TotalEnergies investing more into renewables and energy storage

TotalEnergies investing more into renewables and energy storage

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With its name change from Total to TotalEnergies amid its transition from fossil fuels, the major oil company is investing more in renewables and energy storage while decreasing emissions from its natural gas business, reported S&P Global with reference to CEO Patrick Pouyanne's statement Oct. 14.

"Everyone wants to transition, and there is huge pressure to quit fossil fuels, but fossil fuels represent 80% of the energy supply today on the planet," Pouyanne said in a fireside chat during the remotely held S&P Global Energy Summit.

It was 80.2% 10 years ago, and it is 80.1% this year, and in that time energy demand has increased, he said.

"We want to decarbonize energy, so we need to invest largely in renewables and decarbonized energy," he said, adding that TotalEnergies plans to invest 75% of its capital expenditures in hydrocarbons and 25% in renewables and electricity, "which is quite new."

Pouyanne said he is not sure that is the right balance, but it is the current strategy. Globally, the oil industry has not been investing enough in conventional oil production to fight against natural decline rates, he said.

The company said in late May during its shareholders meeting that investors had approved a resolution to change names from Total to TotalEnergies in order to represent the "strategic transformation into a broad energy company," according to the company's website.

Specifically, TotalEnergies has businesses focused on oil, natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, biomass, wind and solar power.

Pouyanne said the strategy is linked to the evolution of oil and power demand because the speed at which automakers are shifting to electric vehicles "is impressive" and is expected to lead to global oil demand declines, though it remains unclear when that will happen.

The company remains "quite bullish" on natural gas, and LNG in particular, because TotalEnergies sees gas as the right energy for the transition, he said.

"We are building today a multi-energy company with oil and gas, but also renewables and electricity, and tomorrow hydrogen and other technologies," Pouyanne said.

Asked about the role of gas in the energy transition and whether investing in gas-related assets locks in greenhouse gas emissions for the life of those assets, he responded that at first it is better to make electricity from gas rather than coal, which cuts the emissions in half, and power demand is increasing.

And while it is better from a climate perspective to generate power from gas instead of coal, the challenge for gas usage is reducing methane emissions, he said. Gas-fired power plants are controllable assets that can ramp up and down, which helps deal with renewable energy intermittency, and although batteries can help, long-duration energy storage remains a difficult challenge, Pouyanne said.

Regarding decarbonization strategies, Pouyanne said carbon offsets do not help and Total is focused on cutting emissions directly from its operations. Also, a certified and efficient carbon credit market that is clearly regulated is needed, "and we will work with that," he said.

As MRC informed before, TotalEnergies has recently inaugurated the extension of Synova in Normandy, the French leader in recycled polypropylene production. TotalEnergies is therefore doubling its mechanical recycling production capacity for recycled polymers, to meet growing demand for sustainable polymers from customers, such as Automotive Manufacturer (Auto OEM) and the construction industry.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

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. The company rebranded itself from Total to TotalEnergies during Q2 2021. The French firm has announced allocating part of surplus revenues to share buybacks. 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

OLAX Engineering wins contract for refinery project

OLAX Engineering wins contract for refinery project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OLAX Engineering has been selected and awarded the Owners Engineers and Project Management Services (PMC) contract for the FEED of the BUA grassroots 200K bpd grassroots refinery and petrochemical complex to be located in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This multi-billion-dollar integrated project aims at producing Euro-V fuels - high-quality gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG and polypropylene for the domestic and regional market. OLAX has deployed a complete project management team overseeing all contractors and licensors on the project, the FEED project execution is from UK and Nigerian offices.

Abdulsamad Rabiu, the founder and Chairman of BUA Group visited the Reading offices of OLAX Engineering in the United Kingdom to review project progress and said “We are very happy with the outstanding work OLAX are doing, they have an excellent and well experienced team. I have full confidence that working with OLAX will help us achieve our project goals and objectives"

Dr. Jamal Akinade, CEO and Founder of OLAX Engineering said: “This is a very exciting project for us, for BUA Group and for Nigeria, we are very proud to be part of this major project, and this is a testament to our ambitions as a growing company. We are grateful to the BUA group for trusting us with this hugely important role. We pride ourselves on technical integrity and being reliable partners and we shall adhere to these core values in delivering this project within schedule and budget".

As MRC, ExxonMobil Synthetics (ExxonMobil) announced it is responding to customer needs and has confirmed plant feasibility to significantly increasing high viscosity metallocene polyalphaolefin (High Viscosity mPAO) synthetic base stock production.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

Asian refinery margins back to pre-COVID levels due to doubling of gasoil profits

Asian refinery margins back to pre-COVID levels due to doubling of gasoil profits

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian oil refiners' margins have rallied back to their highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, spurred by a doubling of gasoil profits as the global economic recovery and power shortage drive demand for the fuel, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to analysts and traders' statement.

Gasoil demand has surged as power generators seek alternatives to record-high natural gas and coal and as industrial consumption has climbed while economies reopen from COVID-19 restrictions. That has pushed the gasoil profit margin nearly 60% higher in the past month, replacing gasoline as the key component of overall refinery profits.

The Singapore complex refining margin, a proxy for Asian refiners' profitability, jumped to more than USD7 a barrel earlier this month, the highest since September 2019.

The rebound will incentivise Asian refiners to boost output in the coming months although regional supplies of refined oil products are expected to stay capped by declining Chinese exports and low inventories.

"We see improving momentum for Asian refiners ahead, benefiting not just from the near-term gas-to-oil switching this winter but also on peaking of Chinese oil products exports," Citi analyst Oscar Yee said in a note, raising the bank's outlook for South Korea's SK Innovation, Thailand's Star Petroleum Refining Pcl and IRPC PCL, and Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp.

The release of pent-up demand could see regional gasoline consumption rising by some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) over November and December, while gasoil demand is expected to rise by some 200,000 bpd between now and December, underpinned by the resumption of more economic activities, said Dylan Sim, an analyst at consultancy FGE.

"Low exports from China will continue to support Asia’s gasoil complex through to the end of 2021," he said.

Also, middle distillate inventories across key storage hubs in Asia are at their lowest for this time of the year since 2013 and are now 9.1 million barrels lower than the 2017-2019 average, Sim said, after refiners cut output because of the recent lower profits.

Global power shortages caused by natural gas and coal price spikes will also drive consumers to switch to diesel for power. Consultancy Rystad Energy expects the switch in fuels to boost Asia's oil demand by 400,000 bpd on average over the next six months.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, Formosa Plastics Company (FPC), part of Formosa Petrochemical, is in plans to take off-stream its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao, Taiwan for a scheduled turnaround on 8 June, 2021. This cracker with an annual capacity of 700,000 tons of ethylene and 350,000 tons of propylene is expected to remain shut unitl mid-July, 2021.

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 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

Topsoe starts up plant for production of sustainable Methanol from biogas

Topsoe starts up plant for production of sustainable Methanol from biogas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With the demonstration plant, Topsoe will validate its electrified technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable Methanol from biogas as well as other sustainable products, said Hydrocarbonprocesiing.

The global annual production of methanol is around 110 MM tons. With close to 1.4 ton CO2 being emitted per produced ton methanol, the emission reduction potential – and hereof the positive societal impact – is enormous, assuming all methanol is being produced by means of a carbon neutral process and sustainable feedstock, leaving a significant positive societal impact.

The project is supported by the EUDP Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program and is developed together with Aarhus University. The climate benefits from using sustainable Methanol is not limited to one single purpose. Sustainable Methanol can be used for marine fuel, blend in gasoline, and for the chemical industry, where methanol is mainly used today. Further, the main feature in the demonstration plant is Topsoe’s eSMRTM technology, which enables not only the production of sustainable Methanol, but also other sustainable products like green hydrogen, green ammonia, eFuels, and more.

"Fighting climate change demands clean fuels for all sectors. With this initiative, we will demonstrate that we are able to transform classical production process into a fully carbon-neutral scheme. Specifically, we will demonstrate that sustainable Methanol can be produced from biogas at a very competitive cost compared to other green methanol produced from non-fossil fuels,” says Kim Gron Knudsen, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Haldor Topsoe.

"We are very happy about the accomplishments in the joint project so far. The new electrified steam methane reforming technology is central in a future based on renewable energy and circular bioeconomy and the eSMR demo plant fits perfectly into our energy research facility in Foulum. We see many interesting perspectives in this new technology, and we look forward to unlock the potential of further development and integration of the technology in the energy system of the future,” says Thomas Lundgaard, project manager at Aarhus University, Dept. of Biological and Chemical Engineering.

The demonstration program is part of Topsoe’s ambition to take part in the global movement to reduce the global carbon footprint and one of many initiatives to develop solutions for sustainable aviation, shipping and heavy transportation in general.

As per MRC, Dow (Midland, Michigan), the world's petrochemical major, and Haldor Topsoe have partnered to promote the circular economy. About 300 million tons of plastic waste is produced every year on a global scale. The partnership between Dow and Topsoe marks a new initiative to efficiently convert waste plastics to circular plastics, keeping them out of the environment and responsibly reclaiming their value.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

MRC

Essar Oil plans to build USD1 billion low-carbon hydrogen plants in England

Essar Oil plans to build USD1 billion low-carbon hydrogen plants in England

MOSCOW (MRC) -- British refiner Essar Oil plans to build two low-carbon hydrogen plants at its Standlow refinery in northwest England at a cost of 750 million pounds (USD1 billion), according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company has submitted planning applications for the project, it said in a statement.

If approved, construction of the two so-called “blue hydrogen” plants, where the fuel is produced from natural gas and carbon emissions from its production are captured and stored, will begin at the end of 2022 with output expected to begin from the mid-2020s.

As MRC informed earlier, in late September 2019, Essar resumed operations at its cracker in Stanlow, UK with the capacity of 45,000 mt/year of ethylene and 165,000 mt/year of propylene. It was shut on 11 September, 2019, due to the power outage at the site.

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 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC