Shell to spend USD115 million to cut Texas refinery pollution

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have announced that Shell Oil has agreed to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at a large refinery and chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas, by spending at least USD115 million (MM) to control harmful air pollution from industrial flares and other processes, and by paying a USD2.6 MM civil penalty, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Shell has agreed to spend USD1 MM on a system to monitor benzene levels at the fence line of the refinery and chemical plant. The fence line is located near a residential neighborhood and school. As part of the agreement, Shell will make the benzene level data available to the public via the web.

Shell will spend USD100 MM on technology to reduce harmful air pollution from industrial flares, which are devices used to burn waste gases. Shell is required to take the following actions to improve flaring operations: minimize flaring by recovering and recycling waste gases (which may then be reused by Shell as a fuel or product); comply with limitations on how much waste gas can be burned in a flare (flare caps); and install and operate instruments and monitoring systems to ensure that gases that are sent to flares are burned with 98% efficiency.

Shell’s agreement to recover and recycle waste gases (flare gas recovery) at its chemical plant is the first of its kind.

Once fully implemented, the pollution controls required by the settlement will reduce harmful air emissions of sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds (including benzene) and other hazardous air pollutants, by an estimated 4,550 tpy. These controls will also reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by approximately 260,000 tpy.

Also, in a second project to benefit the community, Shell has agreed to spend USD200,000 on retrofit technology to reduce diesel emissions from government-owned vehicles operating in the vicinity of the Deer Park complex.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Royal Dutch Shell has taken a final investment decision to increase production capacity at its Singapore petrochemical plant to meet demand for specialized materials used in the automotive and furniture industries. The upgrade will increase the plant's capacity to produce polyols - industrial chemicals used to make high-quality foams - by more than 100,000 metric tpy to 360,000 tpy. The project is expected to be completed in 2014.

Shell, which is headquartered in Houston, processes approximately 330,000 bpd of crude oil at its Deer Park facility, making it the 11th largest refinery in the US. In addition, the Deer Park chemical plant produces approximately 8,000 tpd of products including ethylene, benzene, toluene, xylene, phenol and acetone.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese Company CNOOC has selected INEOS Technologies Innovene S HDPE process for their new project in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China, said Yourpetrochemicalnews.

The 400 KTA Innovene S HDPE plant will produce a wide range of polyethylene grades to serve the growing HDPE demand in China. These grades include commodity grades made from Ziegler and Chrome catalysts as well as specialty grades such as bimodal PE 100 pipe products.

Peter Williams, CEO of INEOS Technologies, commented: "INEOS is delighted to have been selected by CNOOC as its licensing partner for the HDPE plant at Huizhou. We look forward to working with the CNOOC team to deliver an asset that will meet fully both the current and future requirements of CNOOC’s customers".

MRC wrote before, CNOOC Oil and Petrochemicals Co. (CNOOC) has selected the LyondellBasell Spherizone technology for a 400 KT per year polypropylene (PP) plant planned to be built in Huizhou, China.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC Group Chinese) is one of the major national oil companies of China. It is the third-largest national oil company in the People's Republic of China after CNPC (parent of PetroChina), and China Petrochemical Corporation (parent of Sinopec).The CNOOC Group focuses on the exploitation, exploration and development of crude oil and natural gas offshore of China.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styron will move its North America Operations Center into a newly constructed office building in downtown Midland, Michigan, in summer of 2014, reported the company on its site.

The new office building will house roughly 40 employees in customer service, feedstocks, finance, purchasing and supply chain. These employees are currently located in four separate buildings in Midland, both inside and outside the Michigan Operations plant site.

"Midland remains Styron’s largest location in the U.S., with 183 employees in Midland overall, including the 40 employees who will move to the new building on Ashman Street," said Jeff Denton, Vice President of Feedstocks and Corporate Services.

Styron recently signed a lease as the anchor tenant of the two-story, multi-tenant building that will be owned and operated by SSP Associates and will occupy the second floor. The building will be located on the block bounded by Buttles, Indian, Ashman and Gordon streets. Construction is set to begin this summer.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, in June 2013, Styron Europe GmbH, the global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, has appointed Velox GmbH, Hamburg, Germany, as the European distributor for medical product offerings from Styron. Velox, a supplier and marketer of raw materials specialties will represent products for Styron medical applications, including CALIBRE MEGARAD polycarbonate resins and MAGNUM ABS Resins.

Styron is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Styron’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Styron had approximately USD 5.5 billion in revenue in 2012, with 20 manufacturing sites around the world.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The petrochemical complex being built in Mexico that is the product of the joint venture between the Brazilian multinational Braskem and the Mexican group Idesa, which is slated to start operations in 2015, has begun to receive the first pieces of large equipment for storing chemical products, as per Braskem's press release.

Six large tanks, two of them measuring more than 85 meters and weighing some 550 tons, were offloaded at the Port of Pajaritos and over the next few days will make the eight-kilometer trip to Nanchital, the city where the industrial complex is being installed.

By the end of this year, more than 50% of this major project is expected to be built, for which around 800 to 1,000 workers are being hired per month. By December, the construction project will boast approximately 10,000 workers.

When ready, Braskem Idesa will have annual installed production capacity of 1 million tons of polyethylene. Total investment in the project is USUSD4.5 billion, with 75% coming from Braskem and 25% from the Idesa Group.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Statoil ASA (STL) are under scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as the agency probes whether they manipulated oil benchmarks published by Platts, reported Shell on its site with reference to a person familiar with the matter.

The FTC’s early-stage investigation into oil prices mirrors a review by the European Union, which raided the offices of the three companies and Platts in May, two people familiar with the probe said last month.

The FTC is looking at the impact possible manipulation of the benchmark could have on physical and derivative oil markets in the U.S., said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential. The agency is interviewing third parties to clarify how Platts establishes its benchmark prices. It’s not clear whether Platts is a subject of the investigation, the person said.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, in May European authorities raided offices of oil majors Shell, BP and Statoil in an investigation of suspected manipulation of oil prices, one of the biggest cross-border actions since the Libor rigging scandal. Authorities sharpened scrutiny of financial benchmarks around the world since slapping large fines on some of the world's biggest banks for rigging interest rate benchmarks.

The EU oil probe, which extends to undisclosed crude-derived products and biofuels, underscores how pricing in some energy markets lacks the transparency of financial products such as stocks and US corporate bonds. It also marks the third time global pricing benchmarks have drawn the regulators’ scrutiny in the past year following investigations into bank manipulation of Libor, and ISDAFix, the benchmark for the USD379 trillion swaps market.

Joaquin Almunia, Europe’s top antitrust official, said on May 28 that if oil price manipulation did take place, it would have caused "huge" damage to consumers.

Platts, the energy news and data provider owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc. (MHFI), publishes the Dated Brent benchmark that contributes to setting the price of more than half the world’s oil.
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