TechnipFMC wins large contract for Vietnams largest Olefins Plant

MOSCOW (MRC) --TechnipFMC has been awarded by Long Son Petrochemicals Co., a contract for the licensing, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up of Vietnam’s first olefins(2) plant on Long Son Island, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Vietnam, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Designed as a flexible feed cracker, the olefins plant can utilize both naphtha and LPG(3) feeds to produce olefins of up to 1.6 million tons per year depending on the feedstock mix. The olefins will help meet Vietnam’s rising demand for petrochemical products. The plant will also include proprietary licensed units(4) and will be based on TechnipFMC’s proprietary ethylene technology.

TechnipFMC is executing the project in a consortium with SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. of South Korea. TechnipFMC is the leader of the consortium and, as a global company, will execute all engineering, as well as the procurement of critical equipment from its operating centers located in Houston, USA, Rome, Italy and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Nello Uccelletti, President of TechnipFMC’s Onshore/Offshore business, commented: "Our reliable proprietary ethylene technology and proven engineering, procurement and construction capabilities were key factors in this important, highly competitive award and confirms our leadership in this market. TechnipFMC will ensure, with SK Engineering & Construction, that this ambitious mega project is successfully delivered on time and on budget, meeting the highest safety and quality standards".

The contract adds on to the remarkable list of TechnipFMC’s references of onshore achievements in Vietnam, in particular the country’s very first oil refinery, the Dung Qu?t Refinery and the Phu My Fertilizer Complex.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Plc said on Tuesday that its joint-venture 155,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Toledo, Ohio, refinery was returning to normal operation following an unplanned outage earlier on Tuesday, as per the company's press release.

BP also said a shelter-in-place advisory to some residents of the Toledo suburb of Oregon, Ohio, had been lifted.

Energy industry intelligence service Genscape said excess emissions were observed from a sulfur recovery unit at the refinery late on Tuesday morning.

As MRC reported before, British oil and gas company BP will increase investment in the United States after the lowering of tax rates under President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in early February, 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese private refiner Hengli Group and its partner state-owned Sinochem Corp have hired a crude oil trader at their Singapore office ahead of Hengli’s refinery start-up in the fourth quarter, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to several trade sources.

Former Itochu trader Kevin Ng will be joining Hengli Oilchem in October to procure crude oil and trade derivatives, they said.

Hengli OilChem, 80 percent owned by Hengli and 20 percent by Sinochem, officially opened in Singapore in June and is responsible for procuring crude, selling products and petrochemicals and conducting third-party trading.

Hengli has so far bought Brazilian and Saudi crude for trial runs at its new refinery expected in October.

The 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in the northeastern port city of Dalian will be one of the five largest refineries in China and a major crude oil buyer.

As MRC informed before, on 14 August 2018, Hengli Petrochemical restarted operations at its no.1 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant at Dalian, following a planned maintenance turnaround. The plant was taken off-stream on August 1, 2018. Currently, the plant is operating at 80-85% production capacity rates. Located at Dalian in China, the plant has a production capacity of 2.2 mmt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at a Plains All American Pipeline crude storage tank east of Wichita Falls, Texas, the company said, as per Reuters.

The fire was limited to a single storage tank at the Wichita Falls Station, the company said, and none of its workers were missing. Plains did not say if there were injuries but did say that first responders were on site.

Plains did not specify whether the fire had affected any other operations. Wichita Falls is a crude injection point in North Texas along Plain’s Basin Pipeline, which runs from the Permian Basin that to the oil storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma.

The Basin pipeline was shut briefly, according to market intelligence firm Genscape, though the cause was unclear. Flows on the pipeline resumed to a rate of nearly 410,000 barrels per day (bpd) after power consumption increased at about 1:00 p.m. ET, Genscape said in a notice.

Pipeline flow averaged about 365 Mbpd this week thus far and the Basin pipeline has a capacity of 450 Mbpd, Genscape said.

News of the pipeline closure contributed to weakness in West Texas Intermediate at Midland WTC-WTM crude differentials during the day, traders and brokers said.

WTI Midland traded as much as USD18 a barrel below U.S. crude futures early in the session, the biggest discount since late 2012. Prices recovered to last trade at a USD16.75 a barrel discount, dealers said. On Monday, WTI at Midland traded near USD15 a barrel under Cushing.

"Plains really hasn’t said much to the shippers so unless it’s going to be shut for a while, I don’t think there’ll be much market impact," said one trader who buys oil off the pipeline.

Plains did not respond to a request for comment on the Basin pipeline closure.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea-based S-Oil Corp., wholly owned by Saudi Aramco, is conducting a feasibility study into building a mixed feed cracker and downstream olefins units, as part of a phase II petrochemical project near its Onsan Refinery in South Korea, according to Apic-online.

The project would involve an investment of more than KRW 5-trillion in a 1.5-million-t/y steam cracker, which would produce ethylene and other basic petrochemicals from naphtha and off-gas burned as fuel in the refinery.

The downstream units would include the production of polyethylene and polypropylene.

If approved, the project is expected to drive S-Oil's sustainable growth by diversifying its business portfolio, sharpening competitiveness and building a more stable income structure, the company noted.

"The project will significantly benefit the economy too, as it will create 2.7-million man-days during construction, 400 regular jobs, reinvigorate the construction sector and increase exports," said S-Oil.

As MRC reported earlier, in April 2018, S-Oil Corp. completed construction of its residue-upgrading complex (RUC) and olefin downstream complex (ODC), which will help enhance its competitiveness by producing more high value-added products. Othman Al-Ghamdi, chief executive of S-Oil, said that the company will focus this year on successfully completing its residue upgrading and capacity expansion project that is underway at its Onsan refinery complex in Ulsan in southern coast. The KRW 4.8 trillion (USD 4.46 billion) RUC/ODC project involves building a facility that produces high-valued chemical products such as propylene and gasoline using residues left after refining crude oil, and then using propylene to product polypropylene and propylene oxide.
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