TPC to reopen Port Neches terminal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TPC Group (Houston, Texas) says it aims to restore terminal operations at its Port Neches, Texas, facility during the first half of 2020, but reconstruction of portions damaged by the November 2019 explosion and fire will take up to five years.

The company will therefore be laying off about 100 of the 183 staff employed at the site.

"The company has received preliminary third-party engineering reports that indicate a construction timeline of two to two and a half years to rebuild," says a press release issued on 25 February. "This timing, combined with an anticipated two to two and a half years of upfront engineering and permitting, results in an approximate five-year time frame for resumption of production at Port Neches."

The fire at Port Neches mainly affected distillation towers used to process crude C4. The terminal operations include about 100 storage tanks, of which 12 were damaged. TPC says 96% of the high-purity butadiene that had been stored at Port Neches has been moved offsite, as well as more than half of the material containing 1,3-butadiene.

As MRC wrote before, TPC Group said last Tuesday that 96% of the high purity butadiene and more than 50% of material containing 1,3 butadiene has been transported from the blast site. Once those transfers are complete, TPC Group said it would move crude C4, raffinate, polyblend and other process materials to other locations and finish securing the site.

Butadiene is one of the feedstocks for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScopr report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market decreased in 2019 by 4% year on year to 33,700 tonnes.

Headquartered in Houston, TPC was acquired in 2012 by private equity groups First Reserve and SK Capital.
MRC

Texas prosecutors accuse Arkema, executives of failures over chemical fire

MOSCOW (MRC) - Jurors in the criminal case against the U.S. arm of a French company on Thursday heard it routinely stored combustible chemicals where floodwaters could reach them and failed to alert emergency workers as toxic fires erupted, said Reuters.

Arkema SA's U.S. arm failed to relocate chemicals made at the Crosby, Texas, plant ahead of 2017's Hurricane Harvey and every prior storm, charged prosecutor Michael Doyle. Arkema, its U.S. chief executive, Richard Rowe, and the plant manager, Leslie Comardelle, are charged with the toxic releases. Former logistics chief Michael Keough who helped coordinate the response was charged with assault over injuries to emergency workers who inhaled the fumes.

The plant outside of Houston in 2017 became waterlogged and lost power needed to cool volatile chemicals after Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches (1.27 m) of rain on the area. Twenty-one people sought treatment for exposure to fumes from three chemical fires that erupted.

"The question is not when should it be removed, but should it be kept there when severe weather is threatening?" Doyle told a jury of nine women and three men. The plant is in a flood plain and had never removed its chemicals ahead of storms.

The executives face up to five years in jail on an endangerment charge and the company could be hit with a fine of up to USD1 million. All pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday. Defense attorneys accused the state of criminalizing "an act of God," and insisted no one could have foreseen the flooding that led the volatile organic peroxides to ignite, releasing toxic fumes.

The plant had never previously flooded and never lost power, said Arkema attorney Letitia Quinones. It would have been more dangerous to residents to move the chemicals through city streets, she said.

"No one knew it was going to be like this," said Quinones. She said law enforcement officials determined the area to be evacuated, not company officials. Two of the deputies that were injured entered the exclusion area without taking proper precautions, she said.

Judge Belinda Hill rejected defense motions for a mistrial after Doyle cited testimony given under immunity that the judge had ruled was not permitted in court.

The trial began after a series of petrochemical fires in the region last year fouled the skies over several cities, raising worries about chemical industry practices. The state's top environmental regulator called for a compliance review after businesses and schools were evacuated by fires at sites making gasoline, rubber, resins or storing petrochemicals.

The Crosby plant produced organic peroxides that are used to make plastic countertops, consumer goods and automotive parts. More than 350,000 pounds of the chemicals ignited and burned during three separate fires, a report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found.

As it was written earlier, in October 2019, Arkema (Colombes, France) announced the proposed divestment of its Functional Polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical (Seoul, South Korea), a subsidiary of SK, the major South Korean corporation. With this project, Arkema continues its shift towards specialty chemicals and advanced materials.

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

ADNOC announces expansion of carbon capture program

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is building on its position as one of the least carbon-intensive oil and gas producers in the world by significantly expanding its CCUS program, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Group CEO of ADNOC.

Speaking at the panel session titled ‘Thought-Leaders in Oil and Gas,’ at the International Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (ICCUS) conference in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Dr. Al Jaber reinforced ADNOC’s commitment to responsible oil and gas production as the company delivers its 2030 strategy, noting that the company is on track to expand CCUS capacity at least fivefold by 2030 as part of its holistic sustainability goals.

Commenting alongside Amin H. Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, Olivier Le Peuch, CEO of Schlumberger and Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, H.E. Dr. Al Jaber explained how CCUS is enabling ADNOC to significantly lower its greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity and maintain its best-in-class sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

H.E. Dr. Al Jaber said: “ADNOC’s CCUS program reinforces our position as the least-carbon intensive oil and gas producer in the world. It is also an important enabler of our holistic 2030 sustainability goals, specifically our target to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 25 percent.

“As we drive our CCUS targets, we are focusing on innovative and cost-effective solutions that make economic sense. And we are building on the foundation set by the Founding Father of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to help ensure ADNOC remains best-in-class in sustainability and ESG performance.”

ADNOC’s CCUS program is also enabling the company to maximize value from its hydrocarbon reserves through enhanced oil recovering (EOR), liberating the cleaner-burning natural gas to cater for growing demand, H.E. Dr. Al Jaber said.

Currently, ADNOC’s Al Reyadah facility in the emirate of Abu Dhabi has the capacity to capture 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually. ADNOC plans to expand the capacity of this program by over 500 percent capturing CO2 from its own gas plants, with the aim of reaching 5 million tonnes of CO2 every year by 2030 – the equivalent of the annual carbon capture capacity of over 5 million acres of forest or forest over twice the size of the UAE.

Detailing how ADNOC plans to achieve its CCUS targets, H.E. Dr. Al Jaber highlighted that ADNOC’s Shah gas plant has the potential to enable 2.4 million tonnes of CO2 to be captured while its Habshan and Bab plant could enable the capture of almost 2 million tonnes of CO2.

H.E. Dr. Al Jaber also noted that ADNOC’s CCUS expansion is an integral part of its recently announced broader sustainability goals that will help ensure the company produces more energy with less environmental impact.

ADNOC’s 2030 sustainability goals include a commitment to reduce GHG intensity by 25 percent; a limit on freshwater use to below 0.5 percent of our total water use; a commitment to ensure female representation on the board of each of its operating companies by 2022; a commitment to plant 10 million mangrove seedlings in Al Dhafra Region in the emirate of Abu Dhabi by the end of 2022; a commitment to achieve In-Country Value (ICV) of 50 percent across its full value chain by 2030 and a 100 percent commitment to HSE and asset integrity.

As MRC informed earlier, in July 2019, ADNOC took off-stream its Ruwais Refinery West Cracker for maintenance.

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

HIPS and GPPS imports to Kazakhstan remained the same in 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) to Kazakhstan remained in 2019 at the level of 2018, totalling 9,900 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.


Imports of material into the country increased in December 2019 by 45% year on year: from 800 tonnes to 1,100 tonnes. This figure was at 1,200 tonnes in November 2019.

HIPS and GPPS are mainly shipped to Kazakhstan from Russia.

The share of the Russian Federation dropped by 13% year on year in the total imports in January-December 2019 to 75% (7,400 tonnes).

Imports of Russian material into the country grew in December 2019 by 25% year on year to 1,000 tonnes. HIPS and GPPS imports from Russia to Kazakhstan were also at 1,000 tonnes in November 2019.

MRC

TPC Group to rebuild Texas butadiene plant in several years

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TPC Group said on Tuesday the company was "evaluating and planning" to rebuild parts of its southeast Texas petrochemical complex that were destroyed in a pair of November 2019 explosions, reported S&P Global.

The butadiene processing facility "is expected to take a number of years to rebuild," the company said.
In the meantime, TPC said the company can operate the site in Port Neches, Texas, as a terminal to serve current and potential future customers and suppliers.

TPC also will lay off an unspecified number of workers because fewer will be needed to operate a terminal, the company said.

"The company communicated to its employees today it is has made the very difficult yet necessary decision to reduce the workforce at its Port Neches operations," TPC Group said. "The company does not expect that we will need employees beyond those necessary to operate as a terminal for more than three to five years. The downsizing will impact salaried employees as well as union/hourly employees."

The site, which had made more than 16% of US butadiene supply, has been shut since a pair of explosions damaged the butadiene processing facility on November 27, sending one tower high into the air. The explosions damaged surrounding tanks and prompted evacuations in surrounding communities.

TPC Group said neighboring industrial plants that had shut down or reduced rates in the aftermath of the explosions were up and running. The company also was making "good progress" restoring terminal capabilities that require dock, tank farm and pipeline operations in the first half of 2020.

Those neighboring plants include what was then Huntsman's propylene oxide/methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) unit, which shut after the explosions because the company stored MTBE at the TPC Group site.

Indorama Ventures acquired that and other chemical intermediate and surfactant units from Huntsman in early January for USD2 billion, and brought forward a planned turnaround with the TPC site idled. The turnaround was expected to wrap up by the end of March, according to an Indorama presentation.

TPC Group said Tuesday that 96% of the high purity butadiene and more than 50% of material containing 1,3 butadiene has been transported from the blast site. Once those transfers are complete, TPC Group said it would move crude C4, raffinate, polyblend and other process materials to other locations and finish securing the site.

Butadiene is one of the feedstocks for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScopr report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market decreased in 2019 by 4% year on year to 33,700 tonnes.

Headquartered in Houston, TPC was acquired in 2012 by private equity groups First Reserve and SK Capital.
MRC