Petrochem majors to shut petrochem plants for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow, SABIC, Total and Braskem plan to shut petrochem plants for maintenance this month, reported Plastemart.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) will shut one of two crackers at its Netherlands plant later this month, as per Reuters.

Announcements of turnarounds have been made at Dow's Spanish plant and one of Braskem's Brazil crackers, while Total is expected to permanently close one of its petrochemical units.

Traders said the closure of the petrochemicals units is unlikely to undermine demand for naphtha, which has been unusually buoyant this week due largely to refinery run cuts and maintenance outages, notably at Algeria's Skikda refinery.

The Olefins 4 cracker at SABIC's Geleen will close for six weeks from Sept. 15 for routine maintenance work and as part of a EUR135 million (USD178 mln) upgrade to increase energy efficiency. The upgrade will reduce the cracker's energy consumption by 8% and increase production by 2%.

Later this week, Dow Chemical Co. plans to shut down an ethylene production unit in Tarragona, Spain for maintenance. The La Pobla de Mafumet/Perafort unit will be out for 15 days.

As MRC wrote previously, in March 2013, Dow Chemical signed a long-term ethylene off-take agreement with a new Japanese joint venture that will allow the chemical producer to enhance its performance plastics franchise. The joint venture is being formed between Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui & Co. to construct and operate a Linear Alpha Olefins unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Brazil's Braskem will close one of four crackers in Brazil for maintenance from early October to early November.
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Saudi Aramco extends deadline to bid for construction of clean fuels and aromatics project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State oil giant Saudi Aramco has extended the deadline for companies to bid for construction of a clean fuels and aromatics project at its largest refinery in Ras Tanura, said Plastemart.

Bids are now due by Oct. 20, pushed back from Sept. 8, for the multi-billion-dollar project. The Ras Tanura clean fuels and aromatics project due on line by 2016 is part of Aramco's second phase of its refineries upgrade. It will also help supply a new petrochemicals joint venture with Dow Chemical. It includes a naphtha hydrotreater among other units and will have an annual production capacity of around 1 million metric tonnes of aromatics.

World number one oil exporter has embarked on a program to upgrade its refineries as part of a shift by Middle Eastern refiners to produce cleaner fuels for export markets. Aramco has also extended the date for bids to build a 2,400 megawatt power plant to supply electricity to its new 400,000 bpd refinery in Jizan, after companies asked for more time to prepare their offers.

Saudi Aramco inaugurated its Ras Tanura diesel hydrotreater plant in May 2011, after 28 months of construction work, the company said in a statement. The diesel hydrotreater is the largest of its kind in Saudi Aramco and capable of processing 105.000 barrels per day of 10-parts-per-million (ppm) ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Completed within 28 months, the plant represents a milestone in the company’s efforts to produce cleaner fuels. The project was part of Saudi Aramco’s Environmental Master Plan, which was launched in 2001 to identify and implement capital projects that lighten the environmental footprint of the company and the products it produces.
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Project underway to develop robots to inspect petrochemical containers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission, with a consortium of 10 European companies, led by Shell, has launched the PETROBOT project, which will develop robots to replace humans in inspections of pressure vessels and storage tanks widely used in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, said Plastemart.

So far, to ensure inspectors' safety, oil, gas and petrochemical plants have to shut down during inspection operations: vessels have to be decoupled from live sections of the plant; then vessels are extensively cleaned to remove all products that can emit flammable or toxic gases; scaffolding is then erected in larger vessels, so that inspectors can access all necessary areas. After inspection (which often lasts for a few hours) all this work is done in reverse.

