No. 1 LDPE plant completes brief maintenance by Sinopec Yanshan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical (part of Sinopec) has restarted its No. 1 low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant in Beijing, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on August 19, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance on July 29, 2019.

Located in Beijing, China, the plant No. 1 LDPE plant has a production capacity of 70,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical restarted its No. 2 LDPE plant in Beijing on April 14, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance on March 19, 2019. Located in Beijing, China, the plant No. 2 LDPE plant has a production capacity of 70,000 mt/year.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. Sinopec's business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products; storage and pipeline transportation of crude oil and natural gas; import, export and import/export agency business of crude oil, natural gas, refined oil products, petrochemicals, and other chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US crude oil stockpiles fell more than expected last week with supplies at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub dropping for a seventh week, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, reported Reuters with reference to the Energy Information Administration.

Crude inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels in the week to Aug. 16, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 1.9 million barrels.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 2.5 million barrels, EIA said, the seventh consecutive weekly fall in stocks at the delivery point for US crude futures.

At 42.3 million barrels, Cushing stocks were at their lowest since February, as the startup of pipelines from the Permian region to the US Gulf Coast has reduced the number of barrels going to Cushing.

"The report was supportive with the overall crude oil inventory decline and the continuing declines at the Cushing delivery hub, which is a trend that needs to be monitored, as pipeline build out dynamics play out," said John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital Management.

Crude futures were largely steady after the report. US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 21 cents to USD56.34 a barrel as of 10:49 a.m. ET (1449 GMT), while Brent crude rose 61 cents to USD60.64 a barrel.

Net US crude imports fell last week by 616,000 barrels per day, and crude production was steady at 12.3 million bpd.

Refinery crude runs rose by 400,000 bpd, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates rose by 1.1 percentage points to 95.9 percent of total capacity.

Gasoline stocks rose by 312,000 barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 169,000-barrel gain.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.6 million barrels, versus expectations for a 314,000-barrel increase, the EIA data showed.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Leading European pharma group Boehringer Ingelheim recently inaugurated an advanced EUR120m production plant for its ‘Respimat’ inhalation device in northern Spain, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

The innovative 17,000m2 centre at Sant Cugat del Valles, Barcelona includes production, warehousing and technical areas and offices. It will manufacture and package 25 million of the plastics-based devices per year with a workforce of up to 200.

‘Respimat’ propellant-free soft vapour inhalers deliver measured doses of medication to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Output from the Catalan unit will meet the demand for the Boehringer products in worldwide markets.

Plant production represents more than half the annual sales of ‘Respimat’ around the globe being distributed to more than 100 countries including all of Europe, Japan, The US, Brazil and Canada.

Work on the site began just two years ago when the plant foundation stone was formally laid in Barcelona in 2017 and developed rapidly to become what Boehringer Ingelheim described as a “fast track project”.

An inauguration ceremony of the new operation was attended by national, regional and national officials along with group executives. They included Spain’s Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Maria Reyes Maroto, Catalan Government president Quim Torra i Pla and Sant Cugat del Valles mayor Carmela Fortuny i Camarena.

"The inauguration of this new plant is recognition of the excellence and professionalism of hundreds of workers who .... have positioned the Boehringer Ingelheim facilities in Sant Cugat as one of the group’s innovation hubs in Europe...” commented Peter Ploeger, general drector of Boehringer Ingelheim Spain.

The ‘Respimat’ facility includes production equipment incorporating technologies of Industry 4.0 such as digitalisation, systems integration, robotics and a high degree of automation.

Last year, the group, based in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany, invested around EUR86.1m in research and development in Spain where it also operates several pharmaceuticals manufacturing plants. On a global level, Boehringer Ingelheim group sank more than EUR3.2bn in R&D.

Respimat inhalers are also manufactured by a group subsidiary at a plant in Dortmund in western Germany. Boehringer’s new Spanish facility moulds the device components in sterile conditions in the production hall and includes several laboratories and a waste management unit.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises LLC is acquiring a materials production site from Flint Hills Resources Port Arthur LLC for an undisclosed price, said Plasticseurope.

