Perstorp stepping up commitment to caprolactone market by upgrading its plant in Warrington, UK

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Perstorp is securing the future of its Caprolactone business through a significant investment to upgrade its original monomer plant, as per the company's press release.

The new equipment will be constructed using state of the art materials and the investment will future proof the production and even further increase security of supply.

The Caprolactone market is strategic and important to Perstorp. This investment is one step further in the company’s long term commitment to the industry.

The project was initiated and kicked off in the beginning of 2017 and construction phase of the new parts of the plant will start in the new year. The replacement will be conducted in a way that does not impact current production. The plant upgrade consists of installing a new peracetic acid still and new reactors on stream 1, which was originally built in 1998. The project is expected to be complete in the second half of 2019.

"The Capa business is one of our strategic areas and we do see a strong market demand of Capa products. Through this investment we are strengthening our position as a reliable leading partner", says Marie Gronborg, Executive Vice President at Perstorp.

As MRC reported previously, in the first half of 2017, Synthomer plc acquired Perstorp Oxo Belgium AB from the Swedish Perstorp Holding AB for EUR 78 million. Perstorp Belgium is a niche additives business serving the decorative and industrial coatings industries. In 2016, the business generated earnings before interest and tax of EUR 8 million and had gross assets of EUR 21 million. The company operates from a single site in Ghent, Belgium, and has 41 employees, who will all be transferred with the business.

Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — ExxonMobil said that facility assessments and restart activities continue at its Baytown refinery, and that it has made significant progress in restarting chemical production, pipelines and other logistical infrastructure in the Houston area, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company’s fuel terminals in Houston are open and supplying gasoline and diesel to customers. Offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are beginning to return to normal operations. Production units at the Beaumont refinery remain shut down due to flooding in the lower level of the refinery.

Efforts are underway to transport refined products from unaffected regions to communities and customers in the most severely impacted areas. The company is also delaying scheduled maintenance at other ExxonMobil refineries to continue producing gasoline and diesel to relieve the supply situation. Personnel from the Baton Rouge, Billings and Joliet refineries are being deployed to Baytown and Beaumont to help restore operations.

The company has allocated supplies of fuel for use by emergency responders, and has thus far provided nearly 650,000 gal to responders working in areas impacted by the storm, including Beaumont, Baytown and the greater Houston area, as well as Dallas and Baton Rouge. In Beaumont, ExxonMobil engineers continue to assist the city with restoring the municipal water system, which was impacted by flooding. The company has distributed 30,000 bottles of water and about 400 pounds of toiletries in Beaumont. About 4,500 gal of bleach have also been provided to Jefferson County for distribution to residents and businesses in impacted areas.

ExxonMobil has also been assessing impacts on its onshore and offshore oil and gas production assets. Galveston 209 offshore platform systems are safe and operational, and startup operations are underway. The Hadrian South subsea production system in the Gulf of Mexico has been deemed safe and operational, and production has resumed. Crews from ExxonMobil subsidiary, XTO Energy, have begun assessments and are bringing onshore wells on line when safe to do so.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- CPC Corp, Taiwan is in plans to halt operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit in Dalin, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit is expected to be taken off-stream on September 8, 2017. The planned maintenance is expected to remain in force until mid-November 2017.

Located at Dalin in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the RFCC has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 14 October 2016, CPC Corp resumed operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit following a planned maintenance. The unit was shut on October 6, 2016. Located at Dalin in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the RFCC has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — US refiner Phillips 66 has requested a Jones Act waiver to allow it to use foreign vessels to move crude or products to and from its 260,000-bpd Alliance refinery in Louisiana after Hurricane Harvey, the company said on Sunday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Jones Act requires all goods transported by water between US ports be carried on US-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by US citizens, and crewed by US citizens. Waivers can only be granted based on interest of national defense such as national emergencies.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, waivers were issued to allow foreign vessels to transport oil and natural gas between domestic ports. Texas governor Greg Abbott has said the population size and number of homes affected by Harvey is bigger than for Katrina or Hurricane Sandy.

"We can confirm the Jones Act waiver request to supply Alliance. The request is still pending," the company said in an email, referring to its refinery south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Phillips 66 on Saturday said it was preparing to resume operations at its Sweeny refinery, as well as at its Old Ocean and Beaumont oil terminals in Texas and its Pasadena refined products terminal.

It also said its fractionation plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas suspended operations due to lack of storage capacity.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering Group (TOYO) has been awarded a construction project from PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical company, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This project involves construction of a polyethylene production unit of HDPE, LLDPE and mLLDPE with a total capacity of 400,000 tpy at CAP’s existing petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten, on the western tip of Java, Indonesia.

Toyo Engineering Corporation and Toyo Engineering Korea Limited are in charge of detailed engineering and offshore supply services. On the other hand, PT. Inti Karya Persada Tehnik, TOYO’s Indonesian subsidiary is responsible for domestic procurement and construction work, respectively. The plant is scheduled for completion in 2019.

This is an EPC project following the front end engineering design (FEED) contract awarded to Toyo-Korea at the beginning of this year. TOYO’s long-term relationship with CAP and various attractive and aggressive proposals under FEED were highly evaluated, leading to the awarding of this project.

Based on the long-term relationship from the original ethylene plant in the 1990s, and a butadiene plant as well as ethylene expansion in the last half decade, TOYO is now executing several projects such as a synthetic rubber plant with a total capacity of 120,000 tpy for PT. Synthetic Rubber Indonesia (a JV between Michelin and PT Styrindo Mono Indonesia, a subsidiary of CAP) and butadiene expansion project to increase total production capacity from 100,000 tpy to 137,000 tpy for PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia (PBI), a subsidiary of CAP.

As MRC reported before, in September 2016, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) signed an agreement with Univation Technologies, LLC, located in the United States, to use the UNIPOL PE Progress for a new world scale 400KTA polyethylene (PE) plant at its integrated naphtha cracker complex in Cilegon, Banten. The agreement covers process design package, including licence, to produce linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and metallocene LLDPE (mLLDPE).

Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) is the largest vertically integrated petrochemical company in Indonesia with facilities located in Ciwandan, Cilegon and Puloampel, Serang in Banten Province. CAP is Indonesia's premier petrochemical plant incorporating world-class, state-of-the-art technology and supporting facilities. At the heart of CAP lies the Lummus Naphtha Cracker producing high quality Ethylene, Propylene, Mixed C4, and Pyrolysis Gasoline (Py-Gas) for the Indonesian as well as regional export markets.
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