Clariant to expand ethylene oxide unit in Gendorf, Germany

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, announced today the expansion of the capacity of its ethylene oxide (EO) unit in Gendorf, Germany, said the company.

The investment positions Clariant to continue its successful development of innovative EO-based specialties to support a wide range of industries, such as personal and home care, crop solutions, and industrial applications. No further details of the investment will be disclosed.

“As a globally leading company for specialty chemicals, Clariant continues to invest also in our production network in Europe. I am confident that this sizeable expansion will support our strategic goal of intensifying profitable growth in both developed and emerging markets”, said Christian Kohlpaintner, member of Clariant's Executive Committee.

The expansion of Clariant’s state-of-the-art facilities at Gendorf will enable higher production yields, greater process reliability and enhanced product quality. An increase of High Purified Ethylene Oxide (HPEO) is expected to be available from 2020. Joao Tavares Correia, Head of the RBL EMEA region, Business Unit Industrial & Consumer

Specialties at Clariant, comments: “We are pleased to announce this strategic investment for Gendorf committing to the long-term growth of our customers across our different markets. With this capacity increase of High Purified Ethylene Oxide (HPEO), Clariant will continue to expand its market driven innovative portfolio of EO-based specialties.”
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Basestocks announced several key developments at its Rotterdam refinery to meet the company’s most stringent base stocks manufacturing quality standards, supporting its final steps towards full stream production in the first quarter of 2019, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

These developments are part of ExxonMobil’s commitment to product integrity and reliability at the refinery. “The Rotterdam refinery represents the first large-scale production of Group II base stocks in Europe,” said Pascal de Bast Thiers, business venture manager for the Rotterdam expansion project at ExxonMobil. “We are continuously exploring ways to strengthen our base stocks production cycle and are dedicated to providing our valued customers with the highest standards in customer service, brand and product integrity from the very start.”

Key developments at the Rotterdam refinery include: New lab facilities with state-of-the-art equipment to ensure accurate and timely product testing at every stage of base stock production. Official ISO 9001:2015 pre-certification as well as full compliance with ATIEL’s base stock slate definition – both are an integral part of the ExxonMobil global EHC Group II slate offer.

The implementation of ExxonMobil’s proprietary Global Brand & Product Integrity Management System (BPIMS) to help maintain base stocks quality throughout the entire production cycle, from feed all the way to product delivery.
A fully staffed team of experts ready to consistently deliver reliable products, services and experiences aligned with BPIMS standards.

ExxonMobil has completed several major field structure developments at its Rotterdam refinery since the project began in 2016. These latest measures are the final steps towards ensuring customers the highest quality of service, product integrity and reliability.

ExxonMobil will begin EHC™ production at its Rotterdam refinery following the completion of its hydrocracker expansion project at the end of 2018, with full commercialization of EHC™50 and EHC™120 targeted for the first quarter of 2019. Once the Rotterdam project is complete, ExxonMobil will become the largest Group I and Group II producer globally.
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MOSOCW (MRC) -- A week-long strike in the French oil sector that mostly disrupted oil and gas major Total’s refineries and depot has been suspended, reported Reuters with reference to hard-left trade union CGT.

The trade union had called the strike in a dispute over salaries and bonuses.

The action had led to a suspension of production at Total’s 253,000 barrel-per-day Gonfreville refinery in Normandy. Output was also curbed at its Feyzin and Grandpuits refineries, while deliveries of refined products were blocked.

Deliveries from its La Mede and Flanders depots were also blocked.

CGT spokesman Thierry Defresne said union members have made a decision to suspend the strike as of Thursday evening.

He said the union will wait for December 11 when annual salary negotiations start at the company to ask members if they are happy with proposals made by management.

A spokeswoman for Total confirmed the suspension of the strike but gave no further details.

Patrick Pouyanne, Total’s chief executive, tweeted earlier on Thursday that he met with workers at the Feyzin refinery and reassured them about their bonuses.

Defresne said that although Pouyanne’s reassurances were heard by the workers, there was nothing binding.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which have progressively started up in the last few months.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s privately-run Corp is expected to start partial test operations at some units around end of this year and early 2019, but a full trial operation is only expected in the second quarter of next year, reported Reuters with reference to a company executive.

"The company is planning to start trial runs at the crude unit and also some downstream units around end of the year and early in 2019," said the Zhejiang-based executive, who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to press.

But a detailed plan on which units will be tested and the scale of test operations would depend on the market situation, the executive added.

The company, 51 percent owned by Rongsheng Holdings, is building a 400,000 barrels per day refinery which is integrated with a petrochemical complex led by a 1.2 million-tonne per year ethylene facility.

A Rongsheng spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

The refinery, built on an island off the archipelago city of Zhoushan in east China, is configured to process medium sour crudes such as Saudi’s Arab Medium and Oman, as well as Latin American oil.

Saudi Aramco is also expected to supply up to 170,000 bpd of crude to Zhejiang Petrochemical and has signed an initial agreement to take a stake in the company.

Two separate industry sources said Rongsheng has bought a million barrels of Brazilian medium-sweet crude Lula for end-January arrival possibly for use in the test operation.

The company has imported several cargoes of Oman crude in the fourth quarter which are stored in Zhoushan.

The plant is aiming to start test operation at the ethylene unit also in the second quarter because of "smooth construction", said the executive.

As MRC informed before, in October 2018, state oil giant Saudi Aramco announced that it would take a stake in a new refinery being built by Zhejiang Petrochemical. The oil giant expects to supply 170,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude to the refinery in Zhoushan in eastern China when it starts operation, Aramco's Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi said Reuters.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Perstorp has increased capacity of di-pentaerythritol i.e. Di-Penta with 40% at site Perstorp, as per the company's press release.

This is a result of improved efficiency and debottlenecking at all Di-Penta producing sites.

Di-Penta is used in a vast number of applications such as UV cured coatings, synthetic lubricants, high solids alkyd coatings, fire resistant Charmor coatings and lead-free PVC stabilizers. Di-Penta brings properties such as a thermo-stability, UV-stability, weather-, chemical- and scratch resistance. It’s also a very important raw material in many environmentally friendly applications.

As the largest global producer of Di-Penta, leading specialty chemicals company Perstorp, is working on all fronts to meet the increased customer demand of Di-Penta and the performance it offers. Since years back the entire industry has suffered from shortages in the Di-Penta market. To secure product availability Perstorp has worked to maximize Di-Penta production capacity which now has resulted in a capacity increase and a fully available product.

Kent Hamacek, Product Manager, Advanced Polyols & Formates says "We strongly believe in Di-Penta and will work hard to continue to grow with our customers and customer’s customer, bringing new and innovative solutions to market".

The complete strategy to meet customer demand for Perstorp Di-Penta now and in the future also includes a number of innovation projects focused on application development for complementary solutions.

As MRC reported previously, in the first half of 2017, Synthomer plc acquired Perstorp Oxo Belgium AB from the Swedish Perstorp Holding AB for EUR 78 million. Perstorp Belgium is a niche additives business serving the decorative and industrial coatings industries. In 2016, the business generated earnings before interest and tax of EUR 8 million and had gross assets of EUR 21 million. The company operates from a single site in Ghent, Belgium, and has 41 employees, who will all be transferred with the business.

Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.
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