This long and costly procedure could soon be reduced thanks to robotic technology, thus reducing the exposure of personnel to potentially hazardous conditions, saving the industry time and resources, as well as opening up new markets for the European robotics industry and allowing for the creation of new jobs in robotics manufacturing and maintenance. When a pressure vessel is taken out of service, a robot (in the shape of a snake arm or a crawler) will enter it via a manhole or a nozzle; the robot will then scan along the vessel wall for damages. A robot will enter the storage tank while the product (petrol or intermediate products) stays in place; the robot will then scan over the tank bottom for damages. To scan vessel walls or tank floors, robots will be using specialist inspection tools.

These tools allow robots to detect any damage, and have to provide the same inspection capacity as obtained from an inspector.

European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said, "The Petrobot project illustrates our will to transfer cutting edge results from research to the market, opening up new markets for EU businesses and creating new jobs in Europe." PETROBOT will involve partners from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Germany over a three-year period. The EU will contribute EUR3.7 mln to the EUR6.2 mln project. PETROBOT project mobilizes the complete value chain, including robot and inspection technology providers, inspection service companies and end-users. Inspection robots will be tested in the installations of the end-user consortium members. Special project activities aim at preparing the future user community to maximize the uptake of the new technology. These new activities could create new types of jobs and open new markets. As a technology area, it may become a strong export product for the EU, by exporting the robotic hardware solutions or complete robot-inspection services.

The PETROBOT initiative was born out of a R&D program performed by Shell Global Solutions International B.V., part of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, with support of Quasset B.V., a Dutch SME with expertise in condition assessment technology development. The ten-party project consortium, led by Shell, also comprises GASSCO AS, Chevron North Sea Ltd., Koninklijke VOPAK N.V., A.Hak Industrial Services B.V., Dekra Industrial AB - DEKRA, Alstom Inspection Robotics (AIR), OCROBOTICS, Innospection GmbH, and Quasset B.V.

As MRC wrote before, the EU Commission is to review whether or not to continue anti-dumping duties for polyethylene terephthalate resin coming to the European Union from India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.

MRC

BASF opens its research facilities in North Carolina, USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has inaugurated its new research facilities in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina at a grand opening ceremony, according to the company's press release.

This USD33 million expansion includes 80,000 square feet of office, laboratory and greenhouse facilities.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, Commissioner Steve Troxler, U.S. Representative David Price, Mayor of Durham William Bell and other guests from government, business and academia were invited to join BASF employees at the event.

The facilities include a climate-controlled greenhouse and laboratories for plant biotechnology research as well as a new environmentally-controlled insect production facility to expand insect control research.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2013, BASF Coatings, BASF Group’s company specialized in paints and coatings industry, opened a new training center for automotive refinishing in Cesano Maderno, Italy.

Earlier this year, the company set up a new Coatings Technical Competence Center ASEAN in Bangkok, Thailand. This new facility supports technical and laboratory activities mainly in motorcycle coatings including technology transfer, product development, performance testing, color design and development.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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Serinus gains full Krutogorovskoye licence

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Serinus Energy has been awarded a full 20-year production licence at its Krutogorovskoye gas field in northeastern Ukraine, said Upstreamonline.

The Calgary-based, Polish majority-owned explorer said that the new licence authorised full industrial production at the licence, which had been limited to 10% of the in-place volumes on a prior five-year permit.

The K1 and K3 wells at the play are producing gas from Bashkirian sandstones, while the K7 well is to be tied in after testing at 5.9 million cubic feet per day.

Krutogorovskoye is operated by KUB-Gas, which is 70% owned by Serinus Energy, with Houston’s Cub Energy owning the other 30%.

The venture wholly owns five permits in the same region near the city of Lugansk, four of which are producing.

Ukraine signed a USD10 billion shale gas deal with Shell. Ukraine chose Shell last May as a partner to develop the Yuzivska field in the east of the country and regional councils. Ukraine has also chosen an ExxonMobil-led consortium to explore for offshore gas in the Black Sea and is seeking foreign partners to help it build a liquefied natural gas terminal. As MRC wrote earlier, Ukrainian government cut 99% of fees for the shale gas deals for the world's largest oil producer Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil.
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