Motiva is a unit of global energy giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco. The site in Port Arthur, Texas, includes production of plastics feedstocks ethylene, propylene and cyclohexane. Officials said in an 19 Aug news release that the acquisition is set to close in the fourth quarter of 2019. Flint Hills retains its other operations.

"This marks the entry of Motiva into the chemical industry," Patrick Kirby, Wood Mackenzie Principal Analyst, said in an emailed statement. "The steam cracker, which can handle a range of feedstocks — including ethane and those form the refinery — forms an integral part of the transaction. The steam cracker primarily produces ethylene and propylene for the merchant market.

"It remains unclear as to what Motiva has planned post-acquisition, however some options could include strengthening refinery-chemicals integration, expansion of the asset capacity or potentially longer-term derivative plant development. The company has also expressed plans for further chemical developments at Port Arthur, including a world-scale steam cracker and aromatics facility," Kirby said.

Houston-based Motiva already operates a refinery in Port Arthur. The firm formed in 1998 as a joint venture between Saudi Aramco of Riyadh and Royal Dutch Shell plc of London. Aramco bought out Shell's part of the JV in 2017.

State-owned Saudi Aramco is one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, with 2018 sales of almost USD356bn (EUR320bn). The firm has been active on the acquisitions front this year. Earlier this month, it announced plans to invest USD15bn (EUR13.5bn) to acquire a 20% stake in a Reliance Industries Ltd. unit that includes one of the world's largest polypropylene businesses.

In March, Aramco paid a little more than USD69bn (EUR61bn) for a 70% stake in global commodity and engineering resins supplier Saudi Basic Industries Corp. Saudi Aramco also has partnered with Dow Inc. on the Sadara plastics and petrochemicals joint venture in Saudi Arabia.

Flint Hills is owned by industrial conglomerate Koch Industries Inc. The firm's other petrochemical products include PP resin, which it makes at a plant in Longview, Texas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has announced the successful startup of its CATOFIN catalyst at Hengli Group’s new mixed-feed dehydrogenation plant in Dalian, China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new unit combines propane dehydrogenation (PDH) with iso-butane dehydrogenation (BDH) process technologies, and it will produce over 1 million tons of olefins per year -- becoming the world’s largest plant using CATOFIN catalyst technology.

The state-of-the-art process pairs Clariant’s CATOFIN catalyst together with McDermott’s Lummus process technology and is proven to enable high reliability and yields, cost efficiency and simplicity. In addition to the CATOFIN catalyst, the facility is using Clariant’s innovative Heat Generating Material (HGM) to produce its on-purpose olefins.

Founded in 1994, Hengli Group is one of China’s foremost suppliers of petrochemicals. Hengli Group’s new dehydrogenation plant in Dalian, China is designed to process 500 KTA of propane and 800 KTA of iso-butane feeds to produce propylene and iso-butylene.

Guangqin Peng, Chief Engineer of Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co Ltd, stated, "We are very proud of our achievements on this groundbreaking project. The fast, smooth and successful startup of this world’s largest paraffin dehydrogenation unit would not have been possible without reliable and experienced partners like Clariant."

CATOFIN is an extremely reliable technology for light paraffin dehydrogenation. Operating at thermodynamically-advantaged reactor pressure and temperature to maximize yield, the process relies on Clariant’s highly selective CATOFIN catalyst and the company’s patented metal-oxide HGM to deliver high conversion rates. With the successful startup of the Hengli plant, this now marks Clariant’s 21st CATOFIN unit in operation, totaling over 9 million tons of olefin production capacity globally.

Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President & General Manager Business Unit Catalysts at Clariant, added, "We are honored that our CATOFIN catalysts and Heat Generating Material were selected by Hengli for its new production facility. Together with our technology partner, McDermott’s Lummus Technology, we are proving, yet again, the outstanding benefits of CATOFIN for propane and iso-butane dehydrogenation."

As MRC wrote earlier, in March 2017, Clariant was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin® catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.