Air Liquide to build, own, operate ASU plant in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide has entered into a long-term supply agreement with NLMK Group (Moscow) that will see it invest around EUR100 million (USD114 million) in the steel producer’s site at Lipetsk, Russia, on the construction of a new air separation unit (ASU) and the acquisition of existing hydrogen and rare gases production units, said Chemweek.

Air Liquide says it will design, build, own, and operate the ASU, which will have a production capacity of 1,000 metric tons/day of oxygen, with the plant expected to start up in 2023. The company will also take over the hydrogen and rare gases production units at NLMK’s flagship site “in the coming months,” it says. The project also provides a growth base for Air Liquide’s industrial merchant activity in one of the largest industrial merchant markets in the Moscow region, and adds reliable sourcing of rare gases for its customers worldwide, it adds.

As MRC wrote before, in late December 2019, Air Liquide Philippines and Pilipinas Shell signed a long-term contract for a supply of Hydrogen to Shell’s Tabangao refinery in Batangas, Philippines. The new venture will secure for the Tabangao refinery a continuous supply of Hydrogen for its processing needs.

We 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 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. refineries have sustained fewer mechanical outages as production has fallen because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, according to data from energy intelligence service Industrial Info Resources, said Hydrocarbonprocessinmg.

Average unplanned mechanical maintenance for crude units resulted in 95,000 barrels of capacity offline in April, May and June, compared with 254,000 barrels offline on average in the prior-year period. Because of reduced travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. refinery utilization fell from record highs to 68% of 19 million barrels per day in April. Utilization rose to 78.1% by the first week of July.

"Running units at higher capacity for many years requires more maintenance," said Sandy Fielden, energy analyst at financial services firm Morningstar. Prior to the pandemic, U.S. energy and chemical production was at an all-time high, and increasingly complex refineries had been running full-tilt, sometimes eschewing planned downtime to try to boost profits.

John Auers, executive vice president with Dallas-based Turner, Mason, said most U.S. refiners operate their plants reliably and safely and brought production down quickly when demand took a dive in March. "More than anything you can say it shows how good refiners were reacting to this crisis," Auers said.

Unexpected refining outages have soared in recent years, surpassing 2,000 incidents in 2019, quadruple 2015 levels. This year, some refiners took advantage of the unexpected downtime to perform routine maintenance. Others have delayed projects because of concerns the coronavirus could spread among refinery workers if the maintenance goes ahead.

But the reduced production rates may be affecting refiners’ financial ability to make repairs. "Refiners are piling overhead onto fewer barrels of oil refined, restricting cash flow that could be used for maintenance," Fielden said.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Siemens and Bentley Systems will develop the first petrochemical digital twin in Indonesia for Chandra Asri, the country’s largest integrated petrochemical complex, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With over 27 year footprint, the latter is set to double its capacity in the next five years to tap into the robust domestic and regional economic growth. The development and implementation of this digital twin will take place in phases, from 2020 – 2025. FKA Global is the systems integration partner and will provide digitalization services, maintenance and further enhancement of the solution post-implementation.

The digital twin of Chandra Asri’s integrated petrochemical complex in Cilegon City will show and visualize digitalized data about the plant assets and the engineering data. Therefore analog plant data are transformed into an automated digital twin framework. This reduces risks of error. The information will henceforth be accessible through one integrated digital platform, ensuring data accuracy, consistency and integrity, as well as ease-of-maintenance.

AssetWise from Bentley Systems and COMOS from Siemens will form the foundation of the digital twin solution. AssetWise is an asset performance software that provides informed decision support and management of change from capital planning through proactive asset maintenance. COMOS is an integrated plant management and lifecycle software that integrates engineering, automation and operations data, with a customizable blueprint for brownfield plant data enablement. In addition, Bentley’s engineering design tools, OpenPlant and ProSteel, will be used to model and maintain piping and structural information for both brownfield and greenfield projects. Together, the joint solution will maintain data integrity and accuracy throughout the lifecycle.

As mRC informed earlier, Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) has reached on-spec output at its 400,000 tons/year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit following several weeks of facing technical difficulties that severely affected the availability of the grade.

CAP began conducting a trial production at its newly expanded polyethylene (PE) plant in Cilegon in March 2020 to produce metallocene PE grade (MLLDPE). The company expanded PE capacity in 2019 by adding one more production line that pushed the total output to 736,000 tons/year. CommoPlast was informed that the newest 400,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE)/ linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing line would be utilized for the MLLDPE trial production purpose.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, May LLDPE shipments to the Russian market rose to 31,290 tonnes from 30,450 tonnes a month earlier, production increased. Overall LLDPE shipments to Russia totalled 153,080 tonnes in the first five months of 2020, down by 5% year on year. Production and exports increased by 2 times.

CAP is the largest integrated petrochemical company in Indonesia and operates the country’s only world-scale size Naphtha Cracker. The CAP plant is strategically located in Banten province, providing convenient access to key customers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crackers in Asia are expected to switch to cheaper alternative feedstock LPG to meet shortfalls of naphtha whose supplies from the west is set to drop to a four-month low in August, four sources who track the shipments said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Cumulative east-bound naphtha cargoes from Europe, the Mediterranean and the United States will fall at least 40% in August to 1.6 million-1.7 million tons from May’s record high due to run cuts in Europe, they said. That is about 7-9% lower versus July, they said. Buyers, most of whom are operating their crackers at full-tilt, are expected to turn to LPG, whose prices have recently started weakening. That could exert further pressure on naphtha spot prices and margins, which hit a one-month low of USD62.23 on Friday.

Petrochemical makers who operate naphtha crackers typically can replace 5% to 15% of their key feedstock with LPG. While most have term supplies of LPG, they would buy some spot cargoes but only when the prices are trading at a discount of at least USD50 a tonne to naphtha.

Strong demand for LPG, a mixture of propane and butane, had kept its spot prices high until June. But based on data from Argus Media, the Argus Far East Index (AFEI) for prompt butane on a CFR basis for the week ended June 7 flipped to a discount for the first time since March against Reuters naphtha price assessment NAF-1H-TYO, with the discount widening to at least $80 a tonne from second-half of June.

"We expect LPG demand for cracking to increase in July/August as light olefins prices continue to strengthen while LPG’s price discount continues to steepen against naphtha," said Aaron Cheong of Energy Aspects. Light olefins, the building blocks for plastics, are obtained through cracking of naphtha or LPG.

As cracking LPG feedstock produces around 10% more light olefins per tonne of feedstock compared to naphtha, there is a strong incentive for cracker operators to produce more light olefins via lighter feedstocks to maximise profits,” Cheong added.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total S.A. has changed its name to TOTAL SE because of its registration with the Trade and Companies Register of Nanterre, said the company.

The company stated: “Total S.A. announces that it has become Total SE following its registration with the Trade and Companies Register of Nanterre as a European Company, which occurred on July 16, 2020.

“This registration was approved at the Shareholders’ Meeting, held on of May 29, 2020, and follows negotiations with employees’ representatives in 25 countries of the European Economic Area.

"On April 15, 2020, the members of the Special Negotiating Body approved and signed an agreement relating to the procedures for the involvement of employees in the European Company."

It added: "The Company will now be listed as Total SE on stock markets trading its shares and American Depositary Shares. Its ISIN codes and mnemonics remain unchanged."

As MRC informed before, Total has recently 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 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

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