India to invite foreign firms to invest in state-owned oil companies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- International energy firms will be invited to participate in India’s privatization of state-owned oil companies, the country’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Pradhan said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met with the chief executives of energy firms in Houston, including those from Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, Rosneft Oil Co, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc).

This is the first time Pradhan has signaled the government’s intent bring foreign investment into the country’s state-owned oil companies.

“We are inviting oil majors,” Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. “They are all towards India’s energy market,” he said. Asked if the response was positive, he said “I am very enthusiastic.”

The minister said a planned oil refinery on India’s west coast in partnership with Aramco and Adnoc is on the right track. There will be more clarity once the a new government is formed in the state of Maharastra, where the project is planned, which is deadlocked after the recent elections, he said.

Asked if a firm deal with Aramco and Adnoc could be sealed soon, he said “I think so,” declining to give a timeline.

India is also open to crude oil imports from Russia, he said. “We are open to source our requirements from all over the world whoever gives us responsible and reasonable price. Russia is a very important partner for us.” On Monday, the chairman of Indian Oil Corp said the company was looking at buying Russian oil.

As MRC wrote previously, Indian Oil Corp conducted turnaround at its naphtha cracker in India from early September 2019 to early October 2019. Located in Panipat, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 857,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 425,000 mt/year.

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.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

Clariant Licocare RBW Vita bio-based additives for plastics receives award for sustainability excellence

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant announced that the California-based Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has awarded the Material Health Certificate GOLD level certification to Licocare RBW 102 Vita, Licocare RBW 106 Vita and Licocare RBW 300 Vita , bio-based lubricating and dispersing aids, said the company.

This award is a further confirmation of their excellent environmental profile and contribution to a circular economy for plastics.

The Material Health Certificate uses the rigorous, globally recognized material health assessment methodology of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard to verify a product’s support for safe and circular products. Cradle to Crade® is a design concept developed in the early 90’s by William McDonough and Michael Braungart that is inspired by nature and represents circular thinking and innovation.

To determine the suitability of Licocare RBW for the certification, Clariant worked closely with the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Switzerland GmbH, an accredited assessor for the Cradle to Cradle Certified and Material Health Certificate Certification. All ingredients present at > 100 ppm in a product are assessed with regard to material health to enable safe and circular products. As lubricants and dispersing agents are process chemicals which may be released into water, the safety of such an ingredient is one of the five criteria of the Cradle to Cradle Certified certification standard.

Licocare RBW bio-based additives are derived from rice bran wax, a non-food-competing by-product from the production of edible rice bran oil. Clariant upgrades this renewable raw material to facilitate its use as value-added, highly-effective processing aids for plastics compounders and masterbatch producers. Melt flow improvements, easier mold release and ensuring a more homogeneous distribution of pigments are features among their extensive benefits.

Given their extraordinary heat stability, typical application areas include engineering thermoplastics, biopolymers and epoxy resins, which benefits various polymer using industries such as automotive, electrical and electronical, as well as finding uses in coatings, agriculture and consumer applications.

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.
MRC

First Cobalt seeks government backing to restart Canadian refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- First Cobalt Corp is in advanced talks with Canada’s Ontario province to finance the USD37.5 million required to restart its idled cobalt refinery, President and Chief Executive Officer Trent Mell said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

If successful, such a deal would reduce First Cobalt’s funding reliance on Glencore Plc, which in July agreed to extend $45 million in loans to develop the project in stages.

The plant, located about 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the U.S. border in Cobalt, Ontario, would be the sole North American producer of refined cobalt for the electric vehicle market and lessen dependence of U.S. end-users on China, where most of the world’s cobalt refining capacity is located.

"We’re trying to bring our own sources of capital to the table, and we’re talking to the Ontario government to see if there’s an opportunity to ... get some kind of support under the umbrella of the Ontario and North American automotive supply chain," Mell said.

He did not indicate what form that might take but said loan guarantees are a possibility. First Cobalt has also tapped Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to find potential partners for the project, Mell said, although those discussions are at an earlier stage. "I think everything’s on the table for us right now," Mell said.

Representatives for Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade and its Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines did not immediately respond to an email. CIBC did not respond to a request for comment.

Canada, the United States, Australia and other western countries are keen to reduce their reliance on top supplier China for rare earths, a group of minerals used in everything from smart phones to electric vehicles. First Cobalt has said it will decide whether to restart the plant in the first quarter next year, with initial throughput of 12 tonnes per day targeted for late 2020.
MRC

Officials object to PES refinery sale process

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US and local officials are opposing the sale procedure for the bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery, arguing the plan discourages bidders and keeps the city locked out of the process, reported Reuters with reference to federal court filings.

The proposed PES sale plan does not give potential buyers of the fire-damaged refinery enough time or information to outbid a stalking-horse bid chosen by PES, U.S. Trustee Andrew Vara argued in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Thursday.

Companies often select what is known as a stalking horse to start an asset sale. Other parties then submit bids, which, if for more money or better for some other reason, would win out.

PES’s proposal sets a stalking-horse deadline one day before final bids are due, which “will create confusion, delay and may tend to discourage bidders” who might not know what they are attempting to outbid, said Vara, who is appointed to oversee the bankruptcy case.

The city of Philadelphia, which is a creditor in the bankruptcy case and a regulator of the refinery, also objected to the sale process in a filing with the court on Thursday.

It is asking PES to disclose the identities of qualified bidders and allow the city to attend the refinery auction, which it would be excluded from under the current plan, Philadelphia’s deputy city solicitor, Megan Harper, said in the objection.

PES was not immediately available for comment.

The refiner filed for bankruptcy on July 21 and closed the 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery a month after a fire and explosions at the plant.

Roughly a dozen parties have shown interest in buying the refinery, pitching various uses for the facility, which has been used to store and process fossil fuels for the last 150 years.

Any change to the use of the more than 1,300-acre PES site near downtown Philadelphia could require city-issued rezoning and additional cleanup of the deeply contaminated area, Harper said.

"Development and operation of the site by any one of the variety of market players expressing interest in the debtors’ assets will not occur in a vacuum," the city’s filing said.

"Coordination with city, state and federal authorities will be necessary to revitalize the site, return it to its status as a significant contributor to the local and regional economy and ensure that public health, safety and wellbeing of city residents are protected," it said.

The PES bankruptcy hearing was scheduled for Nov. 14.
MRC

Sinopec Maoming eyes maintenance at No. 2 PP unit in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Maoming has planned to take off-stream its No. 2 PP unit for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to halt operations at the PP unit over the priod of May-June 2020. The unit is expected to remain off-line from May 5 to June 13, 2020.

Located in Guangdong, China, the No. 2 PP unit has a capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, tThe 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.

Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company (Maoming Company) - a subsidiary of Sinopec- is located in Maoming, Guangdong and was founded in May 1955. The company now has a crude oil processing capacity of 13.5 million t/a and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million t/a. Maoming Company has turned out to be a large-scale integrated refining and chemical enterprise with refining as the leading business and petrochemical sector as the mainstay.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
MRC