Shell petrochem facility gets approval from Pennsylvania town

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The town council of Potter, Pennsylvania has unanimously approved a conditional use permit last week allowing a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC to move forward with construction of a multibillion-dollar petrochemical complex near Pittsburgh, reported Reuters.

Last June, Shell's Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC unit made a final investment decision to build the complex, which includes an ethylene cracker.

Ray Fisher, a spokesman at Shell, said on Thursday the company has not disclosed the cost of the project. Local media has reported the project will cost about USD6 billion.

The facility will use low-cost ethane from shale gas producers in the Marcellus and Utica basins in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to produce 1.6 MMt of polyethylene per year.

"We greatly appreciate the Supervisors' due diligence and their careful consideration throughout the process and look forward to fulfilling our goal of constructing a world-class polyethylene manufacturing facility in Potter Township," Shell said in a statement emailed on Thursday.

Fisher at Shell said the company was still waiting for a permit from the state of Pennsylvania and was continuing its early work to get the site ready for construction.

The company expects to be able to start construction sometime near the end of 2017, with a target in-service date early in the next decade.

"Thanks to abundant supplies of natural gas, the US chemical industry is investing in new facilities and expanded production capacity, which tends to attract downstream industries that rely on petrochemical products," Cal Dooley, President and Chief Executive of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), said in a statement on Thursday.

"Shell's pioneering project - the first of its kind outside the Gulf Coast - could be the cornerstone for regional economic growth for decades to come," Dooley said.

As MRC informed before, in December 2015, Shell Chemicals asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for permission to expand ethylene production capacity at its Deer Park, TX, facility. The company noted that several steps remained before it would make a final investment decision, ranging from concluding preparatory engineering and design work and seeking permits from Texas regulators, to evaluating downstream product support and any other potential global investments.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co said it conducted an emergency shutdown of a desulphurisation unit at its 200,000-bpd Chiba refinery after a fire near a heat exchanger, said Reuters.

The crude distillation unit at the plant, east of Tokyo, is continuing to operate, with no impact on cargoes being sent from the facility's truck terminal or by sea, a company spokesman said.

The fire at the 60,000 bpd No.3 light gas oil hydrodesulphurisation unit occurred at around 4:40 a.m. on Wednesday and the local fire department confirmed that it was extinguished at 7:30 a.m., the company said in a statement.

There were no injuries and there was no schedule for the restart of the unit as an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

The company did not immediately say whether the operations of other secondary units had been affected by the fire.

As MRC informed earlier, Idemitsu Kosan Co. and smaller rival Showa Shell Sekiyu will merge on April 1 2017.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco has shelved plans for a partnership with Malaysian state-oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad in a USD27 billion refining and petrochemical project in the southeast Asian country, industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Aramco had been in talks with Petronas about a joint venture in the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in the southern Malaysian state of Johor. Aramco and Petronas officials did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

"I believe the proposal was still in an initial discussion phase," said Sadad al-Husseini a former senior executive at Saudi Aramco and now an energy consultant.

"In any case, considering the scale of the investment, China's growing regional exports of refined products, Singapore's existing refining capacity and the competition this project would have created to Aramco's own JV refineries in Korea, China and Japan, its deferral was probably a very well considered and prudent Aramco management decision at this time."

The RAPID project, launched in 2012 and expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2019, is designed to have a 300,000-bpd oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 MMt.

Petronas last year sought proposals for a USD7.2 billion loan for the project, with separate guarantees from the company and Aramco, Thomson Reuters IFR reported in June.

Aramco's move to suspend plans for the Malaysian venture comes at a time when Petronas is struggling with the slump in oil prices.

In early 2016 Petronas said it would cut spending by up to USD11.27 billion over the next four years. It has also slashed the dividend it pays to the Malaysian government.

Petronas also has yet to make a final investment decision on a controversial USD27 billion liquefied natural gas project in Canada that has come criticism from aboriginal and environmental groups.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Arabia has promised it will reduce the overall tax rate paid by its national oil company to make its 2018 initial public offering -- potentially one of the largest in history -- more appealing to investors.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global superabsorbent polymers market is expected to reach around USD 8.60 Billion by 2020 at a CAGR of about 5% , as per Plastemart with reference to Zion Research.

The global demand for superabsorbent polymer was valued at USUSD6.4 bln and at 1950 kilo tons in 2014.

The process of converting a monomer molecule together in a chemical reaction to form a polymer chain is called as polymerization. A superabsorbent polymer is a three-dimensional network form by chemical cross linking or physical cross linking of large number of molecules composed of certain repeating units.

The superabsorbent polymer has capability to absorb a liquid. And this absorbency and capacity of polymer depends on degree of cross linking. The superabsorbent polymer products are mostly used in personal disposable hygiene products. It also used for blocking water absorption in underground power or communications cable, horticultural water retention agents. The first commercial use of SAP was in 1978 for the production of feminine napkins in Japan.

SAP can be classified on the basis of product type such as sodium polyacrylate, polyacrylamide copolymer and others. Sodium polyacrylate dominated the SAP market with around 60% share of the total volume of SAP consumed in 2014. Polyacrylamide copolymer was the second largest product segment of SAP in terms of volume. Baby diapers, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene and others are the key application markets for the superabsorbent polymers. Baby diaper is the most dominant application market for superabsorbent polymers. It accounted for around two third shares of the total market in 2014. Adult incontinence products accounted for second largest application market for SAP in 2014. Adult incontinence products market for superabsorbent polymers is expected to be the fastest growing application market during the forecast period.

North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa are the key regional segments of the global superabsorbent polymers market. Global superabsorbent polymers market was dominated by the North America with around 28% share of the market in 2014. North America was followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. North America and Europe were the major markets for superabsorbent polymers market owing to high level of awareness among the people about personal hygiene. However, rapid growth in population as well as industrial surge in emerging economies is expected to boost demand for SAP in the Asia Pacific region.

As MRC informed before, global super absorbent polymer market is estimated to be worth USD8.9 bln by 2022, registering a CAGR of 3.31% between 2017 and 2022. As of 2015, the major manufacturers of super absorbent polymer were concentrated in Nippon Shokubhai, Evonik Industries, Sumitomo Seika, BASF SE and Danson Technology.
Nippon Shokubhai is the world leader, holding 21.53% sales market share in 2015.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil's state-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, said on Tuesday in a securities filing that a group of investors is suing two of its subsidiaries in a court in the Netherlands, reported WorldNews.

The Stichting Petrobras Compensation Foundation, a Netherlands-based claim foundation, alleges investors had losses with shares in Petrobras, as the company is known, due to the largest-ever corruption investigation in Brazil involving the company.

Petrobras said in the filing that "Brazilian authorities recognize the company was a victim" of the corruption scheme.

As MRC informed before, Petrobras is seeking to sell its 5.8 billion Brazilian real (USD1.4 billion) stake in petrochemical producer Braskem SA. Petrobras has hired Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco SA as a financial adviser and has started to pitch the sale to foreign investors. Petrobras owns a 36 percent stake in Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical producer. The sale would help Petrobras meet its target of selling USD15.1 billion worth of assets in 2015-16, a key part of its plan to cut debt as oil prices plunge to 12-year lows.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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