Naphthachimie resumes ethylene cracker production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Naphtachimie has restarted its ethylene cracker following an unplanned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Europe informed that the company has resumed operations at the cracker on March 18, 2019. The cracker was shut owing to the power failure on March 8, 2019.

Located at Lavera in France, the cracker has a ethylene production capacity of 800,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 555,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, in May 2016, Naphtachimie declared a force majeure on ethylene production from its plants in Lavera, France. The FM was declared owing to an ongoing nationwide strike against proposed labour reforms by the French government.
MRC

Sika opens mortar production facility in Senegal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sika AG said that it is expanding production capacity in Senegal, West Africa, by opening a mortar production facility at its existing factory in Dakar, said Worldofchemicals.

The plant will initially manufacture tile adhesives, grouts, concrete repair and waterproofing mortars and at a later stage cementitious flooring solution.

Two years after the establishment of the new national subsidiary, and one year after opening a concrete admixtures plant, Sika is now starting to produce mortar products in Senegal. With its expansion strategy, Sika aims to further increase its market share in the booming construction market, one of the country's key economic sectors. Senegal has one of the strongest growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Its economy grew by 7 percent in the past year. Average growth of 6 percent is forecast for the construction market over the next few years.

"Our growth strategy in Africa has paid off, and we are achieving above-average growth rates. Over the last four years alone, we have increased sales on the African continent by more than 21 percent per year. In West Africa, Senegal is one of the fastest-growing countries with large investment projects in the areas of infrastructure, transport, energy, and oil. We want to position Sika in these major projects and bring the best products, systems, and services to our customers,” said Ivo Schadler, EMEA Regional Manager.
MRC

Workers at refinery give Shell one week to avert strikes

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Workers at a 400,000 barrel per day refinery will go on strike if Shell does not meet their demands for a pay raise before Thursday night, Dutch labor union FNV, asper Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s Pernis refinery in the Netherlands will determine the shape and timing of possible actions at the beginning of next week, FNV spokesman Egbert Vellenberg said.

As it was written earlier, in the Netherlands, a consortium of world-leading companies comprising Air Liquide, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals), Enerkem and the Port of Rotterdam – has announced that Shell will join as a partner in Europe’s first advanced waste-to-chemicals facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Shell, Air Liquide, Nouryon, Enerkem– well, perhaps SANE is the right acronym, and there’s something right in that. Shell will become an equal equity partner in the proposed commercial-scale waste-to-chemicals project, which will be the first of its kind in Europe to make valuable chemicals and biofuels out of non-recyclable waste materials.
MRC

Mexico to invite firms to bid on new oil refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Mexican government will invite four companies to bid in a restricted tender to build the new Dos Bocas refinery for state oil company Pemex, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to Energy Minister Rocio Nahle.

Dos Bocas would be Pemex’s seventh domestic refinery and is intended to help wean Mexico off growing fuel imports, a major campaign promise of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in December.

Firms, including US-based Bechtel and KBR, Italy’s Eni Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda Corporation, and Mexico’s ICA Fluor , were mentioned as “proposed companies for the restricted tender” in a Pemex presentation about the refinery from late last year seen by Reuters.

The energy minister added that the names of the companies selected by the government would be made public later on Monday during an event to mark the anniversary of the 1938 nationalization of the country’s oil industry and the birth of Pemex.

Nahle said that the refinery, slated to be built in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, has already been granted all required government permits, including for construction.

Lopez Obrador, who favors a more state-centric energy model, has been a sharp critic of the previous government’s constitutional reform that ended Pemex’s decades-long monopoly and allowed private and foreign oil companies to operate exploration and production projects on their own.

The 2019 budget for Petroleos Mexicanos, as Pemex is formally known, calls for spending almost USD2.5 billion on the Dos Bocas refinery, which aims to be able to process 340,000 barrels per day of heavy crude.

That processing capacity would make the new refinery Pemex’s biggest.

Government officials estimate the total cost of the refinery at between USD6 billion and USD8 billion.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2018, Petroleos Mexicanos disclosed the results of the bidding process for the rehabilitation and commissioning works to be carried out on the H-Oil Plant located in the Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula, in the state of Hidalgo.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

Solvay to raise hydroquinone capacity in Europe by 20%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay is raising its European capacity of hydroquinone by 20%, enhancing the security of supply on three continents and to meet increasing demand for diphenol inhibitors used as additives by the monomer industry, as per the company press release.

This capacity expansion at its plant in Saint-Fons, France is accomplished by debottlenecking the existing unit and follows a recent capacity increase in Zhenjiang, China. The project should be fully operational in Q2-2019.

“Solvay is committed to serve its customers’ long-term growing needs in all major regions and this new capacity increase in Europe will allow to continue to reliably supply our full range of monomer inhibitors,” said Peter Browning, President of Solvay’s Aroma Performance GBU.

Hydroquinone is key to process safety, transport and storage for monomer inhibition but also as a monomer itself in Polymer and Coatings applications.

The Saint-Fons Specialities plant in France is one of the 3 plants that makes up Solvay’s global inhibitor production network across Europe, North America and Asia, producing Hydroquinone; MEHQ (Monomethyl Ether of Hydroquinone); TBC (tertiary butyl-catechol) and PTZ (phenothiazine).
MRC