Total starts producing sustainable aviation fuel iat its La Meide biorefinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, French multinational oil and gas company, has begun producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its La Mede biorefinery in southern France and its Oudalle facility near Le Havre, as per the company's press release.

The biojet fuel, made from used cooking oil, will be delivered to French airports starting in April 2021. Total will also be able to produce SAF as from 2024 at its zero-crude Grandpuits platform, southeast of Paris.

All of these sustainable aviation fuels will be made from animal fat, used cooking oil and other waste and residue sourced from the circular economy. Total will not use vegetable oils as feedstock.

In this way, Total will be in a position to respond from its production sites in France to new French legislation that calls for aircraft to use at least 1% biojet fuel by 2022, 2% by 2025 and 5% by 2030. The development of SAF is one of the strategic paths being pursued by Total to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality, as biojet fuels help reduce CO2 emissions from air transportation.

“By producing sustainable aviation fuel at our French sites today, we are able to respond to strong demand from an aviation industry looking to reduce its carbon footprint, while adapting our industrial resources. As a broad energy company, we support our customers by providing innovative solutions to reduce their emissions. This commitment is fully aligned with Total’s climate ambition to get to net zero emissions by 2050,” said Bernard Pinatel, President of Refining & Chemicals at Total.

As MRC reported earlier, within the framework of its net zero strategy, Total will convert its Grandpuits refinery (Seine-et-Marne) into a zero-crude platform and will invest more then EUR500 mln into this project. By 2024 the platform will focus on four new industrial activities: production of renewable diesel primarily intended for the aviation industry, production of bioplastics, plastics recycling and operation of two photovoltaic solar power plants.

We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

1. The loss of profits of NKNK last year was due to large foreign currency loans

MOSCOW (MRC) - Net profit of Nizhnekamskneftekhim in 2020 decreased by 81% to 4.4 billion rubles, but not because of the lockdown caused by the coronavirus, but because of gigantic loans in euros, BUSINESS Online reports. NKNK's revenue also decreased, but not so much - by 15%, or 26.2 billion, to 147.9 billion rubles. According to the consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS, the operating result fell generally by only 5.4 billion to 22.7 billion rubles.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the world's petrochemical major, has warned that the Texas winter storm is expected to have had a negative impact of USD200 million on its first-quarter adjusted earnings, according to MarketWatch.

In addition, the FTSE 100 oil and gas major said it expects to report natural gas production of between 920,000 and 960,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day for the first quarter, combined with liquefied natural gas volumes of 7.8 million-8.4 million metric tons. This compares with previous guidance of 900,000-950,000 barrels and 8.0 million-8.4 million tons.

For the upstream business, production is expected at 2.40 million-2.475 million oil-equivalent barrels a day, including a 10,000-20,000 barrels hit from the Texas storms. This compares with previous guidance of 2.40 million-2.60 million barrels.

Sales volumes for oil products have been downgraded to 3.7 million-4.7 million barrels a day from 4.0 million-5.0 million. Sales volumes for the chemicals division have been revised down to 3.5 million-3.7 million tons from 3.6 million-3.9 million.

However, the company's chemicals adjusted earnings are expected to be positively impacted by improved base margins and slightly higher intermediate margins compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

As MRC informed earlier, Royal Dutch Shell Plc restarted the small crude distillation unit (CDU) on 2 April at its 318,000-bpd joint-venture Deer Park, Texas, refinery. The 70,000-bpd DU-1 CDU was shut on Feb 14 by a pump seal failure. All other units were shut the following day by severe cold weather. DU-1 is the last unit shut in February to restart at the refinery.

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.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd (ZPC) has started up its No. 2 cracker in Zhoushan, China, which is part of the company's phase 2 petrochemical project in the cournty, reported S&P Global.

Thus, the cracker with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons/year of ethylene and 700,000 tons/year of propylene began trial runs last week.

The commercial production at this facility is expected in the coming weeks.

As reported earlier, ZPC started operations at its No. 1 cracker in the first half of November 2019, whereas the commercial procution at this cracker was received in late December 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 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wanhua Chemical, a major petrochemical producer in China, plans to build a new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Fujian Province, southern China, adding to the PDH plant it operates at Yantai, eastern China, reported Indian CHEMICAL News.

The new plant will be built within the Fujian Jiangyin economic zone, near the city of Fuqing.

According to sources, the plant is expected to be completed in 2023.

The company's board has also approved plans to build associated downstream propylene derivative production chains in the Fujian Jiangyin zone.

Wanhua's PDH unit at Yantai has 750,000 metric tons/year of propylene capacity. It also operates a steam cracker with capacity for 1 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene and 520,000 metric tons/year of propylene at Yantai that came online in November last year.

As MRC wrote previously, in January, 2020 Wanhua Chemical Group disclosed plans for a second ethylene cracker project at its Yantai, China, site with local government officials. The project will include a 1.2-million metric tons/year (MMt/y) ethylene unit; pyrolysis gasoline hydrogenation; aromatics extraction; and production facilities for butadiene, high density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene (PE) plastomers and elastomers, polypropylene (PP), and other derivatives. Timing and other details were not disclosed. The second ethylene project will use naphtha and C4s as feedstock.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.
MRC