HDPE imports in Belarus rose by 24% in 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall high density polyethylene (HDPE) imports into Belarus decreased in 2019 by 24% year on year, reaching 68,500 tonnes. The main increase in supplies accounted on the Ukrainian producer, according to MRC's DataScope report.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, PE imports to Belarus rose slightly in December 2019 to 6,600 tonnes from 6,300 tonnes a month earlier. Overall HDPE imports totalled 68,500 tonnes in 2019 versus 55,500 tonnes a year earlier. Such an increase in imports was partially caused by the further resale of PE to Russia.

The key suppliers of HDPE remained producers from Russia, the total volume of imports exceeded 24,200 tonnes against 30,200 tonnes a year earlier. The second largest supplier was the Ukrainian producer, the total supply amounted to slightly more than 24,100 tonnes against 12,200 tonnes a year earlier. The third largest producer from Saudi Arabia with a key position - pipe polyethylene.

Overall Middle Eastern HDPE imports totalled 6,500 tonnes in 2019 versus 4,100 tonnes a year earlier. It is also worth noting that over the past year, more than 20,400 tonnes of HDPE were reimported from Belarus against 10,000 tonnes a year earlier.
MRC

MOscow (MRC) -- Burckhardt Compression is cooperating with GRZ Technologies, a spin-off of Laboratory of Materials for Renewable Energy from EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, to develop a new hydrogen compression technology, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

It will be deployed in hydrogen fuel stations, hydrogen energy storage systems and other applications and will make use of thermal active metal hydrides. Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier that offers carbon-neutral energy for industry and mobility.

The Static Hydrogen Compressor from Burckhardt Compression operates without moving parts but with thermal active metal hydrides. The Static Hydrogen Compressor is based on the GRZ’s HYCO laboratory scale metal hydrides compression solution that is already in use for small amounts of hydrogen. Burckhardt Compression will scale up the solution for the new, strongly developing market of hydrogen re-fueling stations and hydrogen energy storage systems. These compressors operate with metal hydrides and will be designed for high-pressure solutions of 200, 350 and 700 bar.

The noise and vibration-free compressor is hermetically sealed from the environment and therefore operates without any gas leakage and can be used in sensitive areas. As the compressor is also completely oil-free, it can be used for hydrogen energy storage purposes too. Furthermore, thanks to its minimal moving parts design, this new compressor technology will be low maintenance.

“The increasing demand for gases like hydrogen as a carbon-neutral energy source creates promising market opportunities for Burckhardt Compression. We are therefore monitoring and exploring these developments very closely and initiating research activities in the relevant areas of application at such an early stage,” says Marcel Pawlicek, CEO Burckhardt Compression.

As MRC infromed earlier, Saudi Aramco and Air Products inaugurated the first hydrogen fueling station in Saudi Arabia at Air Products’ new Technology Center in the Dhahran Techno Valley Science Park. The pilot station will fuel an initial fleet of six Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicles with high-purity compressed hydrogen.

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) -- Siemens was awarded a contract to supply three boil-off compressor (BOG) packages for Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG Project, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new LNG export facility, Calcasieu Pass, is currently under construction in southwestern Louisiana’s Cameron Parish, approximately 50 miles south of Lake Charles. Once fully commissioned, the facility is expected to produce 10 MTPA of clean liquefied natural gas that will be exported to global markets.

The LNG project is implemented by Venture Global Calcasieu Pass, LLC, a subsidiary of Venture Global LNG, Inc., a Gulf Coast LNG developer. Engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPC) are contracted to Kiewit, who selected Siemens in connection with the balance of plant scope.

Siemens’ scope of supply covers the engineering, manufacturing and testing of two centrifugal BOG compression packages and one reciprocating BOG compression package. All compressors will be directly driven by electric motors.

"Siemens has a long track record of providing cryogenic boil-off gas compressors for the LNG industry worldwide,” said Matthew Russell, Executive Vice President of LNG for Siemens. “The Calcasieu Pass LNG Project involves an innovative modular, mid-scale configuration that enables Venture Global to produce low-cost LNG with a shorter construction schedule. Siemens was able to tailor a custom solution with added flexibility to match the EPC’s project schedule and start-up sequence."

Site construction is underway, and the compression trains are expected to ship in summer and fall 2020.

As MRC informed earlier, 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. 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.

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) -- PetroChina's Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will shut for an overall maintenance over March 25-May 25, for around two months, reported S&P Global.

As MRC informed before, Asia's largest oil and gas firm PetroChina resumed construction of its oil refinery and petrochemical project in southern Chinese province of Guangdong, as the number of new coronavirus cases fell for a second straight day.

We also remind that Sichuan Petrochemical (part of PetroChina) undertook an emergency shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Sichuan province of China on July 11, 2018 owing to a gas leak at its natural gas supply pipeline. Further details on duration of the outage could not be ascertained. Located at Sichuan province of China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 800,000 mt/year.

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

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Opponents of Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ bankruptcy plan have vowed a long legal fight if a federal court this week approves a sale that would keep the largest East Coast oil refinery permanently shut while paying out bonuses to company executives, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A June fire at the 335,000 barrel-per-day PES refinery led the company to file for bankruptcy and shut the plant over the summer, laying off more than 1,000 workers and ending long-standing ties with dozens of businesses. The refinery endured years of financial trouble, hurt by poor access to U.S. crude oil production and heavy costs of complying with federal laws on blending biofuels with gasoline.

The PES plan to exit bankruptcy includes a USD240 million sale of the refinery to a real estate developer, Hilco Redevelopment Partners. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware is scheduled to consider the plan on Wednesday.

Former contractors and worker unions, who are among the long list of unsecured creditors in the case, want the refinery to re-open. Even if the court approves the deal, they are asking the decision to be put on hold pending an appeal, court filings show.

If the court rejects the plan, the unsecured creditors said they would seek mediation or ask the court to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case into a liquidation bankruptcy, hoping they can gain some of the sale proceeds.

They also oppose the proposed bonuses to PES executives. The unsecured creditors “may never receive a penny and executives who oversaw the disaster walk away from the cases filthy rich,” the group said in filings.

The unions and other unsecured creditors are pushing for PES to sell to a company that would restart the refinery operation. Another real estate developer, Industrial Realty Group, may present a plan at Wednesday’s hearing to purchase the PES site and lease it for refinery operations, the filings said.

PES, in its response to the objection on Monday, said no credible bidder has emerged with the intention to resume plant operations. Market conditions and damage from the fire also worked against resurrecting the refinery, PES attorneys said.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies have objected to aspects of the proposal, though not to the sale itself. Sunoco Holdings, which once owned the refinery, is objecting to other aspects of the plan.

As MRC informed earlier, one of Texas’ oil and gas regulators defended the state’s high rate of natural gas flaring, but named companies that burn off the most gas and said he would hold public meetings on the controversial practice. Flaring, or deliberately burning gas produced alongside oil, has surged with crude production in Texas, but can worsen climate change by releasing carbon dioxide. The report includes a set of flaring and venting data to be updated quarterly, the first set of such data the state has released.

As MRC informed earlier, U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips has seized products belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA from the Isla refinery it runs on Curacao. Conoco has won court orders allowing it to seize PDVSA assets on Caribbean islands, including Curacao, in efforts to collect on a USD2 billion arbitral award linked to the 2007 nationalization of Conoco assets under late leader Hugo Chavez.

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).
MRC