Egypt new refinery will cut fuel import bill

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Egyptian investment firm Qalaa Holdings is confident its new refinery will cut the country's dependence on crucial oil product imports, particularly as a weaker currency and rising crude prices force the government to reduce its energy bills, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The USD3.7-B Egyptian Refining Co. (ERC) will have the capacity to produce 4.2 metric MMtpy of refined products, which ERC will sell to state-controlled Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC) at international prices under a 25-year agreement.

Qalaa owns a 19% stake in ERC, which is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2017.

Egypt, which has turned from a net energy exporter to an importer because of declining domestic production and the burden of costly subsidies, aims to end gasoline and possibly gasoil imports by 2019.

The country is suffering from a shortage of hard currency, and Qalaa chairman Ahmed Heikal said that ERC will be exposed to EGPC's dollar shortages. However, he said there were provisions in the contract that would allow a rolling letter of credit for oil products that cover the three months going forward.

"You have to remember what is the alternative for the government? The alternative is to import. So they will have to pay cash for the products," Heikal said.

Egypt's economy has struggled since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and its tourism industry, a key source of dollar revenues, has faced a string of crises, the latest being last week's EgyptAir plane crash.

ERC will convert 3.5 metric MMt of heavy residue from the refining process at the nearby CORC plant to higher-value products like diesel and gasoline. Heikal said ERC will additionally import 10 MMbpy of crude, with a preference for Saudi Arabia's Arab Medium.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in 2015, CB&I was awarded a contract by Carbon Holdings for the license and engineering design of a polypropylene unit to be built in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The unit will be aligned to the Tahrir petrochemical complex and use CB&I's Novolen technology to produce 350,000 tpy of polypropylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France has started using its strategic oil reserves for the first time since 2010 to counter union blockades of its refineries, the French oil industry federation said, reported Reuters.

Unions protesting against a planned labor reform are picketing refineries around the country. Coupled with some panic buying, the disruption has led to fuel shortages in large parts of France, including Paris, over the past week.

France has strategic oil reserves worth several months of consumption on which it can draw in emergencies. They were last used when unions blocked refineries for several weeks in protest against pension reforms in 2010.

Experts say French strategic oil reserves do not physically rise or fall, but that operators allocate volumes blocked in strike-hit refineries to strategic reserve obligations, freeing up other volumes in accessible locations.

Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres (UFIP) President Francis Duseux told RMC radio that the industry had been using the strategic reserves for two days. A spokeswoman confirmed that "a small quantity" had been used.

"Every day we use the equivalent of about one day of consumption. At worst, if the situation remains very tense, we can do this for three months," Duseux said.

He added that even if all refineries were stopped, France's pipeline system would still allow the industry to operate.

Industry experts confirmed that the reserves - set up following the 1973-1974 oil crisis and stored in some 85 sites around the country - account on average for about three months of consumption, or longer during the summer months when there is no fuel consumption for heating.

They are composed of 44% of crude oil and 66% of refined products.

As MRC wrote earlier, Naphtachimie declared a force majeure on ethylene production from its plants in Lavera, France owing to an ongoing nationwide strike against proposed labour reforms by the French government. Located at Lavera in France, the cracker has a Ethylene production capacity of 775,000 mt/year.

Besides, Total SA said that it had shut down its Gonfreville and Feyzin refineries on 18 May and was in the process of halting operations at two others and was reducing output at a fifth refinery.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuraray Co. (Tokyo, Japan) plans to increase the production capacity of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, EVAL within its subsidiary, Kuraray America, Inc. (Houston), said Chemical Engineering.

The Kuraray EVAL plant located in Pasadena, Texas will increase their capacity by 11,000 ton/yr with planned operations to commence in the summer of 2018.

Currently, Kuraray’s EVAL product line provides the world’s widest range of EVOH resins and films. With global demand forecasted to increase at an annual rate of six to seven percent, this boost in capacity at the Pasadena EVAL plant will further solidify Kuraray as a leader in the production of EVOH resin and barrier materials.

"In addition to expanding EVAL production within the U.S., this announcement also represents a USD75-million investment towards the Bayport community," says Robert Armstrong, plant manager at Kuraray America, Inc. “With the recent opening of the Kuraray Poval plant and the consideration of enhancing current VAM production, Kuraray continues to further their commitment to southeast Texas."

Due to its superior gas barrier properties, EVAL applications include food packaging as well as agricultural and industrial applications, says the company. Kuraray is currently developing new applications of EVAL including industrial applications such as soil pollution prevention liners and agricultural applications including impermeable fumigation films.

As mRC informed earlier,in 2015, Kuraray acquired Australia's Plantic Technologies. With this, Kuraray expands into bio-based barrier materials, which meet the increasing global demand of bio-based food packaging materials.

Kuraray produces specialty chemicals, fibres and other materials, including functional resins and films, synthetic isoprene chemical products, synthetic leather, vinylon fibre and polyester fibre.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip (Paris, France) was awarded a contract by CTCI Corp. (Taiwan) to provide basic engineering and proprietary equipment for a grassroots ethylene cracking furnace at the Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co.’s petrochemical complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, said Chemengonline.

The furnace design will be based on Technip’s proprietary USC furnace technology. Technip was awarded this project for its best proposal and because of its high-capacity, high availability, gas-cracking applications, says the company.

Technip’s operating center in Milton Keynes, U.K., will execute the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2017.

As MRC informed earlier, Technip announced an all-stock merger with U.S. rival FMC Technologies to create an oil services group with combined revenue of USD20 billion.

Technip has a market value of about USD6.2 billion, compared with USD6.5 billion for FMC Technologies. Technip has annual revenue of USD13.5 billion, more than double that of FMC Technologies.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, and its Healthcare Packaging unit, is introducing a new and improved family of Aroma-Can canisters to enhance nutritional products by adding a pleasant scent to product packaging, said the producer on its site.

Modeled after Clariant’s desiccant canisters for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical packaging, Aroma-Can canisters employ aroma technology that can give consumers a positive sensory experience when they open product packaging. The technology embeds food-grade flavors, such as vanilla, orange and lemon, directly into a plastic canister, which can be inserted easily into a container.

"Smell can enhance or detract from the experience of using a product or the decision to make a repeat purchase," explains Robert Crossno, Head of Sales - Americas, Clariant Healthcare Packaging. "Products such as fish oil tablets and herbal supplements often emit odors that are unpleasant or unappealing to end users. A favorable scent within the product packaging can mask unpleasant odors or help enhance odorless products, such as vitamins."

Although the new Aroma-Can bears the same overall dimensions of standard desiccant canisters, its new and innovative one-piece design reduces further process and assembly and contains more surface area, which improve the canister’s aroma profile. Because of their dimensional uniformity with desiccant canisters, Aroma-Can canisters can be automatically inserted into packaging at rates up to 300/minute using standard desiccant canister insertion equipment.

As MRC wrote previously, in 2014, CB&I and Clariant announced that their new Ziegler-Natta (ZN) polypropylene catalyst plant in Louisville, Kentucky, was on schedule to begin production in 2015. The plant is part of a long-term strategic partnership between Clariant’s catalysts business and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business. Based at Clariant’s largest US production hub, the new facility will combine innovative catalysts jointly developed by both companies with high-capacity output.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC