Petronas selects AspenTech asset optimization software

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aspen Technology, Inc., the asset optimization software company, has announced that Petronas, Malaysia’s fully integrated oil and gas multinational company, has selected aspenONE Engineering, Petroleum Supply Chain and Supply Chain Management software solutions to pursue asset optimization and maximize profitability at the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) facility in Pengerang, Johor, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

RAPID and six major associated facilities that comprise the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) are Petronas’ largest downstream investment in Malaysia to date. The operations of the refinery, cracker plant and selected petrochemical facilities in PIC are managed by Petronas Refinery & Petrochemical Corporation.

To achieve operational excellence via asset optimization, PETRONAS has adopted Aspen HYSYS Petroleum Refining, Aspen Plus, Aspen Polymers, Aspen PIMS-AO, Aspen Petroleum Scheduler, Aspen Refinery Multi-Blend Optimizer and Aspen Plant Scheduler software. These solutions maximize margins with better troubleshooting, more robust planning and scheduling, optimized feedstock selection and product blends, improved response and decision-making.

According to Ir. Dr. Colin Wong Hee Huing, Senior Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, Petronas Refinery & Petrochemical Corporation, "The RAPID project will help Petronas produce premium petroleum and specialty chemicals products. Demand for such high-value products is increasing, especially in Asia Pacific. Committed to this vision, we have selected a broad range of asset optimization software solutions across engineering, petroleum supply chain and supply chain management software solutions from AspenTech to increase profitability."

With software solutions that maximize profitability, reduce distribution costs and optimize daily schedules, PETRONAS achieves a sustainable competitive advantage to deliver high returns across the entire asset lifecycle at the RAPID facility, which is expected to be commissioned in 2019.

As MRC informed earlier, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Debro Inc. announced a new partnership with AkzoNobel – Performance Additives. Effective Sept. 1, 2018, Debro will represent AkzoNobel – Performance Additives ELOTEX and Bermocollrange of products in Central and Eastern Canada, as per Coatingsworld.

These technologies will cater to a variety of applications, including adhesives, construction products, paints, specialty coatings and drilling fluids.

"AkzoNobel – Performance Additives brings to Debro best-in-class re-dispersible polymers and a broad range of cellulose ethers backed by strong technical and lab support,” Debro CEO and President Bill Heise said. “The determination and persistence of AkzoNobel – Performance Additives to support technically are crucial in enabling Debro’s technical sales force to continually provide our customer base with the highest level of problem-solving customer service and capabilities. “From our first meeting with the AkzoNobel – Performance Additive team, it was clear that we had an opportunity to represent a market-leading principal that would provide quality offerings, ethical solutions and innovative technologies whose goals were complementary to Debro’s".

"Our Performance Additives business has had a strong presence in Canada, so when we began the process of selecting a new distribution partner a major criterion was to find a technically savvy firm whose industry knowledge, reputation and level of service capabilities would complement and be closely aligned with our strategic vision," said Steven Grant, commercial manager, North America – Performance Additives Ethylene and Sulfur Derivatives.

As MRC informed earlier, in August 2018, AkzoNobel has opened a new coatings production facility in Kenya.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is in advanced talks with more than one potential buyer, including Italy’s ENI, as it prepares to sell minority stakes in its refining business, reported Reuters with reference to two sources familiar with the matter.

ADNOC began a wide-ranging shake-up in 2016 to tackle competition from new producers such as US shale firms. It listed 10 percent of its fuel distribution business last year and aims to expand its downstream business abroad.

The company also started a sale process for a stake in its USD20 billion refining business, which the sources said it was likely to split between two or more parties.

One said that ADNOC would favor companies it already has partnerships with, including ENI and Austrian oil and gas group OMV.

OMV works with ADNOC on a number of projects, including a 40-year agreement for a 20 percent stake in the SARB and Umm Lulu offshore oil concession. ENI has a 10 percent stake in its Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore oil concession and a 5 percent stake in Lower Zakum.

"This strategy would give ADNOC the chance to bring in these companies’ money and expertise without having a dominant partner," the source said.

A second round of offers is expected to be presented as soon as next week, when the Gulf returns from a religious holiday, both sources said.

"ADNOC ...is exploring multiple opportunities that span ADNOC’s entire value chain," an ADNOC spokesman said.

"To date we have received significant interest from the market, (from both) new and existing partners. We will update the market in due course," he added.

ADNOC also has partnerships with France’s Total and PetroChina, among others.

An ENI spokesman said the company does not comment on market rumours. OMV was not immediately available to comment.

ENI, the biggest foreign oil producer in Africa, is looking to build its presence in the Middle East to diversify risk and take advantage of business opportunities in the oil-rich region.

One of the sources said it is using US investment bank Morgan Stanley to help with the offer for ADNOC’s stake.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2018, ADNOC unveiled plans to invest AED 165 billion (USD45 billion) alongside partners, over the next five years, to become a leading global downstream player, enabling it to further stretch the value of every barrel it produces to the benefit of ADNOC, its partners and the UAE.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Japan’s Maruzen Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Cosmo Energy Holdings, said it would replace naphtha cracking furnaces at its 525,000 tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker in 2020 for an undisclosed sum, reported Reuters.

Two new bigger furnaces will be installed during a planned maintenance shutdown in around May-June 2020, a company spokesman said.

The company will halt operations of six of 20 existing furnaces, two of which will be scrapped, he said. Four others will be fired up during a maintenance shutdown of other furnaces to minimize the impact to production, he added.

The move will result in no change in the cracker’s annual ethylene output capacity of 525,000 tonnes, he said.

The company has awarded the project to Japan’s Toyo Engineering Corp.

As MRC informed previously, in early March 2015, Maruzen Petrochemical Co shut down its naphtha cracker in Chiba for a one-week maintenance due to a mechanical issue.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd processed nearly 8 percent more crude oil in the first six months of this year versus a year earlier, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's statement in its filing to Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The plant, a unit of top state refiner Sinopec Corp, processed 7.34 million tonnes of crude oil in the first half, or about 296,000 barrels per day, 7.9 percent more than a year earlier.

The plant, a major petrochemicals maker, produced 402,500 tonnes of ethylene during the period, 13.3 percent higher than a year earlier.

The plant plans to further expand refinery runs and production of cleaner fuels in the second half. It also aims to expand refined fuel exports.

Overhauls at facilities including an ethylene unit and a diesel hydrocracking unit are planned, the firm said, without giving further details.

It reported first-half net profit up 36.8 percent on the year.

As MRC wrote before, Sinopec Corp shut down its largest refinery for maintenance throughout May 2018, and at least four independent oil plants had started overhauls that month, curbing China's crude oil demand.

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