Mitsui to invest in UK carbon capture project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd said it would invest in the development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Britain, reported Reuters.

The Japanese company will take a 15.4% share in Storegga Geotechnologies which is developing the Acorn CCS project to store carbon dioxide emissions in depleted North Sea oil and gas reservoirs.

CCS traps emissions and buries them underground but is not yet at the commercialisation stage.

The project is being led by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Storegga Geotechnologies, Pale Blue Dot Energy, with support from Macquarie Group with a 21.5% shareholding and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC with a 15.4% shareholding.

The project is expected to be operational by the mid-2020s and will capture some of the 340,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions at the St Fergus gas terminal.

There will also be a project there to convert North Sea natural gas into hydrogen and the CO2 emissions will be captured by CCS. The hydrogen will be used in transport applications, and in gas grids to decarbonise heating in homes and industries.

As MRC informed earlier, Mitsui Chemicals operated its naphtha cracker normally following a maintenance turnaround. The company resumed operations at the cracker on July 19, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on June 11, 2020. Located in Osaka, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 500,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company Lanxess completed the acquisition of the French company INTACE SAS on March 1, 2021, said the company.

The Paris-based biocide company is a manufacturer of specialty fungicides for the packaging industry. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The biocides businesses now acquired account for annual sales in the mid single-digit million euro range. LANXESS will integrate them into the Biocides business line within its Material Protection Products business unit. The products are used in particular in paper, paperboard, soap packaging, labels and banknotes.

As per MRC, Lanxess announced force majeure at its maleic anhydride plant in Baytown, Texac due to raw material shortages and equipment outages for necessary safety.

Maleic anhydride is a raw material for the production of tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydrophthalic anhydride, films and synthetic fibers, pharmaceuticals, detergents, plasticizers, maleic, succinic, fumaric and malic acids and a number of agricultural chemicals.

Plasticizers are substances introduced into a polymer material to make it elastic and plastic during processing and operation. In particular, plasticizers are used for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The share of plasticizers used for the production of PVC products is about 80%.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, price discussions for March supplies of Russian PVC began on Wednesday, supplies of Russian PVC with K64 / 67 were discussed in the range of Rb116,000-120,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT for volumes up to 500 tonnes, against Rb112,000-115,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT in February.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals concern with a turnover of EUR7.2 billion in 2018. The group employs approximately 15,400 people in 33 countries. Currently, the concern includes 60 manufacturing enterprises. Lanxess core business is the development, production and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. The concern is included in the lists of the world's leading sustainability indices: the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem Idesa says it is reopening its Etileno XXI ethylene-polyethylene (PE) petrochemical complex at Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, after signing agreements with Mexico’s state-owned companies Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and National Natural Gas Control Center (Cenagas), reported Chemweek.

The complex was forced to shut down in December 2020 after Cenagas halted gas supplies to the plant. This followed unsuccessful talks between Braskem Idesa and Pemex over the renegotiation of an existing supply contract for feedstock ethane.

Braskem Idesa says it has now signed documents with both Pemex and Cenagas that will enable the facility’s “continued operation.” An agreement with Cenagas covers natural gas transport services for a term of 15 years. This is, however, conditional upon the outcome of further discussions between Braskem Idesa and Pemex over “potential amendments to the ethane supply contract and for the development of an ethane import terminal,” it says.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Braskem Idesa and Pemex has set out “respective understandings” for the ethane supply discussion, as well as a forward process to enter into definitive documentation, approval by Braskem Idesa’s shareholders and creditors, and with reservations of rights, it says.

With the signing of these agreements, Braskem Idesa “immediately commenced to receive the service of natural gas transportation, which had been unilaterally terminated,” it says. The existing ethane supply contract between the two companies “has not been modified and remains in full force and effect,” it adds, noting that it “cannot predict the outcome of such discussions with Pemex, its shareholders, and creditors.”

Braskem Idesa announced in December it was taking steps to shut the Etileno XXI petrochemical complex after Cenagas halted gas supplies. Cenagas had said at the end of November it would not renew a contract for supply of natural gas and blocked supplies the following day, according to Braskem Idesa in a statement at the time. There were indications that the decision was driven by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had announced that Pemex would no longer supply natural gas to Braskem Idesa as the contract terms were deemed to be unfair, according to Adrian Calcaneo, senior consultant with IHS Markit, at the time of the petchem plant’s announced shutdown.

Pemex has struggled to meet ethane supply commitments to the plant, the largest petchems investment in Latin America, as Mexico’s oil and gas production has declined significantly in recent years. Earlier in 2020, Braskem Idesa began importing ethane from the US to the plant. The company has spent $4 million on logistics infrastructure to be able to import up to 12,800 barrels/day of ethane, 19% of the volume required by the facility.

The Etileno XXI complex, which comprises a 1.05-million metric tons/year ethylene plant and three polyethylene (PE) units, had a utilization rate of 84% in the third quarter of 2020, according to a Braskem presentation later in the year. The main grades of PE produced are high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for blow molding and film, and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) for film.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2020, Braskem announced the selection of Charleston, South Carolina for its new global export hub facility to serve international customers. The hub will provide packaging, warehousing and export shipping services to support Braskem's polypropylene (PP) production facilities in the United States. With the design and development phase well underway, the new global export hub was expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2020 and will have a capacity to support export shipments of up to 204,000 metric tons/year of PP and specialty polymers.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations on prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for March shipments to the CIS markets began this week. The rise in export prices from European producers continued, in some cases the price increase was EUR100/tonne by February, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

March contract price of ethylene was agreed up by EUR75/tonne from the previous month, which theoretically allows to talk about an increase of PVC production by EUR33 per tonne compared to February. But a serious deficit has been persisting for several months in the region, which was due to unplanned shutdowns of several production facilities in Europe, and has recently been intensified by shutdowns of capacities in the United States.

European producers announced an increase in export prices for the markets of the CIS countries in March by EUR75-100/tonne. The demand for PVC from the consumers from the CIS countries is starting to gradually increase, despite the record level of prices. The bulk of price offers accounted for K58/70 PVC.

The supply of PVC for export from European producers was decreasing every month. Some producers limited their export sales in favour of the domestic market. Some buyers managed to agree on deliveries for 50% of the submitted order.

But there were companies that did not manage to get confirmation of their March shipments at all. Overall, deals for March shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were negotiated in the range of EUR1,085 - 1,145/tonne FCA, whereas the previous month's deals were discussed in the range of EUR985-1,045/tonne FCA.
MRC

1. ExxonMobil to cut 7% of Singapore workforce amid unprecedented market conditions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp plans to cut its workforce in Singapore, home to its largest oil refining and petrochemical complex, by about 7% amid the “unprecedented market conditions” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement. About 300 positions out of 4,000 current jobs will be impacted by the end of 2021, the company said in a statement. The Singapore layoffs come weeks after Exxon announced its plan to close its 72-year-old Altona refinery in Australia and convert it to an import terminal. The top US oil producer, once America’s most valuable company, posted a historic annual loss for 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic slashed energy demand.

MRC