OMV to build green hydrogen plant at Schwechat refinery-petchem complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OMV (Vienna, Austria) says it will invest jointly with sustainability-focused bank Kommunalkredit (Vienna) in the construction of an electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen at OMV’s Schwechat refinery in Austria, reported Chemweek.

A total of about EUR25 million (USD30 million) will be invested, with OMV and Kommunalkredit to split the cost equally.

The 10-megawatt (MW) polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis facility will produce up to 1,500 metric tons/year of renewable hydrogen, it says. The plant is expected to come online in the second half of 2023. The hydrogen will be used to hydrogenate bio-based and fossil fuels, substituting grey hydrogen at the refinery, it says.

The new plant will cut OMV’s carbon footprint by up to 15,000 metric tons/year of carbon dioxide (CO2), OMV estimates. “We deliberately opted for green hydrogen production on an industrial scale as we see the potential it holds, for lower-carbon road use as well as for reducing CO2 emissions in industrial operations,” says OMV’s Thomas Gangl, chief downstream operations officer. The company's previously announced climate targets include reaching net-zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2050 or sooner.

OMV and its majority-owned subsidiary Borealis also have their ongoing ReOil pilot plant situated at Schwechat. The plant produces synthetic oil out of waste plastic, which is fed into the refinery to produce feedstock for Borealis' adjacent olefins and polyolefins plants.

As MRC informed earlier, OMV (Vienna, Austria) says it is investing EUR40 million (USD48 million) to expand and modernize a steam cracker and associated units at its refining and petrochemicals complex at Burghausen, Germany. The upgrade will increase the site’s ethylene and propylene production capacity by 50,000 metric tons/year. Following a planned turnaround of the refinery, the revamped cracker and petchem units are expected to start operations in the third quarter of 2022. Initial groundwork is already underway ahead of the upgrade.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sent a bill proposal to Congress that would alter how state fuel taxes are set to reduce volatile pump prices following a threat by trucker drivers to strike over high diesel costs, said Reuters.

In a statement, Bolsonaro's office said under the proposal states would need to submit proposed ICMS tax rates on fuels to the National Fiscal Policy Council. Any increase in the tax would only go into effect after 90 days, to make the market more predictable, the statement said.

Truck drivers had threatened to strike on Feb. 1 but few followed through on the stoppage, following Bolsonaro's remarks that he would take action to try to lower fuel prices. The incident raised fears that Brazil may begin to intervene in how state-led oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA sets prices, as happened under previous governments.

Reuters was first to report that Petrobras, as the state firm is known, had revised its pricing policy to track international parity over a 12-month period instead of every three months, feeding concerns of interference.

Petrobras, Bolsonaro and other government officials have denied any interference in how the company sets fuel prices.

We remind that Petrobras may need more than a year to divest its stake in Braskem, said Andrea Almeida, Petrobras CFO, in early July, 2020. She said during the company"s recent webinar that Petrobras plans to give more time for potential investors to make offers for the company"s assets, including for its refineries and stakes at its petrochemical and fuel distribution affiliates. The divestment of Petrobras"s stake in Braskem in 2020 would be desirable but "might not be possible" as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed market conditions, she said. The company plans to close part of its refinery sales in 2021. In December, Roberto Castello Branco, CEO of Petrobras, said that he wants to sell the company"s stake in Braskem within a year. Petrobras owns 32.15% of Braskem.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia"s estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020).

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., through its subsidiary NextChem, and Essential Energy USA Corp. have executed a front-end engineering design contract, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of a new biorefinery in South America for the production of renewable diesel, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Subject to the client’s Final Investment Decision, the biorefinery will produce 200,000 tpy of high-quality renewable diesel from advanced bio-feedstocks. NextChem will be the exclusive EPC contractor. The project is expected to be operational in 2023.

The biorefinery will transform natural oil, waste vegetables oils and tallow into hydrogenated vegetable oils (HVO), also known in the market as renewable diesel. Renewable diesel is a fuel which is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel with the advantage of improved performance. It is used worldwide as a drop-in biofuel in diesel vehicles, with no engine modifications. Furthermore, the renewable diesel allows a carbon intensity reduction, for greenhouse gas emissions, above 80% vs. petroleum-based diesel.

Maire Tecnimont Group has exhaustive experience in EPC contracting in Energy Services including in South America. Additionally, NextChem has been active in energy transition projects with a focus on deploying solutions in carbon footprint reduction, through the development of new technologies for the production of biofuels and biochemicals from biobased feedstock and circular chemicals from waste.

As per MRC, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announced that its subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT - Kinetics Technology S.p.A. have signed with SOCAR’s subsidiary Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery two Engineering, Procurement and Construction contracts, as part of the Modernization and Reconstruction of Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Baku, Azerbaijan. SOCAR is the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic. The overall contracts’ value equals to approximately USD 160 million.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - February contract price of ethylene in Europe was agreed up EUR70/tonne from the level of the January. However, all European producers announced a much greater increase in export polyethylene (PE) prices for February shipments to the CIS markets, than the rise of monomer prices under the pressure of a deficit in the domestic market, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over February prices of European PE began in the middle of last week. All market participants said that European producers have agreed to a more significant increase in export prices of ethylene polymers for shipments this month, in some cases the price increase reaches EUR220/tonne.

Lack of ethylene and unplanned shutdowns of some production facilities have seriously reduced the availability of polyethylene in Europe. February deals for low density polyethylene (LDPE) were discussed in the range EUR1,310 - 1,360/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,140 - 1,220/tonne FCA.

Deals for low density polyethylene (LDPE) were discussed in the range of EUR1,160-1,240/tonne FCA, versus EUR950-1,020/tonne FCA a month earlier. Black pipe PE100 rose in price from EUR150/tonne to EUR 1,240 - 1,280/tonne FCA.

Many buyers reported serious restrictions on exports from all European producers; some sellers closed all their deals at the end of last week.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd NSE 0.22 % (BPCL) on Wednesday said it will buyout Oman Oil Company's shares in the Bina refinery project for about Rs 2,400 crore, said Economictimes.

BPCL holds a 63.68 per cent stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which built and operates a 7.8 million tonne oil refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. In a stock exchange filing, BPCL said it has "finalised commercial terms in connection with the purchase of the 88.86 crore equity shares of Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL), constituting 36.62 per cent of the equity share capital from OQ S.A.0.C. (formerly known as Oman Oil Company S.A.0.C.) for a consideration of approx Rs 2,399.26 crore".

The transaction, it said, is subject to the execution of the relevant transaction documentation and other conditions agreed upon among the parties. "Upon completion, BPCL will hold 100 per cent of the equity share capital in BORL," it said. On Tuesday, BPCL Director (Finance) N Vijayagopal had said that discussions with OQ S.A.O.C. had concluded.

BORL was incorporated in February 1994 to build a refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. The unit initially could turn 6 million tonnes of crude oil annually into fuel, which was subsequently raised to 7.8 million tonnes. Before the company is privatised, BPCL will exit Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) by selling its 61.65 per cent stake to a consortium of Oil India Ltd NSE 0.35 % and Engineers India Ltd, Vijayagopal had said.

It is selling stake because the government had as per the Assam Peace Accord agreed to keep NRL in the public sector. "The consortium of OIL and Engineers India Ltd will acquire 49 per cent and the rest 13.65 per cent will be sold to the government of Assam," he had said. OIL currently holds 26 per cent equity in NRL, while the government of Assam has around 12.35 per cent.

The value for 61.65 per cent stake in NRL is reportedly around Rs 7,000 crore. Post NRL sale, BPCL would be left with three refineries at Mumbai, Kochi in Kerala and Bina. The government is selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL in the nation's biggest privatisation till date.

Vedanta Group and private equity firms Apollo Global and I Squared Capital's Indian unit Think Gas have put in an expression of interest for buying the government stake. The sale of NRL is the first step towards the disinvestment of BPCL.

The government has already indicated that it expects to complete BPCL privatisation by the first half of the fiscal beginning April (2021-22). The sale is key to achieving the Rs 1.75 lakh crore disinvestment target set for 2021-22. BPCL will give the buyer ownership of around 15.33 per cent of India's oil refining capacity and 22 per cent of the fuel marketing share.

As per MRC, the Government of India expects to complete the sale of its 52.98% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) in the current fiscal year as it is currently in talks with interested international buyers.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
MRC