US issues permit to expand Enbridge cross-border oil pipeline

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The United States issued a long-awaited permit covering a 3-mi segment of Enbridge Inc’s Line 67 crude oil pipeline on Monday, allowing the company to nearly double capacity on the cross-border conduit, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The permit from the US State Department for the so-called Alberta Clipper line will allow Calgary-based Enbridge to ship 890,000 bpd of Canadian crude from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin, up from 450,000 bpd currently. Enbridge said it welcomed the issuance of the permit after a nearly five-year review process.

“Line 67 currently operates under an existing Presidential Permit that was issued by the State Department in 2009 and the 2017 permit authorizes Enbridge to fully utilize its capacity across the border," the company said in a statement. All cross-border crude oil pipelines require presidential approval.

Enbridge first filed for the expanded Alberta Clipper permit in 2012. But like TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL, the company ran into delays obtaining the permit from the administration of then President Barack Obama.

In 2014, the company hatched a workaround plan to circumvent the delay. It connected the Alberta Clipper to its existing Line 3 pipeline on each side of the Canada-US border, and put oil from Clipper on Line 3 to cross the international boundary.

The permit from President Donald Trump’s pro-business administration, which also approved Keystone XL earlier this year, was widely expected, said AltaCorp Capital analyst Dirk Lever, and will help relieve pressure on other parts of the Enbridge system.

Enbridge’s Mainline pipeline network carries the bulk of Canada’s 3 MMbpd of crude exports to the United States and operates at close to capacity.

"This is great news for Canadian producers because it will effectively allow us to move more volumes on the system,” said Nancy Berard-Brown, manager of oil markets and transportation at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “Line 67 is the backbone of the Enbridge system."

Enbridge shares closed up 0.4% on the Toronto Stock Exchange at CUSD52.01.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to shut one of its two purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line in Dahej, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that the unit is expected to be taken off-line for maintenance on October 22, 2017. It is planned to be shut for a period of around 2-3 weeks.

Located in Dahej, Gujarat in India, the two PTA lines have a production capacity of 1.1 million mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, RIL was awarded a contract worth Rs. 100 crore to Petron Engineering Construction Ltd for its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Gujarat. The LLDPE plant is part of RIL's J-3 project in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The J-3 project boasts of a petroleum refinery and allied petrochemical plants for the production of plastics and fibre intermediates.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) — USD Partners LP announced the commencement of operations at its destination terminal in Stroud, Oklahoma on Oct. 1, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The planned retrofit work necessary to handle heavier grades of crude oil at the terminal was completed on time and under the Partnership’s initial budget.

The Stroud terminal provides a destination point for rail-to-pipeline shipments of heavy crude oil from the Partnership’s Hardisty terminal in Western Canada and provides connectivity to one of the largest crude oil storage hubs in North America. The direct origin-to-destination rail solution provided by the Partnership’s terminals also preserves the specific quality of product delivered into Cushing, protecting potential value for customers.

Approximately 50% of the Stroud terminal’s current capacity is available and actively being marketed to meet the takeaway needs of current and future customers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said on Tuesday it would rescind contracts held by several workers at a warehouse and distribution center in the central state of Guanajuato as part of a strategy to combat oil theft, said Reuters.

A Pemex official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that four workers were let go for links to oil theft from the center in the city of Salamanca, where Pemex also has a refinery that can process 245,000 bpd of crude.

In its statement, Pemex said it would file criminal complaints against the workers and investigate workers at other sites.

"Without exception, any employee linked to crime will be removed immediately," the company said.

Mexico’s government has estimated that oil theft by criminal groups costs Pemex at least USD1 B a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nanjing Chengzhi Yongqing Energy Technology Co., formerly known as Wison Clean Energy, will build a second methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant in China utilizing Honeywell UOP's MTO technology, reported GV.

The new 600,000 t/y MTO unit, to be built in Nanjing, will produce ethylene and propylene. Cost and schedule for the project were not available.

"Honeywell UOP's MTO technology is a proven and growing process in China, where more than USD 100 billion is expected to be invested in coal-to-chemicals technology in the next five years," said John Gugel, vice president and general manager of UOP's process technology and equipment business.

"This technology has the highest yield of olefins with the lowest consumption of methanol and catalysts, as well as the lowest operating and capital costs of any MTO solution," he added.

Wison Clean Energy started up a 300,000 t/y MTO plant at the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park about four years ago It was the first licensee of the technology.

As MRC wrote previously, in November 2016, China’s Jilin Connell Chemical Industry Co. selected Honeywell UOP’s Advanced methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process to tap domestic coal resources to produce ethylene and propylene. Jilin Connell is the ninth company to license the Honeywell UOP technology, which produces superior yields at lower cost compared to competing technologies. The new plant, scheduled for completion in 2017, will be located in Jilin City in China’s Jilin Province, and will convert domestic sources of methanol into 300 Mtpy of ethylene and propylene. The new plant’s offtake will be supplied to ethylene oxide and propylene oxide manufacturers currently operating in the same industrial park.
MRC