Former CEO of shut refinery pursuing plant purchase

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The former chief executive officer of Philadelphia Energy Solutions is seeking to purchase the 335,000 barrel-per-day PES refinery, which was shut after a June fire, reported Reuters with reference to the group's statement.

Philip Rinaldi, who retired from PES in 2016, formed Philadelphia Energy Industries (PEI) as a vehicle to pursue the purchase, the statement said.

"We can reinvigorate the site as an economic juggernaut that generates billions of dollars of revenue and provides thousands of high-paying jobs for our skilled professional and labor workforce," he said in the statement.

PEI and RNG Energy Solutions, LLC have entered into a mutual cooperation agreement for the prospective development of renewable fuels and other projects together with the restart of the refinery site "should PEI be ultimately successful in its acquisition efforts," the statement said.

"My focus and drive in pursuing this acquisition is to revitalize, modernize, and develop the site and the strategic refinery business that has existed there for decades to their full potential," said Rinaldi.

Rinaldi has spoken with the leadership of the refinery’s local union about the plan to acquire the refinery, the largest and oldest on the U.S. East Coast.

For the second time in less than two years, PES filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 21, exactly a month after fire and blasts destroyed an alkylation unit at the PES plant.

PES shut its final crude unit in late July, and roughly 1,000 workers were laid off without severance pay or the option for continued health insurance.

As MRC informed before, the alkylation unit involved in a massive fire on Friday at Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc's oil refinery was completely destroyed, which hampered the supply of gasoline from the US East Coast's largest refinery.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Penoplex, Russia's largest producer of extruded polystyrene foam, plans to resume general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) production at its Kirishi plant on 5 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

This plant with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of GPPS per year was shut for maintenance on 5 August 2019.

There was an acute shortage of material, including GPPS, in the Russian polystyrene (PS) market in late August, which was partially caused by the outage at the Kirishi plant.

In addition, the resumption of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's GPPS production after a scheduled turnaround was delayed for several weeks. The plant’s production capacities were taken off-stream for maintenance in July, and premium GPPS grades had not yet entered the market as of the end of last week.

Penoplex is a large Russian producer of polymer-based building and decorative materials. The company began its activity in 1998 with the launch of Russia's first line for the production of heat-insulating materials from extruded polystyrene foam under the PENOPLEX trademark. The company has eight production sites, seven of which are located in Russia and one - in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty region), with a total production capacity of 4 million cubic metres.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR-Khimprom has announced its September expandable polystyrene (EPS) prices for Ukrainian consumers, buyers of Russian material in the region told MRC on Monday.

Thus, September prices of material for the Ukrainian market were heard at USD1,270/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

The August main price was at USD1,295/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

The Russian producer reduced its prices for additional August quantities to USD1,245/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT, in the third decade of last month. The plant had in stock “Alfapor 301” grade for additional orders.

SIBUR-Khimprom (part of SIBUR Holding) specializes in the processing of liquid hydrocarbons and is one of the leading Russian producers of a number of the most important petrochemical products. The company has three main production capacities: production of butyl alcohols and 2-ethylhexanol with a capacity of 160,000 tonnes per year, production of ethylbenzene (220,000 tonnes per year), styrene monomer (SM) production (135,000 tonnes per year) and polystyrene (PS) production (100,000 tonnes per year), ethylene and propylene unit, production of eco-friendly plasticizer DOTF (100,000 tonnes per year).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ecuador is seeking private companies interested in building a new refinery on the OPEC nation’s coast with a capacity of up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), reported Reuters a state official said.

The government of President Lenin Moreno signed a decree authorizing the design, construction and operation of the refinery, which will not include any participation by the Ecuadorean government or state-run companies.

"It is a private investment ... the investor can present a project to build the refinery," Oil Minister Carlos Perez told reporters. He said several companies were interested, without identifying any specific firms.

Ecuador expects the project will require a USD6 billion investment, but the total may change depending on the design.

The government this week will begin evaluating the financial and technical capacity of interested companies and within 60 days will produce a list of qualified investors that may submit proposals.

The refinery will have to include deep conversion plants to process heavy crude and will not purchase crude directly from Ecuadorean state companies, but rather will have to participate in bidding processes. It will also have to sell fuel to Ecuadorean state companies at prices below those quoted in the Gulf of Mexico, Perez said.

The refinery will function alongside the aging 110,000 bpd Esmeraldas facility, which has suffered chronic operational problems.

Moreno hopes to have Esmeraldas’ crude processing system run by a private operator due to environmental pollution problems in the area of the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nouryon (former AkzoNobel) will double capacity at its surfactants plant in Stenungsund, Sweden to support the growth of several existing products as well as new sustainable technologies for markets including oil and gas, lubricants and fuels, and asphalt, as per the company's press release.

The EUR12-million expansion and upgrade project includes the installation of a new reactor and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2021.

The additional capacity will allow Nouryon to expand production of several innovative technologies for the oil and gas market. These include Armohib CI-5150, a corrosion inhibitor that meets the industry’s most stringent environmental requirements, as well as a new range of biodegradable demulsifiers that will give oil and gas producers a more sustainable option to separate crude oil from natural gas and water.

"Our customers are looking for more innovative and environmentally-conscious solutions that offer better biodegradability, lower toxicity, and meet the latest regulations," said AB Ghosh, Managing Director Surface Chemistry at Nouryon. "The design of this new reactor allows for a wide range of chemistries and technologies, including those required for creating more sustainable ingredients."

The expansion also allows Nouryon to increase output of products including Berol R648NG, a unique biodegradable surfactant used as a degreaser by customers in the cleaning market. It will also produce surfactants used in the lubricants and fuels and asphalt markets.

Nouryon CEO Charlie Shaver added: "We started producing surfactants at our Stenungsund site in 1917. Over the past 102 years, the facility has proven to be key to our growth and the investment to double capacity there makes good business sense. We are now well positioned to meet the growing demand from our customers for more sustainable products."

The Stenungsund project is the latest in a series of investments by Nouryon in Sweden to meet growth in customer demand. The company recently completed a EUR20 million project at Sundsvall that significantly raises production capacity for its Expancel expandable microspheres, and earlier this year completed a EUR4 million expansion of surface-modified colloidal silica at Bohus.

As MRC informed before, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) has licensed its innovative continuous initiator dosing (CiD) technology to Karpatnaftochim, Ukraine’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. Nouryon’s patented CiD technology allows PVC producers to increase reactor output by up to 40E, improve product quality, and make the production process intrinsically safer – all with minimum capital expenditure.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Karpatneftekhim reduced its capacity utilisation in July, its total production fell to 14,500 tonnes from 20,800 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production in the country reached 126,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2018, down 1% year on year.
MRC