LyondellBasell and Neste announce commercial-scale production of bio-based plastic from renewable materials

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, and Neste, the world's largest producer of renewable diesel from waste and residues, have jointly announced the first parallel production of bio-based polypropylene and bio-based low-density polyethylene (LDPE) at a commercial scale, as per LyondellBasell's press release.

LyondellBasell production team in Wesseling, Germany shows off first batch of bio-polymer made from renewable materials.

The joint project used Neste's renewable hydrocarbons derived from sustainable bio-based raw materials, such as waste and residue oils. The project successfully produced several thousand tonnes of bio-based plastics which are approved for the production of food packaging and being marketed under Circulen and Circulen Plus, the new family of LyondellBasell circular economy product brands.

"LyondellBasell has an innovative spirit that spans decades, and an achievement like this showcases concrete actions we are taking in support of a circular economy," said Richard Roudeix, LyondellBasell Senior Vice President of Olefins and Polyolefins for Europe, Asia and International. "Through the use of renewable resources, we are contributing to the fight against climate change and helping our customers achieve their environmental targets."

"We are excited to enable the plastics industry to introduce more bio-based material into its offering. It is very satisfying to see Neste's renewable hydrocarbons performing perfectly in a commercial scale production of bio-based polymers, providing a drop-in replacement option to fossil materials," said Neste's President and CEO Peter Vanacker. "This pioneering collaboration with LyondellBasell marks a major milestone in the commercialization of Neste's renewable polymers and chemicals business focusing on developing renewable and circular solutions for forward-looking sustainable brands."

This achievement is extraordinary in that it combined Neste's unique renewable feedstock and LyondellBasell's technical capabilities. LyondellBasell's cracker flexibility allowed it to introduce a new renewable feedstock at its Wesseling, Germany site, which was converted directly into bio-based polyethylene and bio-based polypropylene. An independent third party tested the polymer products using carbon tracers and confirmed they contained over 30% renewable content.

LyondellBasell sold some of the renewable products produced in the trial to multiple customers, one of which is Cofresco, a company of the Melitta Group and with brands like Toppits and Albal, Europe's leading supplier of branded products in the field of household film. Cofresco plans to use the Circulen Plus bio-based polyethylene to create sustainable food packaging materials.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuwait’s state refiner KNPC said on Wednesday that refining operations at its Mina Abdullah oil refinery have been affected by a cut in seawater supply, which is used to cool production units in the plant, reported Reuters.

KNPC said on its official Twitter feed that despite the temporary issue, its oil export operations have not been affected.

As MRC informed earlier, in November 2018, Kuwait Petroleum Co prepared a study to transform its al-Zour refinery into a commercial one to increase its profitability.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and Saudi Aramco have started operations at their new 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker, reported Reuters with referenece to multiple sources familiar the matter.

The cracker is part of the USD2.7 billion joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID - or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in the state of Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.

As MRC informed before, Petronas started trial runs at the Malaysian oil refinery in early 2019 and started offering some products in April.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said it has signed a deal with local antitrust regulator CADE regarding the proposed sale of some of its refining installations, reported Reuters.

According to a securities filing, the company said the agreement will allow for increased competition in Brazil’s refining sector, by attracting new players to the business.

Petrobras, as the oil firm is known, will sell eight refineries in seven different Brazilian states.

Under the terms of the deal, some of the assets cannot be acquired by the same buyer, the company added in the filing.

Petrobras will hire an external agent to make sure it follows the commitments made to CADE.

After the announcement, Petrobras shares added to early gains and were trading near session highs, with common stocks up 2.3% and preferred stocks rising 1.84%.

As MRC wrote previously, in October 2017, Petrobras’s minority stakes in Braskem and Deten Quimica was excluded from Petrobras’s divestment program, according to a government decree published in Brazil’s Official Gazette. The decree prevented Petrobras from immediately selling its minority stake in Braskem, which had been announced last year. A new decree will be required to release the stock sale.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aramco Trading Co. (ATC), which expects to see its oil trading volume rise to 6 million barrels per day (bpd) by next year, has opened its second international office in Fujairah with the firm’s chairman and senior vice president of Downstream with Saudi Aramco, Abdulaziz M. Al-Judaimi, and ATC president and CEO Ibrahim Q. Al-Buainain in attendance, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

ATC’s expansion plans are expected to propel the Dhahran-based company into the top tier of global fuel trading companies. The wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco opened the office in the UAE’s Fujairah as part of a global push into new markets to secure buyers for refined products, as well as crude oil.

The new facility, Aramco Trading Fujairah (ATF), will handle all Aramco Trading gasoline and fuel oil storage and blending activities.

"We’ve been in Fujairah for a number of years and as our trading business expands globally - between Singapore, Saudi Arabia, London, and Houston - we trade across different time zones, and with Fujairah as the center of our blending operations, we thought it’s important to be here physically doing trading as a business in Fujairah," said Al-Judaimi. "We are very happy with the relationships here - be it with our clients, our suppliers and the government - they have been very open and have welcomed us to be here for many years."

"Aramco Trading has experienced significant growth in recent years," said Al-Buainain. "We started in 2012 with 600,000 to 700,000 bpd and now we’re operating at more than 4 million bpd - and as the downstream business grows to the level that we want to reach 8-10 million bpd - Aramco Trading will grow together with that business.

"At Fujairah, we have a growing business that started with 100,000 bpd and now we have 350,000 bpd between gasoline and fuel oil. So, for this reason, Fujairah would be the optimum location that is close to our assets and close to the free zone."

The inauguration of the new office facility comes only a month after Aramco Trading announced that it had sold its first LNG cargo - the first of many more to come.

In 2012, ATC was established to market refined products, and bulk petrochemicals. Beginning with refined products from its overseas refineries in the past years, leading them to introduce trading non-Saudi crude oil in 2017 as the world’s largest oil exporter successfully optimizes profits.

As the UAE’s only emirate on the Arabian Sea coast, Fujairah is at the heart of the new energy corridor opening east of Suez to Asia. The emirate is already established as a world-scale storage and bunkering center alongside Rotterdam and Singapore, and is set to benefit in the next few years from plans to expand crude and petroleum product facilities to avail of the state-of-the-art physical infrastructure on offer.

As MRC informed previously, in October 2018, state oil giant Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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