Maintenance at Romanian refinery to weigh on OMV Q2 operating profit

MOSCOW (MRC) - Austria’s oil and gas group OMV said planned maintenance at its Petrobrazi refinery in Romania will negatively affect its operating profit in the second quarter, as per Reuters.

The full-site turnaround will impact its second-quarter clean current cost of supplies (CCS) earnings in its downstream business by around 35 million euros ($41 million) versus the first quarter, the group said on Wednesday.

The shutdown required OMV to store more crude, leading to not yet realized profits of around 60 million euros, it said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is analyzing metal shrapnel from an April explosion at a Husky Energy Inc refinery in Wisconsin that forced the evacuation of thousands of residents as it continues to investigate the cause of the blast, the agency’s chief said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The metal shrapnel blown out from the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at the refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, tore through a tank containing hot asphalt, which spread fire through the plant, Kristen Kulinowski, the safety board’s interim executive, said.

The metallurgical analysis may determine what caused the explosion. “It’s a painstaking process as much of the metal is covered with asphalt,” Kulinowski said.

The refinery has remained shut since the explosion on April 26.

Husky spokeswoman Kim Guttormson said there is no date for the restart of the refinery, but the company may provide an update on its July 26 conference call on second-quarter earnings.

The CSB has not released control of the FCCU to Husky, board spokeswoman Hillary Cohen said. Another update on the investigation will be issued in August.

Like the National Transportation Safety Board, the CSB has no regulatory or enforcement authority but recommends changes in industry practices and regulations based on its investigations.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - China's omission of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its vast list of U.S. products that face hefty import duties has preserved a potential weapon should the trade war with Washington deepen, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

It also underscores Beijing's desire to ensure supplies of gas as it pushes to switch millions of households and businesses away from using coal as a key part of its 'war on pollution'.

China will on Friday impose tariffs on USD34 billion of U.S. goods from pork to soybeans to cotton in retaliation for a similar move by Washington as trade relations sour between the world's top two economies.

"If the (trade) war escalates, (I expect) the government will not hesitate to add LNG," a state oil and gas company executive said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Although U.S. LNG supplies to China have so far been tiny in volume and value compared with the around USD12 billion per year of U.S. crude that arrives in the country, analysts say those levels could be set to shoot up as Beijing forges ahead with its battle to clear its skies.

Morgan Stanley has estimated annual Chinese imports of U.S. LNG could rise to as much as USD9 billion within two or three years, from USD1 billion in 2017. The amount could be even larger if the United States resolves a logistics bottleneck.

That would go a long way to helping balance China's trade surplus with the United States, a major bugbear of Washington's in the trade dispute. But the strategy also hands Beijing another weapon in its arsenal if the spat deteriorates further.

China's Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- In response to what it said is strong worldwide demand for PA powder in ultra-high performance industrial applications, especially from the coatings, composite and 3D printing markets, French chemical producer Arkema (Colombes) plans to to expand global capacity at its Mont / France site in the Pyrenees by more than 50% by the second half of 2019, as per Plasteurope.

The expansion, costing around EUR 20m, will support steady growth in these industrial applications and underscore its commitment to its global customer base, the company said.

For the speciality powders sold under the "Orgasol" trademark (a range of polymers and PA 6 and PA 12 copolymers), and often specified as ultra-high performing formulation additives, Arkema claims exceptionally tightly controlled particle size distribution and outstanding toughness. The new capacity upgrade follows “substantial” investment in Asia for the French player’s "Rilsan" PA 11 and PA 12 product lines, said Erwoan Pezron, global president of Arkema’s Technical Polymers business.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- LWB Steinl GmbH & Co.KG, Altdorf, and Evonik Industries, Essen, are combining their experience to manufacture a rotation-symmetrical plastic/rubber composite part: Evonik supplies polyamide 612 VESTAMID DX9325 for adhesive free bonding with EPDM, and LWB Steinl supplies its expertise in two-component injection molding, as per the company press release.

This automated manufacturing process can be viewed during the German Rubber Conference (DKT 2018) from July 2 to 5 at LWB Steinl’s stand 309 in hall 12.

Wherever rubber parts must be permanently fixed or mounted, composite parts made of a hard component and an elastomer have proven their worth. For the purposes of weight reduction, the hard component that has traditionally been made of metal has been replaced in recent times by suitable plastics. These offer two further advantages: They do not corrode, and in an injection molding process, they can be efficiently formed into complex molded parts. This gives the designer significantly greater flexibility when designing complex components. The bonding between hard and soft component—the decisive criterion for the long-term functioning of composite parts, especially those subject to dynamic stress—is usually achieved using adhesive agents, which are applied in additional processing steps. Protective measures are required against emissions from the solution used and the solution must also be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

Evonik has developed various plastic-compounds, which have rendered adhesive agents superfluous. Components made of these compounds form tight and permanent bonds with suitable rubber compounds without the need for pretreatment or the application of adhesives or bonding agents. VESTAMID DX9325 is an approx. 40% glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide 612 compound, which has been developed specifically for plastic rubber-compound technology. It can also be covulcanized with EPDM rubber. As a semi-crystalline material, VESTAMID DX9325 has excellent chemical resistance, for example, to fuels, oils and fats.

The composite part with EPDM can be manufactured in a single step, mostly automated procedure, similar to two component injection molding in a single tool. There is no need for multiple handling of the components, most sources of error are avoided, and the reject rate falls. Depending on the plant-specific conditions, therefore, cost savings of up to 30% can be achieved.

You can find out more about the patented plastic-rubber-bonding process, additional PA612, PPA and PPE molding compounds that have been developed specifically for the process, and their adhesive-free bonding to SBR, NR/SBR, NBR/SBR, NBR, XNBR, HNBR, AEM and FPM at Evonik’s stand 107 in hall 12.
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