BASF Catalysts to expand mobile emissions catalysts production plant in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Catalysts India will expand its mobile emissions catalysts production plant in Chennai, India, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This double-digit million Euro investment will nearly double the company’s catalysts production capacity for the heavy-duty on- and off-road segment. The completion of the expansion is planned in the fourth quarter of 2022.

“This expansion positions BASF to further meet OEMs’ increasing demand for high-performance and cost-effective emissions control solutions in India,” said Stephan Hermes, Vice President, Mobile Emissions Catalysts, Asia Pacific. “It also demonstrates our strong commitment and contribution to the Indian Government’s endeavors for cleaner air in the region.”

BASF’s Chennai catalysts site produces a full range of automotive emissions catalyst solutions for passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, off-road vehicles and motorcycles.

This investment will further boost BASF’s capabilities to support increasingly stringent requirements with the implementation of stricter emission regulations.

As MRC reported earlier, in June, 2021, Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and BASF, the world's petrochemical major, announced the intention to expand their businesses with the production of styrene monomer (SM) based on circular feedstock. Trinseo has procured first supplies of SM based on circular feedstock from BASF for use in its Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR) and polystyrene (PS) products. Trinseo supplies S-SBR to major tyre manufacturers while its PS products are used in applications such as food packaging and appliances. The first few customers have already processed the material, said the company.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics totalled 236,110 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, up by 27% year on year (172,360 tonnes). May estimated consumption was 48,880 tonnes, up by 66% year on year.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell its stake in eastern German refinery PCK Schwedt, the latest in a string of refinery disposals as part of the Anglo-Dutch company's energy transition strategy, reported Reuters.

Shell said in a statement that it will sell its 37.5% share in the refinery for an undisclosed sum to Vienna-based Alcmene GmbH, part of the Liwathon Group, an integrated logistics and investment business headquartered in Estonia.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021, pending approval by cartel authorities and its partners, Russia's Rosneft and Italy's Eni.

The disposal is part of Shell's strategy to reduce its global refinery portfolio to those core locations that could be integrated into future centres of Shell's operations, as it aims to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 at the latest.

As MRC wrote before, in May 2021, Shell announced the sales of its Anacortes, Washington, US refinery as well as the controlling interest in the joint venture Deer Park, Texas, refinery. The company also sold its chemical refinery in Mobile, Alabama.

It also plans to halve the capacity at its Pulau Bukom oil refinery in Singapore. The transaction, to be executed by Shell Deutschland GmbH, would not have any impact on other interests of Shell in Germany, the statement said.

Raw materials inventories will be valued at closing, based on actual volumes and prevailing market prices, said Shell, estimating a sum of between USD150-250 million.

Rosneft holds 54.17% and Eni 8.33% in PCK (Petrolchemisches Kombinat) Schwedt, which lies some 120 kilometres (km) northeast of Berlin. It currently processes 220,000 barrels of oil a day, Shell said.

We remind that Royal Dutch Shell plans to reduce its refining and chemicals portfolio by more than half, it said in July 2020 without giving a precise timeframe. The move is part of the Anglo-Dutch company's plan to shrink its oil and gas business and expand its renewables and power division to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply by 2050.

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.

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) -- INEOS Chemicals Grangemouth, INEOS FPS and Petroineos, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Acorn CCS Project to work together to develop Scotland’s first carbon capture and storage system linking Scotland’s industrial heartland to the Acorn CO2 transport and storage system in North East Scotland by 2027, as per INEOS' press release.

This announcement presents a pathway for Scotland to help meet its ambitious climate targets through effective carbon capture and storage. Investment at the Grangemouth site will enable the capture and storage of approximately one million tonnes a year of CO2 by 2027, with the scope to capture further significant volumes beyond this date.

INEOS and Petroineos own and operate one of Scotland’s largest manufacturing sites at Grangemouth. Since taking ownership of the facility in 2005, it has already reduced CO2 emissions at the site by 37%. Once operational the proposed carbon capture and storage system will further increase emission reduction at the site to more than 50% compared with 2005.

INEOS’ businesses at Grangemouth have put in place roadmaps to lead the transition to a net zero economy by no later than 2045, whilst remaining profitable, and staying ahead of evolving regulations and legislation. Based on these roadmaps, we are setting ambitious but achievable targets for 2030 which are in line with our 2045 commitment in Scotland, which we expect to publish shortly.

As MRC informed before, in January 2019, INEOS announced Antwerp as the location for its new petrochemical investment. The EUR3 billion investment will be the biggest ever made by INEOS and is first cracker to be built in Europe in 20 years. The investment is a game changer for the chemical sectors and will bring huge benefits to the Belgium and wider European economies.

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.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Marathon Petroleum is restarting a reformer at its 593,000-bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry declined to comment.

Marathon began restarting the 65,000-bpd reformer, called Ultraformer 4, on Wednesday, the sources said. Ultraformer 4 was shut on June 29 following a malfunction.

As MRC informed earlier, in May, 2021, US refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp said its board had approved the conversion of the Martinez refinery in California to a renewable diesel plant. Besides, the company made a final investment decision regarding this project. Martinez, once complete, will be one of the largest renewables facilities in the country.

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.

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is a leading, integrated, downstream energy company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company operates the nation's largest refining system. MPC's marketing system includes branded locations across the United States, including Marathon brand retail outlets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Global Chemical will invest 600 billion won (USD522.6 million) in a factory complex in Ulsan that will chemically recycle plastic waste, meaning the plastic will be completely degraded to raw material form, said Koreajoongangdaily.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, Korea’s largest oil refiner, signed an agreement with Ulsan City government Thursday. The plan is to build a chemical recycling factory on 160,000 square meters of land by 2025. Once it is complete, the Ulsan factory will be able to recycle 184,000 tons of plastic waste a year.

By investment volume and size of land, this will be the largest plastic recycling project in Korea, SK Global Chemical says. Chemical recycling splits molecule chains of plastic to produce materials like naphtha and crude oil. It is a different technology from mechanical recycling that washes plastic waste and melts it in a way that preserves its molecular structure.

According to SK Global Chemical, mechanical recycling is the more prevalent technology used by plastic recycling businesses in Korea, but chemical recycling is what produces end-products of higher value. For the massive plastic recycling project, SK Global Chemical teamed up with overseas partners that possess core technology in the field.

In January, the Korean petrochemical firm signed an agreement with Brightmark, a San Francisco-based company that has pyrolysis technology for heating and vaporizing the plastic waste to produce naphtha, which in turn is the base material for a variety of petrochemical products.

Together, SK Global Chemical and Brightmark will build a factory inside the Ulsan complex that could turn 100,000 tons of plastic waster to naphtha per year. Completion for this specific production line is set for 2024. The naphtha will be reused by SK Global Chemical to make other products.

Last month, SK Global Chemical acquired 10 percent of Loop Industries, a Canadian company specializing in depolymerization technology that can recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and polyester fiber into their raw materials.

According to SK Global Chemical, Loop’s technology causes no degradation in quality or strength and can be repeated infinitely, as opposed to traditional mechanical recycling that can cause degradation in PET quality.

SK Global Chemical and Loop will also establish facilities inside the Ulsan complex that can recycle 84,000 tons of plastic waste annually from 2025. The plan is to gradually expand this figure to 2.5 million tons by 2027.

Earlier this month, SK Innovation announced that recycling plastic would be a core part of the company's business. The Ulsan plant is the first concrete plan announced after the pledge.

"The Ulsan complex is the start of our ideation to produce raw materials out of plastic waste," said Na Kyung-soo, SK Global Chemical president and CEO in a Thursday statement. "Starting from Korea, our goal is to take this plastic recycling business to Asia one day and grow into a global leader in the field."

As MRC wrote previously, in October, 2020, Advanced Petrochemical signed an amendment to the partnership agreement between its subsidiary, Advanced Global Investment Co. (AGIC), and SK Gas Petrochemical Pte. Ltd. (SKGP), a unit of SK Gas Co. Ltd.. Under the amendment, an isopropanol (IPA) plant with a capacity of 70,000 tons per annum will be added, along with the Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) and Polypropylene (PP) plants that were already announced earlier. The company said in a bourse statement that by adding the IPA plant with an estimated cost of SAR 300 million (USD80 million), the total cost of the project for the three factories is currently estimated to be approximately SAR 7.05 billion (USD1.88 billion).

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.

Advanced Petrochemical Company (before Advanced Polypropylene) is a Saudi Joint Stock Company, established in October 2005. The company was initially launched by National Polypropylene Limited, jointly owned by Mr. Khalifa Al Mulhim, the chief executive officer of Advanced, and Mr. Monther Laheeq, who negotiated all the main deals related to the project, either before or after the establishment of Advanced Petrochemical. Currently, National Polypropylene Limited controls 7.9% of Advanced Petrochemical. Advanced Petrochemical started the construction of its plants in May 2005. The company produces 455,000 tons per year of propylene and 450,000 tons per year of polypropylene from its production facility located in Jubail Industrial City, in the Eastern coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
MRC