Russian oil refining capacities will be reduced by 19.5% in July

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's offline oil refining capacity is expected to decline by 19.5% month-on-month to 2.866 million tonnes in July, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and Reuters calculations, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The offline capacity has been revised up this month, by 12.6% from the previous plan to 3.560 million tonnes.

The revision follows adjustments of maintenance schedule by some refineries.

As MRC informed earlier, crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia June 4 as the market used mixed data from the Energy Information Administration as an excuse to lock in profits following the recent surge in oil prices, while a stronger dollar provided further headwinds for the market. At 11:06 am Singapore time (0306 GMT), the ICE Brent August contract was down 26 cents/b (0.36%) from the previous settle at USD71.05/b, while the July NYMEX light sweet crude contract was down 19 cents/b (0.28%) at USD68.62/b.

As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, Ufaorgsintez (UOS, Bashneft’s petrochemical asset) has shut down operations at some of its low density polyethylene (LDPE) production capacities for a scheduled turnaround. The plant"s customers said UOS shut its second LDPE line (158 grade and 153 grade polyethylene - PE) for a scheduled maintenance on 1 June. The outage of the second PE line will be short and will take only a week. The first LDPE line (108 grae PE) will be shut for scheduled maintenance works in September.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - SIBUR's petrochemical holding is unlikely to go to an IPO this year, RBC reports, citing the words of its largest shareholder, NOVATEK CEO Leonid Mikhelson at SPIEF-2021.

"The IPO of SIBUR this year is unlikely, most likely it will happen in 2022. We will accelerate with this issue," the businessman said. L. Mikhelson added that in September SIBUR will close the deal to acquire 51% of the shares of TAIF Group. The remaining 49% stake will be purchased later.

SIBUR began preparations for the placement of its shares on the stock exchange in 2018. The company has hired several banks to advise on the matter, but the exact timing and details of the IPO were not disclosed.

Meanwhile, due to the declining interest of international investors in the Russian stock market, given the deteriorating geopolitical background, these plans were not implemented. The head of the company, Dmitry Konov, said that SIBUR expects the best combination of three factors to enter the IPO: financial reporting, the state of the industrial and financial markets.

In February, the company's CFO Peter O'Brien reported that SIBUR had decided to postpone going public and focus on exporting products to Asian markets, primarily Chinese.

"Now we cannot announce anything. It would be fair to say that this IPO is definitely one of the options and shareholders will continue to evaluate it, but there is currently no such plan," said the top manager.

He added that the IPO could take place closer to the opening of the Amur gas chemical complex under construction on the border with China, the construction of which should be completed in 2024.

SIBUR Holding is the leader in the Russian petrochemical industry and one of the largest global companies in the sector with more than 23 thousand employees. In 2019, SIBUR's revenues amounted to USD 8.2 billion, EBITDA - USD2.6 billion. Over the past 10 years, SIBUR has implemented a number of large-scale investment projects worth about RUB 1 trillion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemoursa, global chemistry company with leading market positions in Titanium Technologies, has appointed Mark Newman as its new president and CEO, effective 1 July, according to the company's press release.

Newman, currently chief operating officer, succeeds Mark Vergnano, who has led Chemours as president and CEO since it was spun off from DuPont in 2015.

Vergnano will be retiring from the company and assume the position of non-executive board chairman for the rest of 2021, assuring an effective transition of leadership to Newman, said the company.

Mark Newman joined Chemours in 2014 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He was instrumental in the launch of Chemours as a stand-alone, publicly traded company and helped transform a portfolio of businesses into a focused and profitable company. In 2019, Mr. Newman was appointed Chief Operating Officer with responsibility over the company’s global commercial businesses. He oversaw the recent evolution of the former Fluoroproducts business into two reportable segments: Thermal & Specialized Solutions and Advanced Performance Materials. Throughout 2020, he also chaired the company’s Crisis Leadership Team which oversaw the company’s global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Newman is the executive sponsor of the Chemours Diversity and Inclusion Council, the group charged with improving the company’s overall inclusion and diversity approach to talent acquisition and development, company culture, and community engagement.

Prior to joining Chemours, Mr. Newman was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of SunCoke Energy, where he oversaw strategy, business development, and information technology. He also served in a number of senior operating and finance leadership roles in the United States and China, primarily with General Motors Corporation, where he began his career in 1986.

As MRC informed before, in December 2019, Chemours announced plans to sell its methylamines and methylamides unit to Belle Chemical, an affiliate of Cornerstone Chemical. The sales price was not disclosed. Thus, Chemours had signed a letter of commitment with Belle Chemical Co. to sell Chemours' methylamines and methylamides business and production facilities at the Belle location. Earlier in 2019, Chemours announced it would stop making methylamines and methylamides at the plant. In 2020, it planned to start dismantling the methylamines operations. Once Belle takes possession of the plant, most of the employees at Belle and others assigned in supporting roles at other locations will become part of Belle, Chemours said. Cornerstone makes acrylonitrile (ACN) and melamine at Fortier, Louisiana.

Acrylonitrile is one of the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, ABS imports into Russia grew in January-April of 2021 by 29% year on year to 14,100 tonnes from 10,900 tonnes a year earlier. The share of imports from South Korea virtually remained at the previous year's level and was about 60%.

Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. The company has approximately 6,500 employees and 30 manufacturing sites serving approximately 3,300 customers in approximately 120 countries in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide Engineering & Construction, one of the world's leading industrial gas companies, has signed a contract with Zeeland Refinery, a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Lukoil, to provide a carbon capture and liquefaction solution in the Netherlands, accoring to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

CryocapTM FG is a unique solution that enables to capture more than 90% of the emissions from hydrogen production and will contribute to the decarbonization of the Vlissingen site, by capturing more than 800,000 tons of CO2 per year.

As part of the agreement, Air Liquide will provide the License, Process Design Package and technical services for a CryocapTM FG (Flue Gas) plant that will capture more than 90% of the emissions on the two Vlissingen site’s existing hydrogen production units and will have the capacity to liquefy 2,400 tons of CO2 per day.

As part of its decarbonization project, Zeeland refinery will thus be able to reduce its CO2 emissions on the Vlissingen site by more than 800,000 tons per year. The pure and liquefied carbon dioxide will then be transported for storage in the Dutch North Sea.

Cryocap FG is a new unique solvent-free technology solution developed by Air Liquide. It allows the capture and liquefaction of carbon dioxide contained in concentrated flue gases thanks to a combination of Adsorption and Cryogenics technologies. As it uses electricity rather than thermal energy, CryocapTM products can run on renewable energy to further reduce the environmental footprint of the sites equipped with this technology.

Air Liquide Engineering & Construction brings to this project an industry-leading experience in the development and operation of Carbon Dioxide Capture & Liquefaction units, with proven reference. Its CryocapTM unit in Port-Jerome, France, has been in successful operation for more than 5 years.

As MRC reported earlier, Air Liquide has just signed a new long-term contract with Russian steel producer Severstal to supply oxygen to its CherMK site in Cherepovets, Russia.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip Energies announced the initiation of an agreement with Agilyx Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilyx AS, and pioneer in the advanced recycling of post-use plastics, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This collaboration aims to accelerate the implementation of Agilyx’s technology for the advanced recycling of post-use polystyrene. Under this agreement, Technip Energies will market and license the integrated technologies of Agilyx depolymerization and Technip Energies purification technology, leveraging the expertise, resources, and global presence of respective companies. The technology is ready and available for licensing.

Both companies bring strong, specialized experience to this offering: Agilyx contributes its deep experience in chemical recycling of post-use plastics, while Technip Energies has extensive experience in scaling-up technology which will increase the plastic recovery.

Stan Knez, Chief Technology Officer of Technip Energies, stated “We are delighted to scale-up this sustainable process to market with Agilyx, providing a reliable circular economy technology for a major plastic used widely throughout the world."

Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx, said: “We’re excited to be working with Technip Energies. This partnership further accelerates the deployment of polystyrene circularity in the market, broadening polystyrene recyclability."

Agilyx’s proprietary advanced recycling technology converts post-use plastics back into their original chemical components such that they can be used to produce high-quality products that can be recycled indefinitely, without degradation.

As per MRC, Technip Energies provided the proprietary technology and process design for Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Chemical Co. Ltd.’s (Hengli) mega 1,500 kta(1) liquid ethylene plant in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. The plant successfully started up at the beginning of 2020 to reach its capacity shortly after the start-up, and despite COVID-19 context, passed all performance guarantees and the final acceptance test in the fourth quarter.

As MRC reported earlier, Technip Energies has been recently awarded a significant Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for its BR9 Expansion Project in Barauni, Bihar, in the Eastern part of India. This EPCC contract covers the installation of a new Once-through Hydrocracker Unit (OHCU) of 1 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) capacity, a Fuel Gas Treatment Unit (FGTU) and the associated facilities.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC