Pertamina resumes normal operations at Balongan refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations at Indonesia’s state oil company PT Pertamina’s 125,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Balongan has returned to normal this week, following a fire in some parts of the refinery in late March, said the company in its statement as of 9 April.

Thus, the fire broke out just after midnight last Monday, 29 March, forcing Pertamina to shut the plant and evacuate around 950 nearby residents.

As MRC informed before, only four storage tanks were affected, out of the total 72 tanks in Balongan with total capacity of 1.35 million kilo litres.

The company had began the restart process at the refinery on March 31, two days after the fire broke out, by restarting the primary processing CDU (Crude Destilation Unit). Next, the secondary processing unit starts up in stages, beginning from the RCC (Residual Catalytic Cracker) unit, which processes the residue into high-value products, and it was operating normally on April 7.

We remind that PT Pertamina shut its cracker in Indonesia for maintenance works from 18 March, 2020. This cracker with a production capacity of 578,000 tons remained off-stream until 18 April 2020.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries (RIL) and US-based Chart Industries are leading a new coalition focussed on commercialising hydrogen technologies and systems to build net-zero carbon pathways in India, according to Kemicalinfo with reference to a statement from the alliance.

The alliance will work together to build the hydrogen economy and supply-chain here and also help develop blue and green hydrogen production and storage apart from building hydrogen-use industrial clusters and transport use-cases with hydrogen-powered fuel cells.

The alliance will focus on industrial clusters, specifically steel, refineries, fertilisers, cement, ports and logistics as well as heavy-duty transport use-cases and help establish standards for storing and transporting hydrogen in pressurized and liquefied form, the statement added.

“India needs to identify and execute large-scale hydrogen demonstration projects if it wants to be part of the global supply chain for hydrogen. Beyond R&D pilots, India needs ‘hydrogen-valley’ style national initiatives across a region like a high-traffic industrial freight corridor, with multiple use-cases,” said Anurag Pandey, R&D team lead at Reliance Industries.

“Such hydrogen-related systems projects are strategic for India’s energy transition plans, linking closely with renewables and battery-technology. These require multiple industry players to come together and form consortia to implement such projects. The India H2 Alliance will take the lead on such initiatives.”

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, RIL shut its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in India for maintenance in April 2021. The unit in Dahej with an annual capacity of 315,000 tons/year was taken offline by 5 April 2021 and will resume operations on 20 April.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PVC production reached 259,400 tonnes in the first three months of 2021, down 3% year on year. All producers decreased their output over the stated period.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Occidental Petroleum's low-carbon unit said it plans to construct and operate a pilot plant that would use human-made carbon dioxide, instead of hydrocarbon-sourced feedstocks, to produce bio-ethylene, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The pilot plant will be jointly developed by Occidental's venture capital arm, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, and bio-engineering startup, Cemvita Factory. It is expected to start functioning in 2022. Bio-ethylene is currently made from bio-ethanol, which is made from sugarcane.

The new technology produces bio-ethylene from carbon dioxide, water and light, which helps lower costs and carbon emissions, Cemvita's Chief Executive Officer Moji Karimi said. Ethylene, widely used in the chemical industry, is a component of products ranging from plastic films to PVC piping and coolants.

Interest in low-carbon initiatives has grown in recent years, ranging from companies seeking to offset their climate impact to public officials worried about the slow pace of international agreements to cut emissions.

Oxy Low Carbon Ventures in 2019 had invested in Cemvita to look at bio-manufacturing for Occidental's chemical unit.

As per MRC, OxyChem, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), a major international petrochemicals manufacturer, resumed production of caustic soda, chlorine and VCM in Corpus Christi, Louisiana, USA, which had previously been closed due to a winter storm. This production with a capacity of 678,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda, 605,000 tonnes/year of chlorine per year was closed in mid-February due to severe frosts in the region.

According to MRC ScanPlast, March production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 90,200 tonnes from 79,400 tonnes a month earlier, all producers increased capacity utilisation in March. Total PVC production in Russia reached 259,400 tonnes in January - March 2021 against 266,900 tonnes a year earlier, a decrease in production volumes was seen from all producers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Linde Engineering to design and build an integrated hydrogen fueling station and electrolysis plant for German waste-to-energy recycling company AGR Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet, said the company.

The project comprising hydrogen production and high-performance fueling technology is receiving funding of up to EUR6.2 million from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the framework of the National Innovation Program Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP). The funding guidelines are being coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by the company Project Management Julich (PtJ).

The project encompasses proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, compressors, storage tanks and high-performance fueling stations. The contract also includes provisions for Linde Engineering to provide maintenance and service. The electrolyzers will have an annual capacity of around 440,000 kg of hydrogen. The electricity will come from AGR’s waste-to-energy thermal power plant, where municipal and commercial waste with a biogenic content of around 50 percent serves as the primary fuel source. The electricity required for the production of green hydrogen will come from AGR’s energy efficiency measures, while securing the feed of green electricity and environmentally friendly heat into the public grids.

As MRC informed earlier, Ruskhimalliance, a parity joint venture between Gazprom and Rusgazvydobuvannya, on March 26 signed an agreement of intent with the Linde Engineering holding, part of the German The Linde Group, on the project for the implementation of a gas processing plant (GPP) in Ust-Luga. Ruskhimalliance intends to approximately halve the cost of the contract for the creation of a gas processing plant in Ust-Luga. The contract price will be EUR5 billion against EUR10 billion with the previous contractor, one of the interlocutors said.

According to the ScanPlast by MRC, the estimated consumption of PE in Russia amounted to 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 against 217,890 tonnes in the same period a year earlier. Only high-density polyethylene (LDPE) and low-density polyethylene (HDPE) supplies have grown.

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2020 sales of USD27 billion (EUR24 billion). We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain and protect our planet.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish energy firm Repsol said it will furlough up to 830 workers at its A Coruna and Puertollano refineries in Spain as pandemic restrictions have led to an "unprecedented" slump in demand for fuels, reported Reuters.

"It is a sustained situation that has kept fuel consumption for transport much lower than expected," Repsol said in a statement.

In Q1 2021, the profit Repsol makes on refining products that come into its refineries in Spain decreased to USD0.2 per barrel from USD4.7 in the first three months of 2020, its trading statement released on Thursday showed.

Uncertainty generated by the broad global shift towards clean energy and away from fossil fuels contributed to the decision to furlough the workers, Repsol said.

As MRC informed previously, Repsol is seeking European pandemic recovery funds to support projects including new biofuel plants and 'green' hydrogen production made from renewable sources in a pivot away from oil and gas to supplying low-carbon energy.

We remind that Repsol's refinery at Puertollano in central Spain has recently carried out an upgrade of its olefins unit. The modernization was a part of planned maintenance of the cracker and chemical derivative plants at the end of 2020.

We also remind that Spain’s Repsol 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 were not disclosed.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers 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.
MRC