Lotte & GS Energy to form Korean JV for producing BPA and C4 products

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical and GS Energy have signed a contract to establish a joint venture in the second half of this year for the production of bisphenol A (BPA) and C4 oil products at Lotte's site in Seoul, South Korea, according to Apic-online.

The new joint venture, tentatively named Lotte GS Chemical Co., will invest around USD678-million by 2023 to build a plant with a production capacity of 200,000 t/y of BPA products and 210,000 t/y of C4 oil products.

GS Energy, through its GS Caltex subsidiary, plans to supply the facility with propylene, benzene and C4 oil raw materials.

Lotte GS Chemical will be owned 51% by Lotte and 49% by GS Energy.

As MRC informed before, Lotte Chemical Corp's US ethane cracker in Louisiana commenced commercial operations within May, 2019. With the commencement of the plant, the South Korean company hopes to boost its cost competitiveness by diversifying away from mainly naphtha as a feedstock to make ethylene, a key ingredient for petrochemical products, it said in a statement.
MRC

MOSCOW (Market Report) -- Bashkir Soda Company had resumed its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production after a scheduled turnaround by the beginning of this week, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's representative said Bashkir Soda Company had brought on-stream its PVC production capacities after the scheduled maintenance by 29 July, 2019. The outage was short and lasted for only two weeks. The plant's annual production capacity is 240,000 tonnes.

It is also worth noting that a scheduled turnaround, which started on 7 July, at another Russian PVC producer - SayanskKhimPlast - is coming to an end. The maintenance works at the Sayansk plant with the annual production capacity of 350,000 tonnes are scheduled for 30 days.

As reported earlier, Bashkir Soda Company (part of "Bashkir Chemistry" group) received Rb11.5 billion of net profit under RAS in 2018, up by 6.6% year on year. The company's revenue increased by 11.9% to Rb44.5 billion, product cost - by 11.5% to Rb27.3 billion.

Bashkir Soda Company is Russia's largest producer of soda ash and baking soda and a major polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. It also ships production to glass industry enterprises. The main shareholders of the company are "Bashkir Chemistry" (57.18%) and the state investment company of Bashkiria "Regional Fund" (38.28%).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- McDermott International, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a sizeable* technology contract by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for the technology license, basic engineering, proprietary equipment, training and technical services for a grassroots Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit using INDMAX Technology, licensed by McDermott's Lummus Technology and developed in partnership with IOCL, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This FCC unit is part of a refinery expansion project for IOCL to grow into petrochemicals at the complex in Panipat, Haryana, India. Lummus Technology is the exclusive worldwide licensor of INDMAX Technology, which is a unique solution for vertical integration of refinery and petrochemical complexes and offers better product yields with lower capital and operating expenditures.

The INDMAX Technology combines the proprietary and innovative INDMAX catalyst and process concepts developed by the premier Research & Development Centre of IOCL with state-of-the-art FCC technology and hardware design features of Lummus Technology. "IOCL has been an important partner to us for many years and we look forward to the continued relationship by participating in this refinery expansion project," said Leon de Bruyn, Senior Vice President of McDermott's Lummus Technology business. "IOCL currently operates INDMAX units at their Paradip and Guwahati refineries, and they are in the process of commissioning another at their Bongaigaon refinery."

This award will be reflected in McDermott's second quarter 2019 backlog.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2019, McDermott International, Inc. announced the recent successful startup of the world's largest catalytic dehydrogenation plant, which is located at Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co., Ltd.'s site in Liaoning Province, China, and uses McDermott's Lummus CATOFIN technology.

McDermott's Lummus Technology is a leading licensor of proprietary petrochemicals, refining, gasification and gas processing technologies, and a supplier of proprietary catalysts and related engineering. With a heritage spanning more than 100 years, encompassing approximately 3,100 patents and patent applications, Lummus Technology provides one of the industry's most diversified technology portfolios to the hydrocarbon processing sector.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Phillips 66 plans to run the 11 refineries it operates in the mid-90% range of their combined 2.17 million barrel per day (bpd) capacity in the third quarter, the company said Reuters.

The company operates nine wholly-owned refineries with a combined capacity of 1.67 million bpd and two refineries co-owned with Cenovus Energy with a combined capacity of 502,000 bpd.

The transition to low-sulfur marine fuel on Jan. 1 is already affecting refined products markets but how exactly it will shape distillate and gasoline supply early next year remains unclear, Jeffrey Dietert, vice president of investor relations, said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss second-quarter results.

"We're expecting conversion of tanks in the September-ish time frame and expect shippers to be buying compliant fuels in the fourth quarter," Dietert said. "I think there are some early indications of compliant marine fuels trading at USD12 to USD15 a barrel over Brent. There's not a lot of liquidity in that market. It's still early."

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations affiliate, mandated that marine fuel oil would have a sulfur contract of 0.5% beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, down from the current 3.5%.

Phillips does expect gasoline supply will be affected as vacuum gas oil, a gasoline feedstock, may be blended with fuel oil to meet the new sulfur limit.

"It doesn't look to us as though there's going to be 2 million barrels a day of incremental diesel production to meet that incremental marine fuel market. And some is going to have to come from other products," Dietert said. "But it should take some gasoline out of the gasoline pool," he added.

Phillips 66 expects a new 25,000 bpd isomerization unit at its 260,000 bpd Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery will reach full production in the third quarter.

Isomerization units convert refining byproducts into feedstocks for motor fuel or petrochemical production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- German chemicals giant BASF , which surprised investors with a profit warning earlier this month, said a slump at its basic petrochemicals businesses accounted for most of the weakness in the second quarter, said Reuters.

"Earnings in the second quarter of 2019 were significantly negatively impacted by the lower volumes and margins in the Chemicals and Materials segments," BASF said in a statement, adding that the two divisions accounted for 83% of the overall earnings decline in the second quarter.

In a surprise announcement on July 8, BASF forecast a 30% fall in 2019 operating profit instead of a rise as previously predicted, weighing heavily on the share price. It also published preliminary group results for the second quarter at the time.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC