Grassroots petrochemical complex planned for British Columbia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- West Coast Olefins is planning to build a USD5.6-B grassroots petrochemical complex in Prince George, British Columbia, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company plans to build the facility in the BCR Industrial Area in Prince George. The facility would produce ethylene and polyethylene. According to the Vancouver Sun, the facility would consist of:

An NGL recovery plant, with feedstock to originate from Enbridge's Westcoast Pipeline
A 1-MMtpy ethylene plant
A polyethylene plant
offsites and additional infrastructure.
The complex could include a monoethylene glycol plant, as well.

West Coast Olefins has started the formal regulatory review process and I s planning to make a final investment decision by the end of 2020. If greenlighted, the complex is scheduled to begin operations in 2023.
MRC

SOCAR Energoresource sells Gunvor diesel from Antipinsky refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SOCAR Energoresource LLC has sold to Gunvor up to 150,000 tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel through a tender, industry sources told Reuters.

The deal is for diesel originating from the Antipinsky refinery, loading via the Baltic port of Primorsk over August-September, the sources said.

A SOCAR Energoresource spokesman declined to comment.

Previously SOCAR Energoresource sold via tender up to 90,000 tonnes of 10 ppm diesel originating from Antipinsky refinery to Litasco for loading via the Baltic port of Vysotsk in August.
MRC

Facility to become the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant in Kuwait

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced that Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) has awarded reconfiguration of refining and petrochemicals sections of its Al-Zour refinery to Honeywell UOP, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The newly designed complex will increase the plant’s output capacity of fuels and petrochemicals.

Honeywell UOP will revise the configuration and capacity of the refinery’s gasoline production facilities. In addition, Honeywell UOP will supply technology licenses, design services, key equipment, and state-of-the-art catalysts and adsorbents to produce clean-burning fuels, paraxylene, propylene and other petrochemicals.

"When completed, this will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemicals plant ever constructed in Kuwait," said Jim Moshi, general manager for Middle East, Honeywell UOP. "In addition to aromatics and propylene, the Euro-V fuels it will produce will be the cornerstone of Kuwait’s clean fuels initiative."

The refinery’s gasoline section will include a world-scale 98,000 barrels per day (bpd) RFCC complex for production of propylene, gasoline, and petrochemical aromatics, and a UOP SelectfiningTM unit to produce low-sulfur gasoline blending components. Two UOP Merox™ units will be used to treat propane for propylene production, and isobutane to make clean-fuels blending components. Also included is an 11,800-bpd Butamer unit to convert normal butane to isobutane.

The petrochemicals section includes an aromatics complex that will produce 1.4 million metric tons per year of paraxylene. It will use the latest generation LD Parex aromatics technology, including the Sulfolane, Isomar and Tatoray processes. The CCR Platforming unit and naphtha hydrotreater have been expanded to meet the needs of the larger gasoline and aromatics complexes.

Honeywell UOP is a leading licensor of process technology for the production of aromatics. As of last year, Honeywell UOP licensed more than 100 complexes and more than 700 individual process units for the production of aromatics, including more than 300 CCR Platforming process units, 158 Sulfolane units, 80 Isomar units, 58 Tatoray units, 100 Parex units worldwide.

Over the last 50 years, Honeywell has delivered more than 2,300 projects for more than 165 customers in Kuwait. Honeywell is the first company to build "Made in Kuwait" solutions to power digital transformation across the country’s growing oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. The recently launched Honeywell Customer Solutions Center, located in Mina Abdullah enables product assembly and customer testing and acceptance to be consolidated under one roof, making it easier and faster for customers to deploy new technologies. Prior to that, the Company launched the Honeywell Automation College, which delivers global training capabilities locally through more than 300 courses specifically designed to address the requirements of Kuwait’s power and water, oil and gas, and automation industries.

The recently launched Honeywell Customer Solutions Center, located in Mina Abdullah, enables product assembly, customer testing and acceptance to be consolidated under one roof, making it easier and faster for customers to deploy new technologies. Prior to that, the company launched the Honeywell Automation College, which delivers global training capabilities locally through more than 300 courses specifically designed to address the requirements of Kuwait’s power and water, oil and gas, and automation industries.

As MRC reported earlier, in November 2018, Kuwait Petroleum Co said it prepared a study to transform its al-Zour refinery into a commercial one to increase its profitability.
MRC

ExxonMobil says Baytown, Texas refinery reduced after olefins plant fire

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp said that production at its 560,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Baytown, Texas refinery has been reduced following a fire on Wednesday in the company’s adjoining olefins plant, reported Reuters.

Exxon said the production was reduced across the Baytown refining and petrochemical complex because of the fire in a propylene recovery unit, which has been shut down.

As MRC informed before, in late July 2019, ExxonMobil said it started production on a new high-performance polyethylene line at its Beaumont, Texas polyethylene (PE) plant. The expansion increases plant production capacity by 65 percent or 650,000 tons per year, bringing site capacity to nearly 1.7 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

SMC plans maintenance at Methanol plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Salalah Methanol Co (SMC) is likely to shut its methanol plant for turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Oman informed that the company has planned to undertake maintenance at the plant on August 23, 2019. The Plant is expected to remain under maintenance for around 18-20 days.

Located in Salalah, Oman, the plant has a production capacity of 1.3 million mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, SMC took off-stream its methanol plant in in Salalah for maintenance in early-April 2018. The plant remained under maintenance for around 6 weeks.
MRC