Bora LyondellBasell Petrochemical starts up new cracker in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Bora LyondellBasell Petrochemical, a JV between the privately owned Bora Enterprise Group and the world's petrochemical major - LyondellBasell, has started up its new steam cracker at the Panjin complex in northeast China last week, reported S&P Global.

The steam cracker, when fully operational, is able to produce up to 1 mln mt/year of ethylene.

Some downstream plants at the Panjin complex also started up on the same day. They include a 350,000 mtyear high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit, a 450,000 mtyear linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/HDPE swing plant and a 350,000 mtyear styrene monomer (SM) plant.

Meanwhile, trade participants are closely monitoring Bora LyondellBasell Petrochemical's new 600,000 mt/year new polypropylene (PP) plant status in Northeast China.

As MRC informed earlier, LyondellBasell has already invests in several chemical plants in China, including a joint venture with a unit of state refiner Sinopec Corp.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

Bora is one of more than 40 independent Chinese refiners that have grown rapidly since late 2015 to account for a fifth of China’s total crude oil imports.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

Equinor appoints new CEO to speed up renewable investments

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equinor has appointed Anders Opedal as its new chief executive as the Norwegian oil and gas group looks to speed up a move into renewable energy, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new CEO, who had been Equinor’s head of technology, projects and drilling and is the first engineer to lead the company, replaces Eldar Saetre who will retire after more than 40 years at Norway’s biggest company. Opedal’s appointment is effective from Nov. 2.

European oil companies are pushing ahead with plans to develop emissions-free sources of energy, with some, such as BP and Eni promising to cut their oil and gas production. Equinor is maintaining a target of expanding its oil and gas output by 3% a year until 2026, Opedal told Reuters. After that, things could change.

"I am willing to reallocate capital between oil and gas and renewables,” he said an interview. “It will depend on the opportunities we will have at that point in time." Sources last month told Reuters that Opedal was one of four internal candidates short-listed. "Equinor is entering a phase of significant change as the world needs to take more forceful action to combat climate change,” Chairman Jon Erik Reinhardsen said.

"The board’s mandate is for Anders to accelerate our development as a broad energy company and to increase value creation for our shareholders through the energy transition." Saetre in 2018 changed the majority state-owned company’s name from Statoil to Equinor and promised to increase investment in renewable energy.

Opedal said the company would also seek to build new business within hydrogen, carbon capture and storage as well as other low-carbon solutions, bringing down the cost of such technologies to make them commercially viable.

Opedal, a former chief operating officer, has also been in charge of Equinor’s Brazil business, where the company plans a big offshore oil expansion in the coming years.

Saetre’s six years at the helm came at a time of upheaval in the energy industry, with a plunge in oil prices in 2014-2015 and again this year triggering large losses and write-offs. “The focus will remain on low cost oil and gas assets, but there is an opportunity to reallocate capital towards the renewables and low carbon business,” Barclays said in a note.

“This (is) likely to represent a further evolution of the existing strategy rather than a revolution,” Barclays said. Shares in Equinor were up 0.8% at 1208 GMT, broadly in line with the European oil and gas index.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

Indian DGTR suggests imposition of ADD on PRC PET resin

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s commerce and industry ministry recently suggested a provisional anti-dumping duty (ADD) of USD15.54- 200.66 per metric tonne (MT) on the import of polyethylene terephthalate (PET resin) from China, said Fibre2fashion.

Reliance Industries and IVL Dhunseri Petrochem Industries Pvt Ltd had filed a complaint claiming injury resulting from the alleged dumping. Petrochemicals CrudeOil Nylon6 ACN.

"Having initiated and conducted the investigation into dumping, injury and causal link in terms of the provisions laid down under the Anti-Dumping Rules, the authority is of the view that imposition of provisional duty is required to offset dumping and injury, pending completion of the investigation," the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) said in its preliminary findings.

The probe began on October 1 last year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.
MRC

Merck KGaA to build life sciences laboratory in Switzerland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Merck KGaA says it plans to build an EUR18-million (USD20.6 million) laboratory facility at Buchs, Switzerland, to support its rapidly growing reference materials business, according to Chemweek.

The facility will include laboratory and office space in a three-story, 1,125-square-meter building, Merck says. Completion of construction is scheduled for December 2021 and the move to the facility is planned for early 2022, the company says. Merck anticipates that about two dozen jobs will be created.

One of Merck’s life science businesses' most important R&D centers, with 450 employees, has been in Buchs since 1950, the company says. Some of the site's employees will move from this "heavily utilized" building to the new facility, which will offer, to 40 employees, a more efficient way of working in R&D, analytical production, and quality control, Merck says.

“This new laboratory will allow us to continue to drive innovation in diagnostics and testing, and expand our research and development of analytical standards,” says Jean-Charles Wirth, head/applied solutions, life sciences at Merck.

As MRC wrote previously, Merck KGaA has announced the opening its M Lab Collaboration Center in Shanghai, China. Merck Innovation Hub, the first in China, started in late 2019, with the company announcing a 100 million renminbi (USD14 million) seed fund injected into the China Innovation Hub.

We remind that Merck celebrated the opening of its new packaging center at the science and technology company’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, in October, 2018. The new 161,458-square-foot facility is dedicated to the packaging and shipping of Merck’s current portfolio of pharma medicines in more than 90 countries and help meet increasing patient needs for flagship medicines Glucophage, Concor and Euthyrox in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders respectively. It will also provide capacity for potential future pharma products currently in clinical development such as evobrutinib in the area of neurology-immunology or tepotinib in the area of oncology.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

Saudi Aramco to press ahead with oil output capacity boost

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil giant Saudi Aramco is moving ahead with plans to boost its oil output capacity by 1 million barrels per day (MMbpd) to 13 MMbpd despite spending cuts this year and next year, said Reuters, citing chief executive.

Aramco’s capital spending plan for 2021 will be “significantly lower than previous guidance”, CEO Amin Nasser also said on an analyst and investor call after the company’s quarterly results.

The previous capital spending guidance was USD40 billion to USD45 billion.

As MRC informed earlier, on June 17, Saudi Aramco 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 DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC