Lyondellbasell shut its cracker in La Porte because of blooding

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, shut down its cracker in La Porte (Texas, USA) on 19 September because of the flooding, caused by the tropical storm Imelda, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's file sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

According to the company's statement, this plant, which can produce 1,150,000 tonnes of ethylene per year, was shut last Wednesday when water entered a building containing electrical components and damaged critical process control equipment.

Imelda, which came ashore as a tropical storm on Tuesday near Freeport, Texas, and then parked above southeast Texas dumped more than 40 inches of rain in areas just southwest of Beaumont and more than 30 inches in the city from Monday through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, Texas, took 47 inches of rain two years ago when Hurricane Harvey pounded Houston and southeast Texas with unprecedented rainfall.

Houston had largely been spared Imelda's rains until Thursday, when storm bands slowly moved through the city, filling up bayous that drain into the Houston Ship Channel, pushing some out of their banks. Both airports shut down for the day, having taken 10 or more inches of water.

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.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road, and ensuring the safe and effective functionality in electronics and appliances. LyondellBasell sells products into more than 100 countries and is the world's largest producer of polymer compounds and the largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. (HMEL) has let two contracts to a consortium of Maire Tecnimont SPA subsidiaries to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning services for implementation of two petrochemical units to be located adjacent to HMEL’s 9 million-tonne/year Guru Gobind Singh refinery at Village Phullokhari, about 35 km from Bathinda in India’s northern state of Punjab, said Ogj.

As part of the lump-sum contracts, Tecnimont SPA and Tecnimont Private Ltd. will deliver EPCC services for a 450,000-tpy high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and a 500,000-tpy polypropylene (PP) unit at the site, Maire Tecnimont said.

Valued at about USD225 million, the two contracts include EPCC services up to the performance guarantees test run of the monomer purification sections and the polymerization areas, the service provider said.

The consortium’s scope of work on the project will last 25 months to mechanical completion.

The HDPE and PP units come as part of HMEL’s proposal to build an integrated petrochemical manufacturing site (Guru Gobind Singh Polymer Additions Complex) within Guru Gobind Singh’s existing refinery complex to help maximize returns as well as expand its product portfolio.

Alongside the HDPE and PP units, the new complex will feature a mixed-feed 1.2 million-tpy ethylene plant—expandable to 1.5 million tpy—which will include the steam cracker, refinery off-gas treatment unit, C4 hydrogenation unit, pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation unit, and benzene extraction unit.

The petrochemical addition also will include a 55,000-tpy butene-1 unit and two 400,000-tpy linear low-density/HDPE swing units, according to documents filed with India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (EFCC).

EFCC documents also show the project will involve the addition of captive utility generation installations (recirculating cooling-water system, compressed air system, inert gas system, fuel gas system, flare system, condensate polishing unit, and demineralization water treatment system) as well as offsite-storage facilities for the following:

The proposed petrochemical expansion comes alongside HMEL’s execution of its 11 billion-rupee upgrading project to meet Bharat Stage (BS) 6-grade (equivalent to Euro 6-quality) fuel specifications at the Guru Gobind Singh refinery as part of the public-private partnership’s broader plans to expand the manufacturing site’s crude processing capacity to 11.25 million tpy from its current 9 million-tpy capacity (OGJ Online, June 26, 2017).

Approved for environmental clearance by EFCC in June 2015, the capacity expansion, now under way, includes a combination of new units as well as debottlenecking work at existing units to improve throughput rates.

The BS 6-grade fuel specifications project is scheduled to be commissioned by September 2019, according to HMEL, a joint venture of state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and privately held Mittal Energy Investment Pte. Ltd., Singapore.

AS MRC informed earlier, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, or HMEL, will start a new 500,000 mt/year polypropylene (PP) plant in Bhatinda in 2021. The company has an existing 440,000 mt/year PP unit at the same site.

As per MRC ScanPlast, August PP production in the country decreased to 119,000 tonnes, compared with 122,700 tonnes in July; SIBUR Tobolsk decreased their capacity utilisation. Russia"s overall PP production reached 973,700 tonnes in January-August 2019, compared to 954,100 tonnes a year earlier. Only Poliom reduced production volume, and the largest increase in output was shown by Tomskneftekhim.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is an Indian state-owned oil and natural gas company with its headquarters at Mumbai, Maharashtra and with Navratna status. HPCL has about 25% marketing share in India among PSUs and a strong marketing infrastructure. The Government of India owns 51.11% shares in HPCL and others are distributed amongst financial institutes, public and other investors.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- No. 2 cracker of Ineos, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, in Chocolate Bayou (Texas, USA) near Alvin, south of Houston tripped amid rain and flooding on 19, September, 2019, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's file sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

This plant can produce 925,000 tonnes of ethylene and 280,000 tonnes of propylene per year. It later on Thursday resumed normal operations.

Imelda, which came ashore as a tropical storm on Tuesday near Freeport, Texas, and then parked above southeast Texas dumped more than 40 inches of rain in areas just southwest of Beaumont and more than 30 inches in the city from Monday through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, Texas, took 47 inches of rain two years ago when Hurricane Harvey pounded Houston and southeast Texas with unprecedented rainfall.

Houston had largely been spared Imelda's rains until Thursday, when storm bands slowly moved through the city, filling up bayous that drain into the Houston Ship Channel, pushing some out of their banks. Both airports shut down for the day, having taken 10 or more inches of water.

The company also operates another cracker at this site, the combined capacity of two crackers in Chocolate Bayou is 2,000,000 of ethylene and 515,000 tonnes of propylene 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 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.

Ineos AG provides chemical products and services. The Company manufactures of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products. Ineos primarily operates in Switzerland and servers customers globally.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay will increase its soda ash production capacity by 600 kilotonnes at its trona-based Green River site in Wyoming, the United States, to meet long-term global demand growth in various applications, said the company.

Solvay will also expand its sodium bicarbonate capacity by 200 kilotonnes in its Devnya plant in Bulgaria, addressing worldwide demand growth for flue gas treatments which improve air quality. The combined investments total €185 million, spread over the next three years.

"Soda ash and bicarbonate are highly cash generative and resilient businesses for Solvay. Against a backdrop of growing global demand, these investments will deliver resilient cash and strong returns,” said Christophe Clemente, President of Solvay’s Global Business Unit Soda Ash & Derivatives. “The Green River capacity increase reinforces our position as a long-term, sustainable supplier for our customers. Our plant is among the best-in-class competitive soda ash assets in the world and is ideally positioned to address global market demand."

Global soda ash demand is forecast to grow by 10 million tons, excluding China, between 2018 and 2030 – with 4 million tons between now and 2023. Demand is driven by export markets such as South East Asia, Brazil, the Middle East and Africa for the manufacturing of detergents, flat and container glass, and such as Latin America for the extraction of lithium.

Solvay’s Green River facility produces soda ash from trona, a naturally occurring mineral. The 600 kilotonnes investment will leverage on the existing infrastructure and is spread over the next three years, with production starting to ramp up by the end of 2021.

Solvay’s sodium bicarbonate capacity expansion by 200 kilotonnes in Devnya, Bulgaria is part of the existing 75/25 joint operation with Sisecam. The new production line is expected to be operational by the end of 2020. It will produce SOLVAIR sorbents, sodium-based solutions that treat exhaust gases from factories, incineration plants and ships and Bicar, sodium bicarbonate buffer for animal nutrition.

As MRC informed earlier, Solvay announces that its subsidiary Solvay Finance SA will exercise its first call option on its EUR700 million hybrid bond after having notified the Luxembourg Stock Exchange where the bond is listed. This perpetual deeply subordinated bond, bearing an annual interest rate of 4.199%, is treated as equity under IFRS rules. Its repayment is due on May 12, 2019 at the end of the first 5.5 years.

Solvay is an advanced materials and specialty chemicals company, committed to developing chemistry that addresses key societal challenges. Solvay innovates and partners with customers worldwide in many diverse end-markets. Its products are used in planes, cars, batteries, smart and medical devices, as well as in mineral and oil and gas extraction, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. Its lightweighting materials promote cleaner mobility, its formulations optimize the use of resources, and its performance chemicals improve air and water quality. Solvay is headquartered in Brussels with around 24,500 employees in 61 countries. Net sales were EUR10.3 billion in 2018, with 90% from activities where Solvay ranks among the world’s top 3 leaders, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 22%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's thirst for refined product imports has surged as it looks to meet its requirements in the wake of attacks on its key oil infrastructure, as per Spglobal.

Register Now Several trading sources said state-owned Saudi Aramco's trading arm has already bought diesel cargoes from refiners in India and the UAE. The company was also actively looking to purchase jet fuel and naphtha.
"They have already bought quite a lot from India and some cargoes from UAE," a diesel trader said. "These cargoes are mainly diesel."

An Aramco representative was unavailable for comment.

"The Saudis are trying to buy oil products discreetly, without causing distress signals," a Middle East-based trading source said. "They are starting with fuel oil, naphtha, gasoline, diesel. They have shortages across the board and are going to UAE first."

Shipping sources said that ATC had placed the tanker Lian Bai Hu on subjects to carry a 60,000 diesel cargo from Vadinar to the Persian Gulf for a lump sum of USD320,000.

Sources said a fall in domestic refining runs had caused ATC to buy spot barrels of diesel and jet fuel to satiate both its domestic demand as well as supply its international customers.

To meet its October and November crude nominations, Aramco also diverted some of the crude earmarked for its domestic refining system to export. This has resulted in refinery run reductions and caused loading delays for some of the jet fuel and gasoil export cargoes out of Saudi Arabia, sources said.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco will bring full oil production capacity at Abqaiq by the end of September, Khalid Buraik, the company’s vice-president for southern area oil operations said.

As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.

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.
MRC