ExxonMobil restarting large crude unit, coker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp’s 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery continues restarting the large crude distillation unit (CDU) and coker, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Exxon began restarting the 240,000-bpd Crude B CDU and 45,000-bpd coker on Tuesday, the sources said. The entire refinery was shut on Aug. 25 because of the threat from Hurricane Laura.

“Exxon Mobil continues to make progress restarting its Beaumont refinery,” said Exxon spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry. “We continue to conduct site assessments. We are communicating with federal, state and local emergency planning officials about our response to the impacts of the storm.”

Exxon planned to restart the refinery by sometime on Friday, the sources said.

Exxon restarted the 110,000-bpd Crude A CDU last Monday. The two CDUs break down crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstocks for all other production units.

The refinery is also restarting the 120,000-bpd gasoline-producing fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) and 80,000-bpd reformer.

Last Monday, Exxon also restarted the 65,000-bpd hydrocracker, 75,000-bpd reformer and 40,000 bpd hydrotreater.

As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil has put off for a year work on its refinery expansion in Beaumont, Texas. The expansion project is now slated to be online sometime in 2023, versus the original 2022 proposal. Bloomberg first reported the delay. ExxonMobil declined to confirm the story, noting that it does not comment on the status of individual projects. The company "is evaluating all appropriate steps to significantly reduce capital and operating expenses in the near term as a result of market conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and commodity price decreases," the company said in a statement.

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.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Eneos Corporation (formerly known as JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy), has restarted its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit following a planned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that, the company resumed operations at the unit on August 31, 2020. The unit was shut for maintenance in end-April, 2020.

Located at Kawasaki, Japan, the FCC unit has a propylene capacity of 150,000 mt/year.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

As MRC reported earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy brought on-stream its FCC in Sendai on 14 August, 2020. The unit was shut for maintenance, on July 28, 2019.

According to MRC's DataScope report, 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.

Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy was renamed ENEOS Corporation on 25 June, 2020, as part of a wider re-organization of the parent company JXTG Holdings. The move, which also involved renaming the parent company to ENEOS Holdings upon approval at its annual shareholders meeting in June 2020, comes as it strives to be a more comprehensive energy and materials company under its 2040 vision announced in May, 2019. JXTG Holdings was formed as a result of a merger between JX Holdings and TonenGeneral in April 2017. This followed the establishment of JX Holdings as a result of the merger between Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining Holdings in April 2010.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DIC Corporation and DIC Group company Sun Chemical Corporation have entered into an agreement to establish a strategic partnership with DuPont aimed at expanding global sales of degassing modules for water treatment, as per DIC's press release.

Through this partnership, DIC grants DuPont exclusive sales rights for its large degassing modules for industrial water treatment applications with the goal of increasing sales in Asia, the United States and Europe. The intention is to boost sales of these devices to approximately twice the fiscal year 2019 level by fiscal year 2021.

DuPont maintains a globally leading portfolio of water purification and separation technologies, including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ion exchange resins. As DIC’s customers in this field, including water treatment equipment manufacturers, often use its degassing modules in combination with DuPont products, this partnership will position the company to extend total solutions and services. Under the terms of the partnership, products for water treatment in DIC’s SEPAREL series will be marketed under DuPont’s Ligase brand name.

This partnership, which will involve DuPont Water Solutions, will apply exclusively to the water treatment market. The DIC Group will continue to manufacture SEPAREL membranes to leverage its unique degassing technology for applications in other markets, including jet inks.

“This is an incredible opportunity for DIC and DuPont to introduce a single water treatment solution for customers,” said Kaoru Ino, President and CEO, DIC Corporation. “One of our goals as an organization is to provide comfort to the world around us. One way to do that is through water safety. We’re excited to enter into a partnership with DuPont Water Solutions that will positively impact both the industry and individuals everywhere.”

“As a global leader in innovative water technologies, we are continually expanding our portfolio of high-quality solutions to help our customers purify, conserve and reuse water,” said HP Nanda, Global Vice President & General Manager, DuPont Water Solutions. “We look forward to working with Sun Chemical and DIC to better meet the needs of our customers focused on water treatment and reuse.”

“We’re extremely proud to be partnering with DuPont Water Solutions to bring an all-encompassing solution to the market,” said Mehran Yazdani, President, Advanced Materials, Sun Chemical Corporation. “This collaboration will allow our water treatment customers to be better served with a single sourced product solution that meets their requirements and expectations.”

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2019, DIC Corporation announced that it had increased the annual polystyrene production capacity of its Yokkaichi Plant, in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, to 216,000 metric tonnes, from 208,000 metric tonnes, by reinforcing the plant’s polystyrene production facility and optimizing processes. Investment was not disclosed. The Company has set a target for increasing annual sales of polystyrene by 10% from the fiscal year 2017 level by fiscal year 2023.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics was 225,870 tonnes in the first half of 2020, down by 8% year on year. PS consumption increased by 2% year on year in June 2020, totalling 39,590 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell has announced that it will replace the ethylene steam cracker furnaces at its Moerdijk petrochemicals complex, The Netherlands, in a move that will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Shell will install eight new furnaces in place of 16 older units without reducing capacity at the facility. The investment significantly reduces both the site’s energy consumption and its operational greenhouse gas emissions. The CO? emissions reduction is about 10 percent of Shell Moerdijk’s annual total.

The cracker unit produces base chemicals which are used to make finished products that people use every day, from smart phones, clothing, packaging and medical equipment, to insulation and light-weight components in cars and planes. The new furnaces will be shipped to the site in modules, enabling the cracker to continue to operate throughout the upgrade project. Work is expected to be completed in 2025.

Thomas Casparie, Executive Vice President of Shell’s global chemicals business, said: “We continue to invest in innovation, even in difficult economic times. Steam cracking makes base chemicals, which are transformed into a range of finished products that help society live, work and respond to climate change. This investment at Moerdijk contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions from our manufacture of chemicals and to Shell’s ambition of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner. We aim to achieve our ambition in step with society.”

As MRC reported earlier 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.

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) -- A very large crude carrier New Diamond, chartered by India’s top refiner Indian Oil Corp, caught fire in the morning off Colombo, sources with knowledge about the matter told Reuters.

The full loaded vessel was heading to Paradip in eastern India from Mina Al Ahmandi in Kuwait, Refinitiv’s ship tracking data shows.

No immediate comment was available from IOC.

As MRC informed previously, Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, is close to winning its first contract to export up to 720,000 tons of clean products to Mauritius under an annual deal from November.

We remind that Indian Oil says it will build an integrated paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) facility at Paradip in Odisha State, India, at an estimated investment of 138 billion Indian rupees (USD1.84 billion). The project will be completed by early 2024, with the complex planned to produce 800,000 metric tons/year of PX and 1.2 million metric tons/year of PTA, it says.

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.

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.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC