Chevron temporarily shut offshore oil and gas platforms in ahead of Gulf of Mexico storm

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron temporarily shut in production June 18 from two offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and evacuated some staff, ahead of a weather system that was expected to strengthen into a tropical storm and make landfall in southeast Louisiana, reported S&P Global.

Other producers in the Gulf, including BP, Shell and W&T Offshore, said they were monitoring the track of Potential Tropical Cyclone Three, but as of early afternoon had not yet evacuated any staff from platforms or shut in any offshore output. Later in the day, Shell said no crew-change flights were scheduled out of Houma and marine operations would remain limited in areas affected by the storm and elevated seas.

With the storm tracking well east of gas liquefaction facilities in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas, producers there did not expect any impacts to export operations. Officials at Cheniere Energy, the biggest US LNG exporter with facilities at Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas, and Freeport LNG, which operates a liquefaction facility south of Houston, said they would continue to monitor the storm.

In Chevron's case, it wasn't taking any chances.

In preparation for the tropical weather, the company transported all non-essential personnel from the Big Foot, Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti platforms. All personnel from its Genesis facility were also moved onshore, spokesman Tyler Kruzich said in an email responding to questions.

While production was temporarily shut-in at the Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti platforms, output at other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico assets remained at normal levels, Kruzich said. Production at Jack/ St. Malo and Tahiti was expected to return to full levels over the weekend, Kruzich said.

Louisiana refiners in the path of the storm were also monitoring the situation.

"Phillips 66 is closely monitoring Potential Tropical Cyclone Three in the Gulf of Mexico," said spokesperson Allison Stowe. "Based on the storm's projected path, our Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, has activated its storm preparedness plan and remains focused on maintaining safe and reliable operations. There's no impact to operations at this time."

As MRC wrote previously, Chevron Corp has restarted the 112,229 barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas, refinery night after completing a multi-unit overhaul that was extended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire refinery was shut from mid-April, 2020, until mid-July, 2020 with the last units returning to production on Tuesday, 14 July. The overhaul was originally to finish in mid-June, but was extended to mid-July.

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.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG) and Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) have been awarded a technology contract by ReadiFuels-Iowa, LLC for their renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project in Sioux Center, Iowa, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The scope of the project includes the technology license, basic engineering, catalyst supply and proprietary equipment.

The jointly developed CLG and ARA Biofuels ISOCONVERSION technology will help ReadiFuels-Iowa produce sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and renewable naphtha that are indistinguishable from petroleum-based fuels. The plant will process used cooking oil and distiller's corn oil to produce approximately 36 million gallons of renewable fuels annually. ReadiFuels-Iowa also plans to process yellow grease, brown grease, animal fats, non-food energy crop oils and algal oil in the future while employing the Biofuels ISOCONVERSION technology.

Based on CLG's best-in-class hydroprocessing technology and ARA's patented Catalytic Hydrothermolysis process, the Biofuels ISOCONVERSION process can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions when compared to conventional refining processes. In addition, the novel approach produces 100% drop-in fuels from renewable sources that meet petroleum specifications without blending.

As MRC informed earlier, in May 2021, CLG announced the successful startup of a 100% renewable base oil unit in Novvi's Deer Park, Houston facility that employs CLG's patented state-of-the-art ISODEWAXING catalyst and technology. Chevron, one of the joint venture parents of CLG, is an equity partner in Novvi LLC (Novvi), a California-based company that engages in the development, production, marketing, and distribution of high-performance base oils from renewable sources.

We remind that in September 2020, Chevron Phillips Chemical, part of Chevron Corporation, deferred a final investment decision on a USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex project along the US Gulf Coast that was expected in 2021. The project, in partnership with Qatar Petroleum (QP), was announced in July 2019. It is slated to include a 2 million mt/year cracker and two 1 million mt/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plants. The FID delay will also push the original target startup date past 2024.

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.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil plans to invest USD3 billion in production of petrochemicals within the next 6 years, said the company's head, Vagit Alekperov, as per Reuters.

He was speaking at the launch of an isomerisation unit at the NORSI oil refinery that is part of Russia's drive to improve the quality and ecological standards of the fuel.

Lukoil has put the unit's annual production capacity at 800,000 tonnes. It will help Lukoil to boost production of gasoline by 400,000 tonnes per year.

According to Refinitiv data, the refinery processed 11.161 million tonnes of crude oil in 2020. It produced 3.317 million tonnes of gasoline, 3.158 million tonnes of diesel and 2.412 million tonnes of fuel oil. Lukoil was not immediately available for comment.

As MRC informed earlier, Stavrolen (Budennovsk, part of Lukoil), a major polyolefins producer in the Russian Federation, plans to upgrade its technical equipment and to increase its production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) as part of modernization.

As reported earlier, in the first week of September 2020, Stavrolen resumed PP production after a forced and long outage due to technical problems. In fact, the plant did not produce PP since 16 July.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Stavrolen produced slightly over 11,000 tonnes of PP in April versus 10,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Budenovsk plant"s overall output of propylene polymers reached 42,900 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 4% year on year.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include operations for exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest private oil company worldwide by the proven hydrocarbon reserves. Lukoil"s structure includes one of the largest Russian petrochemical plant - Stavrolen.

Stavrolen, Lukoil's subsidiary, is Russia's second largest high density polyethylene (HDPE) producer after Kazanorgsintez and the fifth largest PP manufacturer. Stavrolen"s HDPE and PP production capacities are 300,000 tonnes and 120,000 tonnes per year, respectively, the plant also produces 80,000 tonnes of benzene and 50,000 tonnes of vinyl acetate per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the announcement of a joint development agreement in June 2020, Dow and Shell have reported progress on their technology programme to electrically heat steam cracker furnaces, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This new route has the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from one of the central processes of the chemical industry.

The companies confirm that the joint programme has been awarded EUR3.5 million (USD4.2 million) in MOOI (Mission-driven Research, Development and Innovation subsidy) scheme funding by the Netherlands Government.

They also announce joining forces with The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT). This multi-company collaboration aims to accelerate key milestones for the near-term progress and longer-term breakthroughs needed.

In the first year, the programme has advanced electrification solutions for today’s steam crackers while also pursuing game-changing technologies for novel designs of electrified crackers in the longer-term. The dual-path approach aims to support emission reductions required to meet the companies’ 2030 CO2 ambitions and their targets to achieve net zero emissions businesses by 2050 or sooner, in line with the Paris agreement.

Joint teams in the Netherlands and the United States have deployed their expertise in electrical design, metallurgy, hydrocarbon technology and computational fluid dynamics to narrow down concepts, validate emissions benefits, advance patents, demonstrate the durability of electric heating elements, and partner with equipment suppliers.

The companies are now evaluating construction of a multi-megawatt pilot plant, with potential start-up in 2025, subject to investment support.

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.

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.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has restarted crude blending at its Sinovensa and Petropiar plants after a gas supply outage to the Jose oil export terminal halted operations, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The resumption comes as a very large crude carrier (VLCC) set sail after delays loading at Jose and a second VLCC prepared to leave, partly alleviating a bottleneck of vessels that had built up due to the gas outage, low inventories and quality issues, the internal PDVSA document showed.

Both supertankers are carrying crude cargoes bound for Asia and a third vessel of the same size is set to depart by the end of the month to cover a similar route.

As of May 23, Petrolera Sinovensa's blending plants, operated by a joint venture between PDVSA and China National Petroleum Corp for converting extra-heavy crude from Venezuela's Orinoco oil belt into exportable Merey crude, were processing 139,000 barrels per day, the document showed.

PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Petropiar crude upgrader, a facility near Jose that is part of a joint venture between PDVSA and Chevron Corp and which also halted output last week due to the gas outage, also restarted on Monday, according to a separate document seen by Reuters and a person familiar with the matter.

The temporary gas outage at Jose resulted from a fire at PDVSA's Amana Operating Center (COA) in eastern Monagas state that authorities blamed on lightning.

As per MRC, Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has restarted gasoline production at the FCC unit of its 310,000 bpd Cardon refinery. The unit was producing between 15,000 and 20,000 bpd of gasoline, according to union leader Ivan Freites, who said the unit started back up on Wednesday evening. PDVSA earlier in the week began producing at least 25,000 bpd of gasoline at Cardon’s reformer unit.

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.
MRC