Chevron to resume operations at Richmond refinery this month

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp., an American multinational energy corporation, expects to resume normal operations at its Richmond, Calif., refinery in April after months of reduced gasoline production following an Aug. 6 fire, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The refinery's crude distillation unit sprang a leak last year, which led to the fire. Chevron said Friday that it has concluded that the leak in a steel component was caused by corrosion accelerated by its low silicon content.

"We have identified what went wrong and are taking steps to prevent a similar incident in the future," said Nigel Hearne, general manager of the Richmond refinery, in a news release.

As it was reported earlier, Chevron Corp completed repairing and rebuilding equipment in its Richmond refinery (California) that was damaged in a fire last year.

California's Occupational Safety and Health Division gave approval to Chevron to bring it back online. A spokesman for Chevron said the company is in the process of "testing and commissioning" the unit, and will restart it once that is complete.

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States, and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is one of the world"s six "supermajor" oil companies.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- TexStar MidStream Services will install two natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation units adjacent to the LyondellBasell olefins plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the companies.

The Corpus Christi plant is run by LyondellBasell affiliate Equistar Chemicals.

The fractionation units will be capable of processing a combined 63,000 bpd of NGLs produced from the Eagle Ford shale into ethane, propane, butanes and natural gasoline.

Equistar plans to operate the fractionators for TexStar and said it will provide various utilities to the facility from its adjacent Corpus Christi olefins facility.

In addition, Equistar will purchase ethane and propane produced from the units under a long-term agreement. The NGLs will be used as feedstocks for Equistar's olefins unit to produce ethylene and propylene.

The fractionators will be located on a 40-acre site owned by Equistar and leased to TexStar. Construction will commence in April 2013, with startup projected for late 2013.

As MRC informed previously, LyondellBasell, one of the major petrochemical global producers and the world's largest maker of polypropylene, will raise its ethylene capacity in North America by 18% in coming years through several debottlenecking projects. Locations where ethylene capacity will be expanded include crackers in Corpus Christi, La Porte and Channelview, Texas. The company's ethylene capacity at Corpus Christi will be expanded by 800 million lb/year. The projects are scheduled to be finished in 2014 and 2015.

San Antonio-based TexStar provides a full range of midstream services to its customers including gathering, treating, and processing of natural gas and NGLs.

LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The Company produces chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands. LyondellBasell is also a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pemex Refinacion, the refining arm of Mexico's Pemex, selected a consortium comprised of SENER and the industrial division of Obrascon Huarte Lain for a turnkey project to build a 35 MW cogeneration plant in its Francisco I Madero oil refinery, located in the state of Tamaulipas, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The future facility will be equipped with a heavy-duty type gas turbine as well as with a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG), with supplementary combustion associated to the gas turbine, which will generate 115 t/h of steam at a pressure of 19 kg/cm2 and 275 C.

This steam will be used within the refinery in the production process of the new gasoline and diesel desulfurization plants.

The other auxiliary equipment needed by the plant will include a natural gas measuring and control station, a system of air compressors for instrumentation and in-plant use, a continuous drain recovery system and a treated water cooling system, among other systems, as well as interconnections with the refinery.

As MRC wrote previously, Technip consortium has been awarded a contract by Pemex for the revamp of a Mexican refinery. The contract includes the revamp of a conversion unit of the Ing. Hector R. Lara Sosa refinery, located in Cadereyta, Mexico. The project is scheduled to be completed in the second semester of 2014.

We remind that recently Pemex has signed a noncommercial agreement with Exxon Mobil to share technical and scientific information of mutual interest. The five-year agreement renews the two oil companies' relations in matters of cooperation.

Petroleos Mexicanos or Pemex is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value. Its products include petrochemicals, natural gas, liquid gas, sulphur, gasoline, kerosene, and diesel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazils’ Federal Secretary of Foreign Trade (Secex) has opened an anti-dumping investigation into imports of polypropylene resin from India, South Korea and South Africa, following a complaint from local petrochemical giant Braskem that it's being harmed by low-cost imports, as per Plastemart.

Secex will also investigate whether South Africa and India are providing subsidies to domestic PP producers. Braskem claims that resin imports from the three countries have increased 582% over the past five years, from 19,600 metric tons between April 2007 and March 2008, to 133,900 tons between April 2011 and March 2012. Brazil's Chamber of Foreign Trade (Camex) has issued trade actions favourable to Braskem in the past, including in December 2010, when it applied an anti-dumping measure against PP resin imports from the United States for five years, at USD82.7/ton.

As MRC wrote earlier, Braskem S.A. purchased holdings at the plant, which is located in Pennsylvania. The facility belongs to the Philadelphia-based (USA) company Sunoco Inc. The Sao Paulo-headquartered company is going to manufacture propylene at its polypropylene (PP) unit.

Braskem is the leading producer of thermoplastic resins in Latin America and the US, following its purchase of polypropylene assets of Dow Chemical. The company serves 70% of Brazilian demand in PP, PE and PVC resins, but foreign resin imports have gained Brazilian market share in recent years. Brazil's annual consumption of PP is estimated at 1.4 million tons this year. Braskem has been a target of criticism by plastics processors over its perceived dominance of the resins market. Brazil's import tariff on foreign PP is 14%, but could increase. Brazil's federal government raised the import tariff on PE in late 2012 from 14-20%.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KEM ONE SAS received approval from the Commercial Court of Lyon to continue the period of observation under the terms of the receivership proceedings, said the company in its press release.

With the new sources of funding obtained from its partners, Maitre Sapin, the official receiver, and the KEM ONE SAS management team will now be able to focus with their strategic partners - Arkema and Total - to find and implement sustainable business solutions for the company.

At a hearing on 9th April, the Commercial Court of Lyon approved the continuation of the observation period for KEM ONE SAS, under the terms of the receivership proceedings which commenced on 27th March. The funding scheme for this period, which was drawn up with KEM ONE’s partners, will allow the company to continue to operate as usual, whilst plans for the future are finalised.

As MRC wrote earlier, Klesch Group said it had discovered significant gaps in the information presented by Arkema's management before it completed the acquisition in July of Kem One SAS, whose products are used in items ranging from pipes and packaging to paper.

Throughout this period, the KEM ONE management team will work with its two long-standing partners, Arkema and Total, and new partners if necessary, to find sustainable solutions for its business, with the full support of the French government. The involvement of all stakeholders is essential in view of the mutual dependence between the petrochemical and chemical industry in France, and the underlaying industrial, economic and social implications.

KEM ONE SAS includes the company’s upstream sites in France : 1300 people based at the headquarters (Lyon) and 7 industrial sites : Balan (Ain), Saint-Fons (Rhone), Saint-Auban (Alpes de Haute Provence), Berre, Fos-sur-Mer, Lavera (Bouches du Rhone) and Vauvert (Gard).

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