PetroChinas Yunnan refinery completes new oil products pipeline

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina’s Yunnan refinery completed a new pipeline to transport fuel from Xundian to Kunming, PetroChina said on its official news website, as per Reuters.

The 81-kilometer pipeline has an annual capacity to transport 1.68 million tonnes of gasoline and diesel.

PetroChina’s Yunnan plant is one of its two largest refining projects that came on stream in 2017 with 260,000 barrels per day of crude refining capacity.

As MRC informed earlier, Chinese state-run oil and chemicals group Sinochem is in advanced talks to transfer its 33.6 percent stake in a debt-laden refinery to state giant PetroChina, part of Sinochem’s plan to shed non-core assets ahead of a USD2 billion listing of its energy arm.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ABB has won an order from Hyundai Engineering to modify existing and install new electrical systems and electrical network monitoring and control system (ENMCS) at Malaysia’s biggest crude oil refinery at Melaka, in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Hyundai Engineering was appointed earlier this year by Malaysian Refining Company Sdn. Bhd’s to deliver the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) turnkey contract to upgrade the existing oil refining facilities to meet the new Euro-5 standard of maintaining sulfur levels to a maximum of 10mg per kg to improve air quality.

ABB has been appointed to design and supply medium and low voltage switchgears, variable speed drives, a direct current (DC) uninterruptible power supply system and an alarm and supervisory system for the project that comprises a new substation and modification to existing substations.

The company is installing its ABB Ability™ System 800xA based process power manager that will integrate the new and existing electrical systems to provide overall control and monitoring of the electrical network.

"Our solutions will help Malaysian Refining to generate insights that can help them drive performance and productivity improvements," says Zeng Tao, Singapore Hub Manager, ABB. "With the ABB AbilityTM System 800xA-based electrical monitoring and control system including substation technology, the refinery will be empowered to embrace digital, enabling its operators to improve performance by accessing more accurate information that will better inform decisions. With our local service teams in Malaysia, supported by our competency center in Singapore, the customer can be assured of expert support."

The refinery has been operating since 1994 and houses two refinery trains with a total capacity of 270,000 barrels per day. It is owned by Malaysian Refining Company Sdn. Bhd. wholly owned subsidary of Malaysia’s state-run oil company Petronas. The refinery complex is operated by Petronas Penapisan (Melaka) Sdn. Bhd. (PPM).

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2018, ABB signed technology agreement with Chinese Yitai Group. A framework agreement between ABB and one of China’s leading coal producers, the Yitai Group, will bring deeper cooperation in applying digital technologies, solutions, services and expertise to improve performance across Yitai’s plants.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Chemical has undertaken a planned shutdown at its one of the two polypropylene (PP) plants in Jurong Island, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Singapore informed that the company has commenced maintenance at the plant in early-September 2018. The plant is expected to remain shut for around 2-4 weeks.

Located on Jurong Island in Singapore, the PP plant has a production capacity of 500,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil’s broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant’s polyethylene capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Executives at Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA said they have hosted meetings with economic advisors to presidential candidates ahead of wide-open elections next month, and could adopt a diesel price hedge similar to one announced for gasoline prices last week, as per Reuters.

Speaking at an event in Sao Paulo, executives said Petrobras officials had shared business plans with the campaign advisors during the meetings, which were cordial and interesting and began two weeks ago.

In August 2018, Petroleo Brasileiro SA began procedures to reopen its largest refinery, closed after an explosion and fire, last week-end, Gustavo Marsaioli.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- On reclaimed land on the island of Changxin near the port of Dalian, workers are putting the finishing touches on a plant that is the future of China’s refining and petrochemical industry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Here, private chemical company Hengli Group will begin testing its USD11 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in October.

The plant is a direct challenge to China National Petroleum Corp’s (CNPC) Dalian Petrochemical Corp facility, the country’s second-largest oil refinery. That 70-year-old plant has been a cash cow for state-owned CNPC but the aging refinery has come under scrutiny after several accidents.

Hengli’s high-tech complex will not only produce the fuels China craves but also the plastics and other chemicals the country will need for the future.

China plans to add a dozen petrochemical mega-complexes along its east coast over the next five years, in the biggest wave of expansion in its history.

The plants will be backed by state majors Sinopec and Sinochem, private groups Shenghong Petrochemical and Wanhua Chemical, as well as Exxon Mobil and Germany’s BASF.

“Under a more liberalized policy, more independent and foreign companies will join the investment that will make China more self-sufficient in chemicals,” said William Chen, chemicals analyst at IHS Markit.

CNPC’s listed arm PetroChina Co, which operates Dalian, has become one of the world’s most valuable oil firms by providing the gasoline and diesel to power China’s expanding private car fleet and the freight trucks underpinning its expanding commerce.

But Dalian may become a symbol of the past as competitors such as Hengli feed the demand of the world’s biggest petrochemical consumer.

China’s demand for diesel will likely peak by 2020 and gasoline by around 2035, according to IHS Markit.

However, the country’s demand for ethylene, a building block for plastics and polyesters, will rise to 26.8 million tonnes by 2020, from 18.7 million tonnes in 2015. Hengli’s sprawling complex is geared to meet that demand and reduce imports.

As MRC informed earlier, Hengli Group received its first cargo of Saudi crude oil by July as it prepares a new refinery for trial runs to be held in October.
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