Arkema expands thiochemicals global manufacturing capacity for linear mercaptans

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema has announced a project to increase its linear mercaptans production capacities to support the demand growth of polymers for transportation and electronics markets, as per the company's press release.

This incremental investment would increase the Houston (Texas) plant’s manufacturing capacity by up to 30%.

"Arkema is the world’s leading producer of mercaptans and other sulfur derivatives, and this investment would further strengthen that position. The expansion would position us to better serve our customers’ needs and support their growth," said Frederic Vartician, Global Group President of Thiochemicals.

The total new capacity should come online in the first half of 2020.

As MRC informed before, in March 2017, Arkema completed the sale to INEOS of its 50% stake in Oxochimie, their oxo alcohols manufacturing joint venture, and of the associated business.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukraine's largest petrochemical plant, took off-stream its production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for maintenance, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's clients said the scheduled turnaround at HDPE and PVC production capacities started on 5 November and it will be quite long. Karpatneftekhim plans to resume its HDPE production on 4 December and PVC production - a few days later.

This is virtually the first shutdown for maintenance after a period of more than a year of the plant's operations.

As reported earlier, Karpatneftekhim resumed operations on 9 June 2017, after a five-year outage.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The joint venture Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, established by the National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz and the investment consortium of Korean companies - Kogaz, Lotte Group and STX Energy, resumed its production of polymers after the turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report with reference to the plant's customers.

The plant's clients said Uz-Kor Gas Chemical began to gradually resume work on 1 November after the scheduled maintenance at its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities. One of two reactors for HDPE production was launched in the morning of 2 November.

The outage started in early October and should be completed by 27 October. But due to technical problems, the turnaround was extended by almost a week.

As MRC reported earlier, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical was founded on the basis of Ustyurt Gas Chemical Comples (Surgil deposit). The total cost of the project is over USD4 billion. The complex provides processing of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and includes HDPE and PP production facilities with the annual capacity of 386,000 and 80,000 tonnes, respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - India's Petronet LNG and ONGC Videsh are jointly in talks about buying a stake in Tellurian Inc's proposed Driftwood project in Louisiana, Petronet's managing said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We have moved slightly forward (from the preliminary discussion stage)... we are evaluating it seriously and we are in serious discussion with them," Prabhat Singh told Reuters in a phone interview. India is expanding its pipeline network and building new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals to boost use of the cleaner fuel in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target to raise the share of natural gas in India's overall energy mix to 15 percent in the next few years from about 6.5 percent at present. Petronet is India's top gas importer with no experience of the upstream business, which is why it is tying up with ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of Indian oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

"We want confirmation and confidence of upstream ... we want to mitigate geological risk," Singh said. ONGC Videsh's managing director N. K. Verma declined to comment when asked by Reuters.

Singh, however, said that Petronet was also in talks with several other players about buying a stake in assets spanning from drilling to dispensing, saying it was a bold step for the firm.

"But this a step which will deliver gas at cheap prices to India on a longer-term basis. It has merit in this, let us see how things shape up," he said.

A USD500 million investment in Driftwood would give the stakeholder rights over a one million tonne/year of LNG over the life of the project, according to a presentation by Tellurian posted on the U.S. company's website.

On a free-on-board basis gas will cost USd4.5 per million British thermal units. Tellurian hopes to deliver the first LNG to partners in 2024, the presentation said. "We are negotiating on the contours offered by them (Tellurian)," Singh said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sempra Energy today announced that Cameron LNG has initiated the commissioning process for the support facilities and first liquefaction train of Phase 1 of its Hackberry, La., liquefaction-export project, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"All major construction activities have been completed to begin the commissioning and start-up process to produce LNG from the first liquefaction train," said Joseph A. Householder, president and chief operating officer of Sempra Energy. "This is a significant milestone for this landmark U.S. energy infrastructure facility – an important step forward in advancing our strategic vision to become North America's premier energy infrastructure company."

Phase 1 of the Cameron LNG liquefaction-export project, which includes the first three liquefaction trains, is a USD10 billion facility with a projected export capability of 12 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of LNG, or approximately 1.7 billion cubic feet per day. All three trains are expected to be producing LNG in 2019.

The commissioning process includes testing of all support systems, combustion turbines and compressors, as well as the delivery of feed gas from the transmission pipeline and production of the first LNG. Once all of the steps of the commissioning process are approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and successfully completed for the first liquefaction train, LNG production will start up, and then ramp up to full production for delivery to global markets.

Cameron LNG is jointly owned by affiliates of Sempra LNG & Midstream, Total, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and Japan LNG Investment, LLC, a company jointly owned by Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK). Sempra Energy indirectly owns 50.2 percent of Cameron LNG.

Sempra Energy's share of full run-rate earnings from the first three trains at Cameron LNG are projected to be between USD365 million and USD425 million annually.

Cameron LNG Phase 1 is one of five LNG export projects Sempra Energy is developing in North America. Cameron LNG Phase 2, previously authorized by FERC, encompasses up to two additional liquefaction trains and up to two additional LNG storage tanks. Sempra Energy's other LNG development projects include Port Arthur LNG, Energia Costa Azul (ECA) LNG Phase 1 and ECA LNG Phase 2.

Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services holding company with 2017 revenues of more than USD11 billion, is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' approximately 20,000 employees serve more than 40 million consumers worldwide.
MRC