Idemitsu Kosan starts maintenance at SM plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Idemitsu Kosan Co has taken off-stream its styrene monomer (SM) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the company has commenced turnaround at the plant on August 24, 2018. The shutdown is likely to last for around five weeks.

Located in Tokuyama, Japan, the SM plant has a production capacity of 340,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Japan's Idemitsu Kosan shut its naphtha cracker for a maintenance turnaround in Japan from September 20, 2017, to end-October 2017. Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 375,000 mt/year.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC

TechnipFMC wins large contract for Vietnams largest Olefins Plant

MOSCOW (MRC) --TechnipFMC has been awarded by Long Son Petrochemicals Co., a contract for the licensing, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up of Vietnam’s first olefins(2) plant on Long Son Island, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Vietnam, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Designed as a flexible feed cracker, the olefins plant can utilize both naphtha and LPG(3) feeds to produce olefins of up to 1.6 million tons per year depending on the feedstock mix. The olefins will help meet Vietnam’s rising demand for petrochemical products. The plant will also include proprietary licensed units(4) and will be based on TechnipFMC’s proprietary ethylene technology.

TechnipFMC is executing the project in a consortium with SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. of South Korea. TechnipFMC is the leader of the consortium and, as a global company, will execute all engineering, as well as the procurement of critical equipment from its operating centers located in Houston, USA, Rome, Italy and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Nello Uccelletti, President of TechnipFMC’s Onshore/Offshore business, commented: "Our reliable proprietary ethylene technology and proven engineering, procurement and construction capabilities were key factors in this important, highly competitive award and confirms our leadership in this market. TechnipFMC will ensure, with SK Engineering & Construction, that this ambitious mega project is successfully delivered on time and on budget, meeting the highest safety and quality standards".

The contract adds on to the remarkable list of TechnipFMC’s references of onshore achievements in Vietnam, in particular the country’s very first oil refinery, the Dung Qu?t Refinery and the Phu My Fertilizer Complex.
MRC

BP says JV Toledo, Ohio, refinery returning to normal operation

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Plc said on Tuesday that its joint-venture 155,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Toledo, Ohio, refinery was returning to normal operation following an unplanned outage earlier on Tuesday, as per the company's press release.

BP also said a shelter-in-place advisory to some residents of the Toledo suburb of Oregon, Ohio, had been lifted.

Energy industry intelligence service Genscape said excess emissions were observed from a sulfur recovery unit at the refinery late on Tuesday morning.

As MRC reported before, British oil and gas company BP will increase investment in the United States after the lowering of tax rates under President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in early February, 2018.
MRC

Chinese refiner Hengli hires crude trader in Singapore

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese private refiner Hengli Group and its partner state-owned Sinochem Corp have hired a crude oil trader at their Singapore office ahead of Hengli’s refinery start-up in the fourth quarter, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to several trade sources.

Former Itochu trader Kevin Ng will be joining Hengli Oilchem in October to procure crude oil and trade derivatives, they said.

Hengli OilChem, 80 percent owned by Hengli and 20 percent by Sinochem, officially opened in Singapore in June and is responsible for procuring crude, selling products and petrochemicals and conducting third-party trading.

Hengli has so far bought Brazilian and Saudi crude for trial runs at its new refinery expected in October.

The 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in the northeastern port city of Dalian will be one of the five largest refineries in China and a major crude oil buyer.

As MRC informed before, on 14 August 2018, Hengli Petrochemical restarted operations at its no.1 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant at Dalian, following a planned maintenance turnaround. The plant was taken off-stream on August 1, 2018. Currently, the plant is operating at 80-85% production capacity rates. Located at Dalian in China, the plant has a production capacity of 2.2 mmt/year.
MRC

Fire breaks out at Plains All American crude tank

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at a Plains All American Pipeline crude storage tank east of Wichita Falls, Texas, the company said, as per Reuters.

The fire was limited to a single storage tank at the Wichita Falls Station, the company said, and none of its workers were missing. Plains did not say if there were injuries but did say that first responders were on site.

Plains did not specify whether the fire had affected any other operations. Wichita Falls is a crude injection point in North Texas along Plain’s Basin Pipeline, which runs from the Permian Basin that to the oil storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma.

The Basin pipeline was shut briefly, according to market intelligence firm Genscape, though the cause was unclear. Flows on the pipeline resumed to a rate of nearly 410,000 barrels per day (bpd) after power consumption increased at about 1:00 p.m. ET, Genscape said in a notice.

Pipeline flow averaged about 365 Mbpd this week thus far and the Basin pipeline has a capacity of 450 Mbpd, Genscape said.

News of the pipeline closure contributed to weakness in West Texas Intermediate at Midland WTC-WTM crude differentials during the day, traders and brokers said.

WTI Midland traded as much as USD18 a barrel below U.S. crude futures early in the session, the biggest discount since late 2012. Prices recovered to last trade at a USD16.75 a barrel discount, dealers said. On Monday, WTI at Midland traded near USD15 a barrel under Cushing.

"Plains really hasn’t said much to the shippers so unless it’s going to be shut for a while, I don’t think there’ll be much market impact," said one trader who buys oil off the pipeline.

Plains did not respond to a request for comment on the Basin pipeline closure.
MRC