Enterprise isobutane dehydrogenation plant starts production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enterprise Products Partners (EPP; Houston, Texas) has started operations at its 425,000-metric tons/year isobutane dehydrogenation plant at Mont Belvieu, Texas, said Chemweek.

Volumes are expected to continue ramping up over the next two weeks at the facility, which is supported by long-term, fee-based contracts with customers, says EPP. The plant will ultimately be able to process approximately 25,000 b/d of butane into 425,000 metric tons/year of isobutylene.

The isobutylene produced by the plant will provide the necessary feedstock to fully utilize the capacity of EPP’s methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and high-purity isobutylene assets and meet growing market demand, says the company. US supplies of isobutylene have decreased as a result of the increased use by steam crackers of lighter feedstocks, specifically ethane, instead of crude oil derivatives, it says.

The completion of the new facility “extends our butane value chain by allowing us to increase production of both high-purity and low-purity isobutylene to be used primarily as feedstock to manufacture lubricants, rubber products, and fuel additives,” says CEO Jim Teague. The project was completed on time and under budget, he says.

EPP’s second propane dehydrogenation plant, currently under construction at the same site, is on schedule for completion in the first half of 2023, he adds.

The isobutane dehydrogenation plant, which is using Honeywell’s Oleflex technology, was built by construction contractor Optimized Process Designs. The project was announced by EPP in January 2017.

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

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp Chief Executive Michael Wirth told CNBC that the oil markets remain well-supplied despite recent escalation of tensions between the US and Iran after the death of Iran’s military commander Qassem Soleimani in a US air strike, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Fundamentally supply and demand remain where they were before these incidents," Wirth said in the interview.

"We haven’t seen anything that’s actually changed that," Wirth said. "They see the geopolitical risk, but we’ve been in a well supplied market, and that’s what the general view continues to be."

As MRC wrote before, US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

We also remind that in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, part of Chevron Corp, successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French energy major Total has postponed the restart of a distillation unit at its 220,000-barrel-per-day Donges refinery until Friday due to a nationwide strike over planned pensions reform, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Total, which operates five of France’s seven refineries, said shipments of refined products from Donges were suspended on Tuesday for 72 hours due to the strike action.

It said production was continuing at its other refineries - Normandy, Grandpuits, Feyzin and La Mede - but shipments of refined products from refineries to depots were on hold.

Total halted the distillation unit at Donges on the west coast of France on Sunday due to lack of oil supply after a blockade by port workers prevented crude deliveries to the refinery.

A union official said earlier on Wednesday that workers had voted to prolong the strike at the refinery.

French energy sector workers have said they will intensify actions in the sector this week to pressure the government to drop the planned reform.

Separately, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a speech that public transport unions’ strikes against the pension reform “will go nowhere, the government is determined".

Workers and national railway SNCF and Paris metro RATP have been on strike since Dec. 5, causing severe disruption in the longest transport walkout for decades.

As MRC informed before, in November 2019, Total disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Oil HBP Science & Technology has clinched the bid for a natural gas processing plant project with an annual capacity of 1 billion cubic meters in the Kashagan Oilfield in Kazakhstan at a price of USD242 million, HBP said in a statement, as per Yicaiglobal.

Beijing-based international oil and gas service contractor HBP's stock price jumped to the daily 10 percent limit this afternoon when it hit CNY3.39 (USD0.49), up 8.31 percent.

HBP will provide the project owner Gas Processing Company with a detailed project design and all skid-mounted equipment, along with an on-site guide to equipment installation and project commissioning services. The project will last two years, per the statement.

The Kashagan Oilfield is a massive oil and gas deposit in Kazakhstan's Caspian oil and gas basin believed to be the biggest such find in the world in 30 years. The oil reserve amounts to 38 billion barrels, while the natural gas is 1 trillion cubic meters. The processing projects will solve the problem of gas being wasted through torch combustion and recycle resources.

The processing plant is the first phase of the project, and the second-phase currently under planning will raise capacity to 4 billion cubic meters in the future, per the statement.

QAZAQ Business Group, the parent company of the project owner Gas Processing Company, owns gas supply networks in 10 of Kazakhstan's 14 states, per the statement.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) - Belarus Mozyr refinery has not yet received oil deliveries from Russia in January 2020, Interfax agency reported citing an oil industry source, said Reuters.

Oil supplies from Russia to Belarus have been partly restored on Jan. 4, but are going only to the Naftan refinery, while Mozyr refinery is not receiving pipeline crude oil from Russia, the source said.

The Gutseriyev family’s Russneft and Neftisa were only companies to restore supplies to Belarus late on Jan. 4, while others try and reach an agreement on new supply terms with state-run Belneftekhim, which controls Belarus’ two refineries.

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

MRC