Chevron Phillips begins startup of new polyethylene units

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical has completed commissioning and begun startup of new polyethylene (PE) units at Old Ocean, Texas, reported Apic-online with reference to the company's statement.

The two units are the first in a wave of new US polyethylene to startup as part of unprecedented investment in the US designed to take advantage of cheaper ethane feedstock. Each will produce up to 500,000 mt/year of PE resins ranging from metallocene linear low-density polyethylene film to high density bi-modal film and pipe grades.

"Abundant shale gas resources are fueling an economic revival that extends across the nation and supports economic growth around the globe," Mark Lashier, president and CEO, said in a statement. "Chevron Phillips Chemical is proud to be a leading contributor to the nation's growing workforce and strengthening economy."

By the end of 2017, the first phase of these world-scale assets is slated to be up and running.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2017, Chevron Phillips Chemical completed a low viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAO) capacity expansion at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. The 20% capacity expansion enables the company to meet the increasing demand for lubricants in automotive and industrial applications. Chevron Phillips Chemical develops and produces PAOs, marketed under the brand name Synfluid PAO, which are used for a variety of applications including engine oils, gear oils and greases. The project improves process safety and overall unit efficiencies while reducing waste generation for Cedar Bayou’s PAO unit. The feedstock for the new unit will be provided from Cedar Bayou’s recent 100,000-metric-tpy expansion of its normal alpha olefins capacity.

Chevron Phillips Chemical, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US,l is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effective October 1, 2017, the Evonik segment Performance Materials will increase the prices for all VISIOMER Specialty Monomers in Europe, as per the company's press release.

As far as permissible under existing agreements, the increase will amount EUR300-500 per ton depending on product.

As MRC reported earlier, Evonik is expanding its production facilities in Birmingham (Alabama, USA) and Darmstadt (Germany). This will create additional capacity for the production of biodegradable polymers marketed globally under the brand names RESOMER and RESOMER SELECT. These poly-lactic-glycolic-acid (PLGA) copolymers are primarily used to manufacture bioresorbable medical devices and controlled-release formulations for parenteral drug delivery.

Besides, in November 2016, Evonik Resource Efficiency announced that the company would invest in a capacity expansion of its performance foams business at its production site in Darmstadt, Germany. The investment will increase the output of the facility by about 20% as a first step. The Group will be adding production equipment to its operations complex that manufactures products marketed under the Rohacell brand. The expanded production capacity was expected to be operational by the second half of 2017. Evonik’s Darmstadt plant is producing foam products that are used as a core material in the construction of sandwich composites. The global market has shown steady annual growth in the use of composites.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Petrotechnics, the developer of the hazardous industries’ first software platform for operational excellence, has released its 2017 Operational Risk and Process Safety Management survey results, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Insights from more than 200 senior industry leaders reveal that only 6% believe their companies are fully up-to-date with their scheduled safety-critical maintenance.

"The low percentage of companies achieving their scheduled safety-critical maintenance is startling,” says Simon Jones, head of professional services at Petrotechnics. “Safety is a top priority in hazardous industries – but these results demonstrate that operators may be exposing themselves to increased major accident hazard risk."

Operational excellence was highlighted as a main driver for improving safety performance (61%), but 59% believed PSM was not always fully incorporated within operational excellence strategies or programs. The top driver for improving safety performance cited was reducing operational and major accident hazard (MAH) risk—at 71%. However, 57% said companies do not always have a defined roadmap in place for advancing safety performance, and 77% of survey respondents believe companies do not always maintain a sense of vulnerability about their exposure to risk.

The survey also highlighted industry progress. 80% believe regulations and technology have made the industry safer. But there is still some way to go. For example, 70% of companies believe there is a measurable change in the level of risk exposure on the plant between planned PSM hazard review periods. And, 74% of companies do not employ effective solutions for monitoring and managing the risk arising from operational activities, the impaired health of process safety barriers and other management system deficiencies.

Ninety percent believe risk awareness and safety would be improved if the workforce and management had access to real-time process safety risk indicators on the plant—a significant increase from 73% in 2016. This increase demonstrates the growing reliance on technology to improve process safety and operational risk management.

"The good news is process safety, operational risk and asset integrity professionals understand the complex nature of the challenges they face, and the organizational, cultural and technological hurdles to overcome. The goal now is to deploy systems that enable organizations to bring PSM into the fold of operational excellence,” Jones said.

The Petrotechnics PSM survey was conducted online between June 14 and July 27, 2017. More than 200 individuals took part, of whom 50% have worked in process safety, asset integrity and operational risk for more than 15 yr. Two thirds of respondents have management responsibilities at corporate level, with the remaining third having single-site or regional responsibilities. Survey participants work in the oil and gas sector (44%), chemicals (41%) and other manufacturing or utility companies (15%).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India needs to double its refining capacity by 2040 to meet rising fuel demand as an expanding middle class buys more passenger vehicles and its economy grows, a top refinery official said on Wednesday, said Reuters.

India's refining capacity must increase to 465 MMt by 2040, from about 230 MMt currently, and investments are already being made, said Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Indian Oil Corp's executive director of operations. The major drivers for India's fuel demand growth will be the continued robust sales of passenger vehicles, substitution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a cooking fuel, growing urbanization and the country's demand for infrastructure and consumer goods, he told the S&P Global Platts APPEC conference in Singapore.

"It's a very robust economy which is developing very fast and ...oil will continue to be the dominant force of the transportation fuels in the years and decades to come," said Vaidya from the country's top refiner.

Transport fuels, which currently make up about 40% of fuel demand in the world's third-biggest oil consumer, will increase that share to 55% by 2040, becoming the main driver of growth, he added.

"This is the aspirational population we have in India where everyone wants to own a vehicle or own a car," he said.

In the short term, India's gasoline demand is expected to continue to grow at about 9% next year, similar to this year's growth, Vaidya told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

The recent implementation of a goods and services tax and demonetization are unlikely to dent fuel demand in the longer term, said B. Anand, chief executive officer of private Indian refiner Essar Oil Ltd.

"What we have seen in the last two three quarters is that there have been general headwinds in terms of the process of demonetization and the impacts around the implementation of GST," he said.

"But despite all the headwinds, the underlying story of India continues to grow as a country which has got huge demand for energy (as well as its) positive reforms and the underlying demographics all going for it."

Apart from demand for gasoline in passenger cars, India's appetite for jet fuel is also expected to grow as the country upgrades airport infrastructure and plans to build about 200 new airports in the next 10 yr, Anand added.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, will increase list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene (EVA) emulsions and copolymers of Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) and EVA, as per the company's press release.

The price increases below will be effective October 1, 2017, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to previously announced price increases.

The following price rise will apply for the countries of South America:

- EVA - by USD110/mt;
- VAM Homopolymers (PVAC) - by USD110/mt;
- VAM Copolymers - by USD110/mt;
- Pure Acrylics - by USD110/mt;
- Styrene Acrylics - by USD110/mt.

And the following price increase will apply for the USA and Canada:

- EVA - by USD0.05/lb;
- VAM Homopolymers (PVAC) - by USD0.05/lb;
- VAM Copolymers - by USD0.05/lb;
- Styrene Acrylics - by USD0.05/lb;
- Pure Acrylics - by USD0.05/lb.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Celanese Corporation said it would also increase October list and off-list selling VAM prices in the Americas. Thus, VAM prices will be raised, as follows:

- by USD200/mt - for South America;
- by USD0.12/lb - for USA and Canada.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,300 employees worldwide and had 2016 net sales of USD5.4 billion.
MRC