Bayport Polymers celebrates groundbreaking ceremony for new ethane cracker in Port Arthur

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayport Polymers LLC (Bay-Pol), a joint venture of Total and Novealis Holdings LLC - a joint venture of Borealis AG and NOVA Chemicals Inc. - held the official groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new ethane cracker at the Total Port Arthur Refinery, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new USD1.7-billion ethane cracker is the first project under construction by the recently-formed Bay-Pol joint venture.

The new 1 Mt/y ethane cracker is being built alongside Total's Port Arthur Refinery and the existing Total/BASF steam cracker and is expected to start up in 2020. About 1,500 jobs will be created during the peak engineering and construction activity, and, once fully operational, the cracker will require about 60 full-time jobs.

"This is an important milestone for our new company," said Diane Chamberlain, Bay-Pol President. "The power of partnership demonstrated here today firmly positions Bay-Pol to deliver innovative products and applications to new and existing customers, while reinforcing our position in an increasingly competitive polyethylene market."

The groundbreaking ceremony saw senior executives of the joint venture in attendance, including Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals, Total, Mark Garrett, CEO, Borealis, Todd Karran, CEO, NOVA Chemicals, alongside Diane Chamberlain and the Bay-Pol leadership team.

Speaking at the event, the three partners commented:

"We are excited to see the construction of our first project in the joint venture with Borealis and NOVA. This project is in perfect alignment with Total's strategy to expand in petrochemicals by leveraging our integrated platforms like Port Arthur and taking advantage of the abundance of ethane in the U.S. With our partners, we are ready to provide for the growing demand for superior products to the marketplace," said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals, Total.

"We are excited to see this project come to fruition and officially break ground. The new ethane steam cracker is a key growth initiative for Borealis. Our partnership with Total and NOVA Chemicals will position us as a leader in the U.S. and allow us to deploy sophisticated technology with our partners," said Borealis Chief Executive Mark Garrett.

"The ethane steam cracker is the first phase of our joint venture with Total and Borealis, which will help us gain additional access to the U.S. Gulf Coast. This project will allow us to better serve our customers throughout the Americas by delivering a broader slate of products that help make everyday life healthier, easier and safer," said Todd Karran, CEO, NOVA Chemicals.

As MRC informed before, in late May 2018, Total S.A., Borealis AG and NOVA Chemicals Corporation announced they had closed a joint venture in petrochemicals on the U.S. Gulf Coast after receiving all required regulatory approvals. The company named Bayport Polymers LLC (“Bay-Pol”) is 50% owned by Total and 50% owned by Novealis Holdings LLC, a joint venture between Borealis and NOVA Chemicals. Diane Chamberlain is appointed President of the new entity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) has selected consortia for the long-awaited contracts to finance and carry out the rehabilitation of the four chronically underperforming state refineries, as per Yourpetrochemicalnews.

Company executives made the announcement in early May, while similarly much-delayed plans to encourage the development of private and modular refineries were also reported to be gathering pace.

The positive news came as senior officials were forced to appear before a parliamentary panel to justify a request to deploy additional government funds on maintenance at the existing facilities – in light of the apparent failure of previous efforts in this regard.

NNPC managing director Maikanti Baru told a conference in Texas at the start of May that a tendering process initiated two years ago seeking companies to rehabilitate the state refineries at Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri was close to being completed and that the winners would be announced imminently. A company spokesman later elaborated that the board expected to reveal the names in June.

Under the repair-operate-maintain (ROM) model unveiled in 2016, companies or consortia would finance and execute the work required to restore the facilities to full combined capacity of 445,000 bpd and recoup the investment from revenues earned from operating the refineries for a period on Abuja’s behalf.

"This model is expected to be a self-sustaining financial model with near zero reliance on the federal government funds,” Baru explained. “For smooth running and implementation, we are also changing the operating and commercial framework of the refineries to make them work efficiently and be commercially viable."

In February, reports emerged that a consortium comprising the US’ GE, Swiss-based trader Vitol, Italy’s Saipem and local duo Sahara Group and MRS Oil Nigeria had been provisionally chosen to restore the Warri and Kaduna refineries. A team of Spain’s CEPSA, Italy’s Eni, the local Oando and Swiss-based trader Trafigura was said to be in line for the contract covering the two refineries at Port Harcourt.

The first phase of the 125,000 bpd Warri refinery in Delta State was completed by Snamprogetti – now part of Saipem – in 1978. The 110,000 bpd Kaduna plant in the northern state of the same name was commissioned two years later by Japan’s Chiyoda.

The larger of the adjacent Port Harcourt facilities – which have total capacity of 210,000 bpd – was brought on stream by a Japanese team of JGC and Marubeni in 1989.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy is likely shut its cracker in Kawasaki owing to technical issues, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the company is expected to undertake an unplanned shutdown at the cracker on June 8, 2018. The cracker is slated to remain off-line for around 10 days.

Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 448,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 273,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, seven naphtha crackers in Japan are expected to be shut in 2018 for scheduled maintenance, industry and company sources said in early 2018.

Thus, Mitsubishi Chemical shut its 539 Mtpy naphtha cracker from May 9 to July 3, followed by a scheduled restart on July 4, a company spokesman said. Other ethylene manufacturers operating crackers include oil refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy, and Osaka Petrochemical Industries Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Mitsui Chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Canadian blown film equipment maker Brampton Engineering Inc. (BE) has been purchased by Davis-Standard LLC for an undisclosed prince, as per Canplastics.

Headquartered in Pawcatuck, Conn., Davis-Standard manufactures extrusion and converting technology.

Brampton, Ont.-based BE manufactures blown film technology including its multilayer AeroFrost air-blown and AquaFrost water-quenched film systems, its Vector air rings, the SCD coextrusion die, film winding equipment, and other technology for film production.

An operator programming a BE Vector air ring. "Today, we are pleased to welcome Brampton Engineering with their globally recognized blown film technology to our team," Jim Murphy, president and CEO of Davis-Standard, said in a statement. “Brampton Engineering’s focus on customer support, technology and its employees align well with the values of Davis-Standard."

"Davis-Standard is a global leader in plastic extrusion technology, and we are proud to join their team,” Gary Hughes, CEO of BE, said in a statement. “Davis-Standard brings resources and support to our business to better serve our customers worldwide, and we are excited about the solutions we can present together."

The purchase of BE comes on the heels of Davis-Standard’s recent rebranding efforts unveiled at the NPE2018 trade in Orlando, Fla. last month. The company unveiled a new logo, slogan, and website.

Davis-Standard has manufacturing and technical facilities in the U.S., Canada, China, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and the UK.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Repsol has announced that it is working with Google Cloud to launch a project that will use big data and artificial intelligence to optimize management of the Tarragona refinery, as per Yourpetrochemicalnews.

Refineries are among the largest and most complex industrial facilities. Repsol’s Executive Managing Director of Downstream, Maria Victoria Zingoni, and Google’s Country Manager for Spain and Portugal, Fuencisla Clemares, participated in the launch of the project, which will be carried out in the Tarragona Industrial Complex and marks a pioneering challenge in the global refining industry.

This initiative puts the latest cloud technology from Google at the service of the refinery’s operators. Repsol’s objectives are to maximize efficiency, both in energy consumption as well as consumption of other resources, and to improve performance of the refinery’s overall operations.

To achieve this, Google will make available to Repsol its data and analytics products, the experience of its professional services consultants and its machine learning managed service, Google Cloud ML, which will help Repsol’s developers to build and bring machine learning models to production in their refinery environment.

The management of a refinery involves around 400 variables, which demands a high level of computational capacity and a vast amount of data control. This is an unprecedented challenge in the refining world.

Until now, the highest number of functions integrated digitally in an industrial plant is around 30 variables, demonstrating the vast challenge this project presents. It aims to increase the number of variables being managed by more than 10 times. Repsol chose the Tarragona refinery to develop this initiative because the online configuration of its production schematics facilitates testing and implementation.

This project, as well as the collaboration with Google Cloud, is part of Repsol’s ongoing digitalization, innovation and technology projects development in all of its business units to improve its competitiveness and efficiency.

The project has the potential to add 30 cents on the dollar to Repsol’s refined barrel margin, which could translate to 20 million dollars annually for the Tarragona refinery, with significant upward growth if all optimization objectives are achieved.

Improvement of industrial processes
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