HMC Polymers plans fourth PP plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- HMC Polymers announced today plans to construct a fourth Polypropylene plant at its Map Ta Phut site, Rayong Province Thailand, bringing HMC’s total PP capacity to over 1 million tons and maintaining position as SE Asia’s largest PP producer, as per the company's press-release.

“HMC will continue our mission to push the boundaries of Polypropylene product performance” stated President, Mr. Martyn Tickner. “We believe our key markets in NE and SE Asia, Japan, India and Australia will continue to evolve towards more advanced product requirements. HMC has unique capabilities to meet those requirements and combined with our strong support from Joint Venture partners PTT Global Chemical, LyondellBasell and leading Thai investors, we can further expand our differentiated product offering and achieve substantial value growth. Our new capacity will also ensure that we can continue to support the growth of our long standing and very loyal base of Thai customers”.

Mr. Tickner further explained that HMC have entered into a License Agreement with leading PP Technology provider LyondellBasell, and have now completed the process design of the most advanced Spherizone plant in the history of this superior technology. The new plant will produce approximately 220 ktpa of specialty PP resins, targeting both consumer and industrial markets, and is expected to start-up in first half of 2022.

HMC Polymers is a leader in the manufacture and marketing of polypropylene for Asia and worldwide. We offer exceptional value to our customers through a broad product portfolio manufactured in our latest technology production facilities.

Through operational excellence, industry leading technology and customer focus, HMC Polymers delivers products that improve the quality of life for people in Asia and around the world.

As MRC informed earlier, in 2010, HMC Polymers increased the production capacity of its PP plant by 300,000 tonnes from 450,000 tonnes in a bid to serve growing demand for polypropylene both domestically and internationally.

HMC Polymers is one of the leading companies in the manufacturing and marketing of polypropylene (PP) for Asia and worldwide. HMC Polymers is the first PP manufacturer in Thailand with its first PP production facility to have been established in Rayong Province, Thailand in 1987. The company's PP production facilities output is over 750,000 metric tons per year and comprise two Spheripol lines and a latest technology Spherizone line from LyondellBasell. HMC Polymers produces a wide range of Moplen polypropylene grades including homopolymer, heterophasic and random copolymer resins, as well as specialty polypropylene resins such as Adstif, Clyrell and Purell. In addition, a strategic investment in upstream integration was made in parallel with the construction of a Propane Dehydrogenation plant (PDH) at a site adjacent to our Map Ta Phut plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Meridian Energy Group, Inc., the emerging growth refining firm and leading innovator in advanced technology and environmentally-beneficial petroleum processing facilities announced that Paul Coppola, has joined Meridian as its President and Chief Investment Strategy Officer based in the Company’s Houston office, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Mr. Coppola has served on the Company’s Board of Directors and has been assisting the Company as a senior financial advisor in its corporate and project financings.

By joining Meridian, Mr. Coppola enables Meridian to focus substantial additional resources upon both the USD1.2bn institutional equity and debt financing for the Davis Refinery in the Bakken in North Dakota, and on the Meridian private placement of preferred stock at the corporate level. These two funding initiatives are key elements of the Company’s very aggressive plans for growth and development as an agent of change in the refinery industry.

Mr. Coppola was most recently the Energy Equity Portfolio Manager for RCH Energy/RR Advisors, LLC. He graduated from Fordham University in 1992 as a Distinguished Military Graduate with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Economics. From 1992-1995 he served as a Lieutenant in the United States Army, and later began a 12-year career with Morgan Stanley starting as an analyst in investment banking covering energy and transportation. In 1997, he transitioned to Energy equity research covering the Integrated Oils, Independent Refiners and Exploration and Production companies along with responsibility for the crude oil, natural gas and refined products markets analysis. From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Coppola lived in London and New York as the Energy Specialist for Morgan Stanley managing the day to day operations of the energy sales, trading and institutional client platform globally. In 2008, Paul was hired by Satellite Asset Management to run the energy fund and in 2010 transitioned to Houston to run the energy fund at Arrowhawk Capital Partners. In 2012 he ran the energy equity business at Global Hunter Securities, a boutique investment bank, focused on energy and infrastructure investment and his responsibilities included being the energy specialist along with managing many of the key asset management and client relationships for the Firm.

"Paul has been an extraordinary asset as a member of the Meridian Board of Directors," said William Prentice, Chairman and CEO of Meridian. "Having Paul transition to become President of Meridian positions the Company to move very quickly on its current financing efforts as Meridian is faced with a number of extraordinary opportunities, including the Davis Refinery in the Bakken, the Walton Station Refinery in the Permian, and other strategic locations in the major shale basins. The key to addressing those opportunities is a low effective cost of capital for bringing these assets into operation, and that is Paul’s area of expertise."

Mr. Coppola commented that, "I am honored to be joining the Meridian team as it represents some of the highest caliber and quality of professionals in the energy industry and I look forward to the tremendous opportunities ahead to build a world class energy company."

Tom Skwarek, Member of the Meridian Board of Directors, commented that: "Paul has always been Meridian’s most active Board member and we are very pleased that he is joining as President of Meridian. Paul brings to Meridian not only his over twenty years of industry experience touching all parts of the energy value chain, but also has extensive knowledge of the energy industry and substantial expertise in the energy-related capital markets. We look forward to accelerating our project and corporate financing effort now that Paul is aboard."

As MRC wrote before, in late January 2019, Meridian Energy Group, Inc., announced that the company had signed an agreement with McDermott out of Houston, Texas under which McDermott will finalize the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the Meridian Davis Refinery in Billings County, North Dakota.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and Sichuan Lutianhua Co. signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly build a pilot production plant for a new, energy-efficient one-step process in synthetizing dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas, as per Apic-online.

According to the MoU, Lutianhua will invest in and build the facility with a step-change technology developed by BASF and Linde. BASF will supply new, high-performance catalyst systems that enable one-step conversion of syngas to DME, while Linde will provide its newly developed process design and engineering for direct DME synthesis. The plant is expected to be built next year.

The facility is expected to "significantly reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency" in producing DME from syngas, the partners noted.

Lutianhua is "one of the first" companies to adopt ad-vanced technologies and techniques to produce synthetic ammonia and urea with natural gas as a raw material, said Lutianhua.

"We have well-established production capabilities and are always keen to apply new technologies and processes," stated Lutianhua Chairman Tan Guangjun.

The partnership was facilitated by the newly estab-lished Open Innovation Platform of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, which is designated to promote cooperation among industry leaders for technological breakthroughs and industrial transformation.

As MRC informed earlier, in December 2017, BASF’s Coatings division inaugurated a new automotive coatings plant at its Bangpoo manufacturing site, Samutprakarn province, Thailand. The new plant is the first BASF automotive coatings manufacturing facility in ASEAN, and produces solventborne and waterborne automotive coatings to meet growing market demand in the region.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kenya’s government and oil firms Tullow Oil, Total and Africa Oil Corp have signed agreements for the development of a 60,000-80,000 barrels per day crude oil processing facility for oil discovered in the country’s north west, the Petroleum and Mining Ministry said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The ministry said on Twitter the Heads of Term agreements were for discoveries in Blocks 10 BB and 13T in South Lokichar Basin.

As MRC informed earlier, crude oil deposits discovered in Kenya are insufficient to justify construction of a refinery, a senior petroleum ministry official said. Kenya discovered commercial oil in 2012 in its Lokichar basin, which Tullow Oil estimates contains an estimated 560 million barrels in proven and probable reserves.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- IVL would like to inform that on June 25, 2019 at 3.30 pm (local time) a fire accident occurred at the PTA/ IPA finished product warehouse of Indorama Ventures Quimica S.L.U at San Roque in Spain, said the company.

The fire has been brought under control. All employees are safe and the production lines are operating normally.
An assessment of damage and its cause is being carried out and there will be no disruption in business except for minor interruption in supplies of bagged material.

The likely impact is not expected to be material to the Company and the property damaged including stocks is adequately covered under insurance.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2018, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global chemical producer, entered into a joint venture agreement with Dhunseri Petrochem Ltd. (Dhunseri) to acquire its Egyptian Indian Polyester Company S.A.E. (EIPET) PET facility located in Ain Sokhna free trade zone, North West of the Gulf of Suez in Egypt. This plant has a manufacturing capacity of 540,000 tonnes per annum.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, listed in Thailand, is one of the world's leading petrochemicals producers, a global manufacturing footprint with 59 sites in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The company's portfolio is comprises necessities and high value-added (HVA) categories of polymers, fibers, and packaging. Indorama Ventures has approx. 15,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of USD 8.4 billion in 2017. The company is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).
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