Relianceand bp JV launches its first mobility station in India

Relianceand  bp JV launches its first mobility station in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and bp’s fuel and mobility joint venture, Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML), has launched its first Jio-bp branded Mobility Station at Navde, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

According to the Jio-bp statement, working in a challenging pandemic-affected environment, Jio-bp is bringing a network of world-class Mobility Stations offering multiple fueling choices to the customers. While reimagining mobility solutions in India, the Jio-bp brand is poised to provide an unmatched and distinctive customer experience. The existing network of over 1400 fuel pumps will be rebranded as Jio-bp, presenting a new range of customer value propositions over the coming months.

India's market for fuels and mobility is rapidly growing. It is expected to be the fastest-growing fuels market in the world over the next 20 yrs. Jio-bp Mobility Stations are designed to help meet this growing demand and are ideally located to suit customer convenience. They bring together a range of services for consumers on the move - including additivised fuels, EV charging, refreshments & food, and plan to offer more low carbon solutions over time.

The joint venture is well-positioned to become a leader in fuels and mobility by leveraging Reliance’s vast presence and deep experience in consumer businesses across India, with its hundreds of millions of customers in Jio and Reliance Retail, and bp’s extensive global experience in high-quality differentiated fuels, lubricants, convenience and advanced low carbon mobility solutions.

Instead of regular fuels, Jio-bp Mobility Stations across the country will offer additivised fuel, at no extra cost. The fuel offering will contain internationally developed ‘ACTIVE’ technology, which forms a protective layer on critical engine parts to help keep the engines clean.

Jio-bp will also set up a network of EV Charging Stations and Battery Swap Stations, at its Mobility Stations and other standalone locations - Mobility Points. The joint venture aims to become a leading EV charging infrastructure player in India.

As MRC informed before, bp expects to invest around USD2 billion in low carbon energy in 2021, rising to USD3-4 billion in 2025 and aiming for around USD5 billion in 2030. bp’s strategy aims to significantly expand its low carbon energy interests, with a target of having developed 20GW net of renewable assets by 2025 and aiming for 50GW by 2030.

We remind that RIL has taken off-stream one of its polypropylene (PP) plants in Jamnagar, India for a scheduled maintenance. Thus, this unit with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons/year of PP was shut on 5 August 2021 and remained idle for approximately one month.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

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, bpP 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.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

Neste to open new research and development center in Singapore

Neste to open new research and development center in Singapore

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste, the world’s leading provider of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel as well as a forerunner in renewable and circular solutions for the polymers and chemicals industry, further accelerates the implementation of its growth strategy by establishing an R&D center in Singapore, as per the company's press release.

With this investment, Neste aims to increase its R&D and innovation capabilities globally, and drive collaboration with partners in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in Singapore.

“Neste is currently increasing the production capacity of the Singapore refinery by up to 1.3 million tons annually, operational in early 2023. Establishing our new R&D center in Singapore with advanced analytical and raw material research capabilities serves well to drive our growth ambitions in the region and supports our largest renewable products refinery locally,” says Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Neste.

The Asia-Pacific R&D center will complement Neste's already extensive efforts in the area of innovation and R&D, and strengthen Neste’s presence in the Asia-Pacific innovation network. The R&D center will be located in the Science Park II in the west part of Singapore. Approximately 40 researchers and other professionals will be hired gradually from 2022 to 2025 to the R&D center, which will be fully operational from 2023 onwards.

Neste’s main R&D facilities continue to be located in its Technology Center in Porvoo, Finland, Neste continues to increase the volume of its research, development and innovation operations also in Finland.

As MRC informed before, Neste and Ravago aim to establish a joint venture to build an industrial facility for chemical recycling in North Sea Port in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The facility is intended to be the starting point of joint global chemical recycling activities, built upon the advancement of the thermochemical liquefaction technology of US-based Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company.

We remind that in July, 2021, Finnish Neste and LyondellBasell announced a long-term commercial agreement under which LyondellBasell will source Neste RE, a feedstock from Neste that has been produced from 100% renewable feedstock from bio-based sources, such as waste and residue oils and fats. This feedstock will be processed through the cracker at LyondellBasell’s Wesseling, Germany, plant into polymers and sold under the CirculenRenew brand name.

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 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Neste (Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. The company refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. The company is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. In 2020, Neste's revenue stood at EUR11.8 billion, with 94% of the company’s comparable operating profit coming from renewable products.
MRC

SCGP announced its Q3 earnings

SCGP announced its Q3 earnings

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thai producer SCG Packaging’s (SCGP) third-quarter earnings slumped from the previous quarter due to various forms of lockdowns re-imposed in major southeast Asian countries following spikes in COVID-19 cases, said the company.

On a year-on-year basis, however, earnings in July to September posted strong gains on the back of mergers & partnerships (M&P) and organic expansion, which are expected to continue into next year.

"Looking forward into the rest of 2021 and through to early 2022, major ASEAN economies are heading toward the recovery from the easing of strict lockdown measures,” SCGP said in the notes accompanying its financial results.

"Nonetheless, the pace of recovery will likely to be gradual especially in term of consumers’ expenditure and confidence while there is ongoing normalization of supply chain efficiency for overall manufacturing sectors,” it said.

SCGP was spun off from Siam Cement Group, and raised USD1.5bn via an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2020 to fund its acquisitions. The latest in its recent string of acquisitions and expansions is a Thai baht (Bt) 11.8bn (USD355m) investment on a new 370,000 tonne/year packaging paper plant in Vietnam.

The plant in north Vietnam is slated for commercial operations in early 2024, enabling the company to tap opportunities in the region, as well as in south China, the company said. SCGP deems Vietnam as a high growth market with an estimated compounded annual growth rate of 6-7% in 2021-2025.

In the third quarter, however, Vietnam has had to impose a more stringent lockdown compared with its ASEAN peers following spikes in COVID-19 cases in the country. Supply chain disruptions particularly in the southern region resulted in low run rates of 30-50% among domestic manufacturers, SCGP said.

As MRC informed earlier, Dow and SCG signed a collaboration agreement to develop new complete recycling solutions to add value to plastic waste and prevent them from ending up in the environment. This agreement is an attempt to create a circular economy for plastic in Thailand.

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.

SCGP is a unit of Thai conglomerate Siam Cement.
MRC

Russia expects OPEC+ to raise its output in November

Russia expects OPEC+ to raise its output in November

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia expects OPEC+ to raise its output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the Nov. 4 meeting, as previously agreed, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Reuters.

Novak also said he expects oil demand to reach a pre-pandemic level by the end of next year but said it was difficult to predict if oil prices will hit record highs as gas prices have done.

"Demand (for oil) can decline as there is still uncertainty. We also see there is yet another pandemic wave spreading across the world," Novak said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, or OPEC+ as the alliance is known, raised its output targets by 400,000 bpd in September.

As per MRC, crude oil prices reached a ceiling during morning trade in Europe Oct. 27, dropping from bullish fundamentals after the US reported a larger-than-expected stock build. At 10:07 AM (0907 GMT) London time, the ICE December Brent futures contract was USD1.15/b (1.33%) lower from the previous close at USD85.25/b, while the NYMEX December light sweet crude contract was USD1.48/b (1.75%) lower at USD83.17/b.

We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

Saudi Aramco plans to develop a new green hydrogen production unit in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Aramco plans to develop a new green hydrogen production unit in Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco is planning to develop a new green hydrogen and ammonia production unit in Saudi Arabia, said the company.

The Saudi Arabia-based firm has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with conglomerate Modern Industrial Investment Holding Group and green hydrogen specialist Intercontinental Energy. These plans were announced at the Future Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Company is pursuing investment opportunities in projects that could potentially reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, following the recent announcement of its ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions across its wholly-owned operated assets by 2050.

Details of new initiatives were outlined as global leaders and investors gathered at the Future Investment Forum to discusses the future of venture capital and key issues facing the world. The company did not disclose details on capacity, location or the scale of the proposed project.

As it was said earlier, Aramco, Air Products, ACWA Power and Air Products Qudra have signed a deal for the asset acquisition and project financing of a USD12bn air separation unit (ASU)/gasification/power joint venture (JV) at Jazan Economic City in Saudi Arabia. Aramco via its subsidiary Saudi Aramco Power Company (SAPCO) has a 20 percent share in the JV; Air Products 46 percent; ACWA Power 25 percent; and Air Products Qudra 9 percent. Moreover, Air Products’ total ownership position is 50.6 percent by owning an additional 4.6 percent through Air Products Qudra.

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.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC