Motiva Port Arthur, Texas, refinery restarts FCC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises has restarted production on the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 607,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

The company also completed a catalyst change on the 105,000-bpd hydrocracker on Wednesday, the sources.

Motiva declined comment.

The 81,000-bpd FCC was placed on circulation on Monday after a leak developed from a nozzle on the unit’s fractionator, the sources said.

Energy industry intelligence service Genscape reported flaring at the hydrocracker on June 5, indicating work under way on the unit.

As MRC informed earlier, Motiva is evaluating opportunities to build a new polyethylene (PE) line within its proposed steam cracker and aromatics project in Jefferson County, Texas. The new PE capacity will be located at the company’s Port Arthur Refinery Complex in Jefferson County, Texas. The planned capacity of the unit was not specified, while the value of the project is reportedly estimated at around USD3.1 billion.

Besides, in late 2019, Motiva Enterprises acquired 100% of Flint Hills Resources chemical plant, adjacent to its Port Arthur, Texas, oil refinery. The Flint Hills plant operates a 1.57 billion-pound-per-year ethylene cracker, a unit producing nylon component cyclohexane, and a network of pipelines and storage caverns. Saudi Aramco, in its IPO prospectus, said the cash payment will be determined as per the project value at SAR 7.13 billion (USD1.9 billion).

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Motiva Enterprises, LLC, is a fully owned affiliate of Saudi Refining Inc. and headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States with revenue of USD24 billion. Previously, it was a 50–50 joint venture between Shell Oil Company (the wholly owned American subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. (controlled by Saudi Aramco).
MRC

Solvay new hydrogen peroxide dilution, packing plant starts up in Vietnam

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay Peroxides Vietnam started production at its new Hydrogen Peroxide dilution and packing plant at Phuc Long Industrial Zone in Long An Province, Vietnam, said Chemweek.

This facility is designed to reach 24k ton capacity per year to meet growing local demand for international standard quality Hydrogen Peroxide for the textile industry and other applications.

Being the first industrial facility based in Vietnam of the Solvay group, this plant was built and made operational in full alignment with the group’s Health Safety & environmental standards. High quality Hydrogen Peroxides are supplied by Solvay Peroxythai, our world largest plant in Thailand and diluted and packed to customer requirements locally.

“With this new plant we are aiming at better serving our customers in Vietnam. To support sustainability and circular economy, the use of returnable packaging has been implemented with our distributors and customers. This action allows customers to minimize the non core operation of managing used packaging.” said Suthichai Srihawan, General Manager of Solvay Peroxides Vietnam.

As MRC informed earlier, Solvay SA said it will close two plants making composites for Airbus SE and Boeing Co. in a sign the deepening aerospace crisis is hitting suppliers of even the latest aircraft materials. The Belgian chemical maker is adding to savings achieved in the past year following the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max.

As MRC informed earlier, Russia's output of products from polymers grew in April 2020 by 11.2% year on year due to quarantine restrictions. However, this figure increased by 3.4% year on year in the first four months of 2020. According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, April production of unreinforced and non-combined films decreased to 107,000 tonnes from 110,400 tonnes a month earlier. Output of films products grew in the first four months of 2020 by 12.5% year on year to 402,800 tonnes.

Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 24,100 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet plan crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €10.2 billion in 2019. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program.
MRC

Saudi Arabia crude exports rose to 10.237 million bpd in April

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in April rose to 10.237 million barrels per day (bpd) from 7.391 million bpd in March, reported Reuters with reference to official data.

The country’s crude output rose by 2.274 mln bpd to 12.007 mln bpd in April, the official figures showed. Exports rose by 2.846 mln bpd to 10.237 mln bpd in April, while crude stocks fell 12.747 mln bbl to 143.502 mln barrels in April.

Saudi domestic refinery crude throughput fell 0.128 mln bpd in April to 1.84 mln bpd, while direct crude burn rose 76,000 bpd in April to 355,000 bpd.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), which published them on its website.

OPEC and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to a record supply cut that started on May 1 to support prices and demand hit by the coronavirus crisis.

The supply pact involves OPEC+ cutting output by 9.7 million barrels per day in May and June. The group agreed on June 6 to extend the cut for another month.

The latest supply pact followed the collapse of a previous agreement on supply in March, after which Saudi Arabia opened the taps in a battle for market share.

In April, on average the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 30.25 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a Reuters survey published that month, up 1.61 million bpd from a revised March figure.

As MRC wrote previously, Saudi Aramco on June 17 said it completed the share acquisition of a 70% stake in petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, or SABIC, from the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, for a total purchase price of Riyal 259.125 billion (USD69.1 billion). However, the transaction terms have been changed to increase the timeline over which Aramco makes the payments by almost three years. An upfront cash payment of 36% of the deal value has also been eliminated from the deal.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

Beijing outbreak dampens oil demand, but government response key

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The reemergence of COVID-19 cases in Beijing is expected to dampen oil demand as flights are canceled, schools shut and neighborhood lockdowns initiated, but the extent of demand destruction for both oil and gas will depend on how swiftly the government is able to contain the spread and which sectors are most seriously impacted, said S&P Global.

For now, the measures taken by the government seem moderate, but effective.

Some provinces are tightening checks on people and vehicles from Beijing, but no stricter measures are implemented at the national level, S&P Global Platts said in a report June 16.

The negative impact on China's oil demand is minimal for now and the government's quick response should be reassuring for the LNG market, as the prospect of another COVID-19 lockdown in China would have a significant negative global impact, the report said.

We remind that, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

Dutch business coalition, including AkzoNobel, calls for sustainable COVID-19 recovery plan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel, together with the other members of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC), a CEO-led coalition of eight Dutch multinational corporations, has endorsed sustainability as the cornerstone of COVID-19 recovery plans at a national and EU level, said Chemweek.

DSGC is calling on the Dutch government to endorse the EU Green Deal as one of the cornerstones of the EU's recovery plan, and build a COVID-19 recovery plan around an investment schedule that firmly puts the Dutch economy on the path of realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreements, AkzoNobel says.

DSGC wants to draw on the recent partnerships and collaborations between Dutch enterprises and the government to tackle COVID-19, to address future challenges where public and private partnerships are key such as risks associated with climate change and loss of biodiversity, according to the coalition. “We look forward to continuing our collaborative work with the Dutch and EU governments to further embed sustainability so we can maximize our contribution to the SDG agenda. Together, we can make this possible,” says Thierry Vanlancker, CEO at AkzoNobel.

The coalition is chaired by Jan Peter Balkenende, supported by the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers and facilitated by Accenture. It is committed to sustainability as a leading business-modeling principle, and believes that focusing on social responsibility and climate action through the lens of the SDGs could reinforce economies worldwide, mitigate climate risks, and create the foundations for future sustainability-driven growth and a more inclusive society, AkzoNobel says.

As it was written before, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings.

As MRC informed earlier, BASF would expand the capacity of ethylene oxide and ethylene oxide derivatives at its Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. The total investment adds about 400 000 tpy to BASF’s production capacity for the corresponding products with an expected investment amount exceeding EUR500 million.

Ethylene is a feedstock for producing polyethylene (PE).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people. Established in 1992 and specializing in sustainable water-based and advanced eco-friendly products, Mapaero operates a production facility in France and has around 140 employees.
MRC