Gas plant explosion prompts evacuations in Bellville Texas

MOSCOW (MRC) --Explosions at a gas plant in Bellville Tuesday prompted evacuations of residents and businesses in the area, local officials said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Smoke and fire could be seen for miles from the Western International Gas plant where a series of early morning explosions were reported. The plant provides bulk industrial gases such as acetylene.

Austin County Sheriff Jack Brandes said mandatory evacuations were ordered for anyone within a 1-mile radius of the plant. A voluntary evacuation was also ordered for anyone within two miles of the plant.

Brandes said the fire was still active hours after the initial incident was reported. Local emergency responders said they did not have a time frame as to when the fire would be out or when a nearby highway would reopen.

There were no reported injuries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical has shut its No. 2 low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit for a brief maintenance, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the unit was shut for a maintenance turnaround on July 14, 2018. It is likely to resume production on July 19, 2018.

Located at Guangdong in China, the No. 2 unit has a production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical conducted a brief turnaround at its LDPE unit No. 1 in early September 2017. Thus, the company resumed operations at this unit on September 2, 2017. The plant was shut for a maintenance on September 1, 2017. Located at Guangdong in China, the unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company (Maoming Company) - a subsidiary of Sinopec- is located in Maoming, Guangdong and was founded in May 1955. The company now has a crude oil processing capacity of 13.5 million t/a and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million t/a. Maoming Company has turned out to be a large-scale integrated refining and chemical enterprise with refining as the leading business and petrochemical sector as the mainstay.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand's HMC Polymers, owned by PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited (PTTGC), LyondellBasell and Thai investors, will resume full polypropylene (PP) production at Map Ta Phut in August, as per Apic-online with reference to a company source.

The company has three lines which were each shut for around 10 days, the source added. The No. 1 PP line has a nameplate capacity of 200,000 mt/year, No. 2 PP unit with a capacity of 250,000 mt/year and No. 3 PP line has a 300,000 mt/year capacity.

As MRC wrote previously, in 2010, HMC Polymers increased the production capacity of its PP plant by 300,000 tonnes from 450,000 tonnes in a bid to serve growing demand for polypropylene both domestically and internationally.

HMC Polymers is one of the leading companies in the manufacturing and marketing of polypropylene (PP) for Asia and worldwide. HMC Polymers is the first PP manufacturer in Thailand with its first PP production facility to have been established in Rayong Province, Thailand in 1987. The company's PP production facilities output is over 750,000 metric tons per year and comprise two Spheripol lines and a latest technology Spherizone line from LyondellBasell. HMC Polymers produces a wide range of Moplen polypropylene grades including homopolymer, heterophasic and random copolymer resins, as well as specialty polypropylene resins such as Adstif, Clyrell and Purell. In addition, a strategic investment in upstream integration was made in parallel with the construction of a Propane Dehydrogenation plant (PDH) at a site adjacent to our Map Ta Phut plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises completed repairs to the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its 603,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery over the weekend, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Motiva may cancel a July 23 shutdown of the 81 Mbpd Fluidic Catalytic Cracking Unit 3 the company began planning after a July 4 malfunction on the unit, the sources said.

Motiva on Thursday began planning the shutdown of the 81 Mbpd gasoline-producing Fluidic Catalytic Cracking Unit 3 (FCCU 3) at its 603 Mbpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery due to excessive catalyst loss, the sources said.

If Motiva puts off the Monday, July 23 shutdown, it would be the second time this month the refinery has avoided shutting FCCU 3, the sources said.

The problems with catalyst clogging and loss began on Wednesday and Motiva planned to shut the catcracker on Thursday, but was able to keep the unit running at reduced production levels.

While keeping FCCU 3 operating, Motiva also began preparing to take the unit out of production on July 23 for a period that could be measured in weeks.

Within the refinery's FCCU 3, the fine powder catalyst breaks down gas oil into gasoline and other products.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2018, Motiva Enterprises' new Chief Executive Officer Brian Coffman said that no decision had been made on how to spend USD18 billion corporate parent Saudi Aramco has pledged for expansion. Aramco said in May 2017 it wanted to spend USD18 billion in the next five years and was interested in adding petrochemicalproduction capacity. The company's 603,000 barrel per day plant at Port Arthur, Texas, is the largest refinery in the United States.
MRC

Last month's SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market dropped to 5,900 tonnes from 6,400 tonnes in May, with US resin accounting for the main decrease. Overall SPVC imports totalled 38,800 tonnes in January-June 2018, compared to 48,000 tonnes a year earlier, at the same time, shipments of resin from the USA increased significantly. Higher domestic production was the main reason for lower total imports.

The structure of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports into Ukraine by countries looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's imports of US SPVC shrank to 3,500 tonnes from 4,000 tonnes in May. Thus, imports of US resin totalled 26,100 tonnes in the first six months of 2018, compared to 17,400 tonnes a year earlier. February-March accounted for the peak of imports.

June imports of European PVC into the Ukrainian market were 2,400 tonnes, which equalled the May figure. Overall imports of European PVC to Ukraine totalled 11,400 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 21,300 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC