PP plant shuts for maintenance by ExxonMobil Singapore

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.
MRC

Petrobras in talks with presidential hopefuls, eyeing diesel hedge

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.

MRC

Henglis high-tech petroleum complex breathes down PetroChinas neck

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.
MRC

Competition panel nod to Linde-Praxair deal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fair trade regulator CCI has approved the merger of industrial gas firms Linde and Praxair, subject to certain conditions, as per TheHindu BusinessLine.

The deal, announced in June 2017, is worth over USD 70 billion, according to reports.

“"CCI approves combination of Linde and Praxair, subject to compliance of certain modifications," the regulator said in a tweet Friday.

The approval comes following a public scrutiny launched into the deal in earlier in May by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

The regulator places a deal for public consultation if it is of the "prima facie opinion that the combination has, or likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition".

Similar public scrutinies were launched by the CCI in the case of merger deals such as Monsanto-Bayer, Ranbaxy-Sun Pharma and Holcim-Lafarge.

As per a notice submitted to CCI jointly by Linde Aktiengesellschaft and Praxair, Inc in January 2018, the transaction relates to a proposed combination of the two multinational industrial gas companies under a newly incorporated holding company, Linde Plc.

After completion of the proposed transaction, Linde Plc will be owned by the two companies’ current shareholders, according to the notice.

As MRC informed before, in late August, 2018, industrial gases groups Linde and Praxair won conditional antitrust approval in Brazil for their planned merger after committing to asset sales. Linde will sell its entire business in Brazil, subject to merger completion.

Munich (Germany) headquarted Linde is primarily active in industrial gases and medical gases, speciality gases, helium and the related engineering and services sectors.

Headquartered in Connecticut, US, Praxair is an international industrial gases company.
MRC

Norsk Hydro working to convince Brazil to resume full output at Alunorte refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Norsk Hydro is working to convince Brazilian authorities to allow it to resume full output at its Alunorte plant, the world’s biggest alumina refinery, following two deals pledging social and environmental action, reported Reuters with reference to a top executive.

The deals, signed late on Wednesday in Brazil, were "an important step" but not a guarantee it would be allowed to resume full production at Alunorte, John Thuestad, Norsk Hydro’s executive vice-president for bauxite and alumina, told Reuters.

"We see this as an important step, but for us, it is not a guarantee of getting the embargo lifted," Thuestad, who led the negotiations with Brazilian authorities, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

The deals signed Wednesday include payments for food cards for nearby families and investments for the social development of local communities, as well as technical improvements.

Signed with federal and state prosecutors as well as the state government and environmental authorities, they do not include a timeline for resumption of production at full capacity.

Hydro was technically ready to restart the closed capacity, Thuestad said, and would now concentrate on convincing the relevant Brazilian judge.

"It’s the right decision to reopen the facility," especially given the tightness of the world’s alumina market, he said.

Hydro was ordered by Brazilian regulators in February to slash output by half at Alunorte after the company admitted to making unlicensed emissions of untreated water during severe rains.

Thuestad said more than 90 inspections had established Hydro did not cause any harmful pollution. The company has denied many of the prosecutors’ allegations and said there was no evidence of a lasting environmental effect.

However, Thuestad said the lesson Hydro was drawing from the incident was that it needed to improve its relations with local Brazilian communities and with authorities in the country.
MRC