Petronas-Saudi joint venture to restart crude unit at Malaysia refinery in July

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PrefChem), a joint venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, is expected to restart a crude distillation unit at its oil refinery in Malaysia in July, reported Reuters with reference to sources.

The Pengerang Refining development, part of Petronas’ USD27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex, consists of a 300,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 million tonnes per year in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

The refinery stopped trial runs in April for safety checks after a fire occurred at the atmospheric residue desulfurization (ARDS) unit.

Contractors are still assessing the extent of damage at the fire-hit ARDS unit and repairs could take between three months and two years, one of the sources said, citing initial estimates.

The CDU will be processing low-sulfur crude in the absence of the desulfurization unit, the sources said.

The ARDS unit was set up to remove sulfur from fuel oil which is then passed through a residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) - a secondary refining unit that upgrades residual fuels into higher quality products such as gasoline. The ARDS unit is located close to the refinery’s CDUs.

The refinery is expected to produce fuel in August-September although output may not meet commercial specifications yet. A 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker at the site started trial runs this month.

By restarting the CDU in July, the refinery is working toward producing fuel that meets commercial specification by the end of the year, the sources said.

The project, originally known as RAPID, or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development, was to resume operations by the end of this year, Petronas said in a statement last month.

Petronas and PrefChem have not responded to emailed requests for comment.

As MRC wrote earlier, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil and Global Thermostat said they have signed a joint development agreement to advance breakthrough technology that can capture and concentrate carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources, including power plants, and the atmosphere, reported Reuters.

The companies will evaluate the potential scalability of Global Thermostat’s carbon capture technology for large industrial use. If technical readiness and scalability is established, pilot projects at ExxonMobil facilities could follow.

"Advancing technologies to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide for storage and potential industrial use is among a suite of ExxonMobil research programs focused on developing lower-emissions solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change," said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.

"Our scientists see potential in this exciting technology that could lead to more affordable methods to reduce emissions in power generation and manufacturing, along with removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

ExxonMobil and Global Thermostat are also exploring opportunities to identify economic uses for captured carbon dioxide.

"Scaling solutions that can address climate change globally requires significant investment, innovation and collaboration," said Peter Eisenberger, chief technology officer and co-founder of Global Thermostat.

"Global Thermostat’s game-changing direct-air capture and flue gas capture technologies offer a way to transform the risks associated with carbon dioxide emissions into a global solution that could satisfy both business and environmental objectives. By partnering with ExxonMobil, we’re harnessing the expertise and capabilities of one of the world’s largest energy companies to accelerate our ability to realize that vision."

ExxonMobil’s partnership with Global Thermostat expands the company’s collaborative efforts with other companies and academic institutions that are focused on developing new energy technologies, improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The company recently committed to spend up to USD100 million over 10 years on research with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory to bring lower-emissions technologies to commercial scale. Since 2000, ExxonMobil has invested more than USD9 billion in energy efficiency and lower-emission technologies such as carbon capture and next generation biofuels. ExxonMobil also works with about 80 universities around the world to explore next-generation energy technologies.

As MRC wrote earlier, in October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil’s broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant’s polyethylene capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

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.
MRC

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.
MRC

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.
MRC