Exxon Louisiana refinery restart depends on natgas supply

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Restarting Exxon Mobil Corp’s 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery after an early morning fire will depend on how quickly natural gas supply can be restored to the crude distillation units (CDUs), reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

The fire broke out in a natural gas pipeline supplying the units before midnight on Tuesday, the sources said. The fire was put out on Wednesday morning, the company said. No injuries were reported.

Exxon had made preliminary plans to restart the Baton Rouge refinery’s large CDU, the 210,000 bpd PSLA-10, before the fire was extinguished, the sources said. The unit cannot be restarted until the natural gas supply is restored.

Most of the refinery’s units, including the three CDUs, were shut early on Wednesday, the sources said.

Exxon spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry declined on Wednesday to discuss the status of units at the refinery. He did say operations were continuing at the refinery and adjoining chemical plant.

Eikenberry also said Exxon would continue to meet its contractual commitments.

The 210,000-bpd PSLA-10 CDU is the largest of three at the refinery doing the primary conversion of crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstock for all other production units. The natural gas is used to operate the units as they breakdown crude oil.

One of the two 110,000-bpd gasoline producing fluidic catalytic cracking units (FCCUs) continues to operate at a minimal production level while one of the light ends units is also operating at minimum rates, the sources said.

The Baton Rouge refinery is the second-largest in Louisiana and the fifth-largest in the United States by capacity. It is Exxon’s second-largest refinery in the nation.

The company also operates a cracker at this site with the annual production capacity of 1 mln tonnes of ethylene и 575,000 tonnes of propylene, which was shut for maintenance on 11 February 2019 to mid-Apirl 2019.

As MRC informed before, in September 2019, ExxonMobil announced plans to spend GBP140 million over the next two years in an additional investment program at its Fife ethylene plant, which has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, the global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, has announced its collaboration with CEDAP, a leading specialist in sheet extrusion for the packaging industry, according to the company's press release.

The partnership seeks to advance the implementation of recycled polystyrene (PS) used in food packaging applications by utilizing chemically recycled PS to develop and test food grade recycled PS packaging.

Trinseo will also collaborate with CEDAP lending technical expertise to support the development of a 100% PS made yogurt container. CEDAP is currently participating in a project, which aims to create a mono material yogurt container, including the label, lid, and pot. This project is spearheaded by the consortium Citeo, including Plastiques Venthenat (PV), Amcor, and Triballat.

"This is an exciting collaboration that Trinseo is lending technical, processing and performance expertise on," said Nicolas Joly, Global Business Director, Polystyrene and Feedstocks at Trinseo. "The implementation of a recycled PS in food grade packaging is coming closer to reality as we work hand in hand with the packaging industry. Furthermore, the development of a mono material yogurt pot would enable greater ease of recyclability and in turn unlock the opportunity for a new life in other applications via chemical or mechanical recycling of PS."

Trinseo is highly engaged in several partnerships and initiatives to close the loop on PS recycling, namely:

Recently announcing a first-of-its-kind polystyrene chemical recycling facility to be built in Europe;
Planning to offer an average of 30% recycled content to customers for polystyrene packaging in Europe by 2025;
Serving as a founding member of Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS), a consortium that explores new methods for polystyrene recycling; and
Partnering with the waste supply chain to help identify new ways to increase the volume and quantity of plastics disposed and recovered through waste separation.
Full PS circularity is a game changer, offering a unique potential for closed loop recycling – with two fewer steps than recycling of other polymers. Depolymerization is an innovative technology for PS recycling, which has already proven to bring polystyrene waste back into a monomer – unlocking the intrinsic circularity of PS even further. In turn, PS circularity is particularly advantageous as it diverts waste material away from landfills, leading to a reduction in greenhouse gases and harmful emissions.

In North America, Trinseo’s joint venture, Americas Styrenics (AmSty), recently formed a joint venture with Agilyx, named Regenyx LLC, dedicated to fully recycling post-consumer polystyrene materials back into new PS products. Through Regenyx, AmSty is providing customers with PS recycled from a monomer state, from post-consumer waste, known as PolyUsable.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo have announced a price increase for all PS grades, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene copolymer (SAN) grades in Europe. Effective February 1, 2020, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below rose as follows:

-- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR100 per metric ton;
-- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR100 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR55 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR55 per metric ton.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics was 46,260 tonnes in December 2019, up by 8% year on year. The estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics totalled 500,660 tonnes in 2019, down by 1% year on year. Russian producers of PS and styrene plastics produced 44,960 tonnes of material in December 2019, up by 1% year on year.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp has made preliminary plans to restart the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery later this week, sources familiar with plant operations said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Most of the refinery’s units, including the three CDUs, were shut early on Wednesday after a natural gas line in a group of pipes caught fire late on Tuesday night, the sources said. The fire is contained but continued to burn on Wednesday morning in the pipeline area.

