both systems into a single control and software platform avoids the need for a separate eSCADA and gives process and electrical operators a single, unified view of their data.

"Manufacturers and producers across industries are trying to reduce their risks and energy use and reach higher productivity goals," said Joe Matheys, IntelliCENTER product specialist, Rockwell Automation. "That can be difficult with disparate process and electrical systems. The IntelliCENTER Integration Unit allows operators, engineers and maintenance personnel to see both systems on one HMI screen. This streamlined view can help better monitor and optimize operations."

The standard unit takes the electrical information sent via a standard IEC 61850 network interface into the Logix-based control system environment. This removes the cost and complexity of designing an interface to connect electronic devices to the process control system. By using the control capabilities of a Logix-based processor, the integration unit enables intelligent switchgear and other intelligent equipment in the electrical control system to become part of a complete automation system.

In addition, configuration of the entire system is simplified. Users gain a common environment for archiving, visualization and reporting when using the library of add-on instructions from Rockwell Automation. The library provides prebuilt, validated add-on instructions for third-party devices that are used in typical control strategies for electrical control systems. This provides a similar look and feel to process control devices from Rockwell Automation, helping improve operational awareness and productivity capabilities.

The IntelliCENTER Integration Unit is key to an integrated power and process control system and is a technology enabler of the Intelligent Packaged Power offering from Rockwell Automation. The Intelligent Packaged Power solution helps reduce risk by delivering motor-control devices and the electrical distribution system in one, consolidated package.
MRC

Petkim eyes maintenance at Aliaga Cracker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petkim, part of SOCAR, is likely to unertake a planned shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Aliaga, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Turkey informed that the company has planned to shut the cracker for a turnaround in the second half of October 2018. The cracker is likely to remain under maintenance for around 3-4 weeks.

Located at Aliaga in Turkey, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 585,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 240,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Petkim shut down its cracker in Aliaga for unplanned maintenance from 9 to 24-25 March, 2018.

Petkim is a sole manufacturer of plastic packages, fabrics, detergents, and other petrochemical products in Turkey. By the end of 2015 Petkim’s assets increased by 44 percent as compared to 2014. Its net profit stood at 639.2 million liras in 2015.
MRC

PE production in Russia rose by 4% in Jan-Apr

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's production of polyethylene (PE) increased in the first four months of 2018 by 4% year on year to 618,600 tonnes. Output of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.


April total PE production dropped to 151,800 tonnes, whereas this figure reached 158,600 tonnes a month earlier. The decrease in the output was mainly caused by the shutdown for maintenance at Kazanorgsintez's LDPE production. Overall PE production reached 618,000 tonnes in January-April 2018, compared to 594,300 tonnes a year earlier. LDPE and HDPE production increased, whereas output of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) remained the level of 2017.

The structure of PE production by grades looked the following way over the stated period.


April HDPE production grew to 92,500 tonnes from 80,800 tonnes a month earlier, Nizhnekamskneftekhim resumed its production after a long break. Russian plants' overall HDPE output reached 327,900 tonnes in the first four months of 2018, up by 5% year on year.

Last month's LDPE production was 55,000 tonnes, compared to 57,500 tonnes in March, Kazanorgsintez reduced its output because of a scheduled maintenance at some of its production capacities. Total LDPE production exceeded 230,800 tonnes over the stated period, up by 4% year on year.

Overall LLDPE output exceeded 60,000 tonnes in the first four months of 2018, which virtually equalled the same figure a year earlier.

mrpclast.com

PVC imports to Ukraine fell by 8% in January-April 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Ukraine decreased by 8% in the first four months of this year, compared to the same period in 2017 and reached about 25,800 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Last month's SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market fell to 5,300 tonnes from 6,800 tonnes in March. Bad weather and low demand for finished PVC products made local companies reduce raw materials purchases. Overall SPVC imports totalled 25,800 tonnes in January-April 2018, compared to 28,000 tonnes a year earlier, shipments of resin from the USA increased significantly.

Structure of PVC imports into Ukraine over the reported period was as follows.

Last month's imports of US SPVC shrank to 3,900 tonnes from 5,500 tonnes in March. Export prices reached their top in the USA in January-April, and Ukrainian companies reduced their purchasing of North American resin. Imports of North American resin totalled 18,100 tonnes in the first four months of 2018 versus 6,800 tonnes a year earlier.

April shipments of European PVC to the Ukrainian market remained practically at the level of March and were 1,300 tonnes. Such a low level of imports was a result of the high level of export prices in Europe and low demand from Ukrainian converters. Total imports of European PVC into Ukraine were about 6,400 tonnes in the first four months of the year, compared with 15,400 tonnes year on year.
MRC