ExxonMobil shut Beaumont, Texas refinery due to flooding

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N) began shutting its 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) crude oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas, on Thursday morning because of flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Exxon earlier on Thursday shut the Beaumont chemical plant, which adjoins the refinery, company spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry said.

The company operates a cracker with a capacity of 830,000 mt of ethylene and 195,000 mt of proplyelen per year, low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant with a capacity of 236,000 mt per year and linear low density polyethylene plant with a capacity of 727,000 tonnes per year.

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.

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) -- Evonik’s venture capital arm has invested in a start-up that sustainably produces biofabricated materials that are inspired by leather, eliminating the need for animal skins. Modern Meadow’s technology produces animal-free collagen, a protein naturally found in animal hides, via a fermentation process using yeast cells, said the company.

The investment in the start-up, based in Nutley, New Jersey, follows a successful partnership between the two companies in which Evonik is supporting the development of a commercial scale process to produce collagen. “Consumer demand for non-animal derived products is increasing rapidly,” said Lutz Stoeber, investment director for Evonik Venture Capital in North America. “With this investment Evonik is supporting Modern Meadow in developing a sustainable animal-friendly technology."

The biofabricated material produced by this animal-free method, more closely resembles animal leather than synthetic equivalents because it contains collagen, the main structural component in cow hides. ZoaTM biofabricated materials, Modern Meadow’s first branded materials line, will be offered in a variety of shapes, sizes, textures and colors. The technology opens possibilities to create materials inspired by leather with new properties, such as lighter-weight options, new processing forms, and patterning. Modern Meadow is developing both leather-like composites, which allow for superior mechanical properties, and non-composite materials.

Collagen has many forms and applications that go beyond leather-like materials. As the most abundant protein found in the human body, it has many pharmaceutical and medical applications. Collagen promotes the healing of wounds, guides tissue regeneration and can revitalize the skin, areas in which Evonik has research activities. The investment strengthens Evonik’s Health & Care growth engine, one of the areas that the company has identified as a growth driver.

"We are excited to further strengthen our partnership with Modern Meadow, a highly dynamic and visionary company,” said Jean-Luc Herbeaux, head of Evonik’s Health Care business line. “The fit is perfect as we are also looking into opportunities provided by biofabricated collagen for the healthcare market."

In March 2018, Evonik and Modern Meadow agreed to collaborate to bring the production of Modern Meadow’s collagen to commercial scale while optimizing the process productivity. Evonik has more than three decades of experience in the development, scale-up and commercial production of fermentation-based products and has developed leading competencies in the field of protein fermentation. The plan is to start commercial production in 2020 at an Evonik site in Slovakia, which is specialized in pilot and low- to mid-scale production of specialty bio-fermented products.

"After successfully partnering with Evonik in 2018, we are thrilled to deepen our relationship and bring them on board as an investor,” said Andras Forgacs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Modern Meadow. “We look forward to accelerating our growth and scaling our technology with their support and expertise."

The animal and artificial leather market combined is estimated to be worth USD190 billion with many applications such as automotive, footwear, furniture, garments and bags.

Evonik Venture Capital plays a strategic role in Evonik’s goal to become a best-in-class specialty chemicals company, by helping secure access to disruptive technologies and innovative business models as well as supporting digital transformation. To this end, Evonik launched its second venture capital fund with a volume of EUR150 million at the beginning of 2019, more than doubling the amount under management to EUR250 million.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A group of 13 major oil companies charted out a plan on Monday to promote investments in carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), ahead of a gathering in New York, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Oil chiefs grappling with growing demand for action to fight climate change have looked to invest in carbon-capture and sequestration techniques that some executives, including Occidental Petroleum Corp CEO Vicki Hollub, say could make drilling carbon neutral.

With fossil fuel development growing worldwide, the oil and gas industry faces growing criticism from activists concerned about accelerating climate impacts from melting ice caps to sea-level rise and extreme weather. Scientists say the world needs to halve greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade to avoid catastrophic warming.

Carbon sequestration technology traps carbon in caverns or porous spaces underground. A number of oil and gas CEOs say the technology will be crucial to meeting goals set in the 2016 Paris agreement on climate change to reduce global emissions.

"A lot of people don't even know what CCUS is. I think the world is going to hear more and more and more about it," BP plc CEO Bob Dudley said. "I don't think we can meet the Paris goals without CCUS." The group, known as the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), said it aims to double the amount of carbon dioxide stored globally by 2030. The group is also taking steps to reduce methane emissions.

The group formed in 2014 to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its gathering will be held on the sidelines of a climate summit, where United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he is banking on new pledges from governments and businesses to abandon fossil fuels.

Last Friday, millions of young people flooded the streets of cities around the world to demand urgent steps to stop climate change. Many, including 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, have criticized governments and industries for not doing enough.

The OGCI group said in a statement that carbon-capture technologies could be expanded to more efficiently trap large amounts of carbon released by facilities such as power plants, which could then be used in oil recovery and, ultimately stored - thus, removing it from the atmosphere.

The group plans to work with others to put carbon-capture techniques into operation in the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, and China. On Monday afternoon in New York, it will sign a declaration of collaboration with certain energy ministers and other stakeholders, to commit to efforts to expand carbon storage.

The companies, which include Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp and BP PLC, account for 32% of global oil and gas production. They have agreed to cooperate to accelerate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Separately, almost 90 big companies in sectors from food to cement to telecommunications are pledging to slash greenhouse gas emissions, organizers said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's Mitsui & Co has put its 40 per cent stake in the BassGas project off southeastern Australia up for sale, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement last Thursday.

Mitsui's stake in the BassGas project, which includes the undeveloped Trefoil gas project, could be worth about AD360 million (USD244 million), according to Credit Suisse. However, a person with knowledge of the asset estimated it at about AD140 million.

Mitsui Australia's spokesman said Rothschild has been engaged to advise on the sale of the stake, which Mitsui acquired with its takeover of oil and gas producer AWE last year. The planned sale was first reported by The Australian Financial Review newspaper.

BassGas, operated by Beach Energy, has been producing gas and liquids from the Yolla field in the Bass Basin off the state of Victoria since 2006. The gas is processed at a plant onshore and supplies the Australian east coast market.

Mitsui's share of output from the project in the year ended June 2019 was about 1.1 million barrels of oil equivalent, as calculated by Reuters based on Mitsui's 35 per cent stake in Yolla and Beach's 53.8 per cent share at 1.7 mmboe.

Beach declined to comment on whether the company might be interested in the stake or would have pre-emptive rights on it, as that is confidential.

The other partner in the BassGas project is Prize Petroleum, a unit of India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp, which bought an 11.25 per cent stake in BassGas and a 9.75 per cent stake in Trefoil for AD85 million in 2014.

Prize Petroleum declined to comment.

Mitsui's move comes at the same time that Exxon Mobil Corp has put its much bigger, but ageing Bass Strait oil and gas assets up for sale, which analysts and bankers have said would be of interest to Mitsui.

Mitsui declined to comment on whether it would be interested in the Exxon assets.

As MRC wrote before, Mitsui Chemicals, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate, restarted its naphtha cracker on 11-12 Mayl, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The cracker was shut in end-April, 2019 owing to power failure. Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 331,000 mt/year.

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.

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) -- Oil major ExxonMobil Corp said on Wednesday it was looking to sell its 50% stake in the Gippsland Basin oil and gas development in Australia's Bass Strait as part of a broader review of its portfolio of assets around the world, reported Reuters.

The Gippsland Basin joint venture, off the state of Victoria, has long been the mainstay oil and gas supplier into southeastern Australia, but output from the fields is in decline.

Operator Exxon's 50-50 joint venture partner in the assets is global miner BHP Group. BHP declined to comment on whether it might sell its own stake or whether it would be interested in buying Exxon's assets.

"ExxonMobil will be testing market interest for a number of assets worldwide, including its operated producing assets in Australia, as part of an ongoing evaluation of its assets," the company said in an emailed statement.

"No agreements have been reached and no buyer has been identified," the company said in the statement. It said operations would continue as normal throughout the effort to sell the assets, without disclosing any targeted value for a deal.

The statement was released after the Gippsland Times newspaper reported the company's workers in Gippsland had been told by ExxonMobil Australia chairman, Nathan Fay, that the assets were on the market.

BHP said in an emailed comment that it had been notified by Exxon of the latter's plan to put its interests in the Gippsland Basin joint venture (GBJV) up for sale.

"BHP recognises the importance of GBJV to the reliable supply of gas in to the east coast domestic market and we remain committed to maintaining that supply," a BHP spokesman said in an emailed comment.

Exxon's other producing asset in Australia is a 25% stake in the giant Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia, which is not part of the sale process.

As MRC informed before, ExxonMobil Corp shut the chemical plant at its Beaumont, Texas, refining and petrochemical complex on Thursday morning, 19 September, because of flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda.

The company operates a cracker with a capacity of 830,000 mt of ethylene and 195,000 mt of proplyelen per year, low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant with a capacity of 236,000 mt per year and linear low density polyethylene plant with a capacity of 727,000 tonnes per year.

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.

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