Fluor selected for petrochemical project expansion in the Philippines

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fluor Corporation has announced that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract for the utilities, offsites and infrastructure scope of work for JG Summit’s petrochemical complex expansion in Batangas City, Philippines, reported News9.

Fluor booked the undisclosed contract value in the third quarter of 2017.

"JG Summit is the sole cracker operator in the Philippines and we are pleased to support their expansion program," said Ken Choudhary, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business for the Asia-Pacific region. "This award is significant for Fluor as we further expand in the growing Asia-Pacific market."

In addition to its EPCM scope for utilities, offsites and infrastructure, Fluor is providing program management services for the project. The project will primarily increase JG Summit’s ethylene production by 160,000 tons per year and its propylene production by 50,000 tons per year. The project also includes new and expanded downstream units.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

As MRC informed earlier, LyondellBasell contracts Fluor for FEED for its proposed propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol plant in the USA. Fluor said it booked the undisclosed contract value in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Fluor Corporation is a global engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance company that designs, builds and maintains capital-efficient facilities for its clients on six continents. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor ranks 149 on the Fortune 500 list with revenue of USD19 billion in 2016 and has more than 60,000 employees worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea’s SK Innovation said on Tuesday it will invest USD657 MM to boost production capacity at its petrochemical plants in China, jointly owned by China’s Sinopec Corp, reported Reuters.

SK Innovation said in a statement its subsidiary SK Global Chemical will raise its total petrochemical production by 400,000 tpy to 3 MMtpy by 2020 at its petrochemical plants in China.

The investment is part of SK Innovation’s efforts to strengthen its partnership with the Chinese company and boost its business growth in China, the statement said.

The expansion plan includes increasing ethylene production by 300,000 tpy to 1.1 MMtpy, polyethylene (PE) output by 300,000 tpy to 900,000 tpy and polypropylene (PP) production 300,000 tpy to 700,000 tpy, according to the statement.

In 2013, SK Global Chemical invested a total of USD2.92 B into Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical joint venture, in which SK Global Chemical has a 35% stake.

Currently SK Global Chemical runs petrochemical plants in China which produce a combined 2.2 MMtpy of ethylene and other petrochemicals.

As MRC informed previously, SK Global Chemical, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, has recently entered into an agreement with Dow Chemical to purchase Dow's polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) business for an undisclosed amount.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Russia has reached a general agreement with Venezuela on restructuring its debt to Moscow, RIA news agency cited Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying on Saturday, said Reuters.

Siluanov said Moscow hoped that it could complete talks with Caracas on restructuring its debt by the end of this year. He stressed that the talks were about debt restructuring, not about writing off the debt.

Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, is buying a growing volume of Venezuelan crude and other products while extending loans to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Rosneft said in August it had made around $6 B in pre-payments to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and had no immediate plans to make any further advance payments soon.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Edeniq, Inc., a cellulosic and biorefining technology company, announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Flint Hills Resources’ registration of its 100 MMgal/yr Iowa Falls, Iowa ethanol plant for cellulosic ethanol production using Edeniq’s technology, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Iowa Falls is the fifth existing ethanol plant to receive approval from the EPA for cellulosic ethanol production using Edeniq’s Pathway technology. The four existing ethanol plants that have previously received this approval are: Pacific Ethanol’s Stockton, CA plant; Flint Hills Resources’ Shell Rock, IA plant; Little Sioux Corn Processors’ Marcus, IA plant; and, Siouxland Energy Cooperative’s plant located in Sioux Center, IA.

Edeniq’s registered customers now total 500 MGPY of nameplate ethanol capacity and are averaging more than 1% cellulosic ethanol. Customers’ cellulosic ethanol yields have increased on average in 2017, and Edeniq expects its technology will continue to advance cellulosic yields for its customers.

Edeniq’s technology remains the lowest-cost solution for producing and measuring cellulosic ethanol from corn kernel fiber utilizing existing fermenters at existing corn ethanol plants, and has already proven cellulosic ethanol yields of up to 2.5% or higher, as a percentage of its customers’ total volume output. Once approved by EPA, customers are eligible to qualify cellulosic gallons with D3 RINs, which are considered the most valuable on the RIN market. Additional benefits of Edeniq’s technology include increases in corn oil production and greater overall ethanol yields, all provided by a zero-capex cellulosic ethanol production option.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Materia, Inc., a supplier of high performance catalysts and advanced polymers, has entered into a license agreement with Evonik Industries, related to olefin metathesis catalysts, following a patent infringement case between the two companies, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Subject to the terms of the agreement, Evonik allows Materia to make and sell the catalysts that are covered by an injunction issued by the court in August of this year. The agreement also permits Materia's customers to use these catalysts in their products.

The license agreement addresses Evonik's United States Patent Numbers 7,378,528, 7,652,145 and 8,153,810 and related U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications.

As MRC informed 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.

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.
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