Valeros Memphis refinery shuts crude unit for repairs

MOSCOW (MRC) - Valero Energy Corp shut production on the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 180,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Memphis, Tennessee, refinery for repairs, sources familiar with plant operations said, as per Reuters.

A Valero spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment.

Valero plans to keep the 80,000 bpd CDU shut until July 25 for unplanned repairs to clean out fouling from crude oil, the sources said.

As MRC informed previously, an explosion set off a huge fire at Valero Energy Corp’s 225,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Thursday afternoon, 19 April 2018, but the fire was quickly contained, according the City of Texas City Emergency Management office. Sources familiar with plant operations said the explosion at about 5 p.m. (6 p.m. EDT/2200 GMT) was on a 12,000-bpd alkylation unit.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Two contractors who were burned last week in a fire at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Convent, Louisiana, refinery have been released from the hospital, sources familiar with plant operations said, as per Reuters.

The two contractors, who the sources said were released from the hospital on Friday, were among four workers injured in a flash fire on a hydrogen-like while working on a tail gas treatment unit last Wednesday.

Tail gas treatment units use hydrogen to remove sulfur from motor fuels and their feedstocks. The other two workers injured in the fire were able to return to work the same day.

The 209,787 barrel-per-day Convent refinery is performing a two-month overhaul of the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit and other units, the sources said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia increased to 484,600 tonnes in the first six months of this year, up 4% compared to the same period of 2017. Not all producers increased production volumes over the reported period, according to MRC ScanPlast.

June output of unmixed PVC exceeded 83,900 tonnes against 78,500 tonnes a month earlier, the low indicator of May was a result of a scheduled maintenance works at RusVinyl. Overall PVC production reached 484,600 tonnes in January-June 2018, compared to 467,700 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their output, except for RusVinyl.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 28,800 tonnes of PVC in June, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,400 tonnes, compared to 21,500 tonnes a month earlier. The Nizhny Novgorod producer shut down its production for a scheduled turnaround in the third decade of April. The maintenance was finished in early May. RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 155,800 tonnes in the first six months of 2018, which is practically the same as in Q1 2017.

SayanskKhimPlast increased capacity utilisation last month, the plant's SPVC production reached 27,000 tonnes, whereas this figure was 26,600 tonnes in May. The Sayansk plant managed to produce 149,800 tonnes of resin in the first six months of the year, compared to 136,300 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 21,300 tonnes of SPVC in June, against 22,300 tonnes a month earlier. The Bashkir plant's overall production of PVC exceeded 1323,600 tonnes in January-June 2018, up by 2% year on year.

Kaustik (Volgograd) in June decreased SPVC production, reaching about 6,900 tonnes, compared with 8,100 tonnes in May. The plant's overall production of resin exceeded 46,400 tonnes over the stated period versus 45,700 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is investigating the possibility of building a highly-integrated “Verbund” chemical production site in the South Chinese province of Guangdong, said the company.

Today, Martin Brudermuller, BASF’s Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, and Lin Shaochun, Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin, in the presence of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The Verbund site in Guangdong would be BASF’s largest investment and would be operated under the sole responsibility of BASF. China – with a world market share of around 40% – is the largest chemical market, and dominates the growth of the global chemical production. The investment is estimated to reach up to USD10 billion by completion of the project around 2030. The first plants could be completed by 2026 at the latest.

In the initial phase, the BASF project would include petrochemical plants – the heart of the well-established Verbund system. A steam cracker with a planned capacity of 1 million metric tons of ethylene per year would be the starting point of the value chains at the new integrated site. In the next phases, plants for more consumer-oriented products and solutions would be built, to serve sectors like transportation or consumer goods. The site would ultimately be the third-largest BASF site worldwide, following Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.

Guangdong province is home to customers from these key industries, as well as other fast-growing industries. With more than 110 million residents, Guangdong is the most populous province in China. Its gross domestic product, currently growing at 7% annually, already exceeds that of Spain and will soon have reached that of South Korea.

At the new site, BASF intends to implement a comprehensive smart manufacturing concept based on cutting-edge technologies. In the future, customers based in South China would be supplied from this high-tech Verbund site.

Globally, BASF currently operates six Verbund sites: two in Europe (Ludwigshafen, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium), two in North America (Freeport, Texas, USA; Geismar, Louisiana, USA) and two in Asia. The Verbund site in Nanjing, China, established in 2000, is a 50:50 joint venture with Sinopec, while the Verbund site in Kuantan, Malaysia, established in 1997, is a 60:40 joint venture with Petronas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PVC recycling project VinyLoop in Ferrara, Italy, which was started in 2002, ceases operations, according to a brief statement from the company dated 28 June 2018, said the company.

As of now, there is no longer any production, the controlled processing of the plant has been initiated.

Founded by Solvay, VinyLoop was designed to make problematic waste from soft PVC, such as cables and films, materially recyclable by using solvents. There have been problems with REACH legislation in recent years. In soft PVC blends from long-ago production years, substantial amounts of phthalates are still contained, which are not economically separate even with the Vinyloop process.

The consequence for the company that is majority owned by Ineos subsidiary Inovyn (London / UK) is the current closure. Seventeen employees are to lose their jobs.
MRC