KBR awarded two more contracts for EuroChem Kingisepp Ammonia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR Inc. has been awarded Operator Training Simulator (OTS) and Reliability Based Maintenance (RBM) services contracts by JSC EuroChem Northwest for their ammonia plant under construction in Kingisepp, Russia, said Worldfertilizer.

The OTS will provide a cost-effective solution for training operators for a safe and efficient plant start-up and continued on-going operational training. The RBM will enable proactive monitoring of assets and formulation of appropriate reliability strategies, which will lead to continuous improvement of performance, improved safety and higher productivity.

Under the terms of the contracts, KBR will provide turnkey delivery of the OTS and RBM solutions and services for the Kingisepp ammonia plant with design capacity of 2700/2890 tpd, or 1 million tpy. The new plant uses KBR's highly efficient Purifier Ammonia technology.

"KBR is pleased to have the opportunity to provide OTS and RBM for JSC EuroChem Northwest," said John Derbyshire, President, KBR Technology and Consulting (T&C). "KBR is committed to providing state-of-the-art solutions for safe plant start-up and operations and providing an environment to achieve preventative and predictive maintenance activities of the ammonia plant."

"This project is indicative of KBR's strategic commitment to growing our presence in Russia," Derbyshire continued.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is scouting for land as it plans to expand its petrochemical complex at Paradip, according to Plastemart.

New units are likely to be established on this land. The company is also planning to ramp up the refinery to make it compliant with BS-IV emission norms.

According to a government official, IOCL has asked for additional 2700 acres of land to the Odisha Government for its expansion plans. The company may infuse additional investments worth Rs 25,000-30,000 crore to commission new units of its petrochemical complex.

As MRC wrote before, Indian Oil Corporation's Rs 34,555-crore 15 million tonnes per annum Paradip Refinery was commissioned in phases from March 2015 onwards. Indian Oil Corporation is conducting feasibility studies to set up a petrochemical complex at Paradip in Odisha for Rs 20,000 crore. The petrochemical complex would be built in the vicinity of the company’s to-be-commissioned 15-mln tpa greenfield refinery at Paradip. The petrochemical complex would be in addition to the already announced Rs 3,150-crore polypropylene (PP) project at the same location, the foundation stone for which was laid by MOS for petroleum and natural gas.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ningbo Fortune Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Zhangjiagang Yangzi River Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (YRPC), both subsidiaries of Oriental Energy Co. Ltd., are utilizing Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex process technology to each produce 600 Mtpy (thousands of tonnes per year) of on-purpose propylene from propane, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

YRPC, located in Zhangjiagang in China's Jiangsu Province, and Ningbo Fortune, in Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province, are the fourth and fifth Chinese companies to commercialize Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex process to make propylene for plastics, packaging and synthetic fibers. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology now stands at approximately 6.8 MMtpy.

"The demand for domestically produced on-purpose propylene continues to be very strong in China, due to the increasing demand for polypropylene and other downstream chemical and plastic products," said John Gugel, Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell UOP's Process Technology and Equipment business.

Until recently, 70% of the world's propylene was produced as a byproduct of making ethylene from petroleum. However, the increased use of ethane as a source of ethylene produces almost no propylene. The resulting propylene supply gap has necessitated the production of on-purpose propylene from propane dehydrogenation technologies such as the Oleflex process.

Demand for propylene in China, which consumes more than 15% of the world's propylene, is growing more than 4%/yr, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In addition to licensing technology from Honeywell UOP, YRPC and Ningbo Fortune are using catalysts and adsorbents for their Oleflex units that are produced at Honeywell's manufacturing site in Zhangjiagang City. Honeywell UOP also provided the engineering design, equipment, staff training and technical service for both projects.

As MRC wrote before, this week, Honeywell announced that Honeywell UOP will open a new research, development and engineering center in China to further strengthen its business presence and meet its growing engineering and technical service needs. The new center, located in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu Province, will facilitate local development and manufacturing of products for customers in China, and improve collaboration with China-based contractors and equipment vendors.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The executive manager of the project to develop Band Karkheh oilfield announced that the OMV, the international, integrated oil and gas company based in Vienna, will start developing the oilfield in the near future, said Farsnews.

"The OMV will soon start development activities in Band Karkheh oilfield," Alireza Zamani said on Tuesday. Noting that the OMV company has discovered the oilfield, he said, "The operation was carried out based on a discovery and development contract between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the OMV firm."

In a relevant development in January, an Iranian oil exploration and production (E&P) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Austria's OMV for cooperation in upstream oil projects in Iran.

OMV and Dana Energy company, a leading Iranian company active in oil and gas upstream field development activities, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on January 20, 2017.

The parties agreed to evaluate possible upcoming development and re-development projects in the Iranian oil and gas industry. The document was signed in Vienna by S. Mostafa Khoee, Dana Energy Board Member and E&P President, and Johann Pleininger, OMV Executive Board member responsible for Upstream.

OMV has a long lasting partnership with Iran and entered the country in 2001. In 2016 the NIOC and OMV signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the evaluation of various fields in the Zagros area in the West of Iran, for potential future development. OMV also signed a joint study agreement with NIOC Exploration for the Fars area.

OMV entered Iran in 2001 as the operator of the Mehr exploration block in western Iran, leading to a successful discovery (Band Karkheh) in 2005. Most recently, in his announcement of OMV’s strategy on February 18, 2016, OMV CEO Rainer Seele has set Iran as one of the three development areas in the upstream portfolio.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel’s Specialty Chemicals business has taken another significant step in cementing its industry leadership in organic peroxides with the completion of an expansion project at its Polymer Chemistry production facility in Los Reyes, Mexico, as per the company's press release.

The investment will increase the company’s peroxyester capacity in North America by 40%, substantially increasing the supply of essential ingredients for customers in the polymer industry.

"We are seeing increasing demand from our customers in North America and this expansion allows us to maintain our leading position as a reliable supplier of organic peroxides," explained Johan Landfors, Managing Director of AkzoNobel’s Polymer Chemistry business and the company’s North American regional head.

Peroxyesters, also known as peresters, are mostly used in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylics, styrenics and other thermoplastics. AkzoNobel offers the world's largest range of peresters under the well-known Trigonox trademark.

Since 2015, AkzoNobel has invested more than EUR85 million in upgrading technologies to better serve its customers in the polymer industry, increasing capacity and repositioning its global manufacturing footprint at existing sites in Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Italy, Brazil and the US.

"This has been a major project which adds further momentum to our strategy to expand in our key markets," added Thierry Vanlancker, AkzoNobel’s Executive Committee member responsible for Specialty Chemicals. "We will continue to focus on operational excellence to provide reliable supplies and accommodate the growth of our customers."

As MRC wrote before, in January this year, AkzoNobel completed another EUR22 million expansion project at the Los Reyes plant to increase production capacity. The site has been operational since 1970 and has experienced substantial growth. Los Reyes is also the headquarters for AkzoNobel’s Specialty Chemicals business in Mexico, employing more than 230 people. Overall, the company has more than 500 employees in Mexico across three production sites.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
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