Dow announces new alkoxylation capacity to meet growing demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow has announced plans to expand its alkoxylation capacity at its existing facility in Tarragona, Spain directly benefiting the Europe, Middle East, Africa and India region, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This low capital intensity, high return, incremental investment builds on the previously announced alkoxylation capacity expansion on the U.S. Gulf Coast, to support growing demand and advance Dow’s leading positions in attractive consumer, industrial, and infrastructure markets growing above GDP.

"New Dow’s more focused, agile, and market-oriented structure enables deeper collaboration with customers and faster response to market opportunities and capacity constraints," said Ester Baiget, business president of Dow Industrial solutions. "This new capacity optimizes our existing asset infrastructure to enable growth at our customers. It is a true testament to our dedication and passion for seeking solutions that will benefit our customers, our markets and the communities in which we live and work."

Dow’s versatile alkoxylation franchise upgrades basic chemical building blocks in order to produce safe ingredients for cosmetics, household and industrial cleaning, paints and many other products for everyday use. This incremental investment will expand Dow’s production of high-quality lubricants, defoamers, specialty surfactants and ethoxylates.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2018, The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) announced its plan to invest in an alkoxylation facility on the US Gulf Coast. Upon completion, this new facility will support global growth in Dow’s core end-markets related to infrastructure and home and personal care, as well as additional end-markets where Dow continues to strengthen its position for the TRITON, TERGITOL, ECOSURF and CARBOWAX SENTRY brands.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wood has been awarded a new contract by Evonik to deliver engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Group’s new polyamide 12 (PA12) production complex, to be built at the Marl Chemical Park, Marl, Germany, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

PA12 is a high-performance polymer for special applications employed across various end markets including the automotive industry, oil & gas pipelines and 3D printing. The new facility will supplement the existing PA12 production plant, without disrupting existing production.

The contract grows Wood’s relationship with Evonik following efficient delivery of basic engineering, EPCM and commissioning support services to the specialty chemical company’s new world-scale methionine plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. Successful mechanical completion for the project was achieved safely in December 2018 meeting all milestones of the EPC contract.

Dave Stewart, CEO of Wood’s Asset Solutions business in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, said: "This award marks significant progress in our strategy to develop our chemicals business and expertise across Europe.

"Wood is committed to the safe, reliable and successful delivery of this major project supporting Evonik to achieve future PA12 production targets.

"We look forward to building our partnership with this key customer in the downstream sector, leveraging our knowledge and understanding of Evonik’s operations to work in close collaboration."

Dr Ralf Dussel, head of the high-performance polymers business at Evonik, comments: "This is Evonik’s largest investment in Germany so far, valued at approximately €400 million, and it is expected to increase the Group’s overall capacity for PA12 by more than 50 percent. In Wood, we have contracted a well-known, globally active technical services provider, for the successful implementation of such a challenging project."

The project will be executed by Wood’s capital projects team based in Milan, Italy and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

As MRC wrote before, in late March 2019, Wood was awarded a new contract by Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical for its 1MTA ethylene and refinery expansion project being built in Quanzhou, in the Fujian province of southeast China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell Industries expects slightly higher impact to second quarter 2019 results from disruptions caused by a March fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Deer Park, Texas, storage tank farm than in the first quarter of the year, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Financial Officer Thomas Aebischer.

"The impact was primarily felt within our Intermediates and Derivatives segment and was not material to the company’s first quarter results," Aebischer said during a conference call to discuss first quarter results.

"We are still assessing ongoing disruptions, and we expect second quarter impact will be similar to slightly higher than the first quarter," he said.

The March 17-20 fire destroyed 11 large storage tanks at the Mitsui & Co Ltd subsidiary’s site, which is along the Houston Ship Channel like Lyondell’s 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery and two petrochemical plants.

Chemicals from the destroyed 80,000-barrel storage tanks and those used in firefighting spilled into the Houston Ship Channel on March 22, stopping shipping along the waterway for three days and constraining it for nearly a month.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Patel said the refinery ran at 98 percent of capacity in the first quarter after the completion of a planned overhaul.

Patel also said the refinery is in a position to profit from a coming change to low sulfur marine fuel that begins on Jan. 1, 2020.

"As the refining markets adapt to new marine fuel regulations, we’ll be ready to capture improved margins with our continued stable operations," Patel said.

The International Maritime Organization has mandated that marine fuel have a sulfur content no greater than 0.5 percent as of Jan. 1, 2020. Currently, marine fuel can have a sulfur content up to 3.5 percent. The changeover is expected to tighten the supply of diesel fuel, strengthening refining margins.

The Houston refinery has replaced dwindling supplies of Venezuelan crude oil with shipments from Colombian producers and other markets, Patel said.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of polypropylene (PP) in Russia decreased to 346,000 tonne in first three months of this year, down 5,5% year on year, compared to the same period of 2018. Three producers out of seven reduced the capacity utilisation, according to MRC ScanPlast.

March PP production in the country grew to 133,300 tonnes, compared with 111,800 tonnes in February; several producers increased capacity utilisation. Russia's overall PP production reached 346,000 tonnes in the first three months of 2019, compared to 366,000 tonnes a year earlier. Three manufacturers of seven, namely Poliom, SIBUR Tobolsk and Stavrolen, reduced the production.

The structure of PP production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Sibur Tobolsk increased capacity utilisation in March, total polypropylene production reached 50,600 tonnes against 39,800 tonnes in February. The Tobolsk plant's total PP production reached 109,900 tonnes in the first three months of 2019, down by 14% year on year.

Poliom (Titan Group) last month produced about 19,000 tonnes of polypropylene, compared with 14,600 tonnes in February. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 52,900 tonnes, down 3% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced 18,300 tonnes of propylene polymers in March versus 16,900 tonnes a month earlier. The producer's PP output exceeded 53,600 tonnes in January-March 2019 compared with 51,600 tonnes year on year.

Tomskneftekhim last month produced about 12,800 tonnes against 11,600 tonnes a month earlier. Total PP production by the producer increased to 37,000 tonnes in January-March 2019, up 2% year on year.

March PP production at Ufaorgsintez reached about 11,300 tonnes from 10,600 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of polymer at the Ufa plant exceeded 33,600 tonnes in January-March 2019, which virtually corresponded to the last year's figure.

Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) last month produced about 12,800 tonnes of PP, compared with 11,100 tonnes in February. The plant's overall PP output reached 36,300 tonnes over the stated period, up 10% year on year.

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) last month shut its capacity utilisation for a short maintenance works in March, total PP production had dropped to 8,500 tonnes against 7,800 tonnes in February. In general, the total production of polymers of propylene in the first three months of this year at the Budenovsk enterprise reduced to 23,600 tonnes against 30,200 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil refiners are planning a heavy slate of plant overhauls in the second quarter, with total production this month off 8.5 percent compared with the start of the year, reported Reuters with reference to the US Energy Information Administration.

Early spring and winter traditionally are heavy periods for US refinery maintenance. But refiners are planning more upgrades than usual in the first half of 2019 to avoid fall and winter shutdowns as they prepare to meet coming low-sulfur standards.

This year’s maintenance schedule and higher crude prices helped push US gasoline prices to a national average of USD2.83 a gallon last week, up 26 percent since the start of the year, according to data from the American Automobile Association. US crude futures rose 32 percent in the first quarter.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 is a standard for maritime diesel that takes effect on Jan. 1 and is designed to reduce air pollution. Refiners have been revamping their plants to make IMO 2020 compliant fuel.

"They will push (winter) turnarounds later into 2020 to take advantage of that margin bump from the switch to IMO 2020," said Susan Bell, a senior associate at energy consultancy IHS Markit.

Most US refiners typically ramp up production of motor fuel during the second quarter to build inventories for the summer driving season. But Bell said an average of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil refining capacity could be offline through the second quarter.

Work on refiners’ crude distillation units (CDUs) and catalytic crackers helped send volumes down to 15.85 million bpd in the last week of March, from 17.5 million bpd in the first week of January, the EIA said. CDUs generate feedstocks for fuel processing units such as catalytic crackers.

Among the refiners scheduling major maintenance this month are Valero Energy Corp and BP Plc. Valero’s Memphis, Tennessee, refinery will shut its 65,000 bpd gasoline producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit for a 60-day overhaul the last week of April.

BP is shutting one of two small CDUs at its 413,500 bpd Whiting, Indiana, refinery on Monday for 30 days of work. The Whiting refinery is BP’s largest in North America.

Work also is continuing this month on a planned overhaul of the 112,000 bpd gasoline-producing residual catalytic cracking unit at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 218,200 bpd Norco, Louisiana, refinery. That unit is expected to restart in the first full week of May.

Two other major overhauls finished during the switchover between the quarters.

Exxon Mobil Corp recently finished CDU overhauls at two plants: its 560,500 bpd Baytown, Texas, refinery wrapped up work on its largest CDU in late March and the company’s 502,500 bpd Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery restarted its second-largest crude unit on Monday.
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