Modernization at Pavlodar Oil and Chemistry (POCR) Refinery in Kazakhstan to be completed in 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pavlodar Oil and Chemistry Refinery (POCR), one of the biggest oil refineries in Kazakhstan and operated by the state-owned oil company KazMunaiGaz, is currently undergoing a USD1.2bn modernisation in order to increase its refining capacity to 7.5 million tonnes a year (Mt/y), as per Hydrocarbons-Technology.

The facility was commissioned in 1978 and is spread over 460ha of industrial area in the city of Pavlodar, which is located in the country's north-eastern region.

The site processes west-Siberian crude oil to produce motor gasoline, diesel, jet kerosene TS-1, furnace oil, fuel oil, liquefied gas, sulphur, bitumen and raw material for carbon.

Approximately 60% of the refinery's total volume of light oil products is supplied to the domestic market.

The modernisation of the refinery will enable it to offer high-quality petroleum products consumers in Kazakhstan.

Work under the project began in 2015 and is scheduled to be completed by September 2017.

The modernisation of POCR will see the construction of 12 new units, including a combined sulphur production unit and an isomerisation unit.

Construction of a naphtha splitter is also planned, which will feature two storage tanks and possess a total capacity of 10,000 cubic m for high-octane gasoline.

Further, a jet fuel hydrotreatment unit, LPG treatment facilities and a 2Mt/y automatic gasoline mixing station will be added to the refinery.

Plans have also been outlined for the addition of a sour water stripper, amine regeneration facility and an automated gasoline blending facility.

The modernisation works will include the reconstruction of 18 general facilities, including the existing crude atmospheric distillation unit, naphtha hydrotreatment unit, VGO hydrotreatment unit, catalytic cracking unit and reforming unit. In addition, the diesel hydrotreatment unit is set to be converted into a naphtha hydrotreatment unit.

The refinery modernisation will enable it to produce quality petroleum products that comply with the K4 and K5 ecological grades and improve the oil refining depth by 90%. It will also facilitate the production of Euro-4 and Euro-5 standard products.

The project will double the production rate of aircraft fuel and increase diesel oil production to 5,630t and high-octane gasoline to 297,000t/y. In addition, a two-fold increase in light oil products output will be achieved.

The processing capacity of hydrotreated vacuum gas oil at the refinery will increase from the existing 1.2Mt/y to 1.9Mt/y following the refurbishment.

Additionally, it is expected to enable the refinery to produce petroleum products with less sulphur, benzene and other redundant components.

New technologies and improved control automation are scheduled to be added as part of the development.

As MRC informed before, on 5 December 2014, in Astana in the framework of the business forum during the official visit of the President of French Republic F.Hollande to the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC "KazMunaiGaz - refining and marketing" and French company Air Liquide signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a joint project. According to the Memorandum, the parties were to work to agree the terms of the joint project of production and supply of industrial gases for the needs of Kazakhstan refineries. It was planned that the project would include the plants for industrial gases production of all three Kazakhstan oil refineries and measures for improvement of industrial gases production efficiency.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — The blow molding process netted three awards during the Society of Plastics Engineers' annual Plastics for Life competition, held at the Antec conference in Anaheim, said Plasticsnews.

A panel of judges picked the winners of five awards, from parts that had already won in competitions at previous SPE conferences throughout the past year. The Grand Prize Award winner went to the extrusion blow molded PET PleurX drainage bottle, used by patients at home to drain fluid from the lungs and for malignant ascites.

Another part, a big underfloor duct for a John Deere backhoe, won two awards: Improving Life and the People's Choice. FGH Systems Inc., a maker of blow molded tooling in Denville, N.J., won the Grand Prize for the thick-wall bottle. The bottle is being molded with a FGH mold, on a Uniloy shuttle blow molding machine, with a W. Muller accumulator head. An even wall thickness was important because the bottle is hooked up to a vacuum system to remove liquids.

The Improving Life and attendee-voted People's Choice awards went to Deere & Co. for an extrusion blow molded duct that moves heating, ventilating and air conditioning to the cab in a backhoe.

A foam additive is used to create a large bubble structure, making an insulation barrier. "This sits above the transmission, so there is a lot of heat," said Ken Carter, a staff materials engineer at Deere's technology and innovation center in Moline, Ill.

In an interview on the parts competition floor at Antec, Carter said Deere developed the foaming process and the molds. Adopting blow molding brought the duct from 43 pieces — four rotomolded parts and a lot of assembly components — down to two pieces.

Carter said Regency Plastics Inc. of Ubly, Mich., extrusion blow molds two pieces and them infrared welds them together. Deere worked with Agri-Industrial Plastics Co., a blow molder in Fairfield, Iowa, to develop the foaming process, Carter said.

"We made the process so we can take it to any molder," Carter said. "It's not something where they have to buy special equipment. All they have to do is buy a vacuum pump."

John Ratzlaff, who coordinates the Plastics for Life parts competition, announced the winners at the Antec news conference on May 9. Other award winners are: Santa Fabio for General Motors General Motors Co.'s Global Manager of Waste Reduction John Bradburn demonstrates the Chevrolet Equinox engine insulation made from used water bottles from several GM facilities.

The Sustaining Life Award went to General Motors Co. for the engine cover insulator used on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Sierra pickup truck. The part used 2 million PET water bottles from Flint, Mich., which faced a drinking water crisis, and another 1.2 million water bottles from GM's plants in Michigan.

The recycled PET was processed into fleece used in the engine covers. Other uses for the material included air filters for GM factories and insulation as coats that double as sleeping bags for homeless people.

The Protecting Life Award went to Profile Plastics Inc. of Lake Bluff, Ill., for a thermoformed housing for a surgical waste management system used in hospital operating rooms.

Profile Plastics used negative pressure forming tools, which resulted in a good cosmetic appearance, with many molded-in features that reduced assembly time. The front cover has seven vacuum-formed and three pressure formed parts, with a total of seven pneumatic slides. The top cover has seven pneumatic slides. The top and front covers are formed from Kydex-T acrylic/PVC sheet. The clear windows are polycarbonate.

The Quality of Life Award went to Plastic Technologies Inc. and Yumix LLC for the Holland, Ohio-based PTI's Clasper bottle, a two-component PET package with a shrink label, that lets the user make his or her own mixed drink. The smaller bottom container holds alcohol, and the larger one holds juice. To make a drink, the consumer separates the shrink sleeve at the seam between the top and bottom containers via a perforation, unsnaps the bottom container from the base of the primary bottle opens both and pours the alcohol into the juice.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaneka Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. (KAH) (Texas, USA, President: Kazuhiko Fujii) and Applied Poleramic Inc. (API) (California, USA, President: Brian S. Hayes), a formulated advanced resin supplier in the aerospace area have agreed to KAH’s acquisition of all of API’s shares and have entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement on June 19, 2017, said the company on its website.

KAH shall acquire all of API’s stocks for approximately USD 15 Million and API will become a consolidated subsidiary of KAH. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States and satisfaction of other customary conditions.

In the area of aerospace, there is a rapid growth for high performance composites in demanding applications such as engines, hot areas of the aircrafts, rockets and launch vehicles. Due to its superior properties over metal and metal alloys of: weight to strength ratio, heat-resistance and durability, Kaneka sees greater growth potential of this sub-segment than the general structural composites market. We anticipate this sub-segment to grow more than 10% annually within the next 10 years or exceed USD 2 billion in market value.

Established in 1992, API possesses formulated advanced resin technology used in high performance composites. API has been a strategic supplier of high performance composites to OEM’s and their subcontractors. Kaneka currently also supplies high performance materials such as Polyimide films (Apical®) and resin modifiers (Kane Ace® MX) to the same key end customers. Kaneka sees the acquisition of API as a way of achieving an accelerated synergistic growth through the integration of advanced core technologies from both companies.

After the acquisition of API, Kaneka will continue to seek M&A and partnership opportunities to further strengthen growth, sales and market position of high performance composites in the area of aerospace. By 2025, Kaneka aims to achieve more than USD 200 Million in sales. Growth will be achieved by fully utilizing and uniting Kaneka global resources in corporate research, product research, and product development; located in institutes and research centers throughout Japan and North America.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lloyd’s Register (LR), the leading provider of engineering and technology-centric professional services, is awarded a new contract from S-Oil Corporation (S-Oil) covering the implementation of a fully integrated risk-based inspection (RBI) system, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Based at S-OIL’s largest investment project - a new USD4.2 B residue upgrading and Olefin downstream complex (RUC/ODC) plant in Ulsan, Korea - the new contract will commence this month.

"We are delighted that S-OIL has decided to adopt our AxximTM software package to make its management of failure probability more systematic and efficient. In extending our RBI services to S-OIL’s strategic RUC/ODC project, we eagerly anticipate helping S-Oil successfully realize its goal to modernize and expand its integrated refining and petrochemical operations," said Mr. Pyeong-Sik Shin, Asset Integrity and Development Solutions Manager of LR for Korea.

The new contract will see LR deliver additional RBI consultancy services across areas such as systems, software training, and inspection management modules. LR’s team of experts will also assist in the selection of thickness measurement locations for equipment and pipes.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2017, South Korea's S-Oil, the country's third-largest refiner, signed a deal to sell a combined USD1 billion of diesel, naphtha and jet fuel this year to Saudi Aramco, its biggest shareholder. In a filing to the Seoul stock exchange, S-Oil said it would sell a total of 38 million barrels of refined products to Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company, Aramco's trading arm.

S-Oil Corporation is a petroleum and refinery company, headquartered in Seoul, Korea. It was established in 1976 by old name SsangYong Refinery. It produces petroleum, petrochemical, and lubricant products, as well as polysilicon products through its investment in Hankook Silicon. The company is one of the most profitable energy companies in Korea.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA on Monday said its board has approved a settlement to end an United States-based lawsuit opened by some affiliates of The Vanguard Group, one of its largest shareholders, reported Reuters.

Petrobras, as the company is known, did not give details of the settlement, but said it raised provisions for legal cases underway in the United States to USD445 MM from USD372 MM. Several investors petitioned US courts for compensation for damages suffered in recent years, when the company was engulfed in a massive corruption scandal.

As MRC wrote before, in late December 2016m, Petrobras said its board had approved the sale of two petrochemical companies, Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, to Mexico's Alpek SAB de CV for USD385 million.

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.
MRC