Toyo Engineering was awarded petrochemical project in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering Group has been awarded a construction project by PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), Indonesia's largest petrochemical company, and its subsidiary PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia (PBI), as per 4-traders.

This project involves the construction of Butene-1 production unit with capacity of 43,000 tons/year and Methyl tert-butyl ether production unit with capacity of 127,000 tons/year commissioned by PBI, as well as an Enclosed Ground Flare with capacity of 220 tons/hour commissioned by CAP. They are to be constructed inside CAP's existing petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten, on the western tip of Java,Indonesia.

Toyo Engineering Corporation (Toyo-Japan, President and CEO Haruo Nagamatsu) is in charge of a part of engineering and offshore supply services. On the other hand, PT. Inti Karya Persada Tehnik (IKPT, President and CEO Yasuhiro Hime), TOYO's Indonesian subsidiary, is responsible for engineering, domestic procurement and construction work, respectively. The plant is scheduled for completion in 2020.

This is an EPC contract awarded to TOYO based on TOYO's strong, long term relationship with CAP and various attractive and aggressive proposals during tender stage were highly evaluated, leading to the awarding of this project.

Starting 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 polyethylene production plant with a total capacity of 400,000 tons/year for CAP, a synthetic rubber plant with a total capacity of 120,000 tons/year for PT. Synthetic Rubber Indonesia (a joint venture between Michelin and PT Styrindo Mono Indonesia, a subsidiary of CAP) and butadiene expansion project to increase total production capacity from 100,000 tons/year to 137,000 tons/year for PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia (PBI), a subsidiary of CAP.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More than 20 workers filed a lawsuit in Houston, Texas against Valero Energy Corp seeking damages for injuries sustained in an April 19 explosion at the company's Texas City, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to the Houston Chronicle.

A Valero spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment.

The workers, who filed their lawsuit in Harris County District Court in Houston, said they have been treated for hearing loss, orthopedic injuries and trauma since the blast in the alkylation unit.

The workers said Valero did not properly maintain a pipeline that ruptured on the alkylation unit.

As MRC informed previously, an explosion set off a huge fire at Valero Energy Corp’s 225,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Thursday afternoon, 19 April 2018, but the fire was quickly contained, according the City of Texas City Emergency Management office. Sources familiar with plant operations said the explosion at about 5 p.m. (6 p.m. EDT/2200 GMT) was on a 12,000-bpd alkylation unit.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced that OMV Petrom S.A. will use Honeywell Connected Plant to provide prescriptive monitoring of its CCR Platforming unit at its Petrobrazi refinery in Ploiesti, Romania, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The CCR Platforming process upgrades low-value naphtha into high-octane gasoline and aromatics.

OMV will use the Honeywell Connected Plant’s Process Insight Reliability Advisor to continuously feed plant data through Honeywell UOP process and fault models, and to provide key performance information and process recommendations. Honeywell’s Reliability Advisor will help the plant run more smoothly and mitigate issues that impact production and plant profitability by detecting and analyzing problems before they occur.

"Reliability Advisor is unique in the industry because it applies Honeywell UOP’s proprietary process knowledge and deep troubleshooting experience to recommend operational adjustments sooner and more accurately than has ever been possible before," said Zak Alzein, Vice President, Connected Plant, at Honeywell UOP. "Plants with this service can run consistently at the top of their capability."

Honeywell Connected Plant is a suite of applications that delivers higher levels of safety, reliability, efficiency and profitability. These proven industry solutions are based on decades of domain knowledge and controls experience. They turn data into actionable insight to optimize operations, predict plant failures and eliminate unplanned downtime.

As part of Honeywell’s Connected Plant portfolio, Reliability Advisor gives refineries, petrochemical and gas processing plants greater visibility into their operations, helping identify and resolve problems that often avoid detection and hamper production, and preventing unplanned shutdowns for maintenance and repair that can cost plant operators millions of dollars per year in lost productivity.

"Process Reliability Advisor is a powerful part of Honeywell Connected Plant because it combines process data with UOP expertise enabled by software to provide our customers with ongoing service," Alzein said. "This service can tie plant data to the right domain knowledge to gain new insights to improve operational reliability."

Bucharest-based OMV Petrom is an integrated oil and gas company. It is the largest producer of crude oil in Romania and provides nearly half of Romania’s domestic natural gas. The company’s Petrobrazi refinery near Ploiesti has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons per year.

As MRC informed before, in February 2018, Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) announced that BASF had opened a state-of-the-art control room equipped with Honeywell Experion technology at its waste incineration complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - US crude oil stockpiles fell more than expected, while gasoline and distillate inventories posted surprise builds as refiners ramped up their activity to the highest since January ahead of Memorial Day weekend, reported Reuters with reference to the Energy Information Administration.

Crude inventories fell 3.6 million barrels in the week to May 25, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 525,000 barrels.

The drawdown assuaged some worries from U.S. traders who have watched the West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) benchmark weaken due to high production levels and signals that OPEC will let its supply-cut pact come to a close.

"The report was supportive due to the large drop in crude oil inventories which was a function of a trifecta of bullish elements: strong demand from refiners, a sizeable drop in crude oil imports, and rebound in exports," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

Refinery crude runs rose 527,000 barrels per day to 17.2 million bpd as utilization rates jumped 2.1 percentage points to 93.9 percent of total capacity, both the highest runs and rates since January, EIA data showed.

Gasoline stocks rose by 534,000 barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 million-barrel drop.

Demand for the motor fuel over the past four weeks rose 0.8 percent year-on-year ahead of the Memorial day weekend which marks the official start to the summer driving season in the United States.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, grew by 634,000 barrels, versus expectations for a 1.3 million-barrel draw, the EIA data showed.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, a Rosneft subsidiary, implemented first deliveries of Alfabit bitumen product to its customers in Germany, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The polymer-modified bitumen based on Rosneft’s own technology was produced in Schwedt using bitumen from PCK Refinery.

In order to supply customers from Germany and other countries with high-quality bitumen products, Rosneft Deutschland intends to set up a sales network of PMB in Germany using the feed coming from PCK, Bayernoil and MIRO refineries.

The company adopted the formulation of Alfabit bitumen product, which successfully passed the tests in severe Russian climate conditions and demonstrated resistance to high loads.

A distinctive feature of Alfabit is its high elasticity and wear resistance. Asphalt mixtures with the addition of Alfabit PMB significantly increase the service life of the pavement and extend interrepair operation time. PMB Alfabit was used, among other things, for road coating of the Formula 1 track in Sochi, which confirms the high level of product quality.

As MRC informed before, in late June 2017, Rosneft and Sinopec Group signed a Framework Agreement on joint pre-feasibility study of the project related to the construction and operation of a gas processing and petrochemical complex in East Siberia. The Agreement signed in furtherance of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in petrochemical projects, provides to select a technology for natural gas processing from its components to polymers. The parties also decided to choose a consultant for the project management and identified competitive challenges and the time to fix them before entering the stage front-end engineering design (FEED). In the event of successful outcomes as stipulated by the Framework Agreement, it is supposed to create a joint venture between Rosneft and Sinopec in 2017. The project will meet the growing demand for polyethylene and polypropylene in Russia and in China.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC