ABB and CORYS sign MoU for digital collaboration

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The agreement reflects a strategic collaboration between ABB and CORYS, with both companies committed to delivering advanced digital twin technology to help drive down capital and operational costs and reduce risks for customers, said Hydrocarbonprocesing.

Leveraging ABB Ability 800xA Simulator, ABB delivers complete digital replicas of a plant’s control system. Combined with CORYS’ dynamic high-fidelity Indiss Plus® process modeling simulator, customers will benefit from a complete digital twin solution, that supports training and allows operators to validate and test control strategies and production processes, as well as manage changes during the lifecycle of operations. The collective digital solution is expected to reduce capital expenditure in greenfield projects, by improving quality of the control applications, reducing number of late changes, training the operators and by reducing the number of commissioning and start up hours.

Colin Ward, Chemicals and Refining SVP for ABB Energy Industries said: “In today’s economy, our oil, gas and chemical customers are exploring all ways to maximize return on investment in operations. Digital twin modeling and simulation creates more confidence in executing projects – reducing cost, schedule and risk – and helps operators identify and understand improvement opportunities across an asset’s complete lifecycle."

Also applicable for use in brownfield sites, operators can utilize the ABB CORYS digital twin package to build intelligent models and run scenarios to increase performance of plant operations. This includes improving plant efficiency and availability, as well as reviewing and managing equipment and assets across the plant, enabling maintenance teams to build an effective condition-based maintenance programme.

Charles Rosmorduc, CEO of CORYS, said: “We are proud to enter into this strategic partnership to develop and integrate CORYS’ products with ABB allowing our mutual clients to improve safety and operational efficiency." This global framework formalizes a successful business relationship between the two companies.

As MRC informed earlier, MOL Group and ABB embark on a three-year collaborative project to transform Asset Integrity Management (AIM) across four key chemical and refinery sites in Europe. ABB has been awarded the contract to improve asset integrity across MOL’s downstream assets, through changing mindset, standardizing processes and software and ensuring integrity management is focused on the right equipment. The project spanning MOL DS Production plants in Hungary, Slovakia, and Croatia, will implement standardized asset integrity procedures in a move to drive production efficiency, improve safety and reduce risk.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

Paprec plans mixed-plastic waste sorting facility and R-PP extrusion line

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French waste management and recycling major Paprec is planning to build a new mixed-plastic waste sorting facility in Chalon-Sur-Saone, said the company.

Construction will start in the next few months for completion at the end of 2021. The facility will sort mixed-coloured waste by material and colour and is expected to have a capacity of approximately 30,000 tonnes/year.

Paprec is also adding a new 10,000 tonne/year recycled polypropylene (R-PP) extrusion line at its facility in the Lyon region, which will come onstream in September.

As MRC informed earlier, 380,000-metric tons/year steam cracker at Porvoo, Finland, operated by Borealis, has reached 100% capacity utilisation after the company lifted force majeure. The company declared force majeure, following a technical failure on 11 November. The cracker was shut down to allow necessary repair works, according to Borealis. The company began restart operations on 23 November, 2020, and resumed normal operations in early December.

As per MRC's ScanPlast report, Russian plants' total PP production dropped to 152,000 tonnes in October from 158,200 tonnes a month earlier ZapSibNeftekhim and Poliom's production capacitites were shut for maintenance. Russia"s overall PP production reached 1,529,000 tonnes in January-October 2020, compared to 1,170,300 tonnes a year earlier. Six out of eight producers raised their capacity utilisation, with a new producer - ZapSibNeftekhim - accounting for the main increase in the output.
MRC

Shell plans to complete Convent, Louisiana, refinery shutdown in 10 days

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to complete the permanent shutdown of its 211,146 barrel-per-day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery within 10 days, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to sources familiar with the company’s plans.

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith declined on Thursday to comment on the company’s timeline for idling the refinery.

Shell has been unable to sell the refinery since putting it on the auction block in July. The plant became unprofitable in March as fuel demand was hammered in the COVID-19 pandemic. Shell said on Nov. 5 it would shut the refinery.

Shell began shutting production unit at the refinery last Sunday, idling on Monday night the 12,000-bpd isomerization unit, the sources said. The 30,000-bpd diesel hydrotreater was brought down on Thursday.

Shell is in the process of shutting the 45,000-bpd heavy oil hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, which converts residual crude oil into diesel fuels, the sources said. Before the pandemic, the H-Oil Unit was one of the most profitable units at the refinery.

The 92,000-bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) is scheduled to be taken down over the weekend, according to the sources. Shutdowns of the alkylation unit and reformer will follow along with hydrotreaters next week, the sources said.

Among the last units to be shut are the light ends section of the small crude distillation unit and the entire large crude distillation unit (CDU), according to the sources.

As MRC informed before, Royal Dutch Shell plc. said in November that its petrochemical complex of several billion dollars in Western Pennsylvania is about 70% complete and in the process to enter service in the early 2020s. The plant's costs are estimated to be USD6-USD10 billion, where ethane will be transformed into plastic feedstock. The facility is equipped to produce 1.5 million metric tons per year (mmty) of ethylene and 1.6 mmty of polyethylene (PE), two important constituents of plastics.

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

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

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

COVID-19 - News digest as of 04.12.2020

1. Crude oil futures retreat after overnight rally on vaccine news, US stock draw

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures slipped during mid-morning trade in Asia Dec. 3 after rallying overnight following fresh reports of COVID-19 vaccine approvals in the UK, crude oil inventory draw in the US and as signs of progress on OPEC+ talks emerge, reported S&P Global. At 10:40 am Singapore time (0240 GMT), ICE Brent February contract was 13 cents/b (0.27%) lower from the Dec. 2 settle at USD48.12/b, while the January NYMEX light sweet crude contract was down 15 cents/b (0.33%) at USD45.13/b. The markers retreated slightly during early Asian trade Dec. 3 after rising 1.75% and 1.64% to settle at $48.25/b and USD45.28/b, respectively, on Dec.2 as outlooks improved amid COVID-19 vaccine optimism and an unexpected US crude inventory draw.

MRC

Brent hits nine-month high as OPEC+ commits to partial quota extension

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices settled higher Dec. 3 after an OPEC+ meeting ended with a compromise deal that would see production rising incrementally after December, reported S&P Global.

NYMEX January WTI settled 36 cents higher at USD45.64/b, while ICE February Brent was up 46 cents at USD48.71/b.

Unable to agree on a long-term production plan, OPEC and its partners will set output levels month to month, aiming to release crude gradually onto the market without tipping it into a supply glut during an uncertain recovery from the pandemic, ministers said Dec. 3.

Front-month ICE Brent last settled higher March 5, while WTI finished just under its most recent high seen Nov. 25.

The deal calls for the OPEC+ alliance to boost production by an initial 500,000 b/d in January, after which ministers will meet monthly to determine whether to adjust that for the month ahead.

NYMEX January RBOB settled 2.18 cents higher at USD1.2617/gal, while January ULSD climbed 2.71 cents to USD1.3933/gal.

The OPEC+ group, which controls roughly half of global crude production capacity, is currently cutting 7.7 million b/d from November 2018 levels. Without a deal, the curbs were scheduled to ease about a quarter to 5.8 million b/d from January. Now the cuts will scale back to 7.2 million b/d and then be fine-tuned as market conditions warrant.

"I think energy markets are content with the modest increase and I think it will still allow (OPEC+) to provide that goal of getting the market toward balance," OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya said. "No one knows how the crude demand outlook is going to unfold in the next few months depending on how quickly things get back to normal, so we will probably have monthly decisions become the norm until the outlook is a lot clearer."

The OPEC+ deal proved more bullish for Brent futures, which are typically considered to be more exposed to global fundamentals. Year-ahead Brent futures settled at a 99 cent/b discount to the front-month, the widest backwardation in that part of the curve since Feb. 21.

WTI prices, while also higher, faced headwinds from the continued threat of pandemic lockdowns across the US. The one-year WTI spread moved to 64-cent/b backwardation, out from 29 cents/b the session prior, but near-term contracts remained in contango. Second-month WTI settled at a 15 cent/b premium to front-month and the sixth-month contract settled in a 29 cent/b contango.

A weakened US dollar added further support to crude prices. The ICE US Dollar Index was holding at around 90.7 in afternoon trading, on pace to close at the lowest level since April 2018.

Los Angeles County - the largest in the US - issued a stay-at-home order Dec. 2 restricting non-essential travel and businesses. The order, reminiscent of broader lockdowns seen in spring, is among the most restrictive seen in the US in recent weeks as the nation battles to contain a resurgent pandemic.

In New York City, the seven-day average COVID-19 positivity rate climbed to 5.19% Dec. 1, prompting mayor Bill de Blasio to warn of an impending second-wave pandemic. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Nov. 30 ordered hospitals to take emergency precautions in the face of rising caseloads and suggested the state could again implement lockdown measures similar to those this past spring.

As MRC informed earlier, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels.

Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40% in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.

And 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 PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC