DowDuPont commissions Texas ethylene, PE plants

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DowDuPont Materials Science, the business division of newly formed DowDupont, has commissioned ethylene and polyethylene (PE) units in Freeport, Tex., as part of Dow Chemical Co.'s previously announced USD6-billion US Gulf Coast (USGC) investment program in Texas and Louisiana on projects to utilize low-cost and advantaged US shale gas feedstock, said the company on its website.

The 1.5 million-tonne/year ethylene plant and 400,000-tpy PE plant—which is based on Dow’s proprietary Solution process technology for production of the company’s ELITE brand enhanced PE resins—were both in operation as of Sept. 21, DowDupont said.

Due to continue ramping up through the third quarter, both units are scheduled to reach full production rates during the fourth quarter, the operator said.

The company also confirmed plans to expand nameplate capacity of the ethylene plant—a central component of its current USGC investments—to 2 million tpy. Alongside supporting additional debottlenecking projects aimed at unlocking additional polyethylene capacity, the planned ethylene expansion also will support the proposed construction of another grassroots polyethylene unit as part of the operator’s next USD4-billion wave of comprehensive growth investments over the next 5 years to expand its US petrochemicals manufacturing business (OGJ Online, May 12, 2017).

Further details regarding the proposed ethylene expansion and future PE unit, however, were not disclosed.
The first of four derivative investments to be completed at Dow’s operations in Texas and Louisiana, the recently commissioned Freeport ELITE PE unit will be joined by startup of the following projects by yearend 2018:
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia beat Saudi Arabia to become China’s top crude oil supplier for a sixth month in August, as independent refiners ramped up purchases and as state-owned refiners bought seaborne shipments from the Russian Far East port of Kozmino, reported Reuters.

China’s crude oil imports from Russia in August were 4.426 MMt, or about 1.04 MMbpd, down 4.5% over the same month last year, according to a detailed breakdown of commodity trade data released on Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs.

For the first eight months of 2017, Russia’s volumes rose 13% year-on-year to 38.65 MMt, or 1.16 MMbpd.

Supplies from Saudi Arabia last month dropped 16.2% from a year earlier to 3.657 MMt, or about 861,200 bpd, with the kingdom the third-biggest China supplier, slipping behind Angola.

Shipments from Angola last month surged nearly 28% from a year ago to about 983,500 bpd, the data showed.

Saudi supplies for the January-August period fell 1.7% on-year to 34.24 MMt, or 1.03 MMbpd.

Reuters reported last week that Russian state oil firm Rosneft, the world’s largest producer, is poised to send 50% more ESPO blend crude to state-run Chinese major PetroChina next year compared to 2017.

China’s imports of US crude, which started last year, were about 107,620 bpd in August and totaled 5.26 MMt for the January to August period.

Imports from Iran last month were up 5.45% from the same time a year ago at 3.34 MMt, or 786,720 bpd. That was the highest monthly amount since 2006, according to data on Reuters Eikon.

Imports for Iraq increased 30% to 736,400 bpd, the data showed.

China’s total crude oil imports slid to their lowest level since January at around 8 MMbpd, as some independent plants in the independent refining hub of Shandong closed for longer-than-expected overhauls amid a wave of government environmental checks.

As MRC wrote before, Russian crude imports to China rose in early 2017 as the country's independent, or teapot, refiners had expanded their diet to include the Urals grade, trade sources said in February 2017.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is in talks with Sibur Holding, Russia’s largest petrochemical producer, about forming a joint venture to make synthetic rubber in the desert kingdom, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, said Bloomberg.

Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is known, and Sibur are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for the project next month when Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz visits Russia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Talks are at an early stage, they said.

Aramco didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while Sibur’s press service declined to comment, referring to comments that the company’s Chairman Dmitry Konov made in June about general cooperation talks between the two entities.

The venture would be Saudi Aramco’s first project with a Russian company that didn’t involve energy exploration or production. It conforms with Aramco’s strategy of boosting investments in refining and petrochemicals to reduce its reliance on crude sales.

Aramco began earlier this year to fully operate Sadara Chemical Co, a USD20 billion venture with Dow Chemical Co, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. In 2015, Aramco invested in a venture with Germany’s Lanxess that makes elastomers, which are used to make golf balls bouncier and chewing gum softer.

King Salman is scheduled to visit Russia on October 4-7 and meet President Vladimir Putin, Prime news service reported last week, citing an unidentified official in Moscow. Saudi Arabia and Russia were instrumental in an agreement that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major suppliers reached in December to cut output to help drain a global oversupply.

Sibur has been expanding in other emerging markets since 2011, when the company reached an agreement with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, to set up two rubber joint ventures. Ties with China strengthened as Sinopec and Silk Road Fund bought 10 percent each in the Russian company amid the Kremlin’s energy pivot toward Asia, triggered by US energy sanctions.

While Sibur is not on the international sanctions list, its co-owner, Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, became a sanctions target in 2014 over his close ties to Putin.

Saudi Aramco’s other local venture with a Russian partner, called Luksar, was owned equally by Aramco and Lukoil and focused on searching for and developing natural gas in the Saudi Rub’ al-Khali desert, also known as the Empty Quarter.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — Russia’s Lukoil has postponed maintenance of hydro-cracking unit at its Volgograd refinery to March or April 2018, three trading industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Lukoil had previously planned to hold maintenance works at the refinery from Oct. 1 to Nov. 9.

Reuters calculations showed that the market would see an influx of extra 400,000 t of vacuum gasoil if the maintenance works were held from Oct. 1, while diesel production would shrink by 200,000 t in such case.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the completion of the acquisition of US chemical company Chemtura at the end of April 2017, specialty chemicals company Lanxess has subsequently adjusted its group structure. Lanxess is reporting on five segments comprising a total of twelve business units, as per GV.

According to the company, flame retardant and lubricant additives are the two main pillars of Chemtura’s business and they now complement the current Lanxess portfolio combined in a new “Additives” business unit. These two business activities are integrated with Lanxess’s 'Rhein Chemie” business unit to form a new segment - 'Specialty Additives'.

The Organometallics business of Chemtura is integrated in the segment "Advanced Intermediates" and will become part of the "Advanced Industrial Intermediates" business unit. The "Advanced Intermediates" segment covers the intermediates and agrochemicals businesses.

The Urethanes Systems business of Chemtura forms a new business unit within the "Engineering Materials" segment, which now comprises the businesses for plastics and urethanes.

The "Performance Chemicals" segment is made up of the business units responsible for colour pigments, leather chemicals, material protection products, and water treatment technologies. The Arlanxeo segment encompasses the synthetic rubbers business.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2016, Lanxess AG started up a second production line for high-performance plastics compounding at its facility in Gastonia, N.C. The new line represents an investment of about USD15 million and doubles the site’s annual production capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 metric tons. In the plant, the basic polymers nylon and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) are mixed and refined with special additives and glass fiber, according to client requirements, to make the high-performance plastic product lines Durethan and Pocan. They are used primarily in the auto industry to manufacture lighter-weight plastic components that can replace metal parts in vehicles.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 16,600 employees in 29 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
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