SIBUR plans to build a gas processing plant near Kazan

MOSCOW (MRC) - SIBUR will develop a feasibility study for the construction of a gas processing plant near Kazan by July 2020, Kommersant writes.

Based on the feasibility study, the company's shareholders will decide on the construction of the enterprise.

Leonid Alekhin, senior project manager of SIBUR Holding, does not disclose the proposed location of the enterprise, production volumes and final products. "There are gas pipelines through which gas can be supplied to the gas processing plant. The plant will start to extract ethane from the pipeline gas mixture and a wide fraction of light hydrocarbons - the most valuable raw materials for gas processing. Shareholders will decide what to do with NGL, whether to divide it into fractions or not, and ethane should “Dry gas will be returned to the pipeline and will be used later," he said.

SIBUR is the leader of the Russian petrochemical industry and one of the largest global companies in the sector with more than 23 thousand employees. In 2019, SIBUR's revenue amounted to USD8.2 billion, EBITDA - USD2.6 billion.

Over the past 10 years, SIBUR has implemented a number of large-scale investment projects worth about 1 trillion rubles. Every year, the company directs at least 70% of EBITDA to finance the investment program, while maintaining a balanced debt burden.

Earlier it was reported that SIBUR Holding on March 25 will early pay off bonds of the 12th series for 10 billion rubles. In particular, SIBUR Holding PJSC decided to early repay the 12th series bonds in the amount of 10 billion rubles, the company said. The repayment will take place on March 25, at the end date of the 7th coupon period.

SIBUR Holding PJSC is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe with full coverage of the industry cycle from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to plastics processing. The main shareholder of SIBUR Leonid Mikhelson controls 48.48% of the company, Gennady Timchenko - 17%, Kirill Shamalov - 3.88%, the current and former management of the company (including SIBUR chairman of the board Dmitry Konov and head of Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov) - 10.6%, Chinese Sinopec and the Silk Road Fund - 10% each.
MRC

Fire put out at PBF Delaware City refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PBF Energy said a fire that occurred at one operating unit at its Delaware City, Delaware, refinery on Wednesday has been extinguished and two employees are being treated for injuries, reported Reuters.

According to energy intelligence service Genscape, the fire is believed to have occurred at the 182,200 barrel-per-day refinery’s alkylation unit.

The refinery was expected to shut its alkylation unit in February-March 2020 for maintenance, according to a source familiar with the plant’s operations.

The company said the fire was reported around 1:40 p.m. EDT and all employees and contractors have been accounted for.

The cause of the fire was unknown and an investigation will be conducted, PBF said in an emailed response.

"Ambulances, medics and two medevac helicopters responded to the scene for reported injuries," said a local media report.

A Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) camera showed "thick, black smoke with embedded flames shooting from the ground and also from a nearby smokestack," according to the report.

As MRC wrote before, US refiner PBF Energy has completed its acquisition of Shell’s 157,000 bbl/day Martinez refinery near San Francisco, California. The USD1bn deal, agreed in June 2019, was completed effective 1 February 2020.

We also remind that Shell Singapore restarted its naphtha cracker in Bukom Island in early December 2019, following a two months maintenance shutdown since the beginning of October 2019. Thus, this cracker was taken off-stream for the turnaround on 1 October 2019. The cracker is able to produce 960,000 tons/year of ethylene and 550,000 tons/year of propylene.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC

Versalis operations unaffected by Italian emergency measures

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations at Italian petrochemical producer Versalis have not affected by emergency quarantine measures in the country, reported S&P Global with reference to a company spokesperson's statement Thursday.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended its emergency coronavirus measures Wednesday evening and announced the closure of "non-essential" commercial businesses. This follows the announcement of a nationwide lockdown on Monday, limiting movement for around 60 million people. Under these measures people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work or health reasons.

Factories can operate as long as safety protocols are in place, Conte told a press conference.

"Versalis (Eni) confirms that operations are being carried on regularly. Since the emergency outbreak, the company has promptly put in place all necessary measures to protect its personnel's health," the company told S&P Global Platts in a statement.

"The progress of the epidemic is being monitored in order to continue to guarantee maximum health and safety protection of all employees," the statement continued.

Versalis has three steam crackers in Italy, capable of producing 1.675 million mt of ethylene, 750,000 of propylene and 285,000 mt of butadiene a year.

As MRC informed earlier, Versalis shut its cracking unit in Priolo, Sicily, for repairs in the last days of December, 2019. The capacity of the cracking unit at this complex is 490,000 tonnes of ethylene and 130,000 tonnes of propylene per year. The maintenance works lasted until February 2020. Loading at this cracker was reduced in November and December 2019.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

Versalis is a petrochemical company, a 100% subsidiary of the Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA. The company produces a wide range of petrochemical products, and is also one of the world's leading elastomer companies.
Eni spa (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) is an Italian oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. Eni operates in 70 countries.
MRC

SHARQ restarts No. 4 MEG plant in Jubail

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s SHARQ, or Eastern Petrochemical Company, has resumed operations at its No.4 monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant, according to Polymerupdate.

A Polymerupdate source in Saudi Arabia informed that, the company brought on-stream this plant following a maintenance turnaround in early March 2020. The plant was shut on February 6, 2020.

Located at Jubail in Saudi Arabia, the No. 4 MEG plant has a production capacity of 700,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, SHARQ shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) lines for a two-month turnaround in January 2020. Located in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, each of the two PE lines has a production capacity of 400,000 tons/year. The precise duration of the shutdown was not available at the time of press.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

As per MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's PET consumption increased in January 2020 by 9% year on year. Totally Russia recycled 55,390 tonnes of PET chips in January (these data do not take into account the shipment of Russian material to the countries of the Customs Union).
MRC

Versalis joins the Circular Plastics Alliance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Versalis, Eni's chemicals company, has joined the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) to actively contribute achieving the ambitious European target of using 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic in new products by 2025, said Eni on its site.

The aim of the Alliance, promoted by the European Commission, with numerous member companies and associations across the value chain, is to boost plastic recycling in Europe and at the same time develop the market for secondary raw materials.

By joining CPA, Versalis has submitted its voluntary pledges in line with its circular economy strategy that is defined by three main pillars: eco-design, recycling technologies and alternative feedstocks.

With regard to eco-design, Versalis has committed to using at least half of its packaging, for transporting products on pallets and in containers, with up to 50% of recycled material.

In the recycling and feedstock diversification areas, Versalis has committed to increasing the production capacity of Versalis Revive®, its new line of polyethylene and polystyrene products, to contain up to 70% of mechanically recycled plastic.

Furthermore, to boost the recovery and recycling of all types of plastics that cannot be mechanically treated, Versalis has pledged to develop a new chemical recycling technology to transform mixed plastic waste into raw material to manufacture new virgin polymers, identical to those originating from fossil sources and suitable for all applications, including those that require high quality and performance, like food packaging.

Versalis’ pledges also include assessments conducted by certified life cycle analysis (LCA) to prove the effective sustainability of all the initiatives undertaken, in addition to raising awareness of the responsible use of plastics in daily activities amongst its employees.

As MRC reported earlier, Versalis is embarking on a wide-reaching transformation that could see its sales of intermediates and plastics drop from around 5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) currently to 4 MMt/y by 2035 and to about 3 MMt/y by 2050.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

Versalis is a petrochemical company, a 100% subsidiary of the Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA. The company produces a wide range of petrochemical products, and is also one of the world's leading elastomer companies.
Eni spa (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) is an Italian oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. Eni operates in 70 countries.
MRC