Asia set to lead global EO capacity additions by 2023

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asia is set to lead the global ethylene oxide (EO) industry capacity growth from planned and announced projects between 2019 and 2023, contributing around 58% of the global growth by 2023, says GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

The company’s report,"‘Global Ethylene Oxide (EO) Industry Outlook to 2023 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Active and Planned Plants’, reveals that Asia is expected to have a new-build and expansion EO capacity of 3.86 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 17 planned and announced projects. Of these, 11 are planned projects and the remaining are announced projects.

Dayanand Kharade, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, says: “"Jiaxing Sanjiang Petrochemical Company Jiaxing Ethylene Oxide Plant 6’, ‘PETRONAS Pengerang Ethylene Oxide Plant’, and ‘Lotte Chemical Corporation Cilegon Ethylene Oxide Plant’ are the few major new-build and expansion projects in Asia, which together will account for around 1.74 mtpa of the region’s capacity."

GlobalData identified North America as the second highest region in terms of capacity additions in the global EO industry. The region will add a new-build and expansion capacity of 1.49 mtpa from five planned and announced projects.

The major capacity additions will be from an announced project, ‘Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) San Patricio Ethylene Oxide Plant’, with a capacity of 0.79 mtpa. It is expected to start operations in 2022.

The Middle East stands third, with new-build EO capacity of 0.82 mtpa by 2023. The entire capacity addition will be from the planned projects, "Jubail United Petrochemical Company Al-Jubail Ethylene Oxide Plant 3’, ‘Persian Gulf Petrochemical Andimeshk Ethylene Oxide Plant’ and ‘Ibne Sina Petrochemical Company Hamadan Ethylene Oxide Plant".

Ethylene is a feedstock for producing polyethylene (PE).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased.
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MOCOW (MRC) -- Spain's Repsol has agreed to buy Equinor's equity position in US Eagle Ford shale basin for USD325 million in a deal giving it 100% control and operatorship of the shale assets, reported S&P Global with reference to the companies' statement late Thursday.

Under the deal, Repsol said it will acquire 69,000 net acres and 34,000 b/d of oil equivalent production taking its total output at Eagle Ford to 54,000 boe/d.

"The added stake in this asset will allow improvements in operations and synergies, and progress in the achievement of strategic goals associated to portfolio upgrading, profitable growth and increased returns," Repsol said in a statement.

Equinor entered the Eagle Ford asset in 2010 through a joint acquisition with Talisman Energy, which is now owned by Repsol. In 2015, Equinor increased its interest in the joint asset from 50% to 63% and assumed full operatorship.

In a separate agreement, Equinor said that Repsol will acquire a 20% non-operated interest in the Monument prospect that Equinor is drilling in the Northwest Walker Ridge area in the Gulf of Mexico.

Equinor said it plans to commence drilling the well before the end of the year.

As MRC wrote previously, Repsol has recently signed a collaboration agreement to license ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), ethylene butyl acrylate (EBA) copolymer and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) production technology with American engineering company Engineers & Constructors International (ECI), depository of the high-pressure technology originally developed and licensed by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) through its UK subsidiary, Simon Carves Engineering, Ltd. Under this agreement, Repsol is the operational partner that provides product knowledge, applications and operating support (training, technical services, operating procedures, etc.).

Besides, we remind that Repsol will shut down its cracker in Tarragona (Spain) for maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2019. The turnaround at this steam cracker, which produces 702,000 mt/year of ethylene and 372,000 mt/year of propylene, was pushed back from Q3 2019. The exact dates of maintenance works are not disclosed.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French energy major Total said it was taking measures to avoid fuel and other products shortages after striking workers blocked distribution from its 110,000 barrels-per-day Feyzin refinery, reported Reuters.

CGT union workers at the refinery near the city of Lyon have been on strike since early October over potential job cuts, prompting a halt in production. On Friday, the workers decided to block distribution from the refinery.

"Total is making every effort to ensure that the strike affecting the Feyzin platform does not have any impact on the supply of its customers in the Lyon region," the company said in a statement.

It added that there were no planned job cuts but it intends to halt a heavy fuels production unit by 2021 due to falling demand for the product.

It said the ongoing strike had led to the shutdown of nearly all refining units and only the steam cracker was operating at minimum capacity.

As MRC informed earlier, Total has disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

Total is also developing a USD1.4-billion propane dehydrogenation and PP complex at Arzew, Algeria, in partnership with Algeria’s state-owned oil company Sonatrach. The facilities will be designed to produce 600,000 metric tons/year each of propylene and PP. The project is in FEED phase with FID due in 2021.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

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) -- China's Hengyi Petrochemical, a joint petrochemical venture between China and Brunei, has achieved on-specification aromatics output at its new plant in Brunei, which has nameplate production capacity of 1.5mn t/yr of paraxylene (PX) and 500,000 t/yr of benzene, reported Argus.

Hengyi Brunei's aromatics units are currently running at 60-70%, after its reformer started trial runs in mid-October.

Most PX output will be consumed by Chinese producer Yisheng Petrochemical's three PTA plants in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, which have combined nameplate capacity of 5.15mn t/yr. Hengyi owns a 50% stake in Yisheng Petrochemical, while the other 50% is owned by fellow private-sector firm Rongsheng Petrochemical.

The first PX shipment from the Brunei plant will probably be loaded in late November and head to China.

Hengyi Brunei is in negotiations with market participants over sales of benzene to northeast and southeast Asia, traders said. The company has already started some spot sales of benzene, including at least one cargo sold for first-half December delivery to Singapore at parity to fob South Korea prices.

Hengyi Petrochemical is one of the largest polyester producers in China. The company, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, owns more than 6mn t/yr of capacity in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian.

As MRC wrote before, on 9 October 2019, Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd inked commercial agreements with Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) and Brunei Shell Marketing Company (BSM) for the supply of crude oil to Hengyi and selling of fuel products in Brunei market.

Paraxylene is a raw material for the synthesis of terephthalic acid (TFA) - an intermediate for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, Plant of New Polymers Senege, one of the Russian producers of PET chips, shut production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for scheduled repairs on 1 October. According to a source in the company, the shutdown will take about a month. The exact date of the completion of the turnaround was not reported.

Hengyi Industries is a joint venture of Zhejiang Hengyi Group (70%) and Damai Holdings, a subsidiary of the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund (30%).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemical company Clariant has completed the sale of its healthcare packaging business to Arsenal Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm investing in specialty industrials and healthcare companies, said the company.

The company will be rebranded as Airnov Healthcare Packaging (“Airnov”).

The business unit was sold for Swiss francs (Swfr) 308m (USD311m) , which is equivalent of 13.2 times adjusted for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 earnings before interest taxation depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

The initial signing to the US-based private equity firm took place on 22 July 2019, and this announcement comes in the wake of Clariant’s steady Q3 results.

Executive chairman Hariolf Kottmann said: "The divestment of the Healthcare Packaging business is the first step of our announced strategy to become a more focused and innovative specialty chemical company."

As MRC informed earlier, Clariant announced that it has been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin® catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Propylene is the main feedstock for producing polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
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