Dayuewan selects Honeywell technology to upgrade heavy fuel oil into petrochemicals

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell UOP has been chosen by Dayuewan (Zhuhai) Petrochemical Co. to supply a range of technologies to upgrade heavy fuel oil into higher value petrochemical products at Dayuewan's complex in Gaolan Port Economic Zone, Guangdong Province, China, as per Apic-online.

Honeywell will provide basic engineering and technology licensing, as well as technical and start-up services for the project, which includes a 1.4-million-t/y Uniflex MC slurry hydrocracking unit to upgrade the heavy fuel oil into light oil products. This will be fed to a Unicracking unit to produce naphtha for a CCR Platforming unit.

The project also includes three Polybed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units to supply high-quality hydrogen for the Uniflex process. The PSA units are designed to generate 320,000 cu m/hr of hydrogen.

"This project will enable Dayuewan to substantially modernize its operations by transformation and upgrad-ing," noted Henry Liu, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies Asia Pacific.

"This combination of technologies are designed as an integrated operating block to maximize product yields, but with lower capital and operating expense than standard configurations."

As MRC reported earier, Fujian Meide Petrochemical Co. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Packing Group Company Ltd, will utilize the Honeywell Process Reliability Advisor for prescriptive monitoring of on-purpose propylene at its new UOP C3 Oleflex unit in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. The plant is designed to convert propane into 660,000 t/y of propylene. Status of the facility could not be confirmed.

Propylene is a feedstock for the production of polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Honeywell is a global diversified technology and manufacturing company with a wide range of aerospace products and services, control, sensing and security technologies for buildings, homes and industry, turbochargers, automotive products, specialty chemicals, electronic and advanced materials, process technology for refining and petrochemicals and energy efficient products and solutions for homes, business and transportation.
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JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy to be renamed ENEOS as it prepares for energy transition

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy will be renamed ENEOS Corp. in June next year as part of a wider re-organization of the parent company JXTG Holdings as it prepares to adopt to a changing business environment centered on transition towards low carbon intensity and more holistic energy offerings, reported S&P Global.

The move, which will also involve renaming the parent company to ENEOS Holdings upon approval at its annual shareholders meeting in June 2020, comes as it strives to be a more comprehensive energy and materials company under its 2040 vision announced in May, JXTG Holdings said Thursday.

JXTG's renaming will be the latest in a growing trend in the global oil industry facing the need to broaden energy portfolios as well as to make greater efforts toward a low carbon society.

The new corporate name of ENEOS was coined from a combination of the words energy and neos, which means new in Greek, joins a growing bandwagon of traditional oil companies looking to reinvent themselves as drivers of low-carbon sustainable energy.

This development will also be the first for the Japanese company, which currently has a combined 1.93 million refining capacity, to drop Nippon Oil from the English trade name of the downstream arm since the establishment of Nippon Oil in 1888.

The company, however, will keep the trade name of JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. and JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corp for its respective E&P and metals businesses.

ENEOS, meanwhile, has been used as a brand name for the group's energy businesses since its introduction as a brand name for service stations in 2001, and it is now used as a brand name at about 13,000 service stations in Japan.

Announcing its 2040 vision in May, JXTG Holdings said it aims to be a leading energy and materials company in Asia and intends to seek growth in areas including petrochemicals, power generation and hydrogen businesses while keeping its refining, E&P and metals businesses as its foundation.

Among its foundation businesses, the company intends to further optimize refining operations to ensure stable oil products supply as well as looking to enhance its gas businesses to meet growing demand in Asia toward 2040.

Most recently, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy and Mitsubishi Chemical jointly announced on November 7 that they were forming a joint venture in the Kashima complex on the east coast to consider ways to optimize operations for refining and petrochemical production.

Under the 50:50 joint venture, JXTG and Mitsubishi Chemical will look at how the companies can boost competitiveness further by effectively using feedstocks for gasoline and petrochemical production in the Kashima complex, the companies said.

JXTG currently supplies naphtha via pipeline from the 197,100 b/d Kashima refinery to Mitsubishi Chemical's steam cracker in the Kashima complex. JXTG's Kashima refinery also has a 35,100 b/d condensate splitter.

As MRC informed earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy has brought on-stream its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit on 19 November 2019. The unit was shut for maintenance, on September 10, 2019. Located at Mizushima, Japan, the FCC unit has a propylene capacity of 93,000 mt/year.

Propylene is a feedstock for the production of polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

JXTG Holdings was formed as a result of a merger between JX Holdings and TonenGeneral in April 2017. This followed the establishment of JX Holdings as a result of the merger between Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining Holdings in April 2010.

Pertamina to build petrochemical plant in Balongan next year

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina will start building a petrochemical factory in Balongan, Indramayu next year. This plant will be integrated with existing refineries, according to TEMPO.

"This will be the largest integrated refinery and petrochemical plant, located in West Java," Pertamina CEO Nicke Widyawati said after meeting with West Java Governor M. Ridwan Kamil on Wednesday, November 27.

Nicke said that the petrochemical plant would utilize the location of Pertamina's refinery in Balongan, Indramayu, as well as the existing facilities.

She said the petrochemical plant will have a processing capacity of up to 350,000 barrels per day of crude oil. "And for petrochemicals, it can process around 2.5 million Nafta (petrochemical raw materials)," Nicke said.

Pertamina is targeting the petrochemical plant to operate in 2026. Nicke did not say how much investment is disbursed for the project.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said Pertamina received investment from a Taiwanese company to build the petrochemical factory. There is also a possible investment from an Abu Dhabi company "for investment in Indramayu," he said on Wednesday.

"The concrete amount is roughly USD8 billion, or close to Rp100 trillion.

Ridwan Kamil said the construction process would take a maximum period of five years.

As MRC wrote previously, in December 2018, Indonesian state energy company PT Pertamina signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to upgrade Balikpapan refinery, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Executive Nicke Widyawati. Balikpapan refinery upgrade is expected to start construction earlier next year, Senior Vice President Daniel Purba said then. First stage of Balikpapan upgrade is scheduled for operation in 2021 to produce Euro V standard fuel, and stage 2 in 2022 to convert its use to process sour crude, from currently processing medium heavy crude.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

Cabinet approves BPCL stake sale

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the sale of the government's entire 53.29 per cent stake in oil refiner and retailer Bharat petroleum Corporation (BPCL), reported EnergyWorld with reference to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement after a cabinet meeting.

"The strategic disinvestment of BPCL, of the Government of India’s shareholding of 53.29 per cent, along with transfer of certain management control to strategic buyer is approved. The entire management control will be transferred. However, this is excluding BPCL’s equity shareholding of 61 per cent it holds in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd," Sitharaman said.

She said a "carve out" has been made of NRL in Assam that shall not be disinvested and NRL will be moved out of BPCL before the disinvestment and acquired by another PSU.

Sitharaman had said in an interview last week the government would wrap up the sale of the fuel retailer by March 2020.

As MRC wrote before, in August 2019, Sumitomo Chemical signed an agreement with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) of India for licensing its propylene oxide (PO) production technology in connection with the petrochemical project which BPCL is conducting.

BPCL is one of the leading government-owned oil companies in India, with a total production capacity of approximately 840,000 barrels a day of crude oil from its four refinery complexes in India. BPCL aims to enter into the petrochemicals market by carrying out a large-scale petrochemical project adjacent to its refinery complex at Kochi in the state of Kerala. The project includes construction of new plants for PO and polyols. For PO production, a decision has been made to adopt Sumitomo Chemical's proprietary technology. From now on, BPCL will conduct front-end engineering design and detailed engineering for the new PO plant, which will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons upon its completion targeted in 2022.

Propylene is a feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP)/

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PP production rose to about 1,163,200 tonnes in the first ten months of 2018, up by 1.3% year on year. Three producers out of seven reduced the capacity utilisation.
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Asia distillates—Gasoil cracks gain, cash premiums crawl up

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian refining margins for 10-ppm gasoil climbed on Wednesday, while cash premiums for the industrial and transportation fuel inched higher amid a slight uptick in buying interests in the physical market, Reuters.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10-ppm gasoil rose to USD14.80/bbl over Dubai crude during Asian trade, up from USD14.66/bbl on Tuesday.

Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore, which have dropped about 11% in the last four weeks, were currently about 1% lower than their seasonal average for this time of the year in the last three years, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The gasoil market would likely bottom out sometime soon as some refinery run cuts are underway, which would help tighten supplies to an extent, a trader said on Wednesday.

Cash premiums for gasoil with 10 ppm sulfur content were at USD0.18/bbl to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, USD0.02/bbl higher from a day earlier.

The front-month time spread for 10-ppm gasoil widened by USD0.05 to trade at a premium of USD0.20/bbl on Wednesday, Refinitiv data showed. Meanwhile, cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of USD0.61/bbl to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, compared with a discount of USD0.62/bbl on Tuesday.

Jet fuel cracks eased to USD14.15/bbl over Dubai crude on Wednesday, compared with USD14.21/bbl in the previous session. Fujairah stocks. Middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone fell 14.1% from a week earlier to 3 MMbbl in the week to Nov. 25, data via S&P Global Platts showed.

Stocks of middle distillates in the Fujairah oil hub have averaged 2.2 MMbbl so far in 2019, Reuters calculations showed. This compares with a weekly average of 2.8 MMbbl in 2018. Compared with year-ago levels, weekly Fujairah middle distillate stocks were 34.5% higher.

API inventory data. U.S. crude stocks rose last week while gasoline inventories increased and distillate stocks fell, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday. Crude inventories rose by 3.6 MMbbl in the week to Nov. 22 to 449.6 MMbbl, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 418,000 bbl.

Distillate fuels stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 665,000 bbl, compared with expectations for a 750,000-bbl gain, the API data showed.

As MRC informed earlier, oversupply condition in the Asian butadiene market is likely to be offset by a possible export cut from the US after a fire hit the TPC Group's Port Neches butadiene and raffinate petrochemical plant east of Houston, Texas.

Located adjacent to the Sabine Neches River, a part of the Sabine Neches Waterway, TPC's Port Neches plant can produce more than 900 million lb (426,000 mt) of butadiene and raffinate a year, according to the company's website. A source familiar with company's operations said the site has two butadiene lines with capacities of 166,000 mt/year and 260,000 mt/year.

Butadiene is one of the feedstocks for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Asia, the falling prices of feedstocks for ABS production have been pushing prices of material down in the Russian market. LG Chem's import prices for November quantities were as follows for Russian buyers: natural ABS - at USD1,400-1,420/tonne FOB Korea, black ABS - at USD1,610-1,630/tonne FOB Korea, white ABS - at USD1,640-1,660/tonne FOB Korea. December prices may drop by another USD30-50/tonn.
Natural grades of Korean ABS went down to Rb138,000-143,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in the domestic market in mid-November, whereas black ABS was offered at Rb156,000-160,000/tonne and white ABS - at Rb158,000-163,000/tonne CPT Moscow , including VAT.
MRC