Sinopec to spend USD29 B upgrading four refining bases

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels, said Reuters.

Sinopec's upgrades come as China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, is embracing more stringent fuel standards in its battle against pollution and suffering an overall glut in refining capacity.

After the upgrades, the total refining capacity of the four refining sites will reach 130 MMtpy, or 2.6 MMbpd, while ethylene capacity will reach 9 MMtpy, Sinopec said.

The sites are in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Zhenhai on the east coast and Maoming-Zhanjiang in southern Guangdong province. After the expansions, the bases will make up 45% of Sinopec's total refining capacity and 65% of its ethylene capacity.

"It's a strategic move that fits the global industrial trend for clustered and scaled growth and helps transform China's petrochemical products to medium and high quality," the company chairman Wang Yupu was cited as saying in the statement.

Between the four bases, Sinopec will be able to optimize the product structure and reduce logistics cost. Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, started construction in December of a greenfield oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Zhanjiang that includes a 200,000 bpd refinery and an 800,000 tpy ethylene complex.

The refinery will mainly produce gasoline and diesel that meets the "national six" specificiations, up from the previous Euro V guidelines that cap sulfur content at 10 parts per million (ppm), said Sinopec in the statement.

The new plant will be geared toward producing gasoline and aviation fuel at the expense of diesel, the firm said. After the upgrades, Sinopec estimates the four sites will generate revenue of 800 billion yuan by 2020, based on USD54 a barrel crude oil prices.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With immediate effect, or as existing contracts permit, BASF SE will increase its European selling prices for a number of petrochemical products, said the producer on its site.

Thus, March prices of the following products will be raised, as stated below:

- 1,4-Butanediol (BDO) - by EUR200/mt;
- tetrahydrofuran (THF) - by EUR150/mt;
- polytetramethylene ether glycol (PolyTHF) - by EUR260/mt;
- N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) - by EUR150/mt;
- gamma butyrolactone (GBL) - by EUR150/mt;
- N-ethylpyrrolidone (NEP) - EUR150/mt.

BDO and its derivatives are used for producing engineering plastics, polyurethanes, solvents and elastic spandex fibers. PolyTHF is a registered trade mark of BASF Group in many countries.

As MRC informed before, in June 2016, BASF increased the prices of the following polyalcohols in Europe: neopentylglycol, trimethylolpropane and 1,6-Hexanediol, as follows:

- Neopentylglycol (NPG) - by EUR80/mt;
- Trimethylolpropane (TMP) - by EUR80/mt;
- 1,6-Hexanediol (HDO) - by EUR100/mt.

Neopentylglycol (NPG) is a high-quality intermediate used, for example, to produce polyester resins for coatings, unsaturated polyester resins, lubricants and plasticizers.

Trimethylolpropane (TMP) is a high-quality intermediate that is used primarily for the production of alkyd resins, which are used in paints and coatings. It also serves to produce lubricants.

1,6-Hexanediol (HDO) is used to manufacture industrial coatings including lower volatile organic compound formulations, polyurethanes, adhesives, and cosmetics. HDO also serves as a reactive thinner in the formulation of epoxy systems, which are used for the efficient production of rotor blades for modern wind turbines, as well as construction components for automotive lightweight applications.

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. BASF generated sales of more than EUR70 billion in 2015.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An agreement with Evonik Industries inked last fall complements Athlon Solutions’ water and process treating capabilities with a globally-proven product line and technical support network, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Evonik better positions us to serve our customers with a proven product line to address their petrochemical challenges," said Matt Forcey, Marketing V.P. at Athlon Solutions. "With Evonik’s global presence, it also gives us access to technical experts that have likely seen the challenges that our customers in the domestic US market are facing."

“The combination of Athlon’s excellence in serving customer needs and Evonik’s SiYPro performance additive solutions will create a unique force in the North American petrochemical industry," said Frank Kraushaar, V.P. of Evonik’s Polymer Additives market segment.

Under the agreement, Athlon Solutions is the distributor of Evonik’s products and provides customers in the US, Canada and Mexico with day-to-day account management, service (including engineering and technical support), and reporting. Evonik provide its specialty chemicals and backs up Athlon Solutions with technical support.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp. expects faster approval for a planned USD9.4 billion petrochemical plant in the US state of Louisiana under the administration of President Donald Trump, the company's chairman said on Wednesday, said Reuters.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is likely to roll back some of its regulations after the appointment as head last month of Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency multiple times as Oklahoma state attorney general.

The company should benefit from less stringent environmental regulations under the Trump administration, Formosa Petrochemical Chairman Chen Bao-lang said. A subsidiary of Formosa's parent company admitted to massive pollution in Vietnam last year.

"We are more optimistic about the investment," Chen told Reuters in an interview in the group's headquarters in Taipei. "At least the obstacles will be fewer... We're aiming to get an air permit in August 2018."

Formosa Petrochemical is part of Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, which has production facilities across Taiwan, China, the United States and Vietnam.

Another Formosa subsidiary, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, paid USD500 million in damages in Vietnam after it admitted last year that it polluted more than 125 miles of coastline in April, killing more than 100 t of fish and devastating the environment, jobs and economies of four provinces.

The petrochemical plant will be located in Louisiana's St. James Parish. The group first submitted its application to the Louisiana state government in September 2015.

"Trump has said his priority is the US economy first, and then environmental protection," said the chairman, who is also an executive member of the group's board. "So far everything is running smoothly."

Formosa is now hoping to start production in 2021, one year ahead of schedule, after getting the permit, he said. Formosa Petrochemical is leading the project along with another member of the group, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp.

The first phase of the project includes an ethane cracker with an annual capacity of 1.2 MMt and 600,000 t of propylene. In the second phase, slated for construction by March 2025, it will build another ethylene plant with annual capacity of 1.2 MMt, Chen said.

The group is also expanding its US production facilities in Texas with a USD5 billion investment to increase its output of ethylene glycol, scheduled for completion in 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Catalysts India Private Limited has inaugurated its new mobile emissions catalysts manufacturing site, said the company in its press release.

The site includes a new 47,000-square-meter production plant, which replaces an existing BASF plant in Chennai and is the culmination of a three-year expansion project, which has doubled the company’s catalyst manufacturing capacity in India.

World-class manufacturing lines are housed in the new plant, producing a full range of catalyst solutions, including light duty, heavy duty and motorcycle emissions catalysts to meet growing market demand and customer technology needs. The site produces BASF EMPROTM emissions control solutions including the Three-Way Catalyst (TWC), Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), Catalyzed Soot Filter (CSF) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Catalyst.

“Around the Asia Pacific region, and especially here in India, mobility is ever more important. At the same time, more and more vehicles are being manufactured locally in India. To meet the demands of this growth, according to BASF’s Asia Pacific strategy.

"With the expansion of our manufacturing capacity and capabilities in Chennai, BASF Catalysts is better positioned to respond to the increase in demand for advanced emissions control solutions in India. It will also help our customers meet increasingly stringent requirements such as the Indian government’s decision to advance from BS IV emissions norms to BS VI norms by 2020," said Dirk Demuth, Senior Vice President, Mobile Emissions Catalysts, BASF. "Furthermore, the new site will produce advanced heavy duty emissions catalysts, which will allow us to better serve the fast-growing automotive markets in India," he added.

As MRC reported earlier, in July 2016, BASF closed the previously announced transaction to divest its global Polyolefin Catalysts business to W. R. Grace & Co., a global leader in specialty chemicals and materials. The deal includes BASF's high-activity polyethylene (PE) catalyst technologies that are used in slurry processes for the production of high-density PE resins for applications such as bimodal film and pipe as well as polypropylene (PP) catalyst technologies used in all major PP process technologies. Grace acquired technologies, patents, trademarks, and production plants in Pasadena, Texas and Tarragona, Spain.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
MRC