JXTG Nippon Oil restarts of Mizushima FCC unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy has brought on-stream its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit early last week, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan, informed that, the company has resumed operations at its unit, on November 19, 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.

As MRC reported earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy conducted maintenance works at its FCC unit at Sendai, Japan from June 10, 2019, to early-August, 2019. Located at Sendai, Japan, the FCC unit has a propylene capacity of 100,000 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 was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A major explosion and fire hit the TPC Group's Port Neches petrochemical plant east of Houston, Texas, early Wednesday, reported S&P Global with reference to local media reports.

Video footage of a large fireball exploding has been posted on social media and local firefighters have evacuated an area around the plant, according to the Nederland Volunteer Fire Department.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

Located adjacent to the Sabine Neches River, the Port Neches plant can produce more than 900 million pounds (408,233 mt) of butadiene and raffinate a year, according to the company's website.

Raffinate is a chemical building block used in the manufacture of MTBE and diisobutylene. Butadiene is a raw material used in the production of a wide variety of synthetic rubbers and polymer resins.

The infrastructure at the 218-acre Texas site includes include pipelines, barges, rail and tank cars.

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.

Headquartered in Houston, TPC was acquired in 2012 by private equity groups First Reserve and SK Capital.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhong Tian He Chuang Energy, a joint venture of Sinopec and China Coal Energy Group, has restarted its low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit following an unplanned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on November 18, 2019. The unit was shut on November 6, 2019 owing to a technical glitch.

Located at Ordos in Inner Mongolia, China, the LDPE unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Zhong Tian He Chuang took off-stream LDPE unit in Ordos in early-April, 2019 owing to a technical glitch. Further details on duration of an unplanned outage could not be ascertained. Located at Ordos in Inner Mongolia, China, the LDPE unit has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's September estimated low density polyethylene (LDPE) consumption grew to 47,980 tonnes from 43,390 tonnes a month earlier. PE shipments from Belarus increased significantly, whereas exports decreased. Kazanorgsintez had fully resumed its LDPE production by 24 October after the shutdown for a scheduled turnaround. The estimated LDPE consumption in Russia totalled 429,720 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Some producers' LDPE production decreased, whereas imports rose by 16%.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries has confirmed plans to invest 700 billion Indian rupees (USD9.75 billion) to establish a crude-oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex at the company's Jamnagar, India, according to Chemweek.

In an application to India's environment ministry, the company states that it plans to leverage the operations of its existing Jamnagar refinery and gasification assets, as a future growth platform to maximize the production of petrochemicals. The company is proposing to develop a total area of 2,000 acres adjacent to its world-scale facilities at Jamnagar to build the COTC complex.

Reliance plans to establish COTC units including a multi-feed steam cracker and multi-zone catalytic cracking (MCC) unit. The plan is also to convert the Jamnagar site's existing fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit to a high-severity FCC (HSFCC) or Petro FCC unit, to maximize ethylene and propylene yields.

The MCC/HSFCC complex will have combined capacity for 8.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene and propylene, and total extraction capacity for 3.5 MMt/y of benzene, toluene, and xylenes. It will also have combined capacity for 4.0 MMt/y of para-xylene (p-xylene) and ortho-xylene.

The steam cracker will have combined capacity for 4.1 MMt/y of ethylene and propylene, and feed crude C4s to a 700,000-metric tons/year butadiene extraction plant. Reliance will also add 1.3 MMt/y of p-xylene capacity at existing plants at Jamnagar.

Derivative plants will make an extensive range of products across the C1-4 and C6 value chains. In the C1 chain, the complex will produce acetic acid, with a capacity of 3MMt/y; acetic anhydride, 750,000 metric tons/year; ethyl acetate, 1.5 MMt/y; vinyl acetate monomer, 1 MMt/y; polyvinyl alcohol, 150,000 metric tons/year; formic acid, 400,000 metric tons/year; dimethyl ether, 2.7 MMt/y; polyketone, 350,000 metric tons/year; isononyl alcohol, 300,000 metric tons/year; methyl methacrylate, 700,000 metric tons/year; polymethyl methacrylate, 350,000 metric tons/year; methanol, 3.6 MMt/year; ethanol, 500,000 metric tons/year; and urea, 2.6 MMt/y.

Reliance says that in the C2 value chain, it plans to manufacture polyethylene, with a capacity of 3 MMt/y; vinyl chloride monomer and polyvinyl chloride, 4.5 MMt/y; and ethylene-propylene diene monomer rubber, 240,000 metric tons/year.

In the C3 chain, the complex will produce acrylic acid (AA), with a capacity of 720,000 metric tons/year; glacial AA, 150,000 metric tons/year; oxo-alcohols, 740,000 metric tons/year; acrylates, 800,000 metric tons/year; cumene, 1.5 MMt/y; phenol, 1 MMt/y; acetone, 620,000 metric tons/year; bisphenol A, 500,000 metric tons/year; polycarbonate, 600,000 metric tons/year; isopropyl alcohol, 250,000 metric tons/year; propylene oxide, 1 MMt/y; propylene glycol, 800,000 metric tons/year; and polypropylene, 5.2 MMt/year.

Reliance also aims to produce polybutadiene rubber, with a capacity of 280,000 metric tons/year and solution-styrene butadiene rubber, 6.5 MMt/y in the C4 value chain. In the C6 category, it intends to manufacture styrene and polystyrene, with capacity of 1 MMt/y; carbon black, 600,000 metric tons/year; and polyphenylene sulfide, 315,000 metric tons/year.

Reliance said in August that Saudi Aramco had decided to pay USD15 billion for a 20% stake, based on an enterprise value of USD75 billion, in Reliance's refining and chemicals business, which has been renamed the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) division. This would be one of the largest foreign investments ever made in India. A definitive agreement between Aramco and Reliance is expected to be signed by 31 March 2020. CW also learned in August that Reliance and Aramco would form a joint venture to build the COTC complex at Jamnagar.

Reliance's strategy is to transform the Jamnagar refinery from a producer of fuels to chemicals. The company ultimately wants to achieve a rate of more than 70% in the conversion of crude to olefins and aromatics.

A "tsunami of COTC projects" is on the way in Asia and expected to have a profoundly disruptive impact on the chemicals market because of the projects' sheer size and conversion capability, said R.J. Chang, vice president/Process Economic Program at IHS Markit at the 7th Annual Asia Chemical Conference, held earlier this month in Singapore. These projects can increase the yield of petchem conversion per barrel of oil to 40–60% from the 20% of traditional, well-integrated refinery-petchem complexes, Chang said.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- One of Formosa Plastics' two new polyethylene (PE) plants at its Texas complex is operational, with the second plant and a new 1.5 million mt/year cracker to follow next month, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's statement.

The operational 400,000 mt/year plant can swing between making high density and linear low density polyethylene (HDPE & LLDPE), and the company completed the initial startup in August, according to an updated schedule of projects released late Monday.

Meanwhile, the company's new 400,000 mt/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant is undergoing commissioning and projected to start up next month, along with the new 1.5 million mt/year cracker.

The three plants are part of the first wave of new US petrochemical infrastructure to emerge from the domestic natural gas shale boom, and among the last of 13 new PE plants and eight new crackers to come online from 2017 through the end of this year.

Other plants within that first wave slated to start up by the year-end include Shintech's new 500,000 mt/year cracker at its Plaquemine, Louisiana, complex; Sasol's new 420,000 mt/year LDPE plant at its Lake Charles, Louisiana, complex; and LyondellBasell's new 550,000 mt/year HDPE facility in La Porte, Texas.

Formosa's schedule also said its new 250,000 mt/year polypropylene expansion at Point Comfort will come online in the third quarter of 2021, a year later than what the company had announced in December 2018.

A 130,077 mt/year polyvinyl chloride expansion at the company's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, operations remains in "detailed engineering design" and is slated for steady commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said.

As MRC informed before, in October 2019, Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp reduced its October average run rate at the 540,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Mailiao refinery to about 70% from more than 87% due to maintenance.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC