Formosa eyes USD9.4-billion chemicals project for Louisiana ethane cracking

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Petrochemical is considering construction of a USD9.4-billion petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, that would include a new ethylene cracker and several downstream, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A final investment decision (FID) is expected by mid-2016. If approved, construction would begin in 2016, with hiring to begin in 2018. The project was announced by Louisiana governor Bobby Jundal and Formosa Petrochemical chairman Bao-Lang Chen.

The proposed project would be built on the west bank of the Mississippi river near the Gramercy bridge. It would be built in two phases, with the first phase including an ethylene cracker and derivatives plants, including high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), ethylene glycol, and polypropylene.

A second phase, for which construction would begin in 2022, would double the capacities of those plants. No plant capacities were announced. Louisiana offered the company an incentive package, including a $12-million grant to offset infrastructure costs. The project is expected to create 1,200 permanent jobs and 8,000 indirect jobs, according to the state of Louisiana.

Formosa Plastics, an affiliated Formosa company, is currently building a 1.15 million tpy ethylene plant at Point Comfort, Texas.

As MRC informed earlier, Formosa Plastics Corporation, U.S.A. will build a new, state-of- the-art polypropylene (PP) production line at its Point Comfort, Texas site. This will be the first new PP production to be built in the US in many years. It continues the company’s longstanding commitments to its customers, its employees and the communities in which it operates.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

Total limits Texas refinery operations after worker dies in bulldozer accident

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total is running operations at about 50% at its 225,500-bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, after a fatal accident involving a contract worker over the weekend, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Thomas Courts, a 66-year-old contractor from Denton, Texas, drowned in the large pit beneath the coker after the bulldozer he was driving flipped over early on Saturday. He was an employee of Kinder Morgan.

"The investigation is ongoing, and we are working with Kinder Morgan to implement a plan to return to full service," Total spokeswoman Wendy Ashworth said. "We are operating at minimum capacity until such time."

Total is considering bringing in additional feedstocks to boost gasoline production while overall refinery operations are reduced, news agency Reuters reported.

Courts was using the bulldozer to push petroleum coke from the pit for loading, according to Jefferson County officials. The pit is located beneath giant drums where residual oil is heated to harden into petroleum coke, which can be used as a coal substitute. The coke is removed using high-pressure hot water jets.

The pit where Courts was working contained coke, coarse sandy coke dust and scalding water, according to news reports, and Courts also suffered third-to-second degree burns over his body.

Sources told Reuters that bulldozers were operating in the coke pit because a giant crane normally used to remove coke and coke dust has been out of service for several months.

As MRC informed earlier, Total's proposed new ethane cracker near its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, is being designed to have a capacity of 1 million tpy, the company said Monday in a permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Construction on the cracker could start in June 2016, the company said, with operations starting three years later. The project would include seven ethane-cracking heaters.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

Royal Bank of Scotland to introduce polymer banknotes

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) will print its next generation of Scottish banknotes on plastic paper, rather than the traditional cotton, said Reuters.

RBS, which is the second biggest issuer of banknotes in Scotland, said on Monday it expects to issue a new 5 pound (USD7.63) polymer note in the second half of next year and issue 10 pound polymer notes in 2017.

Its plans are in line with timeframes set out by the Bank of England and other Scottish banks. Britain is one of the largest economies to adopt plastic banknotes, which the BoE has said would last twice as long as paper currency and save it around 1 billion pounds over the next 10 years.

RBS said its notes will be redesigned with new subjects for the portraits, and they will be 15% smaller than current cotton notes. It said polymer is cleaner, more secure and more durable than cotton paper. It said De La Rue (DLAR.L) will print its notes.

There are an average of 1.5 billion pounds of RBS notes in circulation every day. The bank, headquartered in Edinburgh, has been issuing banknotes since 1727.

As MRC informed earlier, plastic banknotes with a see-through image of Britannia are likely to replace traditional paper notes from 2016 under plans being drawn up by the Bank of England. The Bank said the wipe-clean polymer notes will be less tatty, tougher to counterfeit and last up to six times longer than cotton-paper based notes. They will also be 15% smaller, bringing English notes into line with sizes in other countries, but will remain larger than existing euro notes.
MRC

Orpic to award 4 EPC packages for its USD5.2 bln Liwa Plastics

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) plans to award four engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages for building the USD5.2 bln Liwa Plastics Industries Complex in the fourth quarter of this year, as per Times of Oman.

Several global contracting firms have submitted technical bids for developing the mega petrochemical project with a total capital expenditure of USD5.2 billion and the whole development programme is divided into four major schemes - a polymers plant in Sohar industrial area, a natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction plant in Fahud, a steam cracker plant and a 300-km-long pipeline from Fahud to Sohar.

The project will be funded by way of USD4 billion term loan from international financial institutions and the company will bring in the remaining USD1.2 billion. Liwa Plastics Industries, which will go on stream by 2018, will produce polyethylene, polypropylene and butene. Oman will produce polyethylene for the first time and it is going to be the first natural gas extraction project to produce high value petrochemical products in the country. Orpic is aiming to raise USD4 billion from international financial institutions and targeting to sign financing agreements concurrently with the award of the EPC contracts.

The company has already started negotiations with export credit agencies in April this year. Liwa Plastics Industries Complex will add USD2.3 billion to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), while its foreign trade surplus will be to the tune of USD1.5 billion, added Nazar, while making a presentation on the company's ongoing projects and performance in the first half as part of a media tour. Further, the mega project will create 1,300 direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company's (Orpic) earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation allowance (EBITDA) stood at USD215 million for the first half of 2015. The company's gross margin was USD317 million for the same period. Orpic's profitability depends more on the refinery margins rather than the crude prices. For instance, there was a 40 per cent fall in oil prices in the first half of this year, but the gross refinery margin increased by 40 per cent.

As MRC informed earlier, Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) has installed a new hydrocracker reactor, reaching a height of 42 metres, and weighing approximately 950 metric tonnes.

Orpic (Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company) is one of the leading companies in Oman and has two refineries in that country, in Sohar and Muscat. Orpic is owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman and Oman Oil Company SAOC, the trading company created by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for managing investments in the energy sector.
MRC

RR&P and Hop Zenith form JV compounding plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- RR&P (Pte.) Ltd. and Shanghai Hop Zenith Chemical Trading Co. Ltd., have announced that both companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the intention to form a joint venture company in China to produce, distribute and market TPO compounds, both locally and abroad, to the automotive sector in Asia-Pacific region, as per GV.

R&P was the designated toll compounder for ExxonMobil Chemical’s Exxtral grades from September 2008 to October 2014, and participated in the development of new products during this period. With its background in manufacturing and R&D, R&P licensed the technology from ExxonMobil Chemical in 2014 when ExxonMobil Chemical exited from the TPO market, so as to continue serving the automotive OEMs directly with its Sterlene grades. Hop Zenith, a distributor for EMC’s Exxtral grades from October 2011 to October 2014, was appointed by R&P in December 2014 as its main distributor to market its Sterlene grades in China.

The JV is expected to start with an installed capacity of 15 kta, and targets to increase to 50 kta within five years of commencing of production.

"With 70 % of our current deliveries to global automotive OEMs in China, we look forward to having a production facility in China to strengthen the supply chain with our customers there. China remains an attractive and important automotive market on a global scale. We, therefore, look forward to bright prospects for this joint venture partnership with Hop Zenith." YK Tan, R&P Chairman, said.

As MRC wrote previously, Exxon Mobil Corp. shook off the chill of sanctions and continued to snap up drilling rights in Russia last year, giving it more exploration holdings in Vladimir Putin’s backyard than in the US. Taking the long view, Exxon boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7 million acres in 2014 from 11.4 million at the end of 2014, according to data from US regulatory filings. That dwarfs the 14.6 million acres of rights Exxon holds in the U.S., which until last year was its largest exploration prospect.
MRC