Mitsubishi Chemical to announce MMA project on US Gulf Coast

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical plans to announce details in the first quarter of 2020 of a methyl methacrylate (MMA) project on the US Gulf Coast, reported Chemweek with reference to Christine Frederic, manager/direct procurement at Lucite International, a Mitsubishi Chemical group company.

Frederic said the MMA plant would have a capacity of 250,000–350,000 metric tons/year and be located between Houston, Texas, and Geismar, Louisiana. Start-up would most likely be in 2024, Frederic said. She disclosed no other details of the project, including the technology it will use.

Demand for MMA currently totals about 3.8 million metric tons/year and there is a worldwide surplus of MMA capacity of 500,000 metric tons/year, which is expected to shrink to 250,000 metric tons in 2023, according to IHS Markit. North America has a net deficit in MMA, which will increase through 2023. Northeast Asia and the Middle East have large surpluses of MMA, which are shipped to other regions, IHS Markit says.

The US is set to become a net exporter of methanol, a key raw material for MMA, in 2020, according to IHS Markit. Lucite developed the Alpha MMA technology, which consumes large volumes of methanol, as well as ethylene and carbon monoxide. A 350,000-metric tons/year Alpha plant consumes 273,000 metric tons/year of methanol, Frederic said.

Mitsubishi has been considering a new MMA plant on the US Gulf Coast for some time. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Mitsui & Co. in 2014 for a joint venture to build a 250,000-metric tons/year MMA unit, under a deal that included a possible feedstock/product swap with Dow Chemical.

As MRC reported earlier, Dow plans to install a new furnace in its steam cracker at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, increasing its ethylene capacity, currently 1.42 million metric tons/year (MMt/y), by 130,000 metric tons/year.

The principal application, consuming approximately 75% of the MMA, is the manufacture of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used for the production of the co-polymer methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's DataScope report, exports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) from Russia totalled 193,700 tonnes in 2019, up by 11% year on year. Imports increased more significantly - by 217% year on year - to 50,900 tonnes.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco has seen an increase in attempted cyber attacks since the final quarter of 2019, which the company has so far successfully countered, the state oil giant’s chief information security officer told Reuters on Thursday.

The logo of Aramco is seen as security personnel walk before the start of a press conference by Aramco at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia November 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed - RC1B88CBEC00
“Overall there is definitely an increase in the attempts of (cyber) attacks, and we are very successful in preventing these attacks at the earliest stage possible,” Khalid al-Harbi told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“The pattern of the (cyber) attacks is cyclical, and we are seeing that the magnitude is increasing, I would suspect that this will continue to be a trend,” he said, without giving further details on who was behind the attacks.

Saudi Arabia has been the target of frequent cyber attacks, including the "Shamoon" virus, which cripples computers by wiping their disks and has hit both government ministries and petrochemical firms, the latest of these was in 2017.

Aramco, which pumps 10% of global oil supply, experienced its largest cyber attack to date in August 2012, when a Shamoon virus attack damaged around 30,000 computers and was aimed at stopping oil and gas production at the biggest OPEC exporter.

Aramco’s facilities were also attacked in September by drone and missile strikes that temporarily shut down 5.7 million barrels per day of output - more than 5% of global oil supply. The U.S. blamed Iran for the attack, something Iran has denied.

Harbi also said that there had been attempts to infiltrate Aramco via Emotet, a malware that has been active globally, but it was successfully prevented.

The malware has impacted other small organizations in Saudi Arabia, he said, without elaborating.

Harbi said that identifying the source of the cyber attacks was the most difficult aspect of cyber security.

On Tuesday, Aramco CEO, Amin Nasser, said on the sidelines of a cyber security forum in Riyadh that his company puts cyber security among top corporate risks, "at par with market share loss, disruptive technologies, serious industrial accidents and geopolitical shocks."

In 2017, Saudi Arabian security officials said that the country had been targeted as part of a wide-ranging cyber espionage campaign observed against five Middle East nations as well as several countries outside the region.

As MRC informed before, in October 2019, Fitch Ratings downgraded Saudi Aramco's long-term issuer default rating (IDR) to A from A+ following the September 14 drone and missile attack on two key oil facilities that temporarily slashed its output by half.

We remind that in October 2019, McDermott International announced that it had been awarded a contract by Saudi Aramco and Total Raffinage Chimie (Total) for their joint venture (JV) Amiral steam cracker project at Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Amiral is a JV in which Aramco holds 62.5% and Total the rest. The plant, designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene, will be one of the world's largest mixed-feed crackers.

Aramco and Total launched their USD5-billion Amiral JV project in October 2018. The steam cracker will be fed with a mixture of 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will supply ethylene to a downstream 1 MMt/y polyethylene manufacturing complex and other petrochemical products. The project aims to fully exploit operational synergies with the adjacent refinery, owned by Satorp, another JV between Aramco and Total. Third-party investors, including Daelim and Ineos, will locate plants at the value park adjacent to Amiral with a combined investment of USD4 billion. A final investment decision is expected in 2021.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp and the Papua New Guinea government must return to the negotiating table so that a USD13 billion expansion of gas production can proceed, reported Reuters with reference to the head of French oil major Total, a partner in the plan.

The plan, which would double liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the South Pacific nation, hinges on agreements to develop two new gas fields, but PNG walked away from talks with Exxon on one of those fields last week.

The other agreement, with Total, was sealed last September. It is intended that gas from the two fields would be processed at an expansion of the existing Exxon-operated PNG LNG plant in Port Moresby.

"Our project is joint with that of Exxon," Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne told reporters after Total reported full-year results on Thursday. “There is a need for an agreement and the PNG government is aware of that.

"We have an agreement; they need to find an agreement. All of that needs negotiation, I don’t think negotiations should be done through media."

LNG expansion is crucial for the impoverished nation, but the government has said that Exxon refused to budge on the financial terms for the P’nyang field and failed to come up with an offer it could accept.

Exxon has expressed disappointment at the breakdown of talks but has said it hopes to work towards an outcome that would be beneficial to all stakeholders.

The company’s press representative in PNG and the Prime Minister’s office had no immediate response to Pouyanne’s comments when contacted outside business hours on Thursday.

"Fundamentally, the two projects are good. Fundamentally, PNG wants the projects to go ahead, now it is a question of negotiation," Pouyanne added.

"I’m convinced they’ll reach an agreement. It is a question of patience."

Total beat profit forecasts on Thursday by keeping net adjusted profit for the fourth quarter steady at USD3.2 billion, lifting shares in the French energy major.

As MRC wrote previously, in late September 2019, ExxonMobil Corp shut its 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) crude oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas because of flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda. The company also 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 (LLDPE) plant with a capacity of 727,000 tonnes per year in Beaumont.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

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) -- Asia's polypropylene (PP) market declined on the week in northeast and southeast Asia due to sluggish demand on the back of the coronavirus outbreak, reported S&P Global.

Chinese inventories rose to around 1.175 million mt amid the lack of downstream demand, market sources said.

More Chinese traders are looking for new export outlets to clear out cargoes at the port.

Demand for medical-use polymers, such as non-woven PP, was expected to increase due to the outbreak, market sources said.

As MRC wrote before, Zhejiang Shaoxing Sanyuan Petrochemical took off-stream one of its polypropylene (PP) plants in China last week because of logistical issues. Located in Zhejiang Province, this plant's annual production capacity is 300,000/mt yr.

Many downstream PP plants in China were heard to have reduced their operating rates or shut down as they were not able to transport their products to the customers due to the closure of major roads in eastern China due to coronavirus.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huizhou MMA Co, has taken off-stream its methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant for an unspecified reason, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company halted operations at the plant in early-February, 2020. The plant is expected to remain off-line for around one month.

Located at Huizhou, China, the plant has a production capacity of 90,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, Roehm has planned to take off-stream its MMA plant in June 2020. The company is likely to start turnaround at the plant on June 5, 2020. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for about 10 days. Located in Wesseling, Germany, the plant has a production capacity of 95,000 mt/year.

The principal application, consuming approximately 75% of the MMA, is the manufacture of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used for the production of the co-polymer methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's DataScope report, exports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) from Russia totalled 193,700 tonnes in 2019, up by 11% year on year. Imports increased more significantly - by 217% year on year - to 50,900 tonnes.
MRC