Alliance to End Plastic Waste appoints President, CEO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Alliance to End Plastic Waste announced that Jacob Duer will serve as the inaugural President and CEO of the newly formed not-for-profit, effective October 1, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Duer joins the AEPW from the United Nations, where he most recently served as a Program Director for the UN Environment Program.

"Jacob is an experienced, impact-driven, global leader with a breadth of expertise working across a broad range of stakeholders in the public and private sectors," said David Taylor, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Procter & Gamble, and Chairman of the AEPW. "His demonstrated leadership, passion for promoting sustainability, and track record of building solution-oriented multilateral partnerships will be an invaluable asset as the AEPW grows into this next phase."

In this newly created role, Duer will advance the Alliance mission to develop, deploy, and bring to scale solutions that will minimize and manage plastic waste and promote solutions for used plastics. This includes plastic reuse, recovery, and recycling to keep it out of the environment. Since launching in January, the Alliance has initiated projects focused on: river renewal; municipal and city partnerships; idea incubation; and IT infrastructure.

"Being strongly committed to environmental sustainability, I am honored to lead the Alliance as a unique solution model to address plastic waste as one of the most pressing environmental issues of today," said Duer. "Working with all stakeholders, the Alliance will play a lead role in driving sustainable solutions for the future."

The Alliance is the only organization bringing together the entire plastics value chain (manufacturing, packaging, collecting, and converting) and the associated technical, materials, logistics, and engineering expertise. In total, the Alliance has committed to a goal of USD1.5 billion to deliver sustainable solutions over five years.

"As a strategic partner to the AEPW, we are excited about the vision and leadership that Jacob will bring to this role,” said Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development. “This is an important inflection point as we build an unparalleled force to systematically and sustainably bring solutions to scale that will end plastic waste in the environment."

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) welcomed 12 new companies from across the plastics value chain, including Chinese state-owned Sinopec. The new members expand both the global footprint of the Alliance and the participation of companies across the plastics value chain seeking to develop and bring to scale solutions to help eliminate plastic waste in the environment.

As MRC informed before, in mid-January 2019, an alliance of global companies from the plastics and consumer goods value chain launched a new organization to advance solutions to eliminate plastic waste in the environment. BASF co-founded a global alliance of nearly 30 companies to advance solutions that reduce and eliminate plastic waste in the environment, especially in the ocean. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) has committed over USD1.0 billion with the goal of investing USD1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment. New solutions will be developed and brought to scale that will minimize and manage plastic waste. This also includes the promotion of solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBC (A Yokogawa Company) is extending its engineering simulation capabilities through a strategic partnership with AVGI, the leading source of simulation and optimization software for modeling olefin technologies. The software solution will deliver capital efficient plant design and optimization through end-to-end modeling of integrated oil refining, aromatics, and steam cracking complexes, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Petrochemical demand growth is rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil consumption. The International Energy Agency forecasts that petrochemicals will account for more than a third of the growth in oil demand by 2030, and nearly half by 2050. Yet, most oil refineries only convert c. 5–20% of crude feedstocks into petrochemicals. This creates incentive to optimize and re-configure existing facilities, as well as invest in new capacity to meet the demand.

Using reactor simulations for a broad range of feedstocks, furnace and coil geometries, and operating conditions will optimize yield and energy. Integration and data exchange between Petro-SIM and COILSIM1D will enable integrated refinery-petrochemical complexes to maximize their profitability.

"Integration of COILSIM1D with Petro-SIM will open up a wide range of steady state, online and offline simulation opportunities," comments Andy Howell, CEO of KBC. "Integrated models supporting dynamic real-time optimization will further mitigate the risk in transitioning to more petrochemicals in the product slate."

"Through our research capabilities with Ghent University, we are continuing our extensive research into steam cracking technologies. We value this new partnership with KBC for expanding industry access to our know-how and intellectual property," said Kevin Van Geem, Managing Director of AVGI. "We know a large proportion of the oil refining industry get a lot of benefit from KBC's Petro-SIM. Its interoperability with COILSIM1D and use in end-to-end simulation for petrochemicals will unlock even more value for them."

The COILSIM1D module will be available for use in Petro-SIM by October.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. Meanwhile, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Matrix Service Co. has announced that its subsidiary Matrix Service Inc. has been awarded a five-year contract as the primary onsite mechanical services contractor at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery, providing a variety of embedded services including daily onsite maintenance, small capital projects, and turnaround support, said Hydrocarbonengineering.

“We are very proud of our long-standing relationship and history of service to Shell, which has included turnaround, tank repair and industrial cleaning services at a number of its refineries, including Shell Martinez, Shell Deer Park, Shell Puget Sound and the Shell Carson Complex,” said Matrix Service Company President and CEO John R. Hewitt.

“We look forward to expanding the services we provide to Shell to include routine mechanical maintenance services and appreciate their continued trust as demonstrated by the award of this important multi-year contract. We share the commitment Shell has to world-class safety and look forward to providing continued service excellence to support their business objectives.”
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s crude oil imports from Malaysia stood near record levels in July, customs data showed, with traders and a tanker-tracking analyst citing oil either transshipped from Venezuela or blended with Venezuelan crude for the unusual growth, reported Reuters.

Crude imports from Malaysia rose to 1.35 million tons last month, more than double from a year earlier, data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed.

That was just below the previous record set in May of 1.38 million tonnes, triple the average monthly volume in the first four months of 2019.

Imports for the first seven months of 2019 totalled 5.64 million tonnes, versus 5.17 million tonnes a year earlier.

Emma Li, analyst with Refinitiv Oil Research, estimated that about 500,000 tonnes of the Malaysian supplies arriving in July were transshipped from Venezuelan crude supplied by Russian state oil firm Rosneft.

The growing supplies of Venezuela-originated oil come after the Russian firm stepped in as the top trader of Venezuelan crude as traditional dealers like Vitol and Trafigura avoided dealing directly with Venezuelan state firm PDVSA for fear of breaching secondary US sanctions.

Venezuelan crude, mainly heavy grade Merey, was either blended or moved into other vessels at Malaysia’s transshipment hub of Linggi and Tianjung Bruas, and renamed in new grades such as Singma and Mal Blend, according to Refinitiv Oil Research.

Rosneft did not respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Most of these cargoes found a home in east China’s Shandong province, a hub for China’s independent refineries, as well as the port of Tianijn in north China.

“About four to five refineries in Shandong have been taking Malaysian blends which look like Venezuelan oil with similar specifications,” said an executive with one Shandong independent refiner.

Prior to May, China’s imports of Malaysian crude were mostly of one grade, Nemina, blended from West African crudes, and went to primarily one buyer, state trader ChemChina, according to Refinitiv’s Li.

Only a fraction of Malaysia’s locally produced crude oil, which typically is light and of lower sulphur content and thus more pricey, moves to China.

The surge in Malaysian exports contrasted with a fall in total crude oil production by its dominant oil and gas producer Petronas, which recorded a 1.3% drop year-on-year to 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day in the first quarter.

Petronas did not give its output in Malaysia.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2018, Indonesian state energy company PT Pertamina signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to upgrade Balikpapan refinery. Balikpapan refinery upgrade started construction early 2019. First stage of Balikpapan upgrade is scheduled for operation in 2021 to produce Euro V standard fuel, and stage 2 in 2022 to convert its use to process sour crude, from currently processing medium heavy crude.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia, reported Plastemart.

And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker.

"Due to a number of recent inquiries about its site in Parkersburg, Braskem has engaged a financial advisor to help evaluate strategic alternatives for the site," the company said, declining further comment.

The project, announced in 2013, has been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

In May 2018, Mark Nikolich, CEO of Braskem's US arm, Braskem America, said the project remained on hold pending progress on infrastructure, such as pipelines. The company had not found the right risk profile by that time, he said last year. Since then, Braskem has faced multiple other challenges. The company is facing fallout from a government report that linked its salt mining operations in Brazil to geological damages, leading to one cash freeze of RD3.7 bln (USD973 mln) and a lawsuit seeking a second freeze of RD2.5 bln (USD657 mln).

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption was 1,081,100 tonnes in the first half of 2019, up by 8% year on year. Deliveries of all PE grades increased. Meanwhile, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC