Unplanned shutdown of multiple units at Formosa Plastics Texas facility amid power outage

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A weekend power outage at Formosa Plastics USA's Point Comfort, Texas, facility lead to unplanned shutdown of multiple units, according to filings with state regulators, as per Plastemart.

Formosa lost electricity to a pair of olefins units, as well as polyethylene, polypropylene and chlor-alkali plants, according to filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Power was lost to units just before noon Saturday, with the event running through Sunday night, according to the filings.

A source with knowledge of company operations said the shutdown was having an impact on production at the site. Local media reports over the weekend, citing company officials, indicated that inclement weather may have been a cause. A coastal flood advisory remained in effect Monday morning, and was expected to last until noon central time, according to the National Weather Service.

The Point Comfort complex, Formosa's largest in the US, is located about 90 miles from Corpus Christi along the Texas Gulf Coast. Formosa's crackers produce approximately 3.3 mln tpa of olefins at Point Comfort. The complex's capacities also includes almost 1.5 mln tpa of high density polyethylene, 582,000 m tpa of linear low-density polyethylene, 1.9 mln tpa of polypropylene and 736,000 m tpa of chlor-alkali.

As MRC informed before, in 2015, Formosa Plastics unveiled plans to build a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant and another polyethylene (PE) unit at its Point Comfort complex in Texas, according to air-permit applications. The initial pages of the applications did not list the capacity of the plants or the grade of the PE. Construction on the second PE plant started in Q4-2015, and it should start operations in December 2017. Construction on the MEG plant started in November 2015, and operations should start in September 2017.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yokogawa Electric Corporation's subsidiary, Yokogawa China, has signed a partnership agreement with the world's leading oil refining and petrochemical enterprise - Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd. (SEG), as per Plastemart.

Based on this agreement, the two companies will strive to build a long-term collaborative relationship.

SEG is an engineering company of the Sinopec Group, one of the world's largest oil refining and petrochemical enterprises. The company designs and builds oil refineries and petrochemical plants both inside and outside the People's Republic of China. By working together on projects in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, SEG and Yokogawa have established a strong relationship based on trust.

SEG's decision to sign this partnership agreement comes in recognition that Yokogawa is a reliable partner with the engineering, project execution, and other capabilities needed to expand its business. Based on this agreement, which shall remain in effect for three years, Yokogawa will provide on a priority basis its production control systems, safety instrumented systems, field devices such as transmitters and analyzers, SCADA software, advanced process control packages, and other solutions for SEG's oil refining and petrochemical projects.

Under the terms of this agreement, and based on its corporate brand slogan of Co-innovating tomorrow®, Yokogawa will expand its business by working together with SEG to create value.

As MRC informed before, in May 2017, Yokogawa Electric Corp. announced that its subsidiary, Yokogawa Kontrol (Malaysia), had won an order to supply process analysis system integration (SI) services and advanced solutions for the oil storage facilities that are being built for the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Malaysia.

The Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) is PETRONAS' largest investment in Malaysia and the PIC consists of RAPID and is supported by its Associated Facilities. RAPID is a project that comprises a refinery, a steam cracker and a number of petrochemical units. The refinery has a capacity of 300 000 bpd and the steam cracker and petrochemical units will have a combined production capacity of about 3.5 million tpy of Ethylene, Propylene and C4-C6 Olefin products.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Oslo-listed oil tanker firm Frontline has abandoned its pursuit of New York-listed rival DHT Holdings and is not working on any alternative acquisitions, Frontline's CEO told Reuters .

DHT last month rejected a fifth takeover proposal from billionaire shipping tycoon John Fredriksen's Frontline, calling the USD500 MM all-share bid "woefully inadequate".

Frontline has now admitted defeat and switched course away from takeovers for the time being. "We will not spend time pursuing the DHT track," Frontline Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod said in a written comment to Reuters.

"With our present opportunities for creating value through fleet renewal, we're not currently pursuing any other acquisitions either," he added.

Instead of a deal with Frontline, DHT struck a tankers-for-shares agreement with BW Group in March. That made BW, led by shipping tycoon Andreas Sohmen Pao, DHT's biggest shareholder with a stake of over 30 percent.

Frontline attempted to block the BW deal, first in a US court and later in the High Court of the tiny Marshall Islands in the Pacific, but both lawsuits were eventually dismissed.

Following DHT's rejection, investors and analysts had suggested Frontline could widen its search for acquisitions to include other competitors such as Gener8 Maritime.

Macleod said Frontline would continue to expand its fleet of crude tankers and that the company had ample access to borrow money at attractive rates in financial markets, but rejected takeovers for the time being.

"Frontline still believes the industry at some point should see further consolidation, but given today's market situation and Frontline's position and size, we're very comfortable moving forward on our own," he added.

Frontline had previously argued that a deal to combine with DHT and create the world's largest listed tanker company would be able to lower costs and also well placed to participate in a market recovery.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total is today launching its second Plant 4.0 start-up incubator, joined this year by Air Liquide, AREVA, Eiffage, Solvay and VINCI Energies. This is the very first multicorporate Plant 4.0 start-up incubator in the world. The partners’ common goal is to accelerate the deployment of digital technology in industry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Buoyed by the success of the Plant 4.0 start-up incubator launched by Total in 2016, the Group decided to repeat the experience, this time opening up the project to include other industry partners, on the narrower theme of innovative solutions offered by the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

This open innovation approach aims to identify the start-ups that offer practical, relatively mature industrial solutions to meet specialized operational requirements. The fledgling companies can test their technology, product or service directly with their potential customers and are put in contact with the incubator’s manufacturing partners and their start-up ecosystems. Total and the other partners will also share their expertise with the successful candidates.

With the spread of sensors and new developments in data collection and management, innovative solutions can improve the efficiency and boost the performance of plants and different industries. This international call for projects focuses on connected objects in industry in four areas: acoustic detection of leaks or anomalies; corrosion monitoring; non-invasive flow measurement; manual valve position displays.

"Total works in an open innovation process with start-ups and manufacturing partners because we all face the same challenges. Building digital solutions together speeds up their deployment in our plants and industrial facilities," said Gilles Cochevelou, Chief Digital Officer at Total. "Digital tech improves safety and efficiency, while reducing costs. It offers a world of opportunities and could increase competitiveness in industry and for start-ups."

As MRC reported before, in 2015, Total unveiled a capacity of its new ethane cracker near its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which will be designed to have a capacity of 1 million tpy, as per the company's permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polyethylene (PE) into Ukraine dropped in the first five months of 2017 by 6% year on year to 100,600 tonnes. Demand for low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) subsided, according to MRC's DataScope report.

May imports of polyethylene increased to 23,800 tonnes compared with 17,500 tonnes in April. Local companies have significantly increased the volume of purchases of film HDPE and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). In general, January-May imports into Ukraine totalled 100,600 tonnes compared with 106,700 tonnes year on year; supply of LLDPE and ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) increased.

Structure of PE imports over the reported period was as follows.

Last month there was a serious increase in imports of HDPE - 11,100 tonnes against 7,700 tonnes in April, local companies doubled the volume of purchases of film polyethylene. Overall HDPE imports reached 42,900 tonnes in the first five months of 2017 versus 52,200 tonnes a year earlier, shipments of film grade HDPE fell by almost 15%, demand for injection moulding and pipe HDPE subsided by 18%.

May imports of LDPE increased to 5,000 tonnes, compared with 4,100 tonnes in April, with the main bulk of purchases accounted for the Russian PE. Overall LDPE imports reached 25,400 tonnes over the stated period, down by 3% year on year.

Last month's imports of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) were about 6,300 tonnes, compared to 4,300 tonnes in April, with films producers accounting for an increase in demand. Overall LLDPE imports grew to 25,500 tonnes in January-May 2017 from 23,9 23,900 tonnes a year earlier.

Producers of film and cabling and wiring products accounted for the main increase in demand. Imports of other grades of polyethylene, including EVA for the period under review reached about 6,900 tonnes against 4,300 tonnes a year earlier.


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