Indonesia blames coal ship for oil spill, not state energy firm

MOSCOW (MRC) - A coal ship that dropped anchor off the coast of the Indonesian port city of Balikpapan on Borneo island was likely to blame for an oil spill, after dragging a pipeline more than 100 meters and causing it to crack, said Reuters.

The extent of an oil spill seen at Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan, Indonesia in this still image taken from an April 4, 2018 drone video obtained from social media.

Indonesia declared a state of emergency this week after the spill and fire killed five fishermen. The environment ministry said the oil covered an area of nearly 13,000 hectares and had polluted 60 km of coastal ecosystems, including mangrove wetlands and marine mammal habitats.

"We suspect the pipe was dragged by the ship that caught fire," Oil and Gas Director General Djoko Siswanto told reporters on Thursday. "At the time it was bad weather, so they had to drop anchor," Siswanto said, noting it was an area where ships were not supposed to anchor.

The extent of an oil spill seen at Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan, Indonesia in this still image taken from an April 4, 2018 drone video obtained from social media. Siswanto did not identify the vessel, but said it was a coal ship with a Panama flag.

Balikpapan is a bustling mining and energy hub, sitting on a shipping lane serving one of Indonesia’s biggest thermal coal mining regions. Pertamina had at first said initial tests showed the oil was marine oil used in boats, but on Wednesday said a cracked 20-year-old underwater pipeline linked to its refinery in Balikpapan was the source.

By Tuesday night, around 70 cubic meters of spilled oil had been contained by a team from several oil companies operating in the area and government agencies, the environment ministry said.

Thick clumps of oil were still visible in some areas on Thursday, but “much less than the several days prior," Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya said in a statement.

The ministry, which is responsible for supervising the cleanup and compensation claims, had asked Pertamina to contain the remaining oil and help affected members of the community, Nurbaya said.

The extent of an oil spill seen at Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan, Indonesia in this still image taken from an April 4, 2018 drone video obtained from social media. Oil and Gas Director General Siswanto said the spill had been stopped and “the remains of the oil spill are still being cleaned up”. He did not estimate how much oil had spilled.

The spill had reduced the operational capacity of the Balikpapan oil refinery, a Pertamina official said. A second smaller undamaged pipeline running next to the broken pipe was being used to deliver crude to the refinery, with additional oil supplied via tankers, Siswanto said.

Some green groups have criticized Pertamina for not taking responsibility for the spill. Siswanto said Pertamina had been late in announcing the source of the oil, but said the government was investigating the company that owned the vessel suspected of breaking the state company’s pipeline.

The vessel owners would be questioned and could be charged over the deaths resulting from the spill, he said. "It depends on who was to blame. It depends on the investigation," he said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tetra Pak has launched a suite of new packaging material effects, known as Tetra Pak Artistry, which it says will help food and beverage producers "revitalize" the look and feel of their products, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

According to the packaging firm, the manufacturer will not need to switch to new packaging format or invest in new equipment in order to produce the effects.

The range includes Tetra Pak Reflect, which incorporates holographic effects onto the package; Tetra Pak Metallised which gives metallic effect; and Tetra Pak Craft which gives the package the natural look of bare paperboard with wood fibers.

?The range of effects, said Tetra Pack, will be available for the majority of its package formats. "More offerings are in the pipeline, including Tetra Pak Sculpt, an embossed surface texture for an innovative consumer experience," said the company.

"In a world where almost everything needs to be ‘personalisable’, we want to provide customers with something unique to help their brands rise above the noise," said Charles Brand, executive vp, product management and commercial operations at Tetra Pak.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) has decided to terminate anti-dumping duties on toluene diisocyanate (TDI) imported from the European Union (EU), effective 13 March 2018, as per GV.

In 2013, the ministry decided to impose duties, ranging from 6.6 % to 37.7 %, on TDI from the EU for a period of five years. Mofcom decided to lift the duties because representatives of the domestic TDI industry did not apply for an expiry review.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, in mid-February 2018, the Chinese government imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of styrene monomer (SM) from South Korea, the United States and Taiwan in its preliminary ruling amid escalating tensions between China and the U.S. in the trade sector. The China’s Ministry of Commerce slapped a preliminary anti-dumping duty rate of 7.8 percent to 8.4 percent on styrene monomer imports from Korea, 9.2 percent to 10.7 percent on U.S. products and 5 percent on Taiwanese products, saying that the styrene imports selling below normal prices have hurt domestic industry.
MRC

According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the local LDPE roducer - Polymir - increased slightly its capacity utilisation in March 2018. March polyethylene (PE) output was 5,600 tonnes, compared to 5,300 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, Polymir's total LDPE output was slightly over 16,600 tonnes in January-March 2018, compared to 15,800 tonnes a year earlier.

As the plant's customers said Polymir plans to shut down its LDPE production for a scheduled overhaul on 5 May. The outage will last for 15 days.
Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp. proposed building a Houston headquarters for its Western Hemisphere operations as the Middle East’s dominant chemical maker seeks to capitalize on the US shale boom, reported Bloomberg.

Sabic, as the company is known, said a final decision will be contingent on receiving local and environmental permits, according to a statement Saturday. The announcement coincided with the final stop by Saudi Crown Price Mohammed Bin Salman on his three-week US tour.

Sabic "has designated the United States as a focus of its future growth plans, capitalizing on the abundance of shale gas," according to the statement. Bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne who has sought to broaden the kingdom’s economy beyond oil, attended the announcement.

Saudi Arabia is increasing chemical production with demand for motor fuels expected to slow amid tightening fuel efficiency standards and the rise of electric vehicles. Fracking and horizontal drilling in shale formations have unleashed torrents of cheap U.S. natural gas that made the country among the most profitable places to produce chemicals, beating the Middle East in attracting projects.

DowDuPont Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. are putting the finishing touches on multibillion-dollar factories along the Texas Gulf Coast, part of USD188 billion in proposed and recently completed project, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Almost 20 factories are being built or expanded to convert gas liquids such as ethane and propane into ethylene, the most used petrochemical and the main ingredient in polyethylene plastic.

Most of the investment is coming from abroad. South Africa’s Sasol Ltd. is spending USD11 billion on a chemical complex outside Lake Charles, Louisiana. France’s Total SA, South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corp. and Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp. also are investing in US factories.

Sabic has formed a joint venture with Exxon Mobil to build an ethylene plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, with a final investment decision expected this year. The heart of the project features what would be the world’s largest ethane cracker, capable of producing 1.8 million metric tons of ethylene.

Sabic ranks among the worldпїЅs top petrochemical companies, and is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene, advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers. SABIC manufactures on a global scale in Saudi Arabia, the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. The company operates in more than 50 countries across the world with 40,000 employees worldwide.
MRC