Milliken acquires masterbatches producer in Germany

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Milliken (Spartanburg, South Carolina) says it has acquired Zebra-chem (Bad Bentheim, Germany), a producer of peroxide masterbatches and blowing-agent masterbatches, reported Chemweek.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Zebra-chem produces masterbatches for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyolefins, and engineering plastics. Typical products are organic peroxide masterbatches, molybdenum disulfide masterbatches, and blowing-agent masterbatches, according to Milliken.

Peroxide masterbatches, such as those made by Zebra-chem and Milliken, make it possible to incorporate up to 100% recycled content in plastics, Milliken says. “Milliken’s long-term focus on innovation and sustainability encourages us to consider how we contribute to some of today’s leading challenges, like how to effectively incorporate recycled plastics in manufacturing,” says Halsey Cook, Milliken president and CEO.

As MRC informed earlier, in September 2020, Milliken (Spartanburg, North Carolina) said it had joined the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition (PRC), an industry collaboration launched in July by The Recycling Partnership (TRP) aimed at improving recovery and recycling of PP in the US.

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). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Milliken is an innovation company that has been exploring, discovering, and creating ways to enhance people’s lives since 1865. The company creates coatings, specialty chemicals, and advanced additive and colorant technologies that transform the way we experience products from automotive plastics to children's art supplies.
MRC

Songwon executive departs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd. the 2nd largest manufacturer of polymer stabilizers in the world, and key global player in the specialty chemicals business announced today that it has made further changes to its leadership structure to streamline the company moving forward, said Chemweek.

The changes have been implemented to support faster decisions, simplified processes and enable SONGWON to increase its agility by returning to its traditionally lean organizational structure. With these changes, Philippe Schlaepfer, Leader Division Performance Chemicals / Chief Sustainability Officer, is leaving the company. SONGWON thanks him for his many years of dedication to the business. The responsibilities related to this business function have been split within the Group.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2017, South Korean specialty chemicals company Songwon Industrial Co Ltd launched its new pilot plant in Panoli (Gujarat), thereby strengthening the organisation’s overall specialty chemicals development capability.

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). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Headquartered in Ulsan (South Korea), Songwon Industrial Co is a leader in the development, production and supply of specialty chemicals. The second largest manufacturer of polymer stabilisers worldwide, Songwon operates group companies all over the world, offering the combined benefits of a global framework and readily accessible local organisations.
MRC

Chemical recycling of plastics is scaling quickly, say CEOs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chemical recycling of plastics, also known as molecular or advanced recycling, is scaling quickly, according to Chemweek with reference to Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell, and Jim Fitterling, chairman and CEO of Dow.

The two spoke last Tuesday at the CERAWeek 2021 by IHS Markit virtual conference.

Chemical recycling does not require the degree of sorting required by mechanical recycling, noted Patel, and it yields virgin resin completely identical to resins produced from traditional petrochemical feedstocks. "With molecular recycling, you can take mixed plastic waste, convert it back to feedstock, and then put it back in the front end of the cracker (to make olefins) and then polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP)," he said.

Patel said chemical recycling has the additional advantage of much larger scale than mechanical recycling. "I think we're probably three to five years way from being at the scale that our industry is used to," he said. "I think it has to be some form of pyrolysis, and then it's a matter of how do you scale that up and manage any sort of environmental impacts from the pyrolysis process itself."

Fitterling noted that many pilot operations are underway. "Everybody is learning how to deal with this new raw material supply and how to manage it through existing assets, and I think we're making great progress," he said. "We're also getting good traction on the methodology for how to account for it and make sure you can prove that it's sustainable, and that it's an auditable, traceable closed loop."

Closing the loop is not a purely technological problem, however.

"I think great way to think about it is, you're trying to create an entire ecosystem," said Fitterling. "We talk a lot of times about policies around circularity at a very high level, maybe a national or global level, but in reality the waste issues are very local, and so you have to deal with the local consumer and sorting out waste plastics, making sure they don't go to a landfill in the first place, and getting them to a recycling facility."

A fundamental challenge is that the cost of recycling is greater than business as usual, Fitterling noted. "But policies and that whole system can help close that loop by creating an incentive that brings private investment in, that creates jobs for the local community, and that creates a way for that material to get back in," he continued. "Because we've changed the equation… from just being low cost to trying to reduce waste and get the carbon footprint down, and that's a different objective.

As MRC informed earlier, LyondellBasell Industries is restarting the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) after completing the restart of the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery. The 147,000-bpd Unit 537 CDU is the first to restart since the refinery was shut on Feb. 15 by severe cold weather. The 90,000-bpd FCC could be back in production by early next week.

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, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

New plant helps lift earnings at Russian petrochemicals producer

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's largest petrochemicals producer, Sibur, said its core earnings rose 5% in 2021 as it expanded production with the launch of a new plant, but was also hit by lower prices of liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sibur has been looking to do an IPO for years, and said last year that it would be better placed for an initial public offering once the new plant, ZapSibNeftekhim in Western Siberia, was completed. However, it has yet to confirm IPO plans or give a timeframe.

The company said on Thursday that another plant under construction in Eastern Siberia, the Amur Gas Chemical Complex, could start operations six months ahead of schedule by mid-2024 and the cost of the project will probably be USD10 billion, down from previous estimates of between USD10 billion and USD11 billion.

The Amur Gas complex is expected to produce 2.3 million tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene a year. China's Sinopec has acquired a 40% stake in the project and Sibur's Chief Financial Officer Peter O'Brien said the Chinese company paid around 18.27 billion roubles (USD248 million) for the stake.

Sibur said core earnings last year rose by 5.4% to 179 billion roubles (USD2.4 billion), with petrochemical product sale volumes rising 37% to 5.15 million tons. Revenue, however, slipped 1.6% to 523 billion roubles partly due to lower prices for liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha in the first half of the year. Adjusted net income fell 0.4% to 93 billion roubles.

As MRC reported before, earlier this weak, Sibur Holding and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China’s leading energy and chemical company, closed the deal to set up a joint venture (JV) at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex after obtaining all the necessary approvals from the regulators of both countries. SIBUR and Sinopec will hold interest in the JV in the amount of 60% and 40%, respectively.

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). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Sibur is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.
MRC

ExxonMobil slashes 2025 production outlook as it focuses on Permian, Guyana

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has slashed its 2025 global oil and gas production estimate to 3.7 million boe/d, even as it focuses on growing output at the Permian Basin and in Guyana, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's top executives' statement on March 3.

Production will remain flat from 2020 levels through 2025 at 3.7 million boe/d, the company said during its Investor Day 2021 webcast. That is down from the 5 million boe/d production estimate for 2025 ExxonMobil released last year in its 2020 Investor Day, just as the coronavirus was beginning to take its toll on global oil demand and prices.

While global production will remain flat, the company's operations in Guyana and the Permian Basin will ramp up over the next several years.

ExxonMobil expects its Permian operation, which produced 370,000 boe/d in 2020, to average 400,000 boe/d this year and potentially 700,000 boe/d by 2025, assuming favorable market conditions, Neil Chapman, ExxonMobil's senior vice president of upstream, said on the webcast.

That is down from the 1 million boe/d target the major had set for 2024 just a couple of years ago.

A major ExxonMobil objective for the Permian this year is to achieve double-digit returns while maintaining five to seven rigs in the play, where it has a resource potential of 10 billion boe with 70% higher-margin liquids at oil prices less than USD35/b WTI. As well, it also aims to decrease emissions 50% from its Permian operation by 2025 versus 2016 levels, Chapman said.

ExxonMobil currently has eight rigs working in the play, compared with 57 a year ago, according to investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt.

In Guyana, ExxonMobil operates the country's offshore Stabroek block, which produced the country's first oil under a partnership with Hess Corp. and China's CNOOC in December 2019.

The block ramped to peak first-phase output in the fourth quarter of 120,000 b/d, although two additional projects are under development that will begin production in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Those projects will utilize floating, production, storage and offloading vessels with capacities of 220,000 b/d each.

The partners envision more than 750,000 b/d from five FPSOs by 2026, as well as a sixth Guyana project producing by 2027 from Stabroek, which currently has a resource potential of more than 9 billion boe. The projects aim to deliver more than a 10% rate of return, and potentially more than 20%, at an oil price less than USD35/b - and zero routine flaring by 2030.

"It's possible that 10 FPSOs will be needed to develop the resource we've discovered so far," Chapman said. "We expect the potential of the basin to be more than double what we've already discovered," or more than 18 billion boe.

Even as climate-change initiatives and goals are gaining ground in the company's priorities, upstream investment remains a critical part of its forward plan.

"The upstream will need continuous investment going forward," Andrew Swiger, ExxonMobil senior vice president, said during the webcast.

The company's chief aims for the next several years are to grow its cash flow and earnings and cut costs, Swiger said, while working toward commercialization of lower emission technologies. It will continue to high-grade its portfolio, and retain capital investments that generate the highest returns.

"That's the foundation on which we've established the low-carbon futures business," company CEO Darren Woods said on the webcast.

For instance ExxonMobil will reduce its North American dry gas position 50% by 2025 - which it considers a lower-value asset, Chapman said. The company took a total impairment charge of USD19.3 billion in Q4 to reduce the carrying value of dry gas assets in the US, western Canada and Argentina.

ExxonMobil's total 2021 capex will remain at the USD16 billion-USD19 billion level released last month in the company's Q4 conference call, as well as its earlier-stated longer-term 2022-2025 average of USD20 billion-USD25 billion. At that time, ExxonMobil also said it expects permanent structural cost savings of USD6 billion per year by 2023.

Oil and gas is expected to play a smaller role in the shift towards a lower carbon footprint, with demand focused mostly for making petrochemicals and transportation fuels so the "cost of supply will be absolutely critical," said Woods, adding that its upstream strategy is key.

Woods noted that International Energy Agency data showed in 2019 that oil and gas accounted for 55% of global energy demand, the equivalent of about 98 million b/d of oil.

In 2040, oil is expected to have a 48% share, with demand at about 75 million b/d of oil and natural gas, under a scenario used by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

While the lion's share of ExxonMobil's reduction in greenhouse gases come from the upstream sector, in the downstream and chemical sectors, the company is "very focused on energy efficiency", said Jack Williams, ExxonMobil's senior vice president for downstream and chemicals.

"It's the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

ExxonMobil is also shifting the product mix from its refineries and petrochemical facilities toward higher margin products by reducing output of fuel oil and gasoline and increasing output of diesel and jet. In Singapore, it is turning uneconomic fuel oil into higher value lubricants and distillates.

Refining product upgrades are underway around the world, including adding a hydrofiner to the Fawley refinery in the UK to increase diesel output, adding light, sweet crude processing capacity at the Beaumont, Texas, plant to match increased Permian output, and connecting its other two US Gulf refineries to its Permian crude assets.

ExxonMobil's previously announced creation of a new business unit - ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions - is focusing on creation of hydrogen and using carbon capture and sequestration technologies to mitigate carbon emissions.

While the carbon sequestration project underway at Rotterdam is cutting edge today, the new business unit is looking to find uses for captured carbon beyond sequestration, such as in steel and cement as well its application for e-fuels.

"It's promising, but there's a long way to go," said Swiger.

As MRC wrote before, ExxonMobil's recent operational shutdowns include polyethylene (PE) facilities amid power outages prompted by the deep freeze that has enveloped the US Gulf Coast. "This event has caused widespread power outages across Texas and Louisiana" Feb. 15," the letter, dated Feb. 16, said. "As a consequence, several ExxonMobil Chemical operations have experienced loss of power and other key utilities, impacting our ability to resume full operations." ExxonMobil operates three PE units in Mont Belvieu, Texas, with combined capacity of 880,000 mt/year, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

Exxon is among many petrochemical producers that shut Feb. 14 and subsequent days because of sustained extreme sub-freezing temperatures in the region. ExxonMobil previously confirmed Feb. 16 that the company had shut all refining and chemical operations at its Baytown and Beaumont, Texas, complexes. Ethylene produced at Baytown feeds the Mont Belvieu PE operations.

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.

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.
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