No injuries were reported from the fire, Exxon said earlier on Wednesday. A company spokesman said Exxon would continue to meet its contractual commitments.

The 210,000-bpd PSLA-10 CDU is the largest of three at the refinery doing the primary conversion of crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstock for all other production units.

An assessment of the damage to the bundle of pipelines where the fire is burning has yet to be done, the sources said.

One of the two 110,000-bpd gasoline producing fluidic catalytic cracking units (FCCUs) continues to operate at the minimal production level while one of the light ends units is also in operation at minimum rates, the sources said.

The Baton Rouge refinery is the second-largest in Louisiana and the fifth-largest in the United States by capacity. It is Exxon’s second-largest refinery in the nation.

As MRC informed earlier, a fire at Exxon Mobil Corp’s 502,500 barrel-per-day Baton Rouge refinery in Louisiana was extinguished by the refinery’s fire team on 12 February. The company earlier said the fire was contained in the area it occurred and there were no reported injuries with all personnel accounted for. Exxon is monitoring air quality in the refinery and surrounding areas, company spokesman Jeremy Eikenberry said in an emailed response. The company operates a cracker at this site with the annual production capacity of 1 mln tonnes of ethylene и 575,000 tonnes of propylene, which was shut for maintenance on 11 February 2019 to mid-Apirl 2019.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has reduced crude supplies to some Asian buyers in March after refiners cut output following the coronavirus outbreak and for regular maintenance, four sources with knowledge of the matter said, as per Reuters.

The drop in supplies comes after state oil giant Saudi Aramco cut March official selling prices (OSPs) more than expected. Buyers’ overall nominations for March-loading cargoes were lower, but so far the virus has not had a big impact, a source familiar with Aramco oil exports said, adding that seasonal maintenance in Asia in the second quarter had made more difference.

Two of the sources declined to say how much lower the volumes were at their refineries, but said Saudi Aramco may have allowed some Chinese buyers to reduce their volumes by more than 10% as their situation was an exceptional case. Another of the sources said its refinery’s March loading reduction was caused by scheduled maintenance.

China’s refiners, including state-owned Sinopec Corp, PetroChina, China National Offshore Oil Company, and independent refiners such as Hengli Petrochemical and those in Shandong have cut their crude processing rate in February.

The spread of the coronavirus in China has killed more than 1,100 people and slowed the world’s second largest economy.

Saudi oil contracts allow the seller or the buyer to adjust loading volumes by plus or minus 10% of contracted volume, depending on demand and shipping logistics under a contractual clause known as operational tolerance.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, may cut the prices of its light crude grades sold to Asia in February on signs of slowing demand ahead of the region’s peak refinery maintenance season.

Saudi Aramco officials as a matter of policy do not comment on the kingdom’s monthly OSPs.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, has been running its local refineries at full capacity since November 2019 and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia in 2020. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.

The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), a privately controlled refiner, maintains full operations at its 400,000-bpd refinery in east China, reported Reuters with reference to a senior source with knowledge of the firm’s operations.

The firm, based in Zhoushan of Zhejiang province, is operating one 200,000-bpd unit at above 100% and a second slightly below full rates, said the source.

Calls to ZPC went unanswered.

As MRC wrote previously, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co Ltd, one of two new major refineries built in China in 2019, has recently started up the remaining units in the first phase of its refinery and petrochemical complex. The complex, in east China’s Zhoushan city, is now producing oil products and chemicals to commercial specifications, Zhejiang Petrochemical said on its website.

The company, 51% owned by private chemical group Zhejiang Rongsheng Holdings, said it has started test production at ethylene, aromatics and other downstream facilities, without giving further details.

Zhejiang Petrochemical started a first 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude processing unit in late May 2019, following on from the start of a 400,000-bpd refinery owned by another private chemical major Hengli Petrochemical.

The newly started units at Zhejiang Petrochemical should include a second 200,000-bpd crude unit, a 1.2 million tonnes per year (tpy) ethylene unit and a 2 million tpy paraxylene unit.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC