Northern California requires Chevron an PBF Energy to slash air pollution

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Northern California regulators directed two of the state's largest oil refineries to slash their fine particulate air pollution, which will require costly modifications at the plants, reporte Reuters.

The 19-3 vote by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District governing board means refineries in the area, including Chevron Corp's Richmond plant and PBF Energy Inc's Martinez refinery, will have to install wet gas scrubbers to reduce pollution spewed by their gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking units (FCCU) within five years.

The new requirement is expected to cut PBF and Chevron’s particulate matter emissions from its cat crackers by about 70%, the air quality district estimates.

Refineries emit heavy amounts of pollution as crude oil is processed into fuel, and small particulate matter - consisting of solid or liquid airborne particles - is among the most harmful pollutants. Prolonged exposure is known to lead to respiratory, pulmonary and cognitive health problems. FCCUs, which turn heavier crude oil into lighter petroleum products including gasoline, are among the largest polluters of fine particulate matter in the San Francisco Bay-area.

Under the amended rule, refineries with FCCUs must limit annual emissions of particulate matter to 0.01 grain per dry standard cubic foot within the next five years. Chevron and PBF, the refiners expected to be most affected by the rule change, urged regulators to consider a less stringent 0.02 limit by 2023. Valero Energy Corp's Benicia refinery already has a wet gas scrubber.

Refiners and their advocates, including several refinery labor unions, said upgrading the FCCUs would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, lead to refinery layoffs and put pressure on the plants to shut down. Running the wet gas scrubbers would also require excessive water use in an already parched area, they argued.

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

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.

cheChevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies. Chevron produces crude oil and natural gas; manufactures transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and additives; and develops technologies that enhance our business and the industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian refiners' crude throughput in June was little changed from the previous month when it fell to multi-month lows as a severe second wave of coronavirus restrained demand, forcing refiners to reduce runs, said Reuters.

Refiners processed 4.50 million barrels per day (18.4 million tonnes) of crude oil in June, provisional government data showed on Friday. This compares with 4.49 million barrels per day (bpd) processed in May, which was the lowest since October 2020. Crude oil imports also fell to a 9-month low in June as refiners curtailed purchases amid higher fuel inventories due to low consumption and renewed lockdowns in the previous two months, data obtained from trade sources showed.

Refineries' crude oil throughput last month was still 4.7% higher than June 2020 levels. India's fuel demand also inched higher after slumping to a nine-month low in May as many states in the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer started easing restrictions and mobility picked up.

Indian state fuel retailers' gasoline sales also exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the first fortnight of July, preliminary industry data showed last week. "With a further likely easing of mobility restrictions, I would expect oil demand to recover further, resulting in higher refinery processing rates down the road," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Indian refiners operated at an average rate of 89.59% of capacity in June, down from 92.37% of capacity in May, the government data showed. The country's largest refiner, Indian Oil Corp, last month operated its directly owned plants at 93.53% capacity, as per the data.

Reliance, owner of the world's biggest refining complex, operated its plants at 93.12% capacity in June. Natural gas output rose 19.5% to 2.78 billion cubic metres, while crude oil production eased nearly 2% to 606,000 barrels per day (2.48 million tonnes), data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas showed.

We remind that Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), said in June he expects the company's deal with Saudi Aramco to materialise this year. Meanwhile, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of Saudi Aramco and the Governor of the Public Investment Fund, joined the board of Reliance as an independent director.

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Eni and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining of Kenya signed an MoU to promote the decarbonization process to tackle climate change through new industrial models of fully-integrated circular economy along the whole bio-fuel production value chain, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The parties will jointly conduct feasibility studies to develop waste and residue collection as well as agricultural projects, with the purpose of establishing a wide range of feedstock sources that do not compete with food cycles, to be transformed into bio-fuels and bio-products that might contribute to feed Eni’s bio-refineries in Gela and Venice, Italy. The parties will also assess the opportunity of converting Mombasa refinery into a bio-refinery, as well as the construction of a new plant for second-generation bio-ethanol from waste biomass, leveraging on Eni technologies Ecofining™ e Proesa.

The agricultural development project focuses on the development of sustainable oil crop cultivations - namely, low ILUC (indirect land use change) feedstock such as cover crops, castor in degraded lands, croton trees in agro-forestry systems and other agro-industrial co-products. The waste and residue collection would be focused to promote and implement a collection system for used cooked oil (UCO) and of other agro-processing residues.

This initiative will contribute to diversifying Kenya’s energy mix and supporting the overall de-carbonization process, while also decreasing the Country’s dependence from imports of petroleum products. Other expected benefits include developing sustainable agricultural activities and circular economy, producing power from renewable sources, fostering the economic competitiveness of the local industry and creating new jobs.

The agreement contributes to the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The projects also contribute to the implementation of the Kenya Bioenergy Strategy, Updated Nationally Determined Contribution, Kenya’s National Development Plans, including Kenya Vision 2030. Also, the initiatives are in line with Eni’s commitment to play a pivotal role in the decarbonization process and with the Company’s target to become palm-oil free by 2023 and to double bio-refineries capacity to around 2mln tons by 2024. Eni has been present in Kenya since 2013 through its subsidiary Eni Kenya.

As per MRC, Versalis, a chemical subsidiary of the Italian state-owned Eni, plans to begin maintenance in September at its ABS plant in Mantua (Mantova, Italy). The plant has two lines with a capacity of 95,000 tonnes of ABS per year, and maintenance will be carried out on one of the production lines, while the other line will continue to operate. The exact dates of the beginning and end of the repair are not yet known.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, in Russia, the manufacturer Plastik (Uzlovaya) has reduced the July prices of its material for various buyers. So, unpainted ABS with a volume of 20 tonnes or more is sold by the plant at a price of Rb293,000-300,000/tonne, FCA Nodal, VAT included.

Versalis is a petrochemical company, a 100% subsidiary of the Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA. The company manufactures a wide range of petrochemical products and is also one of the world's leading elastomer companies.

Eni S.p.A. (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) is an Italian oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. Eni operates in 70 countries around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) presented flat production numbers in the second quarter, as the ramp-up off some major platforms was largely offset by maintenance stoppages and divestments, reported Reuters.

In a securities filing, Petribras said it produced 2.796 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the period, a decrease of 0.2% in annual terms and a 1.1% increase from the first quarter.

Crude production came in at 2.226 million barrels per day, down 0.8% from the same period a year ago and up 1.4% in quarterly terms.

Ongoing ramp-ups at two major platforms, known as P-68 and P-70, boosted those numbers, Petrobras said. Production numbers were hit, however, by stoppages at several fields in the offshore Campos Basin, as well as at some shallow-water and onshore assets. The divestment of the company's Frade field also hit the firm's figures in annual terms, Petrobras said.

In the filing, the company noted strong growth in domestic gasoline and diesel demand during the quarter.

Domestic diesel sales increased 11.4% in quarterly terms and 28.8% from the same period last year, while gasoline sales in Brazil climbed 12.7% from the first quarter and 36.9% in annual terms. In addition to the progressive loosening of coronavirus-related restrictions, Petrobras cited changes in ethanol blend requirements and a temporary tax relief program as positive catalysts.

As MRC wrote previously, Petrobras may need more than a year to divest its stake in Braskem, said Andrea Almeida, Petrobras CFO, in early July, 2020. She said during the company"s recent webinar that Petrobras plans to give more time for potential investors to make offers for the company"s assets, including for its refineries and stakes at its petrochemical and fuel distribution affiliates. The divestment of Petrobras"s stake in Braskem in 2020 would be desirable but "might not be possible" as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed market conditions, she said. The company plans to close part of its refinery sales in 2021. In December, Roberto Castello Branco, CEO of Petrobras, said that he wants to sell the company"s stake in Braskem within a year. Petrobras owns 32.15% of Braskem.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem"s back burner for several years.

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Workers at an Exxon Mobil Texas refinery put off considering a vote on the company's contract proposal, a union official said, as a lockout near edits fourth month, reporte Reuters.

About 650 United Steelworkers union (USW) members were locked out of Exxon’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery and lubricant oil plant on May 1 after a prior contract covering the 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) facility expired.

The USW has said Exxon's proposal would require its members to give up longstanding seniority rights and create separate contracts for refinery and lubricant plant workers.

Exxon has been operating the 2,700-acre (11-sq km) complex with managers and replacement workers. The facility makes gasoline and Mobil 1 motor oil.

It has pressed union leaders to put its proposal before members, saying contact terms would give it the flexibility to be profitable in low-margin environments.

"We will continue to bargain in good faith with the union until an agreement is reached," said Exxon spokesperson Julie King.

The company said last week there were no new negotiating sessions planned.

More than three-quarters of the about 350 members at a meeting on Thursday decided against scheduling a vote on the offer for at least two weeks, said people familiar with the matter.

"This gives Exxon two more weeks to come up with a better proposal," said a union member following the meeting.

Hoot Landry, a USW international representative, said the decision to delay a vote reflects the lack of progress in negotiations.

As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil's Beaumont, Texas refinery is operating at about 60% of its 369,024-bpd capacity because of the lockout of union workers.

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries 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