Hyundai and Aramco sign MOU on blue hydrogen and ammonia projects

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings (HHIH) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Aramco on blue hydrogen and ammonia projects, reported Kemicalinfo with reference to Yonhap News Agency.

As per the MOU, Hyundai Oilbank, the oil refinery unit of HHIH, will import LPG from Aramco to convert into blue hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced from fossil fuel in a process that captures CO2 emissions.

Aramco will use the captured and stored during the production process CO2 for the extraction of crude oil from exhausted oil fields.

Hyundai Oilbank intends to sell blue hydrogen to Aramco LPG for fuel electric vehicles or fuel cell power plants, or to use in desulfurization facilities.

Hyundai Oilbank plans to set up 300 hydrogen charging stations by 2040 across South Korea.

Aramco will provide Hyundai Oilbank blue ammonia produced with the carbon emissions captured and stored according the MOU.

The refiner will use blue ammonia from Aramco as fuel for its LNG boiler to be built by 2024, according to the HHIH official.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2019, McDermott International announced that it had been awarded a contract by Saudi Aramco and Total Raffinage Chimie (Total) for their joint venture (JV) Amiral steam cracker project at Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Amiral is a JV in which Aramco holds 62.5% and Total the rest. The plant, designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene, will be one of the world's largest mixed-feed crackers.

Aramco and Total launched their USD5-billion Amiral JV project in October 2018. The steam cracker will be fed with a mixture of 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will supply ethylene to a downstream 1 MMt/y polyethylene manufacturing complex and other petrochemical products. The project aims to fully exploit operational synergies with the adjacent refinery, owned by Satorp, another JV between Aramco and Total. Third-party investors, including Daelim and Ineos, will locate plants at the value park adjacent to Amiral with a combined investment of USD4 billion. A final investment decision is expected in 2021.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PKN Orlen (Plock, Poland), the country’s largest petrochemicals producer, will receive 3.6 million tons of crude oil per year from Russia’s Rosneft under a new two-year supply contract signed, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Rosneft suspended oil deliveries to Poland in February after failing to agree on new contract terms with PKN Orlen when the previous agreement expired on January 31. The previous deal had envisaged deliveries of 5.4 million to 6.6 million tons a year.

Polish refineries, including PKN’s plant in Plock, central Poland, have been importing most of their crude from Russia via pipelines but have taken steps to reduce their reliance on Russian crude.

This month, PKN Orlen signed a deal on shipments from US oil major Exxon Mobil and has also been purchasing from Saudi Arabia, Angola, Nigeria and Norway.

“The reduction of crude oil supplies under the agreement with Rosneft does not change anything from the point of view of the stability of supplies to the Orlen group’s refineries and fuels in the region,” PKN Orlen’s Chief Executive Daniel Obajtek said in a statement.

In February sources said that PKN and Rosneft had agreed oil supply terms from March 2021 after a row over prices prompted the suspension in supplies.

As MRC informed earlier, the only Czech refinery and major petrochemical producer Unipetrol was renamed Orlen Unipetrol from 1 January, 2021. Unipetrol is 100% owned by the Orlen Group.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

PKN Orlen is a leading player on the fuels and energy markets, and the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe, listed in prestigious global rankings such as Fortune Global 500, Platts TOP250 and Thompson Reuters TOP100. The ORLEN Group operates in 6 home markets – Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oxo intermediates and derivatives producer OQ Chemicals (Monheim am Rhein, Germany) has announced a global price riise for several of its amines products on the back of higher feedstock costs and supply and demand, reported Chemweek.

The price hike is effective 1 April 2021, or as contracts allow.

The nominated prices of butylamine, dibutylamine, and tributylamine will each be increased by EUR350/metric ton (USD417/metric ton) in Europe, 20 cents per pound (cts/lb) in North America and Mexico, and US430/metric ton in the rest of the world. Isopropylamine will rise by EUR300/metric ton in Europe, by 17 cts/lb in North America and Mexico, and by USD365/metric ton elsewhere. Prices for 2-ethylhexylamine and di-2-ethylhexylamine will increase by EUR150/metric ton in Europe, 8 cts/lb in North America and Mexico, and USD180/metric ton in the rest of the world.

OQ announced price increases for several amines products in December 2020.

As MRC informed previously, earlier this week the company also increased prices for several oxo intermediate products worldwide, citing strong demand, and rising raw material costs.

We remind that in September 2020, OQ Chemicals entered into an agreement to license its advanced proprietary technology for the production of ethylene and propylene derivatives to Duqm Refinery and Petrochemicals Industries Company (DRPIC) in Oman. DRPIC, a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Kuwait International Oil Company, is a planned grassroots petrochemical complex at Duqm, Oman. In all, DRPIC awarded twelve license packages to international licensors.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

OQ Chemicals, formerly Oxea, is a global manufacturer of oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavours and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. OQ Chemicals is part of OQ, an integrated energy company that delivers sustainability and business excellence. OQ operates in 16 countries and covers the entire value chain from exploration and production to the marketing and distribution of its products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiners are scaling back on hiring ships for longer periods to save on costs in another sign of uncertainty over when global oil demand will return to pre-COVID levels, reported Reuters with reference to shipping and trade sources.

The global rollout of coronavirus vaccines and the expectation that government-offered stimulus packages will boost the world economy has raised expectations of a recovery in oil consumption. But fuel demand remains sluggish, keeping oil refiners under pressure and looking for ways to limit further losses.

The International Energy Agency, for example, does not expect oil demand to catch up with supply until about the third quarter.

US bookings for tankers hired on longer-term contracts, known as time charters, have dropped in recent weeks, as this usually means paying for longer hire costs, the sources said.

"It is tough taking a time charter now as it will lose money for the next few months and is hard to justify," one shipping source said.

Earnings for three-year and five-year time charters have also dropped from last year's highs, a trend which is weighing on profits for tanker owners.

"2021 is bound to become a bad year for oil product tankers – more so, as the option to manage bits and pieces of your risk in the time charter market is slim,” said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst with trade association BIMCO.

Sand added that there were more time charters concluded in 2020 than in the two previous years. This was partly because tankers were booked for storage as oil demand plummeted.

One US refining executive said it did not plan to go back to chartering long-term vessels in the future to cut costs.

"The last thing you need is to get stuck with several millions of dollars worth of unused vessels for the year. We have had several cases of that," the US executive said.

US refiners were also hit by the cold conditions in Texas in January, which triggered a drop in refinery throughput, leaving fewer refiners seeking vessels for shipments and temporarily cut overall refined product exports. US refined product exports have fallen in five of the last six weeks, based on EIA figures.

As MRC informed before, the largest US refinery, Motiva Enterprises’ 607,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, plant, returned to normal operations. The refinery was shut on Feb. 15 when freezing temperatures, rarely seen on the US Gulf Coast, knocked out steam supply. Motiva began restarting the refinery on Feb. 24.

Motiva Chemicals has also resumed operations at its mixed-feed cracker in Port Arthur, USA. The process of restart of this cracker with the capacity of 635,000 mt/year of ethylene and 340,000 mt/year of propylene began on 27 February, 2021, and finished late last week. The cracker wa shut along with the refinery at the same site on 14 February, 2021, because of the deep freeze.

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.
MRC

1. European Council endorses EU sustainable chemicals strategy

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Council has endorsed the EU's chemicals strategy for sustainability, adopted by the EU Commission in October 2020, reported Chemweek. The council has directed the commission to implement the actions laid down in the strategy, including targeted amendments to streamline EU chemicals legislation, substituting and minimizing substances of concern, and phasing out the most harmful chemicals for non-essential societal uses. The chemicals strategy is an essential part of the EU Green Deal and its zero-pollution ambition, as well as a key component in the EU recovery plan from the COVID-19 crisis.

MRC