New Shintech ethane cracker in Louisiana starts up: contractor

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shintech's new 500,000 mt/year Louisiana cracker has begun producing ethylene after more than 18 months of delays, reported S&P Global with reference to the contractor for the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer's statement Thursday.

Japan's Toyo Engineering and its US subsidiary, Toyo USA, said construction on the cracker was finished and the plant has "started production of ethylene," according to a statement on the company's website.

Shintech did not respond to requests for comment.

The new cracker at Shintech's Plaquemine, Louisiana, PVC complex expands Shintech's in-house feedstock output while reducing spot ethylene purchases.

The cracker is the last of eight to bring a cumulative 9.74 million mt/year in new ethylene capacity online since 2017. That total rises to 10.68 million mt/year when including Indorama Ventures' revamped 440,000 mt/year Louisiana cracker and a 500,000 mt/year expansion of Dow Chemical's 1.5 million mt/year cracker in Texas that started up in September 2017.

Another 8.3 million mt/year of new ethylene capacity is under construction or planned to come online through the 2020s.

All are part of more than USD200 billion in new petrochemical infrastructure to emerge from plentiful cheap ethane unearthed by the US natural gas shale boom.

Late last month Shintech's parent, Japan's Shin-Etsu, said during a quarterly earnings presentation that the cracker was "actually on the verge of starting operation" and was expected to begin cracking ethane in the first week of February.

However, the cracker had faced repeated lengthy startup delays. Contractor issues in the summer of 2018 caused a construction slowdown on the USD1.4 billion project that delayed its original targeted startup that summer. The company then pushed startup to the end of 2018, followed by more than a year of repeated delays amid continued commissioning.

Sasol saw similar delays with its 1.5 million mt/year cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which reached commercial production last month, more than a year after the initial December 2018 startup target.

As MRC wrote previously, originally, Shintech's cracker was slated to start up in summer 2018, Shintech delayed that milestone to December 2018, then to the first half of last year, and again to December 2018.

Ethylene is a feedstock for the production of PVC.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, January prices of Russian emulsions and suspensions for domestic consumers remained at the level of December. Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC was about 972,920 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. The Russian emulsion and suspension PVC markets showed an increase in supplies. Last month's estimated consumption of SPVC (excluding exports to Belarus) decreased to 64,430 tonnes from 67,430 tonnes in November.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, has recently announces the completion of the acquisition of a 100% interest in specialty dairy solutions provider Koninklijke CSK Food Enrichment C.V. (CSK) for a cash consideration of about EUR150 million, as per the company's press release.

The acquisition of CSK was first announced on November 18, 2019.

The highly complementary combination of DSM’s dairy business and CSK’s business greatly strengthens DSM’s ability to serve the needs of dairy industries worldwide, and makes the company well-placed to address the fast-growing and attractive dairy cultures markets.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2019, Royal DSM announced the strengthening of its leadership in high-performance specialty polymers with the operational launch of a new production line for Arnitel in Emmen, the Netherlands.

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).

Royal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Most Russian oil companies want oil output cuts to remain for one more quarter, a senior Lukoil official said, adding that there was still no final decision on an OPEC+ deal, said Reuters.

The current agreement on oil output curbs between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia expires after March.

Ravil Maganov, the company's first executive vice president, made the comment after talks between Russian oil producers and Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

As MRC informed earlier, Tomskneftekhim (TNKhZ), a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - polypropylene (PP) and high-pressure polyethylene (LDPE), has introduced an advanced process control system APC (Advanced Process Control) at key installations of polypropylene and polyethylene production.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, in September 2019 Tomskneftekhim stopped production for scheduled preventive repairs.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik resumed full operation at its 10 plants and four offices in China, said the company.

Since its outbreak, Evonik has been closely monitoring situation. In order to protect our employees and ensure safe operations, we are taking various measures according to the national and local disease control requirements.

All 10 plants and 4 offices of Evonik China have resumed full operation on February 10. Meanwhile, we are pulling together the global procurement and supply chain resources of the Evonik Group to support the production of our customers and partners. The whole business team of Evonik is ready to assist you in any emergent order for disease control purposes, seeking every possibility of fast delivery in line with local policies. It is our responsibility to provide professional, high-quality services to every customer and partner, anytime and anywhere.

Fighting against epidemic demands immediate action. In the past few weeks, many of our customers and partners were among the first movers to make donations and efforts to help control the spread of nCoV. Deeply impressed and inspired by them, Evonik also made our own contributions to the battle against nCoV through joint donation and free supply of raw materials urgently needed on the frontline.

Up to now, zero case of nCoV infection has been reported neither in Evonik China nor in other regions Evonik operates. We are doing everything within our power to keep the record. At the very beginning of the outbreak, Evonik China has assembled a regional emergency response team to guide the disease control work and the implementation of the production and operation plan. Our business teams maintain close contact with our customers and partners to fulfill their needs promptly. Our function teams are joining forces in employee communication, PPE procurement and distribution, supplier emergency management, etc. to protect our employees and operations, while at the same time to reduce the impacts to our customers and partners to the minimum.

As MRC informed earlier, Evonik joined with other manufacturers in the High Phthalates Panel (HPP), a sector group of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), in a voluntary manufacturer request to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a broad-based risk evaluation of the uses of DINP. The EPA granted the request in early December 2019, a decision welcomed by Evonik. The EPA’s risk evaluation will be performed using the best available science and weight of scientific evidence. The process will be documented and open for public review and comment.

As per MRC's ScanPlast, Russia's overall production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, up by 2% year on year. At the same time, not all Russian producers raised their output. December total production of unmixed PVC was about 81,400 tonnes versus 84,600 tonnes a month earlier, RusVinyl decreased their capacity utilisation in November. Overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in January-December 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their output, except for Kaustik Volgograd.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2018, the enterprise with more than 32,000 employees generated sales of €13.3 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of €2.15 billion from continuing operations.

Evonik regards China as one of the driving forces of the global economy and we consequently endeavor to grow our business here. The company now employs over 2,500 employees and has in total of 10 production sites in China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP pledged to sharply reduce its carbon emissions by 2050 as part of a reinvention of the 111-year old company by newly-appointed chief executive Bernard Looney, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BP on Wednesday set more ambitious targets than rivals such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total but fell short of commitments made by smaller Spanish peer Repsol. “We need to reinvent BP,” Looney said in a statement.

The world’s top oil and gas companies have come under heavy pressure from investors and climate activists to fall in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord which aims to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

“The world’s carbon budget is finite and running out fast; we need a rapid transition to net zero. We all want energy that is reliable and affordable, but that is no longer enough. It must also be cleaner,” he added.

U.S. groups such as Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are far less ambitious with their greenhouse gas related targets than their European rivals. BP said it plans to halve the intensity of the carbon emissions of the oil and gas products it sells, known as Scope 3 emissions, by 2050.

A pioneering “Beyond Petroleum” plan in the early 2000s to build a large renewables business ended with huge losses. Over the past two years, Europe’s top oil and gas companies have ceded some ground to growing investor pressure to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

Intensity-based targets measure the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of energy or barrel of oil and gas produced. That means that absolute emissions can rise with growing production, even if the headline intensity metric falls.

Scope 3 emissions vastly exceed greenhouse gases caused by the production of crude oil, natural gas and refined products, including electricity generation, typically by a factor of about six among oil majors, according to Reuters calculations.

In one of its biggest changes, BP will dismantle the traditional model of an oil and gas production, or upstream, unit and a refining, trading and marketing, or downstream, unit. Its new organisation includes four units: Production and Operations; Customers and Products; Gas and Low Carbon Energy; and Innovation & Engineering.

s MRC reported before, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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).

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC