Chevron Phillips Chemical to build propylene unit in Texas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical announced today plans to expand its propylene business with a final investment decision for a new C3 splitter unit, said the company.

The unit’s location will be in Baytown, Texas, within the company’s Cedar Bayou facility. Its expected capacity is 1 billion lbs./year with targeted start up in 2023. The company chose S&B Engineers and Constructors to engineer, procure and build the project. Site construction activities will commence in January 2022. At its peak, the project anticipates supporting 350-plus new construction jobs.

The C3 splitter will convert a refinery grade mixture of propylene and propane into a high purity propylene product. Propylene is essential to the production of key building blocks for many household and industrial applications, including polypropylene, propylene oxide and acrylonitrile. These chemicals are also used in the production of plastics for several packaging applications and durable consumer products. Polypropylene is also central to the manufacturing of plastic parts for various industries including the automotive sector.

"With global propylene demand on the rise, this project reinforces Chevron Phillips Chemical’s commitment to expand to meet our customers’ needs and remain a leading propylene supplier," said Justine Smith, senior vice president of petrochemicals.

Chevron Phillips Chemical currently operates C3 splitter units at its Cedar Bayou, Port Arthur and Sweeny, Clemens and Old Ocean facilities in Texas. The new unit will provide additional flexibility and production to meet anticipated demand from the company’s growing customer base, while establishing room for future growth.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical, part of Chevron Corp, successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year. This unit is one of the largest and most energy efficient crackers in the world. In September 2017, the company announced the successful commissioning and start-up of two new Marlex polyethylene (PE) units in Old Ocean, Texas, based on the company’s proprietary MarTech technologies. Together, these assets form the bulk of the company’s US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project (USGCPP), which was first announced in 2011.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

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.
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1. Reduced production and stronger demand lead to lower US jet fuel inventories

MOSCOW (MRC) -- On November 26, US jet fuel inventories were at their lowest level since late 2014, according to the EIA's weekly petroleum status report. Refineries produced less jet fuel in October compared with this summer, and since August, jet fuel demand has increased to near pre-pandemic levels. This increased demand, along with reduced production, has caused inventories to decline, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing. High jet fuel inventories in summer 2021 were the result of increased refinery production during a period of high market demand for gasoline and distillate. This high demand encouraged refiners to process more crude oil, and jet fuel is a byproduct of crude oil refining. Hurricanes along the Gulf Coast in August contributed to temporary refinery outages and reduced production, which brought jet fuel inventories to more normal seasonal levels. For the week ending September 3, total jet fuel inventory fell below its previous five-year average.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners could repurpose some of its vast U.S. network of energy pipelines for carbon capture and sequestration projects, said Reuters.

The company said that it believes wind and solar energy will play an important role in the future energy mix and in reducing global emissions. It also emphasised its commitment to lower emissions in natural gas, NGLs and lower sulfur crude oil.

The company is already clearing its path towards using more clean energy in its business. In March 2020 Enterprise Products signed a 100 MWac solar power purchase agreement from the Space City Solar project located in Wharton County, Texas. The project will begin delivery of clean electricity in Summer 2022.

At the same time, the company is currently expanding the role of hydrogen in its mix. With the completion of PDH2, the company will handle 100 MMScf/day of hydrogen, equivalent to a world scale plant, the company said. Enterprise has previously revealed plans to use hydrogen as fuel for heaters of PDH2. The move would significantly reduce carbon emission to almost 90% or 450,000 tonnes/year.

The PDH2 unit will begin operations in Q2 2023. It also sees potential in the Gulf Coast salt dome for hydrogen storage and distribution services.

As MRC informed previously, Enterprise Product Partners' PDH unit in Mont Belvieu was taken off-line for a turnaround in early February. Thus, the PDH unit was shut for scheduled maintenance on Feb. 1 for approximately six weeks. This PDH unit has the capacity of 750,000 mt/y of propylene.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is an American midstream natural gas and crude oil pipeline company with headquarters in Houston, Texas. It acquired GulfTerra in September 2004. The company ranked No. 105 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices edged higher towards USD75 a barrel on Tuesday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the new Omicron coronavirus variant was set to dent the global demand recovery, reported Reuters.

Brent crude oil futures rose 27 cents, or 0.36%, to USD74.66 a barrel by 1231 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 23 cents, or 0.32%, to USD71.52.

"The surge in new COVID-19 cases is expected to temporarily slow, but not upend, the recovery in oil demand that is underway," the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly oil report. read more IEA/S

Governments around the world, including most recently Britain and Norway, have tightened restrictions to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.

The IEA lowered its forecast for oil demand this year and the next by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) each, mostly due to the expected blow to jet fuel use from new travel curbs.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday raised its world oil demand forecast for the first quarter of 2022 and stuck to its timeline for a return to pre-pandemic levels of oil use, saying the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a mild and brief impact.

At the same time, the Asian Development Bank on Tuesday trimmed its growth forecasts for developing Asia for this year and next to reflect risks and uncertainty brought on by the variant, which could also hamper oil demand.

On the supply side, OPEC and other major producers including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, plan to gradually increase supply every month by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) after sharply cutting back output last year.

Output in the largest US shale basin is expected to surge to a record in January, according to a monthly forecast from the US Energy Information Administration on Monday.

As MRC informed before, US commercial crude stocks fell 3.48 million barrels to 413.96 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 17, to more than 8% below the five-year average, Energy Information Administration data showed. Stocks were last lower Oct. 5, 2018.

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, EIA said in a monthly report earlier this year, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) has announced that the implementation of the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) capacity increase program for BASF’s Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana, is progressing on schedule, according to Chemical Engineering.

Over time, BASF plans to double the capacity from 300,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) to approximately 600,000 m.t./yr.

“This investment in the attractive North American MDI market strengthens our position as a leading MDI supplier in North America as well as globally,” said Dr. Ramkumar Dhruva, President of Monomers Division.

The first phase involving the construction of a new MDI synthesis unit has been in operation since October of last year. The second phase, which started up recently, expanded several existing upstream units and increased the overall MDI output of the Geismar complex by approximately one third.

Engineering for the final phase of the MDI expansion is progressing on schedule. This final phase of the expansion project, which includes several new upstream units, is targeted to be complete by the middle of the decade, with resulting total MDI capacity of approximately 600,000 m.t./yr.

As MRC reported earlier, Air Liquide and BASF plan to develop world largest cross-border CCS value chain. The goal is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the industrial cluster in the port of Antwerp. The joint project Kairos@C has been selected for funding by the European Commission through its Innovation Fund, as one of the seven large-scale projects out of more than 300 applications.

We remind that BASF aims is to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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