Evonik expands fumed silica capacity

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik has started up on schedule its new plant complex in Antwerp for production of fumed silica. With this, the specialty chemicals company can now serve the high demand for fumed silicas marketed under the AEROSIL brand, said the company.

Typical applications include paints and coatings, advanced adhesive systems, transparent silicones, and nonflammable high-performance insulation materials. Evonik has invested a sum in the upper double-digit million euro range in the new plant complex.

"We’re pursuing a clear growth strategy for our silica business. With the additional capacities, we’re ensuring supply for our customers over the long term,” said Harald Schwager, deputy chairman of Evonik’s executive board. As part of Smart Materials, silica belongs to one of Evonik’s four strategic growth engines with above-average market growth. The growth of the global market for fumed silicas is expected to exceed 4 percent annually, outpacing the global economy as a whole.

Along with the market for hydrophilic fumed silica, demand is also growing for specialty hydrophobic silicas. The existing plant in Antwerp has accordingly been upgraded such that hydrophilic fumed silica can be given hydrophobic properties by special post-treatment. Evonik therefore now produces hydrophobic AEROSIL at a second European site in addition to Rheinfelden, thus servicing continued high demand.

Andreas Fischer, member of the management board of Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH, said: “We’re happy we’re now in a position to meet customer’s requests for higher quantities, in particular for hydrophobic AEROSIL®. The capacity to supply our own raw materials at the site, and its central location in Europe, were also especially important to us for this project. The site’s proximity to the international export port in Antwerp is an important factor in supplying our customers worldwide."

With the simultaneous modernization of the silane production plants as part of the investment, raw-material supply for AEROSIL® production as well as tire silanes is assured. AEROSIL is produced as fumed silica by high-temperature hydrolysis of silanes in a hydrogen flame.

As MRC informed earlier, Linde Group and the specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries in June 2018 concluded an exclusive cooperation agreement on the use of membranes for natural gas processing.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world.
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US EPA urged to hold firm on refinery biofuel waivers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nine Republican U.S. senators urged the Trump administration’s environmental regulator to disregard a request by Democratic senators to stop issuing waivers to oil refiners on requirements to blend biofuels into motor fuels, said Reuters.

The Republican senators including Jim Inhofe, Ted Cruz, and Pat Toomey, said ditching the waivers would put thousands of refinery workers at risk and boost gasoline and diesel prices.

"The waivers simply diminish the burden of this terrible mandate on the refineries least able to afford it, and therefore allow them to continue doing business,” Toomey said in a release. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler and President Donald Trump “should continue working to bolster our flourishing energy sector, not undermine it," Toomey said.

Refiner waivers are outlined in the U.S. biofuels law, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which was designed to help American farmers by requiring oil refiners to blend certain volumes of biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol, into their fuel each year or purchase credits from those that do.

Small refineries with a production capacity of 75,000 barrels per day or less can secure waivers if they prove that compliance would cause them financial harm.

But farmers and lawmakers that support them say the waivers are being used too frequently. Under Trump, the EPA has vastly expanded the number of waivers granted to refineries, angering farmers who say the policy destroys demand for ethanol and other biofuels at a time they are already struggling.

Trump’s expansion of the waiver program has become a talking point for several Democrats vying to defeat him in the 2020 presidential election, including Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, who believes the issue can help turn farmers already stung by the trade wars against him.

The Republican senators were responding to a June 11 letter from Klobuchar and two other Democrats in the presidential campaign, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Michael Bennet, to the EPA’s Wheeler, urging him to cease issuing the waivers. “Every waiver granted negatively impacts the rural economy,” they said in the letter, signed by 12 Democrats in the 100-member chamber.

Trump has directed members of his Cabinet to review the administration’s expanded waiver use, after hearing from angry farmers about the issue on a recent tour of the Midwest.

As MRC informed earlier, the US Environmental Protection Agency is likely to release its decisions on applications for small refinery waivers from the US biofuel laws for 2018 in April.
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US court to decide Venezuelan fight for control of refiner Citgo

MOSCOSW (MRC) -- A U.S. court will decide whether a board of directors appointed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro or one backed by his rival, opposition leader Juan Guaido, runs the eighth-largest U.S. refiner, Citgo Petroleum Corp, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A lawsuit filed by Maduro’s representatives on Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court seeks to reassert control over Citgo, along with other U.S. subsidiaries of PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-run oil company. Citgo, Venezuela’s most important foreign asset, has been caught in a tug-of-war as U.S. President Donald Trump’s government has tried to use the firm as leverage to topple Maduro.

The lawsuit wants the court to recognize the five-person board handpicked by Maduro as legally appointed, a move that would give the socialist leader control over Citgo’s nearly USD30 billion in revenue. Guido, head of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled legislature, assumed a rival interim presidency in January, denouncing Maduro as a usurper who had secured re-election in a vote widely considered fraudulent.

In February, the Guaido-led congress appointed an ad-hoc PDVSA board with rights to nominate new directors for its U.S. units PDV Holding, Citgo Holding, and Citgo Petroleum. But Maduro retains the support of the military and still controls PDVSA and most state functions.

As president, Maduro has full authority under PDVSA’s bylaws to name its boards of directors, the lawsuit states. It notes that the Guaido-appointed board has already been invalidated by Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which remains loyal to Maduro.

Luisa Palacios assumed the position of Citgo’s chairwoman under Guaido and has been running the company, which is looking for a new chief executive officer. The firm’s previous government-appointed head, Asdrubal Chavez, lost control of Citgo and his Venezuelan board members were fired.

“PDVSA and its wholly owned subsidiaries are currently experiencing a crisis of leadership due to multiple parties asserting the right to name the board,” the complaint said. The action against the Palacios-led group seeks “to determine the proper composition” of the boards for Citgo and the other two units.

Citgo said in a statement that it is “confident that U.S. courts will respect” Guaido’s recognition by Washington as the legitimate representative for Venezuela with authority to name directors. “This complaint is a frivolous effort to use the courts to litigate the foreign policy judgments of the President of the United States,” it added.

PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela and PDVSA in January, in a move aimed at curbing oil exports and upping the pressure on Maduro to step aside. Since then, shipments have declined by about 40%.

As MRC informed earlier, Citgo Petroleum Corp has removed at least three top executives close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, people familiar with the matter said, in a move to cement management control under a new board of directors.
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Before fire, Philadelphia refinery scaled back big maintenance project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Philadelphia Energy Solutions dramatically scaled back a large maintenance project in January in the same section of the refinery complex where a massive explosion occurred last week, according to three sources familiar with the plant’s operations, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The USD130 million capital project, once hailed as one of the largest in the history of the plant, was slated for the Girard Point section of the 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery complex and scaled back due to lack of money, the sources said.

Late Tuesday, sources familiar with the company’s plans said the refinery, the largest and oldest on the U.S. East Coast, would be shut indefinitely. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney confirmed that on Wednesday. The cause of the explosion remains unknown, but officials expect investigators to look at the decision to scale back the maintenance project and see whether it played a role.

“It is definitely a concern and I would expect investigators to look into it,” Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney said in a brief interview on Tuesday that followed a news conference on the explosion. Planned capital projects, called turnarounds, are a core part of the refining business and help prevent against unexpected shutdowns and accidents. The work includes replacing valves, cleaning out units, replacing catalysts and other work that is typically scheduled and planned years in advance.

PES did not respond to requests for comment. The company is seeking to close the refinery permanently, after years of financial struggles that forced benefit cuts and layoffs.

Friday’s blaze resulted in a series of explosions that sent a fireball into the sky and completely destroyed an alkylation unit that uses hydrofluoric acid in the refining process, a chemical that can harm or kill people with too much exposure.

In mid-January, Philadelphia Energy Solutions manager of capital projects, Jim Demes, convened heads of the city’s building trades unions for lunch at a South Philadelphia eatery to tell them the USD130 million plan, expected to start less than a week later, needed to be scaled back significantly.

He told the union leaders at that session that the unions should send home workers brought in from out of town for the project that had been slated to be the largest in the refinery’s history.

The reason, Demes told the group, was the company was running out of money, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

“Projects get scaled back. That’s not uncommon. But to do it just days before it was about to begin never happens. These things get planned years in advance, so I think investigators are going to look at the decision-making process,” said one building trade source.

Ultimately, the refinery did shut its 200,000-bpd crude unit at the Girard Point section for maintenance in January, but the scope of the work was narrowed. It restarted its crude unit in late February, and later restarted a gasoline-making unit in March.
MRC

BASF to reshape organization

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With an organizational realignment, BASF is creating the conditions for greater customer proximity, increased competitiveness and more profitable growth, said the company.

BASF is streamlining its administration, sharpening the roles of services and regions and simplifying procedures and processes. As a result, the company expects savings of €300 million, as part of the ongoing excellence program, which is anticipated to contribute €2 billion to earnings annually from the end of 2021 onwards.

In the course of the strategy implementation, BASF expects a reduction of a total of around 6,000 positions worldwide until the end of 2021. This decrease results from the organizational simplification and from efficiency gains in administration and services as well as in the operating divisions. In addition, central structures are being streamlined in the context of the announced portfolio changes. BASF will continue to need additional employees in fields like production or digitalization, depending on future growth rates.

"We will set up the new organization with a clear focus on leveraging synergies, reducing interfaces and enabling flexibility and creativity,” said Dr. Martin Brudermuller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF. “We want our customers to experience a new BASF. To achieve this, we have to live a new BASF. We will therefore continue to develop our organization to work more effectively and efficiently. In this way, we will ensure the success of our customers, strengthen our competitiveness, and grow profitably as a company."

Customer-focused operating divisions, service units and regions as well as a lean Corporate Center are the cornerstones of BASF’s new organization. The Corporate Center will consist of less than 1,000 employees and will support BASF’s Board of Executive Directors in steering the company as a whole. This includes central responsibilities, among others in the areas of strategy, finance, legal, human resources and communications.

In addition, around 29,000 employees will be working in cross-functional service units. “Global Engineering Services” and “Global Digital Services” will in future offer their services either for individual sites or globally for business units of the BASF Group, “Global Procurement” will make purchasing even more effective. “Global Business Services” will be newly established and will form a worldwide network of about 8,000 employees providing end-to-end services. They will support the business units with services, among others from the areas of finance, human resources, communications and supply chain. The unit “Global Business Services” will be led by Marc Ehrhardt, currently head of the Finance division.

The role of regions and countries is being sharpened. They represent BASF locally and support the growth of business units with local proximity to customers.

In view of the current changes and further changes planned until the end of 2021, management and employee representatives have jointly decided to move forward the start of negotiations on a new site agreement for the BASF SE. The current site agreement is valid until the end of December 2020. The goal is to sign a new agreement in the first half of 2020.

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 122,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of around €63 billion in 2018. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S.
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