Air Products Luan Coal Gasification Project in China fully onstream

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products announced its Lu’an coal gasification project, located in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, China, has come fully onstream to supply syngas and other industrial gases to Shanxi Lu’an Coal-based Clean Energy Co., Ltd.’s (Lu’an Clean Energy) syngas-to-liquids production, said the company.

The successful startup of Air Products’ first-of-its-kind project further reinforces its leadership and operational excellence as the premier gasification company in the world.

The world-scale gasification project involves four large air separation units (ASUs), four gasifiers and two syngas clean-up systems which have operated at full capacity to support one of China’s landmark clean energy demonstration projects. The gasifiers, which represent the largest pulverized coal gasifiers adopting Shell’s proven gasification technologies, have been delivering outstanding performance in feedstock input, gases output, carbon conversion rate and operational efficiency.

Air Products signed an agreement with Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. in 2013 to build, own and operate the four ASUs capable of supplying over 10,000 tons per day (TPD) of oxygen, over 6,000 TPD of nitrogen and over 700 TPD of instrument air to its subsidiary Lu’an Clean Energy in Changzhi. In September 2017, the company formed a joint venture with Lu’an Clean Energy, holding a 60 percent stake, to own and operate the ASUs, and gasification and syngas clean-up systems at the Changzhi site, extending Air Products’ industrial gas supply scope to include coal gasification and syngas supply.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- WorleyParsons has been awarded a four-year project management consultancy (PMC) contract for the new Assiut Hydrocracking Complex (AHC Project) in Egypt, by Assiut National Oil Processing Company (ANOPC), reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The contract is part of the upgrade of the refining capacity and efficiency in the Upper Egypt area. Under the contract, WorleyParsons will oversee the basic engineering phase, open book estimate, detailed design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the AHC Project.

It is estimated the new complex will process the conversion of 2.5 million tonnes per year of heavy fuel oil into high quality petroleum products such as diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, naphtha, kerosene and gasoline.

"We are pleased to continue our relationship with ANOPC and support Egypt’s vision to further expand their downstream oil industry," said Andrew Wood, Chief Executive Officer WorleyParsons.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in June 2016, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced that it had received a contract to provide detailed engineering and procurement assistance services to TCI Sanmar Chemical for its PVC-2 polyvinyl chloride plant expansion project in Port Said, Egypt. When complete, the PVC-2 facility’s production capacity is expected to be 200 kilo-tonnes per annum (KTPA). Combined with its other global facilities, this takes TCI Sanmar’s total PVC production capacity to 400 KTPA, strengthening the company’s position as one of the largest PVC producers in the Middle East and North Africa.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell Industries NV is close to presenting a binding offer to acquire control of Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem SA, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to Reuters.

LyondellBasell is discussing the extension of a long-term naphtha supply contract with Petroleo Brasileiro SA seen as pivotal to valuing Braskem, and talks between the companies are expected to finish over the next days, the sources said, asking for anonymity because talks are private.

A binding offer could be delivered as soon as the end of this month, the people said.

Once a long-term supply contract is established, LyondellBasell is expected to bid for control of Braskem, first through an offer to controlling shareholder Odebrecht SA. Odebrecht, a Brazilian conglomerate involved in the country’s widest-ever corruption probe has been forced to sell assets over the last two years.

The offer will include cash and shares, the people added. The same value per share would be extended to Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled oil company, which is a minority shareholder in Braskem, as well as a supplier.

One of the people said Petrobras is still discussing whether to sell its full stake in Braskem or hold onto shares in the combined company. If concluded, the deal would create the world’s largest petrochemical company.

Odebrecht, LyondellBasell and Petrobras did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the matter.

As MRC informed before, in October 2017, Petrobras’ (Rio de Janeiro) minority stakes in Braskem and Deten Quimica was excluded from Petrobras’s divestment program. The decree prevents Petrobras from immediatyly selling its minority stake in Braskem, which had been announced last year. A new decree will be required to release the stock sale.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations at fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) at the Moscow Oil Refinery (MOR), owned by Gazprom Neft, will remain shut, at least, until end-November, which would lead to a reduction in gasoline production, Kommersant reported, citing preliminary data from Russia's Ministry of Energy.

According to unofficial information, the fire at the refinery may lead to a reduction in the capacity utilisation at polypropylene (PP) facility at NPP Neftekhimia due to a reduction in supply of the main feedstock (propane-propylene fraction).

As MRC informed before, the fire broke out in the oil refinery in Moscow on Saturday morning, shutting down the unit that Thomson Reuters data said produced more than half the plant’s gasoline output. Fire crews battled for more than three hours before extinguishing the blaze at the refinery in the capital’s Kapotnya district, the emergency ministry said.

The plant’s owner - Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom - said the refinery was back working as usual apart from a catalytic cracking unit which was offline. The unit has a daily production capacity of 6,900 tonnes of gasoline that accounts more than a half of the gasoline produced by the plant, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The fire was out by 11 a.m. local time (0800 GMT), the ministry said, and there were no reports of any casualties or injuries at the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The commercial start-up of Turkey’s new USD6.3 billion oil refinery has been delayed until early next year and the plant is not expected to reach full capacity until mid-2019, three sources familiar with the matter said, as tests revealed minor faults, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 200,000-barrel-per-day STAR refinery, built by Azerbaijan’s state oil firm SOCAR, is set to be a game changer for Mediterranean oil markets and will increase the country’s total refining capacity by just over a third.

The plant was officially opened by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in October but it is not expected to start processing crude commercially until January, one of the sources close to the refinery said, as tests are still being carried out.

"They plan to ramp up slowly through the first quarter and it is expected to reach full processing capacity in the second quarter of 2019," the source said, adding that the start-up has been delayed a few times as tests had revealed small faults.

A second source familiar with SOCAR’s plans said that reaching full capacity could slip even further, into the third quarter.

Commercial production at new refineries, particularly large ones, often falls behind schedule as testing of the various units reveals minor issues that need ironing out.

A SOCAR spokesman said full refining capacity would be reached next year.

"We’ve received two crude oil cargoes and refining is in progress on the plant," the spokesman said.

SOCAR said at the start of this year the refinery would start up in the third quarter of 2018 with commissioning, or testing, to be complete by the end of October.

STAR is the biggest new refinery to start up in Europe for decades, and Turkey’s first in 30 years. It will transform traditional Mediterranean crude flows once it reaches full capacity, traders said.

Erdogan said at last month’s opening ceremony that the plant’s output would cut Ankara’s fuel import bill by about USD1.5 billion per year.

SOCAR plans to supply the refinery with oil from different producers in Europe, the Black Sea region and the Gulf, the head of SOCAR’s trading arm said in an interview last week.

"It may absorb a significant volume of local sour grades and given an outage of Iranian barrels and Kirkuk flow in the market, it may become really tight on the sour side. But the question is how things will look when the actual start-up happens," a European trading source said.

In September, SOCAR signed a contract with Russia’s Rosneft to supply STAR with 1 million tonnes of Urals crude per year, or about 20,000 bpd.

Geneva-based SOCAR Trading has already delivered a 600,000 barrel cargo of Azeri Light and a 1 million barrel cargo of Russian Urals.

As MRC wrote before, in the first half of March 2018, Petkim (part of SOCAR) shut its cracher in Turkey owing to a technical glitch. Located at Aliaga in Turkey, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 585,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 240,000 mt/year.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
MRC