World only natural gas-to-gasoline plant in operation in Turkmenistan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A grand event marked the official opening of the world’s only natural gas-to-gasoline plant close to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

His Excellency President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and a large number of dignitaries attended the event.

Start-up of the plant has proceeded according to plan and the initial product meets the agreed specifications. During the coming months, the performance test run is expected to be completed. At full capacity, the plant will produce 15,500 barrels of gasoline per day.

"We are proud to be part of this forward-thinking and ambitious project. It sets a new world standard for monetizing gas resources in a very effective way and will be a model for other nations and companies around the globe. This is the definitive demonstration that TIGAS is a technologically and financially viable way to produce gasoline from natural gas," says Bjerne S. Clausen, CEO of Haldor Topsoe.

The plant is an important step forward in Turkmenistan’s plan to monetize the country’s huge natural gas resource - the fourth-largest in the world – and diversify its export potential. In addition, the production will supply the Turkmen home market with synthetic gasoline that complies with the highest environmental standards, contains no sulfur and very little unwanted byproducts.

The contract to build the plant has been awarded by the national gas company Turkmengas and is based on Topsoe’s proprietary end-to-end technology TIGAS. The TIGAS solution is based on industry-proven Topsoe technologies and catalysts, among those the proprietary SynCOR technology. Utilization is very high with gasoline making up more than 85% of the product stream and 11-13% valuable liquefied gases (LPG). The TIGAS process can produce gasoline in compliance with varying national specifications.

Topsoe has supplied license, engineering, catalysts and hardware such as ATR burner, reactors and boilers for the plant. Kawasaki Heavy Industries was the EPC contractor, and Ronesans was responsible for erection.

As MRC informed before, test operations at a new gas chemical complex (GCC) for processing natural gas and producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) in the village of Kiyanly started back in August 2018. An official launch of production took place on 17 October, 2018.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oman’s Duqm Refinery has completed more than 25% of a USD6 billion refinery project that will be able to process 230,000 barrels of crude per day when finalized, reported Reuters with reference to Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Co’s chief executive.

The Duqm refinery is run by a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum International and occupies 900 hectares in Oman’s Duqm industrial zone.

"More than 25 percent of the project has been completed and we will conduct a test run by the end of 2021," Duqm refinery CEO Salem al Huthaili was quoted as saying by local al-Wisal radio.

The project was financed by 29 financial institutions from 31 countries, al Huthaili said.

Duqm industrial zone is Oman’s biggest single economic project and part of the Gulf Arab Sultanate’s efforts to diversify its economy away from oil revenues.

We remisnd that, as MRC wrote previously, in H1 July, 2019, Iraq and Oman signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the oil and gas sector, including the possibility of building a shared refinery in Oman for processing imported Iraqi crude.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China will ramp up gasoline exports in July and August to near record levels with cargoes moving to Mexico and Nigeria as refiners seek outlets for their fuel amid a wave of new production and slowing domestic demand, reported Reuters.

The surge in Chinese shipments will fill a supply gap caused by refinery outages in the United States and the Middle East but are likely to accelerate a plunge in Asian gasoline margins, which have dropped 50% since July 12, when they clawed back to a three-month high.

China's refineries, led by PetroChina Co, the country's second-largest, will export about 1.5 million tonnes of gasoline a month in July and August, said two senior traders with knowledge of China's gasoline exports. That is up from June exports of 1 million tonnes and near the record of 1.69 million tonnes exported in March, according to Chinese customs data.

The export surge is a result of the start up of two large-scale refineries owned by Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical that will each add about 4 million tonnes per year of new gasoline output when fully operational.

The surge will reverse the trend of falling gasoline exports in 2019, for the first half of 2019 they are down 9% from the same period a year ago.

"Gasoline was overflowing (in China) as Hengli shocked the market...companies took the advantage of stronger demand in Latin America and West Africa," said one of the traders.

PetroChina was granted gasoline export quotas of 4.7 million tonnes in the second batch of quotas issued in May, more than half of the quotas given. As a result, the company is placing cargoes to Mexico, Chile and Nigeria, according to the traders.

"Gasoline surplus in China is exacerbated by slowing demand growth, given weakening consumer confidence as the trade war continues, reflected also in slumping car sales," said Michal Meidan, director of the China energy programme at Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.

Chinese refiners have loaded 1.2 million tonnes of gasoline for export as of July 23, after a record 1.6 million tonnes in June, according to data from Refinitiv.

One PetroChina-run plant, West Pacific Petrochemical Corp, sold 900,000 barrels of gasoline to Mexico in July, in three different shipments.

China's refiners have tried to lower the so-called diesel/gasoline production ratio to produce less diesel and more of the motor fuel, causing the excess of gasoline, said Wang Yanting and Shi Linlin, analysts at Shandong-based consultancy JLC.

The shift in production was aimed initially at easing the overhang of diesel as demand for the industrial and truck fuel has fallen amid a slowing economy.

Top refiner Sinopec, for example, squashed that ratio to a historic low to 1.01 in the first quarter this year, versus 1.33 in the same period in 2015, according to company reports.

As a result, China's gasoline output in the first half of 2019 rose 2.9% from a year earlier while diesel dropped 7.8%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Gasoline demand growth is also sliding as Chinese automobile sales, consisting mainly of petrol-consuming passenger vehicles, fell for a 12th month in June, with 2019 annual sales set to fall for the second year in a row.

Seng-Yick Tee, senior director at consultancy SIA Energy, forecasts China's gasoline demand to rise 5.4% this year, the slowest pace since 2015, as the falling auto sales reduce consumption.

As a result of the petrol glut, plants that make mixed aromatics, petrochemicals used to raise the octane rating in gasoline, in eastern China's Shandong province have closed.

Shandong-based consultancy JLC estimates about 30 plants with annual output of 5 million tonnes have shut for months this year as demand for mixed aromatics has declined.

"Our plant was losing money in a big way...We wish we had shut down earlier," said a mixed aromatics plant manager in the city of Zibo, Shandong, which has closed its 8,000 barrels per day facility since March.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s Reliance Industries talks to grant a minority stake in its refining assets to Saudi Aramco have hit a roadblock over the valuation and structure of the deal, reported Reuters with reference to two people familiar with the matter.

State-owned Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, plans to boost investment in refining and petrochemicals to secure new markets for its crude and sees growth in chemicals as central to its downstream strategy to reduce risk as oil demand slows.

Reliance had held talks on offering Aramco at least 20% in a special purpose vehicle covering refining, petrochemicals and marketing, and with a focus on expansion.

"Talks have stalled as Reliance is asking for a higher valuation and wants to transfer debt of the holding company to the new SPV (special purpose vehicle)," said one of the sources.

No immediate comment was available from Reliance and Saudi Aramco.

Reliance, controlled by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, operates the world’s biggest refining complex with capacity to process 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil at Jamnagar in western India.

It plans to expand capacity to 2 million bpd by 2030, according to plans shared with the Indian government.

As of June 30, Reliance had an outstanding debt of 2,882.43 billion rupees (USD41.8 billion) compared with 2,875.05 billion rupees as of March 31, while cash and cash equivalents as of June 30 were at 1,317.10 billion rupees versus 1,330.27 billion rupees as of March 31, the company said.

Aramco and United Arab Emirates’ national oil company ADNOC teamed up with state-run Indian refiners last year in a plan to build a 1.2 million bpd refinery and petrochemical project in India’s Maharashtra state.

But the planned refinery, initially expected to cost $44 billion, faces delays, as farmers have refused to surrender land forcing the Maharashtra government to find a new location in Raigad district, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Mumbai.

As MRC wrote previously, in October 2018, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil to the Chinese company’s new refinery in eastern China.

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.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Novapet is likely to shut its No.2 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Spain informed that the plant is expected to be taken off-stream over the period of September - October 2019. The exact date and duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located in Barbastro, Spain, the plant has a production capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

NOVAPET is the primary producer of PET resins in the Iberian Peninsula. The company's strategy is aimed at innovation in products and at the integration of services to the packager. The company collaborates continuously with more than 200 clients in 30 countries and 4 continents in its two divisions. The formulation and production of different PET resins, with different applications, and their transformation into preforms, or even into different packaging, constitute for us an integrated activities, which tend to preserve for its customers, all the value of the company's technical innovations.
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