Sinopec-SK Wuhan to start up new HDPE plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) - China's Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical, a joint venture between one of the world's largest energy and chemical companies and the largest oil refinery in Asia - Sinopec - and South Korea's SK Global Chemical, plans to begin test production at its new high denisty polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Wuhan, China in July, according to CommoPlast.

This new plant with the production capacity of 300,000 mt/year of HDPE is part of the second phase of the petrochemical complex in Wuhan.

The company already operates the first HDPE plant of a similar capacity at the same site.

As MRC reported earlier, the company conducted a scheduled turnaround at this HDPE plant from 16 October to 23 December 2020.

Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical also received commercial production at a new plant with the capacity of 300,000 mt/year of polypropylene (PP) in Wuhan on 21 May, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast, April estimated HDPE consumption in Russia slumped to 70,420 tonnes from 132,340 tonnes a month earlier. Domestic producers raised their exports, while some producers' output decreased. Overall HDPE shipments into the Russian market totalled 422,370 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Production increased, whereas imports fell by 39%.

Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical is a major manufacturer of petrochemical products in China. The company produces, among other things, such products as ethylene, propylene, polyethylene (high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene), polypropylene, monoethylene glycol, etc. According to Reuters, the company's annual ethylene output is 2.5 million tons.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - On June 9, the first production line of the Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) of Gazprom was officially launched, according to the company's statement.

It is noted that the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the video conferencing mode launched its launch.

The construction of the Amur GPP is one of the largest infrastructure projects of Gazprom in the Russian Far East. The plant will process multicomponent natural gas from the Yakutsk and Irkutsk gas production centers supplied through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. The design capacity of the plant will be 42 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The GPP will include the world's largest helium production - up to 60 million cubic meters per year. The plant will consist of six technological lines with a capacity of 7 billion cubic meters. m per year each. Their introduction is planned to be carried out in stages. The Amur GPP is scheduled to reach its design capacity in January 2025.

The Amur GPP will produce 38 billion cubic meters. m per year of commercial gas supplied to the PRC. Also, the enterprise will annually produce up to 2.6 million tons of ethane, up to 1 million tons of propane, about 500 thousand tons of butanes and up to 200 thousand tons of pentane-hexane fraction.

After the Amur GPP reaches its full design capacity, Gazprom's refining capacity will increase by 80%. Ethane output will increase sevenfold, and helium output - 16. This is about a third of current world consumption.

The Amur GPP is located near the city of Svobodny, Amur Region. It will become one of the largest natural gas processing enterprises in the world. The largest is only the Prudhoe Bay Unit Central Gas Facility in Alaska, USA.

The design capacity of the plant will be 42 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It includes six lines of 7 billion each. At the moment, the readiness of the second line is 65%, the third - 41%, the fourth - 15.6%, the fifth - 6.4%. Less than six years have passed since the sinking of the first pile to the present moment of launch, Gazprom recalled. "Today we are launching the plant strictly on schedule," Miller said at the launch ceremony.

In addition to the gas processing plant, 30 kilometers of roads, a railway line from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the plant site, as well as a temporary berth on the Zeya River for unloading large-tonnage equipment were built. The Svobodnenskaya thermal power plant was erected near the plant. Russian equipment was used here, including steam power boilers and turbine plants.

The investor and customer of the project is Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk LLC. The construction is managed by the general contractor NIPIGAZ (SIBUR group). In 2019, the facility attracted project financing for EUR11.4 billion. Funds were provided by 22 banks from Europe, Japan, China, Russia.

The products of the Amur GPP are commercial gas (methane) and components extracted from it for the gas chemical and other industrial sectors. The plant will produce 2.4 million tons of ethane, 1.5 million tons of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), 200 thousand tons of pentane-hexane fraction. The main consumer of ethane and LPG from the Amur GPP will be the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (a joint project of SIBUR and Sinopec).

Earlier it was reported that in December last year SIBUR Holding chose Spheripol LyondellBasell polyolefin technology for its Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGHK) under construction. The technological process will be used at a polypropylene plant with a capacity of 400 thousand tons per year, which will be built in the town of Svobodny, Amur Region.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.

SIBUR Holding is the leader in the Russian petrochemical industry and one of the largest global companies in the sector with more than 23 thousand employees. In 2019, SIBUR's revenues amounted to USD8.2 billion, EBITDA - USD2.6 billion. Over the past 10 years, SIBUR has implemented a number of large-scale investment projects worth about 1 trillion rubles.

PJSC Gazprom is a Russian energy company engaged in geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sale of gas, gas condensate and oil, as well as the production and sale of heat and electricity. The largest company in Russia, the largest gas company in the world, owns the longest gas transmission system (over 160 thousand km). It is the world leader in the industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has made a new discovery at Longtail-3 in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, as the US oil major develops one of the world's most important new oil and gas blocks in the last decade, reported Reuters.

Exxon operates the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block as part of a consortium that includes Hess Corp and China's CNOOC Ltd. It began production at the block in 2019.

The company, however, did not specify the size of the latest discovery's oil and gas reserves.

The latest find continues the consortium's long string of discoveries in Latin America's newest crude producing nation and underscores the importance of Guyana to Exxon for increasing its future oil output.

As MRC informed previously, Sinopec Engineering (Group) and ExxonMobil (Huizhou) Chemical (EMHCC) have recently entered into a BEPC (basic design, engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the proposed Huizhou Chemical Complex Project (Phase I). The main units of the project include a 1.6 million tonnes/year ethylene flexible feed steam cracker, downstream polymer and derivative units and utilities. The main product units include two performance polyethylene (PE) lines and two differentiated performance polypropylene (PP) lines.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alpek (Monterrey, Mexico) has announced that it has acquired a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling and palletizing plant owned by CarbonLite Recycling LLC in Reading, Pennsylvania, for USD96 million, reported Reuters.

The plant is expected to begin operations in the third quarter 2021, said a statement from Alpek, which is a unit of conglomerate Alfa.

The company was “strongly interested” in the site as it is outfitted with brand-new equipment, including curbside bottle handling, wash lines, and a solid-state polymerizer (SSP) that enables production of food-grade pellets, which are needed for bottle-to-bottle recycling, it says.

The facility has a bottle-to-flake input capacity of 115,000 metric tons/year, and a flake-to-pellet capacity of 49,000 metric tons/year, making it the largest integrated recycled PET (rPET) facility in the Americas, according to Alpek.

The acquisition increases Alpek’s installed rPET capacity to 394,000 metric tons, and achieves its target of supplying selected customers with 25% rPET content before 2025, it says.

As MRC informed before, Alpek swung to a Q1 net income because of higher sales, and it raised its guidance for 2021. During the quarter, Alpek's plants operated without interruption, allowing them to capitalise on the disruption caused by winter storm Uri. In addition, Alpek was able to sell natural gas. The following shows the financial performance of the company's Polyester segment.

Alpek operates two main business segments, focused on polyester, and plastics and chemicals, and is a leading producer of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). It is also the largest EPS manufacturer in the Americas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow has announced plans to build an integrated MDI distillation and prepolymers facility at its world-scale manufacturing site in Freeport, Texas, according to MarketScreener.

This investment supports increasing demand for downstream polyurethane systems products and advances Dow's leading positions in attractive applications in construction, consumer, and industrial markets that are growing above GDP.

The new Freeport MDI facility will replace Dow's current North America capacity in La Porte, Texas, and will also be capable of supplying an additional 30% of product to Dow's customers. In coordination with the start-up of the new MDI facility, expected in 2023, Dow will shut down its polyurethane assets at the La Porte site.

The new facility in Freeport will reduce Dow's carbon footprint and water usage.

Dow's extensive Polyurethane Systems franchise upgrades key polyurethane components in order to produce rigid, semi-rigid and flexible foams, and coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers and composites for applications that range from industrial and infrastructure solutions, to consumer comfort solutions in flooring, furniture, bedding and footwear, to automotive solutions for vehicle interior, and energy-efficient insulation materials.

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2021, Dow, a global leader in materials science, joined CDP Supply Chain Program (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project, an international non-profit specialized in environmental reporting) to track climate impacts in the supply chain and identify collaborative decarbonization opportunities with suppliers. This is part of Dow’s expanded Sustainable Procurement multigenerational plan. The CDP program supports Dow’s “protect the climate” targets, announced in 2020, and its commitment to accelerate its work with its suppliers, customers and value chain partners to ensure Dow’s ecosystem is carbon neutral by 2050.

We remind that in April, 2021, Dow and Mura Technology partnered to help keep plastic waste out of the environment. The collaboration will support the rapid scaling of Mura’s new HydroPRS (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) advanced recycling process aimed at preventing plastic and carbon from entering the natural environment while creating the feedstocks for a sustainable, circular plastics economy.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC