Mitsui Chemicals to shut Osaka cracker for scheduled maintenance in July 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, is likely to shut its naphtha cracker, for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan, informed that, the company has planned to take its cracker off-stream, in July 2020, for a period of around a month. The exact date of the shutdown, could not be ascertained.

Located in Osaka, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 450,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, the company last conducted a turnaround at this cracker from mid-June, 2018, to 11-22 August, 2018.

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. At the same time, 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.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), a leading company in the coordination of planning, purchasing and supply of water and electricity across the UAE, has signed a water purchase agreement, with ACWA Power, a leading Saudi-based developer, investor and operator of power generation and desalinated water plants, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The deal will enable the development of over 900,000 cubic meters per day desalination facility in Taweelah – sufficient to meet the demand of water for over 350,000 households. Approximately 45 KM north of Abu Dhabi city, the project will use reverse osmosis technology to desalinate seawater and will be one of the largest, most cost and energy efficient plants in the world.

The new Taweelah reverse osmosis desalination plant sets new benchmarks for its size, efficiency and cost of water produced. Supplying 909,200m3/day, it will be 44% larger than the world’s current largest reverse osmosis plant of 624,000m3/day. A major driver for the adoption of reverse osmosis instead of thermal desalination is the higher energy efficiency it offers. This plant redefines efficiency benchmarks with record low energy consumption of less than 3kWh per cubic meter. The contribution from around 50 MW of onsite solar generation will further boost the plants green credentials.

Once completed, the Taweelah plant will contribute to the UAE’s vision in reducing the carbon dioxide emissions, significantly reducing gas consumption by decoupling power and water production for the winter and summer seasons.

Othman Al Ali, CEO of EWEC, said: "We are delighted to launch this new initiative, which will help meet future water demand for the UAE. The choice of Reverse Osmosis sea water desalination technology will play a critical part in significantly reducing water production costs, contributing to our goals to build a more sustainable and efficient water and energy sector in the UAE. The project will also help save material fuel costs across the sector, given the flexibility that the technology provides."

The plant will be developed on a build, own and operate basis with the engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the water plant undertaken by a joint venture of ABENGOA and PowerChina. ACWA Power owns a 40 percent stake in the project company formed “Independent Water Producers” to be responsible for the RO Plant. The remaining 60 percent stake is owned by Mubadala Investments Company and Abu Dhabi Power Corporation. Once the project is complete, EWEC will be the off-taker for the water output produced by the project over a 30-year period. The plant is scheduled to commence full commercial operations in Q4 2022.

Paddy Padmanathan, President and CEO of ACWA Power said: “Our decision to bid for the Taweelah RO plant project demonstrates our confidence in EWEC as a reliable partner and confirms our commitment to contribute to the development of the United Arab Emirates by increasing our participation in the power generation and water desalination sectors. Through the Taweelah RO plant project and the enabling environment provided by Abu Dhabi, we are proud to be setting new global bench marks in both the cost of desalinated water and the energy consumed in producing that water."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- GAIL (India) Ltd, the state-owned natural gas transportation and distribution utility, is planning to spend Rs 751 crore to add a new 60 Kilo Tonne Per Annum (KTPA) polypropylene (PP) unit at its Pata petrochemical complex in Uttar Pradesh, according to EconomicTimes.

PP is a thermoplastic used in the making of consumer products, plastic parts for automobile industry and textiles, apart from other applications.

The complex produces low and high density polyethylene (HDPE) from ethylene produced from the cracking of ethane and propane. In the process, the cracker also produces around 50 KTPA of polymer grade propylene which the company expects to use as a feed-stock for the proposed PP unit.

"GAIL is planning to utilize this propylene to set up a 60 KTPA Polypropylene unit in the existing complex at Pata. The proposed facility will be set-up along with the existing facilities at Pata," the company said in an application seeking clearance from the environment ministry.

The integrated gas-based petrochemical complex at Pata has been operational since 1999. It recovers ethane-propane from natural gas coming from Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline and converts it into petrochemicals.

The polymer production capacity of the Pata petrochemical complex doubled to 810 KTA last financial year (2018-2019) from 410 KTA earlier, according to GAIL’s latest annual report.

"Overall production from the Pata complex in 2018-19 was 751 KTA. The company exported 110 KTA of polymers to Asian markets. The company's market share in the domestic polyethylene market has been maintained and is the second-largest player in the Indian market with a portfolio of over 1,000 KTA of polyethylene," it said.

The company’s board has also approved a Rs 8,800 crore project for the revival of an existing LPG plant at Usar in Maharashtra by converting it into 500 KTA Polypropylene complex. This would be a first-of-its-kind project in the country using propane dehydrogenation technology for production of Propylene integrated with the downstream Polypropylene unit.

GAIL marketed around 1,000 KTA of polymers last financial year ended March 2019. Overall, the company's revenue from the petrochemical segment increased 14.50 per cent to Rs 6,704 crore last fiscal. In the first quarter ended June 2019, GAIL's revenue from petrochemical operations declined 31 per cent to Rs 1,113 crore.

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2019, GAIL approved the revival of an existing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant for conversion into a new PP complex in Usar, Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. The project is scheduled to be commissioned by fiscal year 2023-2024.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. It has the following business segments: natural gas, liquid hydrocarbon, liquefied petroleum gas transmission, petrochemicals, city gas distribution, exploration and production, GAILTEL and electricity generation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Siemens recently opened a high-speed reciprocating compressor (HSRC) and mobile power support center in Odessa, Texas, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The facility will serve the expanding HSRC and rotating equipment customer base in the Permian Basin as part of Siemens’ near-term growth objectives in the prolific oil and gas producing region. While initially focusing on HSRC spare parts, as early as next year the facility will support a wide range of unconventional resource activities, such as electric frac and mobile gas turbine staging to satisfy fast power needs.

Dresser-Rand HOS high-speed reciprocating compressor.
Dresser-Rand HOS high-speed reciprocating compressor.
“Our HSRC support center in Odessa will better position us to serve a key customer base in a significant region through a strategic parts stocking program,” said Patrice Laporte, Vice President for Siemens Oil & Gas Americas.

“We look forward to working with operators and service companies in the Permian Basin to ensure fast response on their solution needs such as emissions-reducing electric frac systems, all the way to apps that optimize artificial lift performance,” added Matthew Wilhoit, Vice President for Siemens Unconventional Oil & Gas.

Siemens serves the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas market through a range of technologies and solutions. Its unconventional resource portfolio includes power generation (fixed and mobile trailer-based technology), electrical distribution (via electric motors, drives, switchgear), reciprocating compressors, and digital solutions, as well as solutions for gas processing, pipeline (liquids and gas), and liquefied natural gas (LNG) operators across the world.
MRC