Arkema forms carbon fibre joint venture with Barrday

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Barrday Inc., a major player in the composite market, and Arkema announce the creation of a joint venture to manufacture and market carbon fiber and specialty polymer tapes for the growing oil and gas industrial market, said the company.

The new venture, to be named Barrflex TU, will supply the most efficient thermoplastic composite solutions to the various players of the oil and gas industrial markets.

The tapes will deliver substantial improvements in terms of weight reduction (replacement of metal) and corrosion resistance for the flexible pipes used in the deep offshore as well as onshore operations of tomorrow.

The complementary offerings of Barrday (proven experience in thermoplastic composite manufacture) and of Arkema’s range of specialty polymers and resins (PVDF, Polyamides 11 and 12, PEKK, etc.) will enable Barrflex TU to fully capitalize on the growth of the oil and gas market by marketing a new comprehensive and integrated range of solutions.

Barrflex TU will be focused on satisfying customer composite tape requirements using any resin, fiber and the development of product and process technology.

"This partnership with Arkema provides us with access to a unique and wide range of proven polymer solutions for this sector. For a long time Arkema has been an innovative and renowned player in fluoropolymers with Kynar® PVDF, in specialty polymers with Rilsan® PA11, and more recently with its new Kepstan® PEKK resins. We are delighted to be teaming with Arkema for this exciting oil and gas opportunity."

MRC

India's oil demand to climb to 500 mln tonnes per year by 2040: Indian Oil

MOSCOW (MRC) - India’s crude oil demand is forecast to grow to 500 million tonnes per year by 2040, but persistent increases in oil prices might act as a dampener for the rate of growth, Partha Ghosh, an executive director at Indian Oil Corp said, reported Reuters.

That would be equivalent to around 10 million barrels per day (bpd), up from about 4.7 million bpd in 2017.

Globally oil demand will increase by 15.8 million bpd from now until 2040, Ghosh said during the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore. India’s growth of 5.9 million bpd will make up about 24 percent of the overall gain, he said.

India’s refining capacity would increase to about 439 million tonnes per year by the financial year of 2030 as new and existing refineries continue enhancing their infrastructure, while domestic demand is forecast to increase to 356 million tonnes per year over the same period, Ghosh said.

Higher refining capacity will mean India could export more refined oil products to countries in the region.

“In the future, say about five to seven years down the line, when more refineries with bigger capacities come up, better (export) infrastructure will come along with that,” Ghosh, the executive director for optimization at Indian Oil Corp, the country’s biggest refiner, said on the sidelines the conference.

“Then, it’ll be possible, even if the domestic demand does not grow because of high prices, refineries will be competitive enough to actually supply products to the entire region, be it East Africa or Asia.”

India’s strong economic growth and the demographic advantage of having a pool of young people will remain key drivers in its energy demand growth.

The rate of oil demand growth, however, will slow down by 2024 to 2025.

“While alternatives and energy efficiency is expected to reduce oil demand, the biggest dampening factor will come from a sustained increase in oil prices,” Ghosh said.

“India’s economy is very sensitive to oil prices. It’s said that a $10 per barrel increase reduces India’s GDP by 0.2 to 0.3 percent.”

India is a major buyer of Iranian oil and is seeking a waiver on the sanctions the United States is set to impose on the country in November.

However, Indian Oil will be able to manage even if it does not gain an exemption, Ghosh said.

“We’ll have to increase buying from other resources…. Indian refineries are quite versatile. They’re not dependent on any particular type of crude. So, it’s possible to manage with alternative sources,” he said.
MRC

Japanese Cosmo Oil replaces Iran oil with other Mideast supplies

MOSCOW (MRC) - Japanese refiner Cosmo Oil has replaced its Iranian crude oil imports with supplies from other Middle Eastern producers ahead of U.S. sanctions on Iran in November, reported Reuters with reference to top company executives.

Refiners in Japan, the world’s fourth largest crude oil importer, halted oil imports from Iran in mid-September, the country’s refinery association said last week, allowing time for payments before sanctions are imposed.

“Japan will not import any crude from Iran in November because of the U.S. sanctions,” Cosmo Oil President Shunichi Tanaka told Reuters ahead of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC).

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are supplying more crude to Cosmo Oil to replace its 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) shortfall from Iran, or 5 percent of the refiner’s imports, he said.

Some of these producers have visited Japan and “told us if you need more crude oil, we can supply,” said Cosmo Oil’s director of supply Masashi Nakayama.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers are considering raising output by 500,000 bpd to counter falling supply from Iran.

“Saudi Arabia has room to produce more oil to cover. They can’t cover everything but they can cover something so the impact on the whole market is not that big,” Nakayama said.

Under previous U.S. sanctions, some buyers received waivers as long as they reduced imports but the current administration aims to cut Iran’s oil exports down to zero to force Tehran to negotiate a nuclear treaty.

Still, Japanese trade officials will visit Washington again in late September in a bid to negotiate sanction waivers, the executives said.
MRC

Grace Licenses UNIPOL PP Process Technology to Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co., the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, has licensed its UNIPOL® PP Process Technology to Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Co. (SIDPEC). Located in Alexandria, Egypt, the new, world-scale capacity SIDPEC facility will produce 450 KTA of polypropylene, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The transaction means that SIDPEC, already a leader in the production of polyethylene in Egypt, will soon produce value-added polypropylene products for its customers using the most up-to-date technology available.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL® PP Process Technology provides the most advanced and broadest range of homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry. As the simplest of all PP process technologies, without any moving parts inside of the reactor and less equipment than any alternative, its reliable, safe, and stable operation leads to lower capital, operating, and maintenance costs.

Mohamed A. Abady, SIDPEC Chairmen and CEO said, “Investing in the UNIPOL® PP process technology gives us the ability to make a broad range of products for our customers using state-of-the-art technology while continuing to remain highly competitive in the region.”

Al Beninati, President of Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business, said, “Grace is excited to be the technology choice for SIDPEC’s plant in Alexandria, Egypt. The UNIPOL® PP Process Technology will provide SIDPEC customers with some of the best and most varied homopolymer and random copolymer resins in the industry. We are confident that the wide array of resins and applications our technology and non-phthalate CONSISTA® catalysts enable, will give SIDPEC the leading edge in polypropylene resin production in the region.”
MRC

PDH unit to be brought on-stream by Oriental Energy

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oriental Energy Ningbo is likely to restart a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit following an unplanned outage, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to resume operations at the unit in end-September, 2018. The unit was shut owing to technical glitch on mid-September, 2018.

Located in Zhejiang, China, the PDH unit has a propylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year.
MRC