Indian Oil to restart naphtha cracker on 25 September after maintenance and expansion

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has shut its only naphtha cracker and half of its Panipat refinery since early this month for maintenance, reported Reuters with reference to head of refineries S M Vaidya's statement Tuesday.

IOC shut a naphtha cracker which can produce around 800,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene and it has also idled 50% of its 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Panipat, Vaidya said at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore.

The units will resume operations on Sept. 25, he said.

Capacity of the cracker is set to be raised to 1.1 million tpy in 2021/2022, he said.

As MRC reported before, Indian Oil witnessed a massive blast in its refinery at Panipat, Haryana. A domestic source informed then that the blast took place in the naphtha cracker of the refinery in the afternoon, on 22 January 2018. One contractual employee of IOCL was reportedly killed in the accident while 5 others were injured.

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.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has published its fourth sustainability report titled ‘Living Sustainability, said Eppm.

Providing a detailed overview of the company’s recent sustainability efforts, the latest report includes proof-of-concept on chemical recycling, recipes for recycled ABS, and an 84 per cent reduction in SOx emissions, as well as 52 per cent reduction in landfill waste over the period 2014-2018.

INEOS Styrolution has continued its progress in achieving its 2017 sustainability targets. With an increased focus on circular solutions, the company has now added new sustainability targets focused on delivering circular solutions for styrenics, including 30 per cent recycled polystyrene in plastic packaging in Europe by 2025, and commercial-scale recycled ABS by 2020.

CEO Kevin McQuade said: “We have a clear vision to be recognised as the global leader in providing sustainable styrenics solutions. During the course of the past year, we have made clear strides to contribute to a circular economy, and we are committed to further exploring opportunities to drive sustainability not only within our own business, but also to work with our customers and stakeholders to develop sustainable and circular products and solutions throughout the entire styrenics value chain."

The company provides styrenic applications for everyday products across a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, household, construction, healthcare, sport and leisure, and packaging.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Baotou is likely to undertake a planned maintenance at the polypropylene (PP) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has planned to shut the plant on September 18, 2019. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for about six weeks.

Located at Baotou City, China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, last year, the company conducted maintenance turnaround at its PP plant from 1 September to end-September.

Shenhua Baotou also runs linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant at the same site. The company conducted maintenance at its LLDPE plant from 12 September to late September, 2017. Located at Baotou City, China, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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) -- ExxonMobil said it made an oil discovery on the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana at the Tripletail-1 well in the Turbot area, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The discovery adds to the previously announced estimated recoverable resource of more than 6 billion oil-equivalent barrels on the Stabroek Block.

Tripletail-1 encountered approximately 108 feet (33 meters) of a high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. Tripletail-1, drilled in 6,572 feet (2,003 meters) of water, is located approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) northeast of the Longtail discovery. After completion of operations at Tripletail, the Noble Tom Madden drillship will next drill the Uaru-1 well, located approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) east of the Liza field.

"This discovery helps to further inform the development of the Turbot area," said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil. "Together with our partners, ExxonMobil is deploying industry-leading capabilities to identify projects that can be developed efficiently and in a cost-effective way."

Exploration and development activities are moving forward elsewhere on the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana. The Stena Carron drillship is currently drilling the Ranger-2 well and upon completion will conduct a well test at Yellowtail-1. The Noble Bob Douglas drillship is currently completing development drilling operations for the Liza Phase 1 project. ExxonMobil will add a fourth drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, in October 2019 as we continue to optimize our drilling plans based on well results and ongoing study of the basin.

The Liza Phase 1 development remains on schedule to start up by early 2020 and will produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO), which arrived in Guyana on August 29, 2019.

ExxonMobil approved funding for the Liza Phase 2 development after it received government and regulatory approvals in May 2019. Expected to startup by mid-2022, the project plans to use the Liza Unity FPSO to produce up to 220,000 barrels of oil per day. Pending government approvals, a third development, Payara startup could be as early as 2023 and production would reach an estimated 220,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45 percent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 percent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 percent interest.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in July 2019, ExxonMobil 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.

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.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has tentatively approved a plan to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners are required to blend each year to compensate for exemptions handed out to small refiners by the Environmental Protection Agency, two sources familiar with the matter said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The plan is intended to address a major source of anger in U.S. farm country as Trump seeks to hold favor in the Midwest ahead of next year’s election, but it is likely to upset the oil industry, another important political constituency, underscoring the pitfalls of U.S. biofuel policy.

Under the plan, the U.S. EPA will calculate a three-year rolling average of total biofuels gallons exempted from the mandates under its Small Refinery Exemption program and add that figure to its annual biofuel blending quotas each year, the sources said. For 2020, that figure would be 1.35 billion gallons, according to a Reuters calculation.

That would come in addition to a tentative agreement to boost next year’s blending volumes by 1 billion gallons, including 500 million gallons for conventional biofuels like corn-based ethanol and 500 million gallons for advanced biofuels like biodiesel, the sources said.

A court in 2016 ruled that the Obama administration illegally lowered the mandate by 500 million gallons, and part of the current proposed addition would satisfy the decision.

As a result, if the Trump administration followed through on the plan, next year’s total blending mandate would come out to about 22.4 billion gallons, from just over 20 billion in the EPA’s current proposal, according to the Reuters calculation.

The EPA has until the end of November to finalize its 2020 biofuel volumes mandates.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, oil refiners are required to blend increasing volumes of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into their fuel each year, to help farmers and reduce imports, but small refining facilities in financial straits can seek waivers.

Trump inserted himself into negotiations between the rival oil and corn industries after his administration recently granted 31 oil refiners exemptions to their blending requirements, infuriating corn farmers and ethanol producers who say the program undermines demand for ethanol at a time the industry is already suffering from a loss of foreign markets.

He and senior administration officials have held a series of meetings with biofuel company officials, chief executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp and Valero Energy Corp, and lawmakers from key farm states including the Republican senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley.

Trump was expected to meet with senators representing oil-producing states on Monday to continue discussions on the issue, sources said.

It was unclear if Trump would secure the backing of the oil industry for the plan without granting it any concessions.

One idea that Trump discussed during the meeting with Marathon and Valero last week to help refiners was to potentially cap the price of blending credits refiners must earn or purchase to comply with the RFS, sources familiar with the matter said.

Senators including Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey and Texas's Ted Cruz sent a letter to Trump on Thursday, asking any increase to biofuel volumes be accompanied by safeguards against higher credit prices.
MRC