Pemex risks refinery accidents with planned job cuts

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plans by Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to cut jobs at its six refineries through attrition this year could undermine safety at the plants, an internal company document shows, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Pemex plans to leave 9,374 vacancies at its refineries unfilled this year, 50% greater than its unfilled refinery positions last year, the document by refining unit Pemex TRI shows. Most unionized jobs at the politically sensitive company cannot be easily eliminated nor filled by workers who are not members of Mexico’s powerful oil workers union.

While the union is allowed to insist the jobs be filled with its members, Pemex ultimately decides whether they will be filled at all. “This situation leaves the refineries vulnerable because it puts the operational continuity and maintenance of facilities at risk,” according to the document, written by one Pemex executive to a superior warning about the unfilled jobs.

There were 22,472 unionized and 1,297 non-unionized workers at Pemex’s refineries, according to a document dated November 2020, seen by Reuters. “It could cause incidents and/or accidents impacting personnel, facilities the environment, and the delineation of corresponding responsibilities due to the lack of coverage of the blocked places in question,” the executive wrote.

If plans to cut jobs through attrition are put in place, the Salamanca refinery in the heart of the country will be hit hardest with 1,966 unfilled union jobs. Elsewhere, the Madero refinery in the north will be left with 1,792 vacancies and the Minatitlan refinery near the Gulf of Mexico would be left with 1,738.

Pemex did not respond to a request for comment on the document nor on the number of refinery workers. The oil workers union did not respond to a request for comment. The document does not state the reason for leaving the union jobs unfilled. Debt-laden Pemex has repeatedly said it is seeking to cut costs.

Pemex said in its 2019 annual report released last year that it has eliminated 153 office jobs as well as 222 in its subsidiaries. A source at the company, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there have been no layoffs at the plants but declined to comment on the non-public document and the safety allegations raised in the document.

Even though the refineries have a combined processing capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), they process less than half of that, Pemex’s third-quarter financial report showed. Under Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Pemex has started allocating more resourcing to modernizing its ailing refineries - and building a seventh one in his home state Tabasco - to help boost domestic gasoline production.

Since taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador has vowed to reduce Mexico’s dependence on imported fuels by around 50% in an attempt to revive Pemex, one of the world’s most indebted national oil companies.

As per MRC, Pemex halted production at its linear polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Veracruz, Mexico for unscheduled repairs. Repair activities at this enterprise with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes of LLDPE and 100,000 tonnes of HDPE per year were started on 14 January and should be completed next week.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

Explosion and fire reported at Ufaorgsintez refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An explosion and fire ripped through the Russian Ufaorgsintez oil refinery, controlled by Rosneft, on Monday, reported Interfax.

Two containers with a methane-hydrogen fraction caught fire, which was preceded by an explosion. The fire was ranked the fourth level. As a result of the fire, one person was killed, another victim was taken to hospital.

The fire was contained and there was no danger of the blaze spreading further.

"On January 25, at 19.20, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the Republic of Bashkortostan received a message about the burning of two tanks in an open area on the territory of the PJSC Ufaorgsintez plant. At 2:22, there was an elimination of open burning, a complete elimination of the fire occurred at 6:33. 127 people and 44 pieces of equipment were involved in the elimination of the consequences of the accident, including 90 personnel and 29 pieces of equipment from the Russian Emergencies Ministry." - reported the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Bashkiria..

As MRC informed previously, Ufaorgsintez (UOS, Bashneft’s petrochemical asset) has resumed its polypropylene (PP) production after a shutdown for maintenance. The plant's customers said Ufaorgsintez had resumed its PP output since 13 October, 2020, after the shutdown for a scheduled turnaround. The outage was quite long and started on 12 September, 2020. Ufaorgsintez's overall PP production capacities are 120,000 tonnes/year.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

PJSC Ufaorgsintez produces phenol, acetone, synthetic ethylene-propylene rubber, high and low density polyethylene, polypropylene, more than 30 types of petrochemical products and over 25 consumer products.
MRC

CPChem gets ISCC Plus certification, signs with Nexus for pyrolysis oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem; The Woodlands, Texas) says its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas, where the company produces its Marlex Anew circular polyethylene (PE), has received certification through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification PLUS (ISCC Plus) process, said Chemweek.

