Chemical giant Repsol building new PP, PE plants in Portugal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In what’s being described as the largest industrial investment in Portugal in the last ten years, petrochemicals giant Repsol has announced that it will invest 657 million euros, or USD777 million, to build two new plants for the production of 100 per cent recyclable polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) at the Sines Industrial Complex, located about 150 km south of Lisbon, said Canplastics.

Scheduled to be operational by 2025, the project additionally will include construction of new logistics installations to enable use of rail transport for improving the complex’s connection to European markets and reducing its carbon-related emissions during transportation of products, according to Repsol.

The facilities employ market-leading technologies for linear PE and PP production and are the first of their kind on the Iberian peninsula, Repsol said. Each plant will have the capacity to produce 300,000 tons per year for applications aligned with energy transition in the pharmaceutical, automotive, and food industries.

The plants are part of Repsol’s 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, which calls for a total investment of 18.3 billion euros, or USD21.6 billion, between 2021 and 2025 and includes numerous projects to evolve its industrial area, which is already highly competitive and holds a leading position in Europe.

As per MRC, In June 2019, Gazprom Neft, Repsol and Shell signed an agreement of intent to create a joint venture to develop these areas. The closing of the deal was scheduled for 2020. It was assumed that Gazprom Neft will own 50% in the joint venture capital, the shares of Repsol and Shell will be 25% each.

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.

Repsol is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Repsol was ranked as the 645th-largest public company in the world. It has more than 24,000 employees worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp is considering permanently closing the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 112,229 barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas refinery as part of a possible reconfiguration of the plant, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with the company’s deliberations.

Idling the shut 52,000-bpd FCC would be part of converting the refinery on the Houston Ship Channel to a simpler hydroskimming configuration, the sources said.

The FCC was shut on June 1 by a malfunction that knocked the unit out of operation.

“They are investigating if it makes sense to repair the FCC,” one of the sources said.

A decision on the FCC's future is expected this month, the sources said.

In March, Mark Nelson, the company’s executive vice president of downstream and chemicals, said Chevron was looking for ways to expand processing of light-tight oil it produces from the Permian oil field in Texas to supply retail locations along the Gulf of Mexico.

“We continue to test alternatives for capital-efficient ways to expand our light-tight oil processing capability,” Nelson said during an investor day presentation in answer to an analyst’s question about the company’s plans for the Pasadena refinery.

On Friday, Chevron spokesman Tyler Kruzich said the company continues “to test those alternatives.”

Idling the FCC could lead to closure of 40% of the units at the refinery, the sources said.

As MRC informed earlier, Chevron bought the refinery in 2019 for USD350 million from Petrobras plus working capital.

We remind that Chevron Corp 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) -- Air Liquide, Borealis, Esso S.A.F., TotalEnergies and Yara International ASA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the development of a CO2 infrastructure including capture and storage, to help decarbonize the industrial basin located in the Normandy region, France, as per TotalEnergies press release.

With the objective to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 3 million tons per year by 2030, which is equivalent to the emissions of more than 1 million passenger cars, the first phase will consist in studying the technical and economical feasibility of this project. This partnership, which will seek funding from European, French and Regional schemes, is open to other industrial parties.

The ability of industrial players to reduce their CO2 emissions in the medium and long term is a key issue for the sustainability of industrial activities and ecosystems in the area of Axe Seine/Normandy. The companies involved in the MoU have agreed to collaborate to assess the technical and economical feasibility of implementing an industrial CO2 capture and storage (CCS) chain, from their industrial facilities to ultimate storage in the North Sea.

Bernard Pinatel, President of Refining & Chemicals and member of the Executive Committee at TotalEnergies, said : “We are pleased to join forces with some major industrial players of the industrial basin of Normandy to collectively engage into a cooperation to reduce the CO2 emissions from our facilities. This collective effort will be facilitated by TotalEnergies’ actions in developing, with partners, CO2 storages in the North Sea such as the Northern Lights and Aramis' projects. This CCS initiative will contribute to the decarbonization of our Normandy platform and is fully aligned with TotalEnergies’ ambition to get to net zero emissions by 2050.”

As MRC reported previously, in June 2021, TotalEnergies and Novatek have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly work on sustainable reductions of the CO emission resulting from the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) including with the use of renewable power, to develop large-scale carbon capture and storage solutions (CCS) and to explore new opportunities for developing decarbonized hydrogen and ammonia.

We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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.

A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 78 countries with approximately 64,500 employees and serves more than 3.8 million customers and patients. Air Liquide’s revenue amounted to more than EUR20 billion in 2020.

Borealis is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals, fertilizers and the mechanical recycling of plastics. With head offices in Vienna, Austria, Borealis employs 6,900 employees and operates in over 120 countries. In 2020, Borealis generated EUR6.8 billion in sales revenue and a net profit of EUR 589 million. OMV, the Austria-based international oil and gas company, owns 75% of Borealis, while the remaining 25% is owned by a holding company of the Abu-Dhabi based Mubadala.

Esso S.A.F. is a listed company with an 82.89% ExxonMobil France Holding SAS interest. ExxonMobil, one of the largest publicly traded international energy companies, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.

TotalEnergies is a broad energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, and electricity. Its 105,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, clean, reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL), a large producer of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) for beverage bottles, has announced plans to build a facility in Karawang, Indonesia, to recycle almost 2 billion plastic bottles a year in support of the Indonesian government’s plan to reduce ocean debris, according to Recycling Today.

The facility, which is planned to open in 2023, will recycle 1.92 billion PET bottles annually and will employ 217 people.
The plant will provide the washed and shredded postconsumer bottles as PET flake feedstock to produce recycled resin that is suitable for food-contact use.

According to a news release from IVL, the new facility supports the company’s global commitment to divert postconsumer PET bottles away from landfills and into the circular economy, which supports the government’s National Plan of Action on Marine Plastic Debris. The nation has a goal to reduce 70% of its plastic debris from 2017 by the end of 2025.

Indorama Ventures has six Indonesian sites across Purwakarta, Cilegon, Tangerang and Karawang.

The company reports that the new recycling facility brings a circular business model to its Indonesian operations. In 2019, Indorama Ventures announced plans to recycle a minimum of 750,000 metric tons of PET globally by 2025, investing up to USD1.5 billion to achieve that goal. IVL’s new plant in Karawang, along with its other recycling facilities in Southeast Asia, will work with existing PET flake production facilities in Indonesia.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2021, IVL completed its acquisition of CarbonLite Holdings’ facility in Texas as part of the company’s commitment to increasing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling capacity. Now known as Indorama Ventures Sustainable Recycling (IVSR), the Dallas site is one of the largest producers of food-grade recycled pellets (recycled PET or rPET) in the US, with a combined capacity of 92,000 tons annually. The facility will recycle more than 3 billion PET plastic beverage bottles per year and support more than 130 jobs directly. IVL is the world’s largest producer of recycled PET for beverage bottles. With this acquisition, IVL expands its US recycling capacity to 10 billion beverage bottles a year, towards its global target of recycling 50 billion bottles (750,000 metric tons) annually by 2025.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption grew to 263,660 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 13% year on year. Bottle grade PET chips accounted fro 78.3% of the increase in consumption due to the virtual absence of exports and higher imports.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, listed in Thailand (Bloomberg ticker IVL.TB), is one of the world’s leading petrochemicals producers, with a global manufacturing footprint across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Americas. The company’s portfolio comprises Integrated PET, Olefins, Fibers, Packaging and Specialty Chemicals. Indorama Ventures products serve major FMCG and automotive sectors, i.e. beverages, hygiene, personal care, tire and safety segments. Indorama Ventures has approx. 24,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of US$ 11.4 billion in 2019. The Company is listed in the Dow Jones Emerging Markets and World Sustainability Indices (DJSI).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US petroleum inventories have fallen below the pre-pandemic five-year average with consumption accelerating but crude producers slow to respond to rising prices, signalling more supply is needed, reported Reuters.

Total stocks of crude and refined products outside the strategic petroleum reserve fell by 10 million barrels last week and are now down by 188 million barrels compared with the same point a year ago.

Total stocks have fallen in 38 out of the last 52 weeks as OPEC+ and US shale firms limit crude production even as product consumption recovers.

Inventories are 12 million barrels or 1% below the pre-pandemic five-year average for 2015-2019, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

The deficit is concentrated in crude, where inventories are 15 million barrels or 3% below the average, while there are still small surpluses in gasoline (3 million barrels or 1%) and distillates (2 million barrels or 1%).

The crude shortage has become especially acute around the delivery point for the NYMEX WTI contract at Cushing, Oklahoma, where crude stocks are 21% below the five-year average for 2016-2020.

The shortfall has pushed the WTI contract into a steep backwardation, with front-month futures trading at a premium of almost USD2.90 to the fourth delivery month, which is in the 7th percentile for all weeks since 2012.

On the refined products side, the volume of gasoline supplied to the domestic market hit a record 10.0 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, surging from 9.2 million bpd the previous week.

But gasoline supplied measures transfers from the primary petroleum system (refineries, import terminals, pipelines and tank farms) into the secondary system (wholesalers and retailers) rather than actual consumption by motorists.

As MRC wrote before, in early July, US crude stocks fell for the sixth straight week as refiners ramped up output in response to rising demand, according to the Energy Information Administration. Crude inventories fell by 6.7 million barrels in the week to June 25 to 452.3 million barrels, a steeper drop than the 4.7 million barrels expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

We remind that Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world's third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.

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