CPC Corporation restarts RFCC unit in Taiwan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corporation has resumed operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit in Dalin, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit was brought on-stream earliy this week following a turnaround. The unit was shut for maintenance in mid-September 2017.

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

As MRC informed before, the company shut its RFCC in Dalin from 16 August to 3 September 2016 for an unplanned turnaround.

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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BASF opens new catalyst manufacturing plant in Shanghai

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, worldwide leading as chemical company and supplier of catalysts, has celebrated the official opening of its new, world-scale chemical catalysts manufacturing plant in Caojing, Shanghai, China, as per the company's press release.

The new plant is BASF’s first chemical catalysts manufacturing facility in the Asia Pacific region.

The BASF wholly-owned plant is located in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) in Caojing. It will serve the growing chemical industry in China and around the Asia Pacific region, with base metal catalysts and absorbents. The plant will be highly automated and energy efficient.

The opening celebration took place today with guests from the chemical industry, construction partners and local government officials. "The start of our new, world-scale production plant for chemical catalysts in Shanghai represents a milestone for our process catalysts business. 60% of the world’s chemical production will happen in Asia by 2020, with more than half of this in China," said Detlef Ruff, BASF’s Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts. "Local production will significantly help us strengthen our relationships with customers from the chemical industry in Asia and further enhancing the customer experience with improved product availability and shortened lead times. In combination with the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Shanghai, we can now offer our customers regional specific development and production of the latest catalyst technologies. The plant also offers potential for additional expansion as well as flexibility to adapt to new customer production requirements in the years to come."

"Together with our partners, BASF has invested CNY 19.7 billion as of the end of 2016 (approximately EUR2.5 billion) in state-of-the-art production located in Caojing. What we produce here directly supports the development and modernization of Chinese industry. Our solutions improve efficiency and sustainability in the chemical industry and other industries, and reduce reliance on imports, thus enhancing competitiveness of our customers in light of supply-side reform," said Dr. Stephan Kothrade, President Functions Asia Pacific, President and Chairman Greater China, BASF. China’s supply-side reform aims to manage market capacities and boost innovation.

Leveraging experience from the eleven chemical catalyst manufacturing sites around the world, the new plant will use cutting-edge production technologies to manufacture innovative catalysts and adsorbents. These are used, for example, in the production of fatty alcohols, styrene, butanediol. BASF adsorbents are used in many applications to remove impurities from product streams, for example to purify olefins. Butanediol (BDO) serves as a chemical intermediate, among others, for the production of polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF) and poly butylene terephthalate (PBT). PolyTHF is used e.g. in the production of elastic spandex fibers, PBT predominantly in engineering polymers. Styrene is for example polymerized into polystyrene, which finds applications in packaging or insulation for buildings. Fatty alcohols are used as detergents and surfactants, typically used in cosmetics and in the food industry.

The new site will be supported by the new Process Catalyst R&D Center, located within the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Pudong, Shanghai, which is focusing on the development of new process catalyst to meet specific needs in Asia. With strong research competencies in catalyst preparation, scaling and performance evaluation, this R&D Center will further strengthen the collaboration with partners in the region, and will provide support to the new chemical catalyst manufacturing site.

As MRC informed before, in July 2016, BASF closed the previously announced transaction to divest its global Polyolefin Catalysts business to W. R. Grace & Co., a global leader in specialty chemicals and materials.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

ICRC buying fuel to pump clean water in Yemen as "last resort"

MOSCOW (MRC) — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it was making a "stop-gap" purchase of fuel so as to provide clean water to one million people in the Yemeni cities of Hodeidah and Taiz for one month, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The fuel shortage in Yemen has become "critical" under the Saudi-led coalition's blockade, partially lifted this week, leaving water systems in nine cities without fuel to run pumps, ICRC spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said. "As a last resort and in light of the large and urgent needs...we are purchasing fuel to supply the urban water corporations in Hodeidah and Taiz with fuel, enough to operate their water pumps for one month," Jaquemet told Reuters.

The ICRC is buying 750,000 liters of fuel for the two cities, she said, calling it "an exceptional stop-gap measure." The lack of fuel has a "cascading impact on several vital sectors"—water and sanitation as well as health and food, as prices have risen sharply, she said. Fuel is needed to transport goods and run hospital generators and maintain cold chains for vaccines and medicines.

Saudi Arabia and its allies closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian Peninsula country on Nov. 6, to stop what it calls a flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired towards its capital Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons.

A first aid ship, carrying 5,500 t of flour docked in the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah on the Red Sea on Sunday."Humanitarian aid has started coming in and it's a very welcome first step but we need commercial imports," Jaquemet said.

ICRC trucks have brought medical material into Yemen this week, mainly badly needed dialysis material, she said. A shipment of kits for treating trauma patients is expected to berth in Aden shortly, she added. "These war-wounded kits will enable surgeries for over 400 people and are to be distributed to 10 hospitals and 15 field hospitals across north and south Yemen."

The ICRC is stepping up assistance to combat an outbreak of diphtheria in Ibb governorate, including protective equipment for hospital staff to avoid spread of the highly-infectious respiratory disease, she said. Some suspected cases and 20 deaths have been recorded in 13 governorates, more than 80% in Ibb, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Yemen is also reeling from a cholera epidemic, with 960,065 suspected cases and 2,219 deaths reported since April, according to the latest WHO figures.
MRC

TechnipFMC-led consortium to expand Bapco refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-run Bahrain Petroleum Co (Bapco) has awarded a consortium led by UK-based TechnipFMC a contract to expand Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Bahrain has long been planning to expand the refinery and industry sources told Reuters in August that Bapco held further talks with the consortium which submitted the lowest bid.

The consortium includes Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and South Korea’s Samsung Engineering.

Bapco and TechnipFMC did not respond to a request for immediate comment.

A spokesman for Samsung Engineering confirmed the news to Reuters. Tecnicas Reunidas declined to comment.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2016, France's Technip announced an all-stock merger with U.S. rival FMC Technologies to create an oil services group with combined revenue of USD20 billion. Under the terms of the deal, each Technip share was converted into two shares of TechnipFMC, and each FMC Technologies share was exchanged for one share of TechnipFMC, with each company's shareholders owning close to 50% of the combined company.

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.
From the deepest Subsea oil & gas developments to the largest and most complex Offshore and Onshore infrastructures, our 37,500 people are constantly offering the best solutions and most innovative technologies to meet the world’s energy challenges. Present in 48 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
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China crude oil imports to rebound in January on quotas, low stocks

MOSCOW (MRC) — China's crude oil imports are expected to rebound in January as demand from independent refiners will accelerate once 2018 import quotas are in place, and processors start to replenish inventories, analysts and trade sources said, as per Reuters.

China's crude imports are expected to rise to another record in 2018 as new capacities are brought online and Beijing allows more independent refiners to import crude.

Robust demand growth in the world's largest crude importer—China having overtaken the United States this year—is also helping to support global oil prices just as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-OPEC producers are set to extend supply cuts.

China's crude imports could hit 8.8 MMbpd next year, while January shipments may hit a monthly record of 8.53 MMbpd as independent refiners receive their import quota and buyers start to replenish stocks ahead of Chinese New Year in mid-February, said Seng Yick Tee, analyst at Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy.

"An oil price at above $60/bbl is unlikely to dampen buyers' enthusiasm as refiners can pass on the cost to end-users on the upward trend of crude prices," Tee said. Beijing is expected to bring forward the release of 2018 import quotas to December, allowing shipments to enter the country from January, refining and trade sources said. For 2017, the Ministry of Commerce issued quotas in January.

"Demand is accelerating because of more crude quotas coming in January," a source with an independent refiner said. The source said refineries are placing more orders for crude arriving in the second half of January on concerns that the quotas may not come in time.

Stronger than expected fuel demand and firm margins has lifted China's refinery use rates and pushed crude oil inventories to their lowest in more than seven years as refiners drew down stocks. China is likely to buy crude mainly from the Middle East and Russia, while some of its demand will be met from other regions, the sources said.

Spot premiums for Oman and Russian ESPO grades, two of the most popular among independent refiners, have hit multi-month highs for January loading. As much as 800,000 bpd of US crude is expected to arrive in Asia in December, said an analyst who tracks oil flows.
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