EPA to send experts to refinery in US Virgin Islands to conduct investigation after recent incidents

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to send experts and staff to the Limetree Bay refinery in the US Virgin Islands as soon as this week to conduct an investigation after recent incidents at the plant caused some residents to feel ill, reported Reuters with reference to the agency's statement.

The EPA is conducting the investigation with the US Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources and US Virgin Islands Department of Health.

The agency said is looking to determine “the level of the exceedances, the composition of the releases, the duration and cause of the incidents, the corrective actions taken or to be taken, the potential public health impacts, and how to best prevent future incidents.”

As MRC informed before, in late March 2021, EPA said it had revoked an expansion permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands, citing concerns that the area around the facility is overburdened with pollution. The decision allowed the plant to keep operating but blocked ongoing expansion work pending an EPA review to assess measures the facility needs to take to protect nearby residents.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tasked by company Grupa Azoty ((Tarnow, Poland), one of the main players on the European fertilizer and chemical market, Mammoet recently completed the first scope of work that will lead to the construction of the propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene (PDH/PP) blocks of its client’s chemical facility, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project took place in the town of Police, in the northwest of Poland, and involved the lifting and transport of more than 480 items from a small port to the construction site six kilometers away.

“We are happy to announce the completion of the first stage of our collaboration with Grupa Azoty Polyolefins,” says Jakub Walasek, Branch Manager for Mammoet Poland. “This is one of the biggest projects in Poland in recent years and we were entrusted to deliver some of the largest items ever moved on Polish roads.”

Among the items transported by Mammoet, 5 were extremely large with a weight between 600-800t, and the largest was around 900t. The size of many of those items required the company to look for efficient and sometimes creative ways to get them from the port to their final location.

Characteristic of this first scope of the project with Grupa Azoty Polyolefins was certainly its complexity. There were multiple items to be moved, and many of them came in different shapes and sizes. Mammoet used PST’s and conventional axle lines for the transport. The largest item, called the PP splitter, required the use of two times double 16 axle lines PST’s in dolly configuration with turntables.

As MRC wrote previously, in late January 2021, Grupa Azoty said the first large propylene tank had been installed at its EUR1.5-billion (USD1.82 billion) PDH and PP project at Police, Poland.

We remind that the scheduled startup of Grupa Azoty’s flagship Polimery PDH and PP project at Police, Poland, has been delayed to the first quarter of 2023 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kemira has announced the closure of the Montevideo office in Uruguay effective from May 1, 2021, as per the company's press release.

This action is aligned with the company's global strategy to optimize the use of its sites and reduce operational costs by implementing remote work when possible.

With this change, the personnel based at the Montevideo office will work remote or be transferred to Kemira’s office located at the UPM Plant in Fray Bentos, where Kemira has been established since 2007.

This action will not result in a reduction of Kemira’s staff.

As MRC reported earlier, in September 2020, Kemira signed a multi year extension of its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy. Kemira said it had signed a multiyear extension to its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy (Aberdeen, UK). The agreement extends the contract between the two companies, signed in 2018, covering the supply of polymers to enhance oil extraction performance at one of the assets operated by Ithaca Energy in the UK North Sea.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's crown prince said in televised remarks that the kingdom was in discussions to sell 1% of state oil firm Saudi Aramco to a leading global energy company, said Reuters.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Aramco, the world's biggest oil company which listed on the Saudi bourse in late 2019, could sell further shares including to international investors within the next year or two. "There are talks now for the acquisition of a 1% stake by a leading global energy company in an important deal that would boost Aramco's sales in ... a major country," he said, without elaborating.

"There are talks with other companies for different stakes, and part of Aramco's shares could be transferred to the (Saudi) Public Investment Fund and a part listed ... on the Saudi bourse," he said in an interview aired by Saudi TV marking the fifth anniversary of Vision 2030.

The Aramco initial public offering in 2019 was seen as a pillar of the economic diversification programme aimed at attracting foreign investment. Aramco raised USD25.6 billion in the IPO and later sold more shares under a "greenshoe option" to raise the total to USD29.4 billion.

The crown prince in 2016 announced a plan to raise as much as USD100 billion via an international and domestic listing of a 5% stake in Aramco. In 2017 sources said Chinese state-owned companies PetroChina and Sinopec had written to Aramco to express an interest in a direct deal.

Listing plans were halted in 2018 and when they were revived the following year the deal found little interest beyond the Gulf. Riyadh scaled back its ambitions and canceled roadshows in New York and London, selling a 1.7% stake and relying on mainly domestic and regional buyers. The proceeds of that offer were transferred to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Prince Mohammed’s vehicle of choice to transform the Saudi economy and diversify away from oil revenue.

As MRC informed earlier, COVID-19 outbreak has led to an unprecedented decline in demand affecting all sections of the Russian economy, which has impacted the demand for petrochemicals in the short-term. However, the pandemic triggered an increase in the demand for polymers in food packaging, and cleaning and hygiene products, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. With Russian petrochemical companies having the advantage of access to low-cost feedstock, and proximity to demand-rich Asian (primarily China) and European markets for the supply of petrochemical products, these companies appear to be well-positioned to derive full benefits from an improving market environment and global economy post-COVID-19, says GlobalData.

We remind that in December 2020, Sibur, Gazprom Neft, and Uzbekneftegaz agreed to cooperate on potential investments in Uzbekistan including a major expansion of Uzbekneftegaz’s existing Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (SGCC) and the proposed construction of a new gas chemicals facility. The signed cooperation agreement for the projects includes “the creation of a gas chemical complex using methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology, and the expansion of the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex”.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trafigura sold the first cargo of naphtha, a refined oil product used in plastics, for which the carbon emissions from production to delivery were offset, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The move reflects a growing trend among oil and gas firms to market their products as cleaner and to secure a future for the fossil fuel industry amid an accelerating energy transition. Trafigura said in a statement it had sold the cargo, which was shipped last week from Corpus Christi, Texas and is due to arrive in the Brazilian Port of Aratuo, to Brazil's Braskem.

The global commodities trader said that it had used the most energy efficient vessel available at the time and the speed of the voyage was adjusted to reduce emissions further. The Geneva-based company added that the cargo was offset with nature-based projects in Indonesia known as REDD+, which are independently verified by the Verified Carbon Standard.

REDD projects emerged from the UN climate negotiations and aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. REDD+ goes beyond this to include sustainable forest management, conservation and increasing forest carbon stocks.

Rival trading firm Vitol began offering green liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes last month, whereby the offsets would mitigate emissions from wellhead to delivery. In January, Occidental Petroleum said it had sold the first ever 100% carbon-neutral shipment of crude to India.

Some companies have begun seeking a premium price for what they call cleaner petroleum products. Trafigura did not detail the costs of the cargo versus a regular naphtha shipment but said it was a service provided to Braskem. Although carbon credits do not reduce the pollution from a barrel of oil, their proponents say they help finance clean-energy efforts that otherwise would not be profitable.

As per MRC, Trafigura Group Pte Ltd, (Trafigura), one of the world’s leading independent commodities trading companies, completed the acquisition of the majority of the downstream assets of Pampa Energia SA. These assets include more than 250 service stations and the Ricardo Elicabe refinery (BBR) located in Bahia Blanca.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

MRC