Iraq approved a plan by BP to spin off its operations in Iraq into a standalone company

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq approved a plan by BP to spin off its operations in Iraq into a standalone company, a cabinet statement said, as the British oil major looks to shift focus to low carbon investments, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new company, Basra Energy Ltd., would hold BP's interest in Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field and be jointly owned by China National Petroleum Corp, one of BP's partners at the site.

As MRC reported before, BP and Lukoil want to quit their Iraqi energy projects due to the current investment environment, the country's oil minister said earlier this month, as OPEC's second biggest producer faces an exodus of international oil companies that want to exit unattractive contracts. Lukoil wants to sell its stake in West Qurna 2 to Chinese companies.

We remind that Russian energy major Lukoil (Moscow) is studying several potential petrochemical projects in Russia and Bulgaria, with investment decisions expected to be made on two of them in 2021.

Thus, Lukoil announced an investment decision in June, 2019, to proceed with a 500,000-metric tons/year polypropylene (PP) plant at its Kstovo refinery. In September this year it selected Lummus Technology’s Novolen PP technology and basic design engineering for the facility’s production unit. Kstovo is one of Lukoil’s largest crude refineries in Russia with a throughput of 17 million metric tons/year, with the company recently adding a catalytic cracking unit that almost doubled the refinery’s production of propylene feedstock to 300,000 metric tons/year.

At Budennovsk in Russia’s far south west, the company’s Stavrolen petchems complex currently has the capacity to produce 350,000 metric tons/year of ethylene, 300,000 metric tons of polyethylene (PE), 120,000 metric tons/year of PP, and 80,000 metric tons of benzene. Lukoil has for several years been considering construction of a new gas chemicals plant at Stavrolen to crack more ethane extracted from associated petroleum gas produced by its oil and gas fields in the north of the Caspian Sea. The potential new plant would raise Stavrolen’s ethylene and PE output to around 600,000 metric tons/year each, and increase PP production to 200,000 metric tons/year.

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.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lukoil announces the start of a catalytic cracking complex construction project at the Perm refinery, said the company.

The project is implemented under an agreement with the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation on providing an investment incentive as part of the negative excise tax on refinery feedstock until January 1, 2031.

The feedstock capacity of the complex will be 1.8 million tonnes per year. The complex will include a catalytic cracking unit, a high-octane gasoline components unit and infrastructure facilities. A distinctive feature of the new complex will be the high adjustable propylene yield.

The complex is planned to be launched in 2026, which will allow to increase production of high-octane motor gasolines and to start production of polymer grade propylene to be used as a feedstock at Lukoil's petrochemical facilities.

Lukoil completed the core Russian refineries upgrade program in 2016, with investments exceeding USD10 billion. Lukoil was the first Russian company to start producing exclusively Euro-5 compliant gasolines and diesel fuel and to fulfil conditions of the Russian Refineries Upgrade Program under quadripartite agreements between the Russian authorities and vertically integrated oil companies. The Company continues upgrading its refineries in Russia. In 2021, Lukoil finished construction of a high-viscosity index lubricants production complex in Volgograd, commissioned PENEX isomerisation unit and a polymer-bitumen binders production unit at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery. A delayed coker unit is planned to be launched at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery before the end of 2021.

As per MRC, Lukoil plans to invest USD3 billion in production of petrochemicals within the next 6 years. 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.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland’s PKN Orlen has signed a letter of intent and a feasibility study contract with KBR with a view to processing waste plastics into liquid and gaseous products that can be used in the production of chemicals, monomers and polymers, said Biznespolska.

State-controlled Orlen and technology and engineering services provider KBR would analyse the possibility of using KBR-licensed Hydro-PRT SM technology in the recycling and “circular economy” project, it added. The project would help Orlen achieve its target of becoming emissions neutral by 2050, the company said.

Orlen said that in Europe, 24.5mn tonnes of plastic waste are generated annually, with more than one-third recycled, 42% incinerated, and 24% landfilled.

“We are a responsible company that has a real impact on the protection of the natural environment, which is why we are committed to the implementation of the goals of sustainable development. By undertaking cooperation with KBR, we are taking another important step in this direction. The technology we are analyzing is to enable the recycling of plastic waste and the use of raw materials obtained in this way for the production of petrochemical and refining products. It will be our response to global trends related to environmental protection, which will at the same time contribute to building the value of the concern in the long term, ”said President Daniel Obajtek, quoted in the press release.

Cooperation between PKN Orlen and KBR will be based on the use of the Hydro-PRTSM technology licensed by KBR. It involves the processing of waste plastics into liquid and gaseous products, which can then be processed and used in the production of chemicals, monomers and polymers. The signed letter of intent and the contract for the feasibility study assume that KBR will take an active part in the implementation of the project tailored to the needs of the Orlen Group and will provide the required technical support and expert knowledge, underlined.

As MRC reported before, earlier this month, PKN Orlen signed a final contract with Hyundai Engineering and Tecnicas Reunidas for the engineering and construction of the main units for PKN Orlen's previously announced Olefins Complex III project at Plock, Poland.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

PKN Orlen is a leading player on the fuels and energy markets, and the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe, listed in prestigious global rankings such as Fortune Global 500, Platts TOP250 and Thompson Reuters TOP100. The ORLEN Group operates in 6 home markets – Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada.
MRC

1. Pertamina to cut oil imports in September as slow vaccination rates continue to dampen demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia's Pertamina is expected to cut gasoline imports in September - reducing volumes for the third straight month - as slow vaccination rates continue to dampen demand despite gradual easing of pandemic-related restrictions, sources familiar with the company's import plans told S&P Global on Aug. 24. The state-owned company was heard planning to import around 7 million barrels of gasoline in September, down from 7 million-8 million barrels it planned to import in August. The decline in imports from Southeast Asia's largest buyer of gasoline comes even as Indonesia gradually eases movement restrictions.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay and Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp have agreed to form a joint venture in Taiwan to develop, produce and market electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide, to serve the booming semiconductor industry, said the producer.

The joint venture is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2023 and will be located close to the Southern Taiwan Science Park near Tainan. The company aims to serve the booming Taiwan semiconductor industry with this indispensable chemical agent for the production of integrated electronic circuits and will have an initial production capacity of 30,000 tons per annum - which can easily be increased at a later stage, in line with market demand.

"We are delighted to embark on this new joint operation between Shinkong and Solvay,” said Eric Wu, chairman of Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corporation. “This joint venture will supply electronic grade hydrogen peroxide with the highest international quality standards while strictly following the principles of sustainability and minimizing environmental impact."

"The rapid growth in demand in the Taiwan semiconductor industry is an opportunity to bring our world-leading technology for the best quality of electronic grade hydrogen peroxide, building on the experience of multiple Solvay plants already operating in Asia, Europe and the U.S.," said Rodrigo Elizondo, president of Solvay Technology Solutions.

Solvay and Shinkong aim to close the transaction in the second half of 2021, pending regulatory approvals in Taiwan and other countries.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2020, Solvay completed the deal to split and sell its polyamide business to BASF and Domo Chemicals for EUR1.6 billion. Initially, the German petrochemical giant announced its acquisition of the Solvay division in September 2017. The parties planned to complete the deal in the third quarter of 2018.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in June 2021 by 10.2% year on year. However, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 8.2% in the first six months of 2021, according to Rosstat's data. June production of polymers in primary form was 937,000 tonnes versus 956,000 tonnes in May. Russia's overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 4,460,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 12.8% year on year.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company, one of the largest in Europe and the world with a market share of 27%, is the second largest PVC producer and the fourth largest caustic soda producer in Europe. The company's activities are concentrated in two main areas - the chemical sector (plastics production) and the pharmaceutical sector.
MRC