CPChem has also signed a long-term supply agreement with Nexus Fuels as its first supplier of pyrolysis oil, an ethylene feedstock derived from plastic waste.

CPChem announced commercial-scale production of circular PE based on pyrolysis oil in October 2020. The company says it will seek ISCC Plus for additional sites as it expands its advanced recycling program, which aims to produce 1 billion lbs (450,000 metric tons) of Marlex Anew PE annually by 2030.

Nexus Fuels’ facility in Atlanta, Georgia, is ISCC Plus certified for the production of pyrolysis oil from mixed plastic waste. In November 2020, Nexus announced a four-year agreement to supply 60,000 metric tons/year of pyrolysis oil to Shell’s Norco, Louisiana, chemical production facility.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical, part of Chevron Corp, successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year. This unit is one of the largest and most energy efficient crackers in the world. In September 2017, the company announced the successful commissioning and start-up of two new Marlex polyethylene (PE) units in Old Ocean, Texas, based on the company’s proprietary MarTech technologies. Together, these assets form the bulk of the company’s US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project (USGCPP), which was first announced in 2011.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. 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

ALPLA expediting a bottle cycle in Italy

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The ALPLA Group is investing more than EUR5m in an extrusion system for food-grade recycled PET made of used PET bottles at its site in Anagni, Italy, said Recyclingtoday.

Anagni is home to one of the ALPLA Group’s most important preform production plants. The plant, which currently has a workforce of 91, processes around 50,000 tonnes of PET a year, of which only a very small proportion is recycled material as of today. A substantial portion of the volume required is henceforth to be supplied in the form of recycled material.

ALPLA is thus installing an extrusion system for 15,000 tonnes of rPET a year at the existing business premises. The investment sum for construction of the building needed and for the system totals more than five million euros. It is scheduled to go into operation in the second half of 2021. Ten new jobs will be created.

Plant Manager Fabio Mazzarella said: “We will buy in PET flakes made from used household packaging from local recyclers, process them into food-grade rPET and then use this at the site for preforms."

Georg Lasser, Head of Corporate Recycling at ALPLA, added: “We want to promote the bottle-to-bottle cycle and avoid downcycling. In addition, we would like to boost local recycling solutions in a region that does not have the necessary infrastructure for the bottle loop up to now’ the recycling expert explains. The demand for recycled material can currently be managed well. ‘But with this measure, we are ensuring that we can offer our customers optimum support with realising new specifications and targets in the long term too and that we can offer them top-quality recycled materials."

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's PET consumption reached 61,110 tonnes in November 2020, up by 1% year on year. Overall PET consumption in Russia reached 648,110 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 , down by 18% year on year.
MRC

Sumitomo Corp to stop investing in new oil development projects

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp will stop investing in new oil development projects as it shifts away from fossil fuels businesses amid a global push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Nikkei business daily reported, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The move comes as global miners and Japanese trading companies cut their exposure to coal operations, including mining and power generation to trim harmful carbon dioxide emissions and to slow climate change.

Major Japanese trading houses have said they would stop investing in new projects to develop thermal coal mines or build coal-fired power stations, but this would be the first time that a Japanese trading firm decided not to invest in new oil projects, the Nikkei said.

Sumitomo will no longer participate auctions for new oil projects, though it will continue its existing oil projects including those in North Sea, the paper said, without citing sources.

In energy and natural resources, Sumitomo will focus its management resources on renewable energy such as offshore wind farms and base metals, including copper and nickel used in electric vehicles, the Nikkei said.

Sumitomo was not immediately available for comment.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2020, Sumitomo Chemical and Axens signed a license agreement of ethanol-to-ethylene technology Atol for Sumitomo Chemical’s waste-to-polyolefins project in Japan. In the project, to promote circular economy, Axens’ Atol technology will transform ethanol produced from waste into polymer-grade ethylene that will be polymerized in Sumitomo Chemical’s assets into polyolefin, a key product in the petrochemical industry.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

MRC