McDermott awarded olefins technology contract in Thailand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- McDermott International, Inc.announced that it has been awarded a sizeable technology contract for Map Ta Phut Olefins Co., Ltd.'s (MOC) petrochemical plant in Rayong Province, Thailand. MOC is a joint venture company of SCG Chemicals Company Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SCG, and the Dow Chemical Company, said the company.

McDermott will provide the basic engineering and license of Lummus' olefins technology and will design and supply the proprietary SRT® III heater for the MOC Debottleneck Project, a parallel gas cracker added to increase plant capacity which will utilize Lummus' side cracker technology, including a low pressure chilling train and enhanced binary refrigeration.

"We have worked with Map Ta Phut Olefins since their first project in 2005," said Daniel M. McCarthy, Executive Vice President of McDermott's Lummus Technology business. "This additional capacity will be realized by using our unique side cracker technology, which permits the cost effective expansion of a liquid feed plant that has already reached its maximum capacity using conventional technology."

McDermott's Lummus Technology is a leading licensor of proprietary petrochemicals, refining, gasification and gas processing technologies, and a supplier of proprietary catalysts and related engineering. With a heritage spanning more than 100 years, encompassing approximately 3,100 patents and patent applications, Lummus Technology provides one of the industry's most diversified technology portfolios to the hydrocarbon processing sector.

Portions of this award were booked in prior quarters. The heater supply will be reflected in McDermott's third quarter 2018 backlog.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi’s Aramco Trading Company (ATC) expects to increase its oil trading volume to 6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, 50 percent higher than current levels, reported Reuters with reference to the company’s top official.

"Currently, we’re at 4 million barrels per day and with expansion think our target is 6 million barrels per day," President and Chief Executive Ibrahim Al-Buainain said at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC).
About 50 percent of the 2.5 million bpd of oil products it trades currently are hedged, he said.

The company is also looking at building its capacity in trading liquefied natural gas (LNG), using its Singapore office as a trading hub, Buainain said.

ATC plans to set up its European office in either Geneva or London and also aims to have an office in Fujairah to manage oil storage, he said.

In Singapore, Buainain said he expects the company’s office to grow to 30 to 40 people within the next two years.

ATC also expected to benefit from a switch by ships to cleaner fuels in 2020 as mandated by the International Maritime Organization.

"The second-hand effect of the IMO is the oversupply of high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) which in our case is a positive because we are net short on fuel oil and that will help us in meeting our requirements (for HSFO) in power generation," Buainain said.

Buainain has headed the trading arm of Saudi Aramco since 2016.

ATC was set up in 2012 to market refined products, base oils and bulk petrochemicals. It started trading non-Saudi crude oil and refined products from its overseas refineries in the past years as the world’s largest oil exporter seeks to optimize profits.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco and France's Total are considering building a mixed-feed cracker and derivatives in Jubail, near their joint refining complex. The cracker is expected to have a capacity of 1.5 MMtpy.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pepperl+Fuchs, a world leader in process automation, has introduced an advanced Bebco EPS purge and pressurization system, designed for Class I or II/Div. 2 and Zone 2/22 locations, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This innovative and compact manual or automatic system delivers all the features needed for reliable hazardous location protection within a small, streamlined solution.

The 7500 series Ex p zc/Type Z purge and pressurization system can be fully automatic or manual and purges a common enclosure of hazardous gas or dust to maintain positive pressure. It effectively reduces the classification within the protected enclosure to a non-hazardous area. The 7500 carries ATEX and IECEx certifications and is UL listed. It operates within an extremely small footprint of only 5.8" x 3.8" x 1.9".

The new, compact 7500 series is easy to use, offering absolute reliability and efficiency. When fully automated it provides excellent enclosure protection for electrical equipment like motors, drives, control panels and cabinets, and gas analyzers," said Kristen Barbour, Marketing Manager. "Whether you need gas or dust protection in the oil and gas, chemical, maritime, or offshore industry - the Bebco EPS 7500 can be used in process industries around the world for applications that previously required heavier and more expensive explosion-proof protection."

The 7500 Series includes intelligent automatic monitoring and control of enclosure pressure with dilution and continuous flow functionality. The system makes automatic adjustments and provides an alarm output for reliable protection. It is designed in marine-grade chromate aluminum - making it rugged enough to withstand the harsh conditions of many process industries. The 7500 uses universal AC/DC power and is available as both a panel mount and external mount. The large touchscreen enables quick and easy setup while also providing status LEDs, a bar graph for pressure, and multiple program selections.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil and gas major Total has made a final investment decision to expand its Texas Bayport Polymers joint venture to double polyethylene production capacity to around 1.1 million tonnes a year, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Total said it aimed to become a major player in the US polyethylene (PE) market when it announced the joint venture in March 2017 with Borealis and Canada’s Nova Chemical.

The Bayport project is in line with the company’s USD3 billion program that began a year ago with a USD1.7 billion investment to build an ethane steam cracker at its Port Arthur refining complex in Texas.

The cracker will process ethane, which is abundantly available from US shale gas at competitive prices, and will supply Bayport polyethylene units. Production is expected to start in 2021.

The new unit is expected to have a capacity of a 625,000 tonnes a year, that will added to the existing 400,000 tonnes per year unit.

The Bayport unit engineering, procurement and construction has been awarded to the company McDermott, Total said.

PE is used in packaging, pipes, bottles, plastics and other composite materials. It is also seen as a growing market, that Total is targeting with a global expansion of its petrochemicals refining units.

"The project is in line with our strategy to develop petrochemicals at our major integrated (refining) complexes and leverage competitively priced feedstocks," said Bernard Pinatel, Total’s President for Refining and Chemicals.

Pinatel said light materials are increasingly used as substitutes for metals in various industrial sectors such as transport and energy, all of which is lifting demand for plastics and polymers.

"It is a market that is growing by 3 to 4 percent per year," Pinatel said.

As part of this expansion into the polyethylene market, Total and Saudi Aramco had said in April they would invest around USD5 billion to build a petrochemical complex at their Jubail Satorp refinery.

In May, Total also signed a USD1.5 billion deal with Algeria’s Sonatrach to build a polypropylene (PP) plant in western Algeria that will supply plastic to the Algerian and wider Mediterranean market.

Last December, its South Korean joint venture with Hanwha Group had also said it would invest USD331 million in the group’s refining and petrochemicals platform to increase polyethylene output by 400,000 tonnes per year by 2019.

That increased investment was planned to deal with growing demand, particularly from China.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of polypropylene (PP) fell in January-August 2018 by 0.6% year on year, totalling about 954,100 tonnes. At the same time, three Russian producers increased their PP output, according to MRC ScanPlast report.

Russia's PP production in August remained practically at the July level at about 125,100 tonnes. Russia's overall PP production reached 954,100 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, compared to 960,100 tonnes a year earlier. Nizhnekamskneftekhim, Stavrolen, Sibur Tobolsk and Tomskneftekhim reduced production figures, while other producers managed to increase production volumes.

The structure of PP production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Sibur Tobolsk decreased capacity utilisation in July, total polypropylene production reached 45,700 tonnes against 49,000 tonnes in July. The Tobolsk plant's total PP production exceeded 319,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, down by 8% year on year. The decline in production was a result of an early shutdown in prevention this year.

Poliom (Titan Group) last month produced about 19,400 tonnes of polypropylene, compared with 18,700 tonnes in July. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 148,000 tonnes, up 3% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced 18,800 tonnes of propylene polymers in August versus 18,600 tonnes a month earlier. The producer's PP production in January-August decreased by 2% from last year's level to 142,400 tonnes.

Tomskneftekhim produced about 8,300 tonnes of propylene polymers in August against 9,800 tonnes in July, the low indicator of in the last two months was caused by the shutdown for scheduled maintenance works, which started on 19 July and lasted just under a month. The Tomsk plant's PP output exceeded 91,800 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, compared to 94,800 tonnes a year earlier.

August PP production at Ufaorgsintez reached about 11,300 tonnes from 10,600 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of polymer at the Ufa plant rose to 88,500 tonnes in January-August 2018, compared to 85,100 tonnes a year earlier.

Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) in August produced about 11,800 tonnes of PP, compared with 11,000 tonnes in July. The plant's overall PP output reached 89,700 tonnes over the stated period, up 40% year on year. A low indicator of the current year was a result of a long scheduled maintenance works in March-April.

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) in August worked with a high capacity utilisation, the total production figure was 9,800 tonnes against 7,500 tonnes in July (the enterprise stopped production for a week). Overall production of propylene polymers at the Budenovsk plant reached 74,100 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, down by 10% year on year.

MRC