Turnaround begins at Bilbao oil refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spain’s Petronor began a maintenance shutdown on the 130,000 barrel per day crude distillation unit (CDU) plant 1) and associated units at its Bilbao oil refinery, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

The smaller of the two CDUs will remain operational during the maintenance which is expected to last until the first half of July.

The maintenance will involve 1,200 workers, from 40 companies.

Repsol is a majority shareholder in Petronor.

As MRC informed previously, Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol beat forecasts with a 7.5 percent increase in fourth-quarter adjusted net profit, boosted by higher oil and gas prices and increased production, and said its strategic plan was on track.

Repsol started new projects in Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Britain, Peru and Malaysia during 2018, and benefited in October-December from an annual rise in prices and lower exploration costs. The company said it was on track to deliver its 2018-2020 strategic objectives, which include 15 billion euros (USD17.1 billion) in spending, cutting debt and investing in renewables.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The labelling industry’s first-ever facestock made from recycled polyethylene (rPE) has been introduced by Avery Dennison, as per the company's press release.

Successful print and dispensing trials are now complete, demonstrating the company’s commitment to finding more sustainable solutions for the labelling industry.

With growing demand for recycled materials among consumers, Jenny Wassenaar, Avery Dennison Label and Graphic Materials sustainability director EU, said that the new material is an important step towards meeting brand owners’ sustainability goals and complying with emerging regulations:

"Polyethylene labels are a very widely used component of packaging, so improving sustainability is important. The technical challenges we faced when developing this recycled polyethylene (rPE) product were significant in terms of matching technical performance, and development work is ongoing. Our expectation is that films with recycled content will improve still further as we pursue new lines of research."

Recycled PE contains more impurities than virgin PE film, which gives the film a unique aesthetic, without compromising printing, dispensing or application. Rob Groen in ‘t Wout, senior marketing manager films, said that consumers are expected to quickly adopt and prefer the rPE look:

"There is a big appetite for making a personal contribution to sustainability, and brands are actively looking for more sustainable material options. An rPE label will make a contribution towards that goal."

Avery Dennison’s strength in materials science is enabling increased recycled content to be incorporated into label materials, as well as progressing recyclability of consumer goods packaging. Initial indications are that rPE will print and convert very well and therefore it will be included in a number of sustainable solutions that will be launched this year at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels in September.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2016, Avery Dennison Corporation announced it had agreed to acquire Hanita Coatings, a pressure-sensitive materials manufacturer of specialty films and laminates from Kibbutz Hanita Coatings and Tene Investment Funds for the purchase price of USD75 million. Headquartered in Israel with sales and distribution facilities in the United States, Germany, China and Australia, Hanita Coatings develops and manufactures coated, laminated, and metallized polyester films for a range of industrial and commercial applications, all of which require high performance and superior quality.

Headquartered in Glendale, California, Avery Dennison is a global leader in labeling and packaging materials and solutions. The company’s applications and technologies are an integral part of products used in every major market and industry. With operations in more than 50 countries and more than 25,000 employees worldwide, Avery Dennison serves customers with insights and innovations that help make brands more inspiring and the world more intelligent.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC has introduced its LNP ELCRIN iQ portfolio of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) compounded resins derived from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) to support the circular economy and help reduce plastic waste, as per the company's press release.

By chemically upcycling consumer-discarded PET (primarily single-use water bottles) into higher-value PBT materials with enhanced properties and suitability for more-durable applications, the company is encouraging the use of recycled resins. These products also offer a smaller cradle-to-gate environmental footprint than virgin PBT resin, as measured by Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Global Warming Potential (GWP).

SABIC’s LNP ELCRIN iQ compounds and blends are based on upcycled iQ PBT resins, a proprietary SABIC technology. This technology overcomes some of the limitations of mechanical recycling by using chemical processes to depolymerize PET bottles and other PET waste into their precursor chemicals, purify them and then use them to create new PBT resin. The technology can deliver performance and processing benefits such as good chemical resistance, colorability, high flow for faster throughput and flame retardance (FR).

LNP ELCRIN iQ resin is a drop-in solution for virgin PBT and other conventional PBT materials, making it easier for manufacturers to make their products more sustainable. By displacing virgin raw material used to manufacture PBT, LNP ELCRIN iQ resin has been shown through peer-reviewed life cycle assessment to reduce the energy and carbon footprint of the material by up to 61 percent and 49 percent, respectively. Further, each kilogram of LNP ELCRIN iQ resin uses up to 67 post-consumer PET water bottles (0.5 liter).

The ELCRIN iQ portfolio offers customers multiple options, including glass- and mineral-reinforced grades and non-halogenated FR and UV-resistant formulations. Some of the LNP ELCRIN iQ grades even have the potential to achieve compliance with US Food & Drug Association (FDA) food contact regulations.

Potential applications for these new polymers include durable internal and aesthetic components for consumer electronics, automotive connectors, and housings for medical devices. Such applications can extend the useful life of the original, single-use PET resin, which helps keep the material out of the waste stream for a longer period.
"Consumer-discarded PET bottles lose value and performance properties through conventional mechanical recycling," said Joshua Chiaw, Global Business Director, LNP, SABIC. "This downcycling process limits the types of applications for which rPET can be used. In contrast, SABIC’s chemical upcycling process helps improve the performance and quality of the final resin product. As a result, these PBT materials are potentially more desirable for durable applications. Overall, LNP ELCRIN iQ materials can help reduce reliance on virgin resin and address industry and consumer demand for greater use of more-sustainable materials."

"The development of LNP ELCRIN iQ materials is a major step forward for SABIC and illustrates our unyielding commitment to our customers, the global plastics industry, and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which we joined as a founding member," said Frank Kuijpers, General Manager, Corporate Sustainability, SABIC. "Our innovative process for chemical upcycling of single-use PET directly supports the AEPW’s goal of developing new technologies that help minimize waste, make recovering and recycling plastics easier, and create value from all post-use plastics."
SABIC LNP ELCRIN iQ grades are available worldwide.

As MRC reported earlier, in November 2017, plastics-maker Sabic presented new materials for customers producing LED automotive lighting parts. EXAN HF4010SR resin is one of the new offerings. This polycarbonate (PC) material can make it possible for customers to develop complex headlight bezels with enhanced aesthetics. Sabic has also added new grades to its existing LEXAN XHT resin line, which can offer improved flow at high temperatures compared to other high-heat polycarbonate materials available today.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, has announced that it has completed the acquisition from Petrobras America Inc. of all the outstanding shares and equity interests of Pasadena Refining System, Inc. (PRSI) and PRSI Trading LLC for USD350 million, excluding working capital, reported Reuters.

PRSI’s 466-acre complex in Pasadena, Texas, adds a second refinery to CUSA’s Gulf Coast downstream business, which also includes a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

"This acquisition builds on the strength of our existing Gulf Coast business, enabling us to supply more of our retail market in the region with Chevron-produced products, and positions us for connectivity to our strong upstream assets in the Permian Basin," said Mark Nelson, Chevron’s executive vice president for Downstream & Chemicals. "We welcome PRSI’s employees into the Chevron family."

The Pasadena refinery has the capacity to process approximately 110,000 barrels per day of light crude, direct pipeline connections to increasing industry and equity crude oil production, connections to major product pipelines, and dock access to receive and ship crude oil and refined products. It comprises a 323-acre refinery, including a tank farm with a storage capacity of 5.1 million barrels of crude oil and refined products, as well as 143 acres of additional land.

As MRC wrote before, in May 2018, Chevron Products Company, a division of Chevron USA Inc., and Novvi LLC announced that they had entered into an agreement to jointly develop and bring to market novel renewable base oil technologies.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant has launched a new facility in Guangzhou, China, dedicated to the manufacturing and supply of specialty black masterbatches that are in high demand in a great number of consumer goods sectors, to specially address the fast-growing China market, as per the company's press release.

Officiating the opening ceremony on May 24 were Clariant customers and company leaders, and Clariant pledged its continued commitment to local customers in China.

With Black PET/PA masterbatches for fiber already developing into a sizable business in China and some other Asian countries, the new production facility in Guangzhou will supplement existing supply from Clariant’s facility in Taiwan, which has been already fully utilized, to jointly deliver product and service excellence in its Greater China Region.

Ever since 1995, Clariant Masterbatches has established its production presence in Guangzhou focusing on products for fiber, consumer goods and packaging applications. In 2017, to better satisfy a growing demand for Engineering Plastics (EP) and High Temperature Resins (HTR) with local capabilities, Clariant expanded its Shanghai facility to support China’s E&E market with high-performance and reliable compound masterbatches solutions. With the previously mentioned Taipei site, Clariant has altogether 3 masterbatches production sites in the Greater China region.

"Since 2016, we’ve been increasing our investments in equipment upgrade and facilities expansion to boost capacities and capabilities of the Clariant plants in China, Singapore and the US. The expanded new production line here in Guangzhou, with a CHF 5 million of investment volume, will enhance our full range service in supplying specialty black masterbatches products for the market of packaging, consumer goods, fiber, automotive and E&E. It also allows us to better serve local expectations and continue our committment to main local customers in the segments," said Bernd Hoegemann, Clariant’s Head of Business Unit Masterbatches.

Together with this new production facility, a state-of-art workshop and an upgraded advanced lab were also newly established with customized services to echo unique performance requirements from its main customers in the special segments, as part of Clariant’s long term solutions and commitments for customer centricity in the China market. These newly added facilities, with Clariant’s existing capacities, will help the company further consolidate its position as a leading player in the masterbatches field in China today.

"The new facilities here and additional projects in the pipeline in China are enabling us deliver on our corporate vision of bringing China further from the fringe to the core of our development at Clariant, a strategy we call Fringe to Core (F2C)," said Fu Cai Wang, Clariant’s China President. "The new workshop, the lab and the added production line are helping us better satisfy the needs of our local customers and further establish our footprints in the market, which is anticipated to sustain near-term growth in the foreseeable future."

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2017, Clariant was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
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