Hengyi Industries contracts DuPont Clean Technologies for alkylation technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) has been awarded the contract to supply Hengyi Industries SDN BHD (Hengyi) with licensing and engineering for a STRATCO alkylation unit at the Brunei refinery in Pulau Murara Besar, Brunei, reported Chemweek.

The new refinery will not only supply the domestic market but also plans to produce refined fuel for export. In order to comply with the China VI standard of 10 ppm sulfur content for fuel, Hengyi commissioned DuPont for a STRATCO alkylation unit with 800 kmta (20,750 bpsd) alkylate capacity. The Pulau Muara Besar refinery and petrochemical plant has the capacity to refine 8 million tons of crude oil per year.

The STRATCO alkylation unit will enable Hengyi to generate low-sulfur, high-octane, low-Rvp alkylate with zero olefins that meets the criteria of the China VI standard. Startup is targeted for 2023.

“It is a privilege to be selected by Hengyi for this project award and DuPont is thrilled to be working with them on this grassroots unit to meet specifications for the China VI standard. “We anticipate a strong relationship between our two companies and are excited to cooperate with Hengyi on seeing this project through to completion. We are committed to supporting them for many years to come in helping them to achieve their objectives,” said Kevin Bockwinkel, global business manager, STRATCO alkylation technology.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with DuPont on this endeavor. We look forward to having DuPont design an alkylation unit meeting all of our gasoline pool specifications. DuPont comes with years of valuable experience and proven quality in alkylate production,” said the Hengyi No. 5 Refinery Technical Lead.

The STRATCO alkylation Technology is a sulfuric acid, catalyzed process that converts low-value, straight-chain olefins (propylene, butylene and amylene) into high-value, branched components called alkylate. Alkylate, with its superior blending properties, is a key component for clean gasoline and the STRATCO alkylation technology helps refiners safely produce cleaner-burning gasoline with high octane, low-Reid vapor pressure, low sulfur, zero aromatics and zero olefins.

The STRATCO alkylation technology is licensed and marketed by DuPont as part of its Clean Technologies portfolio in Overland Park, Kansas. DuPont is the world leader in alkylation technology with more than 100 licensed units worldwide and more than 915,000 bpsd (35,800 kmta) of installed capacity. DuPont is committed to alkylation research and has extensive experience in assisting refiners with alkylation research, design, start-ups, test runs, troubleshooting, optimization, revamps, expansions, analytical testing, operator training, turnarounds and HAZOP studies.

As MRC informed earlier, DuPont has launched “Operation Airbridge,” with the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and FedEx to speed production and delivery of medical garments made from DuPont’s Tyvek material. Operation Airbridge will enable expedited shipping of Tyvek garments critical to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) relief via air, instead of sea. FedEx Express will transport Tyvek roll goods from DuPont’s Richmond, Virginia, production plant to garment manufacturers in Vietnam. They will then return to the US with finished Tyvek garments to be added to the US Strategic National Stockpile.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron has begun shutting in production and evacuating crews from four sizeable US Gulf of Mexico platforms in advance of Tropical Storm Laura and Tropical Depression 14, as the two emerging storms move north toward the Gulf Coast, reported S&P Global.

"In preparation for the tropical weather, we have begun evacuating all personnel at our ... operated Big Foot, Genesis, Jack / St. Malo and Tahiti platforms and are initiating our shut-in procedures at the four facilities," Chevron said in a statement late Aug. 21.

Non-essential personnel are being evacuated from the company's Blind Faith and Petronius platforms, although production at those assets remains at normal levels, Chevron added.

Earlier Aug. 21, BP said it had has begun shutting in production from its four operated US Gulf platforms - Thunder Horse, Mad Dog, Atlantis and Na Kika - and also started to evacuate crew from platforms and drilling rigs, as well as securing offshore facilities.

Shell has also started to evacuate non-essential personnel at some of its offshore assets "as work activities and conditions allow," the company said late Aug. 21, but added so far there are no production impacts.

Norwegian integrated Equinor also plans to begin crew evacuations starting over the weekend, a company spokesman said.

Tropical Storm Laura is projected to head for offshore eastern Louisiana/Mississippi and areas further east, while Tropical Depression 14 currently appears on a path to strike southeast Texas or western Louisiana. Both storms should be in the Gulf of Mexico early next week, the US' National Hurricane Center said.

The US Gulf of Mexico produced 1.69 million b/d of oil in the second quarter, according to the latest US Energy Information Administration's Short-Term Energy Outlook monthly report. Those volumes are projected to rise to 1.82 million b/d in Q3 and 1.97 million b/d in Q4.

The Gulf also produced about 2.3 Bcf/d of natural gas in Q2, EIA said.

As MRC informed earlier, on 18 August, 2020, Chevron Corp reported a fire at its 112,229-barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas facility. "At this time, flames, smoke may be noticeable to the community. We are coordinating with local officials, and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible," the company reported on August, 19.

We remind that US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

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.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More US producers have taken steps to either evacuate crews from Gulf of Mexico platforms as Tropical Storms Marco and Laura continued their northward push toward the Gulf Coast and expected landfalls at the end of last week, reported S&P Global.

Shell said Aug. 22 that it is now shutting in production at the "majority" of its Gulf of Mexico assets and evacuating crews from platforms.

"Drilling operations have been safely paused as well," Shell said.

Late on Aug. 21, Chevron said it was shutting in production from four large platforms: Big Foot, Genesis, Jack/St Malo and Tahiti.

Australia's BHP said it was "closely monitoring" the two storms and had "put in contingency plans to evacuate non-essential personnel at Neptune and Shenzi [fields] if necessary."

"As the forecasts become more clear we will make that determination," BHP spokeswoman Judy Dane said in an email on Aug. 21.

BP had said Aug. 21 it was shutting down its four large US Gulf platforms – Thunder Horse, Mad Dog, Atlantis and Na Kika and also evacuating crews from its platforms and drilling rigs.

And Norway's Equinor said it planned to begin evacuating non-essential crews Aug. 22.

Tropical Storm Marco, which was initially called Tropical Depression 14, became a named storm late Aug. 21. Both Marco and Laura are still in the Caribbean, but continue to head north toward the US Gulf Coast.

However, their tracks are both now more westward, National Hurricane Center maps show.

Laura was initially projected to strike the US Gulf Coast east of Louisiana, but maps now show the storm entering that state west of New Orleans later Aug. 26.

Marco, which at first appeared headed straight for Houston, now has a more flattened track and may hit late Aug. 25 or early Aug. 26 slightly to the southwest, NHC maps show.

Early on Aug. 22, Laura was sited near or over Puerto Rico. And Marco, while it may make landfall as a hurricane, should remain a tropical storm, according to NHC.

Laura's track takes that storm through the heart of US Gulf producing areas, and more notices of output shut-ins and crew evacuations are expected over the weekend.

In contrast, Marco - currently sited east of the Yucatan Peninsula - is targeted to move through areas a little more to the south and west in the Gulf but still cross some producing regions.

As MRC wrote before, Shell will announce a major restructure by the end of the year as the company prepares to accelerate its shift toward its net-zero emissions goal by 2050, said CEO Ben van Beurden to employees. The restructuring will include workforce reductions as part of broader cost-cutting measures, although no figures have been decided yet, the CEO reportedly said during an internal webcast.

We remind that Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to idle a sulfur recovery unit (SRU) at the joint-venture Deer Park, Texas, refinery in 2021, said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith in July 2020. Currently, the refinery is operating at about 75% of its 318,000 barrel-per-day capacity because of reduced demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco has suspended plans to participate in a joint venture (JV) to build a USD10-billion refining and petrochemicals complex at Liaoning, China, as the company cuts spending in response to continued low oil prices, according to Bloomberg with reference to people familiar with the matter.

Aramco decided to stop investing in the JV project after negotiations with its Chinese partners, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. The uncertain market outlook was behind the decision, they said. Aramco declined to comment, while neither of the two Chinese partners, China North Industries Corp. (Norinco) and Panjin Xincheng, responded to emails seeking comment, according to Bloomberg.

Aramco has implemented significant cuts in its capital expenditure for this year in the low crude oil price environment and uncertain macro-economic climate.

The JV agreement was signed when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Beijing in February last year, with Aramco, Norinco, and Panjin Xincheng to form an entity called Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Co. Under the terms of the agreement, Saudi Arabia was to supply up to 70% of the crude for the fully integrated 15-million metric tons/year (MMt/y) oil refinery and petchems complex, which was planned to include a 1.5-MMt/y steam cracker producing ethylene and a 1.3 MMt/y paraxylene unit. Aramco was to have owned 35% of the JV, with Norinco and Panjin holding 36% and 29%, respectively.

The Chinese participants will press ahead with the project in Panjin city, Liaoning Province, according to the sources. The JV remains an option for the future, they said. The announcement last year put the expected start of operations for the complex in 2024.

The JV signing last year followed an agreement in 2017 between Aramco and Norinco to explore a potential greenfield refinery and chemical plant at Panjin, as well as the upgrading of a refinery and petchems facility at the same site.

Besides, as MRC reported before, Saudi Aramco exited plans to participate in a refinery and aromatics JV with Pertamina in Indonesia earlier this year.

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.

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) -- Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, is reducing its capital expenditure spend for 2020 due to the market conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the company expects global oil demand to recover to 95 million b/d by the end of the year, reported S&P Global with reference to Aramco President and CEO Amin H Nasser's statement in the company's second-quarter results call.

Capital expenditure was USD6.2 billion in Q2 and USD13.6 billion for the first half of 2020. Aramco said it is continuing a capex optimization and efficiency program, which will see it at the lower end of the USD25 billion to USD30 billion range for 2020.

However, the company is "optimistic" on the market largely recovering to pre-coronavirus levels by the end of the year, Nasser said.

Additionally, Aramco is continuing to expand its gas business, to meet future global and domestic energy demand, it said. In line with this strategy, the Fadhili Gas Plant reached its full production capacity of 2.5 Bcf/day during the second quarter.

The oil giant saw its profits crash by 73% in Q2 to Riyal 24.62 billion ($6.6 billion), compared with Riyal 92.59 billion (USD24.7 billion) for the same quarter of 2019, as it continues to battle the ongoing market crash amid the slump in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results reflect the impact of lower crude oil prices, due to the ongoing global market crash, which is mainly caused by a huge drop in demand triggered by the pandemic, the oil giant said in a statement.

Moreover, its revenues for Q2 were 57% down year on year, and 45% lower than in Q1, when the full force of the market slump had not been fully realized. During the quarter, Aramco's hydrocarbons production averaged 12.7 million b/d of oil equivalent. By contrast, production of crude oil and condensate averaged 13.2 million boe/d last year.

"Strong headwinds from reduced demand and lower oil prices are reflected in our second-quarter results. Yet we delivered solid earnings because of our low production costs, unique scale, agile workforce, and unrivaled financial and operational strength," Nasser said in the statement. "This helped us deliver on our plan to maintain a second quarter dividend of $18.75 billion to be paid in the third quarter."

Aramco - which listed a small percentage of its shares Dec. 11 on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul domestic stock exchange - scored the world's biggest initial public offering of USD29.4 billion, beating the previous record held by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which raised USD25 billion in 2014.

Following the results announcement Aug. 9, Saudi Aramco shares were trading at Riyal 32.90 on Tadawul. By contrast, its IPO price in December was Riyal 32 (USD8.53), giving the company a valuation of USD1.7 trillion in December.

As part of its pitch to investors during the share sale, Aramco pledged to issue a USD75 billion dividend annually for five years. In keeping with this promise, the company declared a dividend of USD18.75 billion for the first quarter.

However, free cash flow was USD6.1 billion in the second quarter and USD21.1 billion for the first half of 2020, respectively, compared with USD20.6 billion and $38.0 billion for the same periods in 2019.

On the call, Nasser said that it is still the company's intention to pay the dividend, however this will be subject to board approval. He pointed to the fact that Aramco has an undrawn revolving credit facility, which could be used to plug the shortfall.

Aramco on June 17 said it completed the share acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) from the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, for a total purchase price of Riyal 259.125 billion.

SABIC said on Aug. 6 it saw average petrochemical prices in the second quarter plunge by 27% year-on-year as it posted a third consecutive quarterly loss. Average petrochemical prices were 27% lower in the second quarter from the year-earlier period and down 18% from the first quarter.

The acquisition of the SABIC stake is part of Aramco's strategy to extend its downstream footprint by growing its integrated refining and petrochemicals capacity to add value across the hydrocarbon chain.

In 2019 Aramco and SABIC recorded petrochemicals production volume of nearly 90 million mt combined. Petrochemicals has been identified as Aramco's highest area of growth for the next two decades, Nasser said.

As MRC wrote previously, PT Pertamina will develop its Cilacap refinery in Central Java “independently”, the state energy company said, dropping a plan to boost capacity through a joint venture with Saudi Aramco.

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.

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