ExxonMobil took final investment decision for capital improvements at Baton Rouge Refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gov. John Bel Edwards and ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Manager David Oldreive announced the company’s final investment decision for more than USD240 million in capital improvements at the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The suite of projects will improve processing capability, increase flexibility for meeting market demand, advance overall site competitiveness and install technology for an expected 10% reduction of volatile organic compound emissions.

The projects will help retain 1,300 existing jobs at the refinery, and ExxonMobil estimates the upgrades will support more than 600 construction jobs on-site over three years. The investment also will provide more than 20 full-time job opportunities for graduates of the North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative, a collaborative program spearheaded by ExxonMobil in 2012 to provide no-cost, fast-tracked industrial craft training for community residents.

"We are delighted with ExxonMobil’s decision to move forward with this important suite of projects,” Gov. Edwards said. “For more than a century, the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery has fueled the economy of our state and nation. These latest capital upgrades will continue to position the integrated ExxonMobil refinery and chemical complex here in Baton Rouge as one of the world’s most innovative and competitive energy sites."

Project construction is expected to begin later this year. According to Dr. Stephen Barnes, director of the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, direct, indirect and induced jobs resulting from project construction will total 2,030 in Baton Rouge by 2023. Direct property tax revenue is projected to reach USD43 million over the life of the project.

“Louisiana and the Baton Rouge community have helped make this suite of projects a reality by offering strong support and the opportunity to collaborate to ensure this investment provides benefit for our citizens and local businesses,” Oldreive said. "Through this investment, we will reduce the facility’s volatile organic compound emissions up to 10% while bringing direct value to the community through increased tax revenue and job opportunities for local residents and small and diverse businesses. ExxonMobil has made significant progress to reduce emissions globally and plans further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025."

To secure the investment, Louisiana Economic Development provided ExxonMobil with the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart, ranked the No. 1 state workforce training program in the U.S. for the past 11 years. The company also will utilize the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program. In addition to supporting the North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative, ExxonMobil will focus on providing supplier opportunities specifically to North Baton Rouge businesses.

"ExxonMobil is an economic driver in East Baton Rouge, supporting thousands of residents with quality jobs, strategically partnering with local companies for procurement needs, and injecting millions of dollars into public services,” Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said. “I am pleased by the news that this investment has been approved, and look forward to seeing the economic return to bolster employment, contribute to our tax base and reinvigorate local businesses."

After a 1909 groundbreaking in Baton Rouge, the ExxonMobil Refinery has grown to be part of a world-scale, integrated refining and petrochemical complex providing fuels, lubricants and wax products to customers around the world.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil has made a new discovery at Longtail-3 in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, as the US oil major develops one of the world's most important new oil and gas blocks in the last decade. Exxon operates the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block as part of a consortium that includes Hess Corp and China's CNOOC Ltd. It began production at the block in 2019. The company, however, did not specify the size of the latest discovery's oil and gas reserves.

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 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world"s energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for June shipments to the CIS countries began last week. Serious supply shortages over several months have resulted in a constant increase in export prices at European producers. Suppliers have announced a price increase of EUR60-80/tonne for June shipment, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

June contract price of ethylene was agreed up by EUR30/tonne from the previous month, which theoretically allows to talk about an increase of EUR15/tonne in the net cost of PVC production compared with May price. But since 2020, the main factor in the pricing of producers in Europe has been the imbalance of supply and demand or a shortage of PVC, which has actually led to a constant increase in prices for a year now.

And the acute shortage of polymer in the market allowed to achieve a two-digit increase in domestic and export PVC prices. European producers announced an increase in their export prices for the CIS countries by EUR60-80/tonne and higher in June. The rise in export prices for PVC in Europe began a year ago, and in fact, since that period, the PVC price has doubled.

But, despite a long period of growth and another record level of prices, the demand for PVC was still at a good level.
Many market participants have not been able to replenish their inventories in full for at least the last three months.
Some buyers reported the absence of PVC export quotas from some producers in Europe for June shipment due to planned shutdowns.

Overall, deals for June shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were negotiated in the range of EUR1,350-1,430/tonne FCA, whereas the previous month's deals were discussed in the range of EUR1,290-1,3530/tonne FCA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TotalEnergies and Novatek have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly work on sustainable reductions of the CO emission resulting from the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) including with the use of renewable power, to develop large-scale carbon capture and storage solutions (CCS) and to explore new opportunities for developing decarbonized hydrogen and ammonia, according to MarketWatch.

This partnership will leverage the significant low-cost resources of the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas and their large potential for geological storage.

Each partner will bring its best-in-class technologies and combine its know-how to explore and develop projects that will help reduce the carbon footprint of the LNG value chain.

"We are very pleased to begin a new chapter in our cooperation with our long-standing strategic partner Novatek. Our two companies are joining forces to deliver sustainable solutions to reduce emissions from our LNG projects and to provide low carbon LNG to our customers," said Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, on the occasion of his visit to the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. "In line with our transformation strategy and our ambition to be a major player in the energy transition, we want to be a leader in low-carbon LNG."

As MRC reported before, earlier this month, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its subsidiary NextChem had been awarded a contract by TotalEnergies to carry out a Front-End Engineering Design and supply its technological know-how to implement a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) plant in Grandpuits, France, capable of processing 400,000 tpy. The project is part of the plan to convert the Grandpuits Refinery into a zero-crude platform that will include a Bio Refinery, where NextChem is already engineering Europe’s first plant to produce compostable and biodegradable plastics, with a capacity of 100,000 tpy.

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.

TotalEnergies is a 19.4% shareholder in Novatek and holds a 20% stake in Yamal LNG, a project that started up in December 2017 and produced more than 18.8 million tons of LNG in 2020. The company also holds a 10% stake in Arctic LNG 2, a project currently under construction and on track to deliver its first LNG cargo in 2023.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - China's Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical, a joint venture between one of the world's largest energy and chemical companies and the largest oil refinery in Asia - Sinopec - and South Korea's SK Global Chemical, plans to begin test production at its new high denisty polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Wuhan, China in July, according to CommoPlast.

This new plant with the production capacity of 300,000 mt/year of HDPE is part of the second phase of the petrochemical complex in Wuhan.

The company already operates the first HDPE plant of a similar capacity at the same site.

As MRC reported earlier, the company conducted a scheduled turnaround at this HDPE plant from 16 October to 23 December 2020.

Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical also received commercial production at a new plant with the capacity of 300,000 mt/year of polypropylene (PP) in Wuhan on 21 May, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast, April estimated HDPE consumption in Russia slumped to 70,420 tonnes from 132,340 tonnes a month earlier. Domestic producers raised their exports, while some producers' output decreased. Overall HDPE shipments into the Russian market totalled 422,370 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Production increased, whereas imports fell by 39%.

Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical is a major manufacturer of petrochemical products in China. The company produces, among other things, such products as ethylene, propylene, polyethylene (high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene), polypropylene, monoethylene glycol, etc. According to Reuters, the company's annual ethylene output is 2.5 million tons.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - On June 9, the first production line of the Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) of Gazprom was officially launched, according to the company's statement.

It is noted that the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the video conferencing mode launched its launch.

The construction of the Amur GPP is one of the largest infrastructure projects of Gazprom in the Russian Far East. The plant will process multicomponent natural gas from the Yakutsk and Irkutsk gas production centers supplied through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. The design capacity of the plant will be 42 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The GPP will include the world's largest helium production - up to 60 million cubic meters per year. The plant will consist of six technological lines with a capacity of 7 billion cubic meters. m per year each. Their introduction is planned to be carried out in stages. The Amur GPP is scheduled to reach its design capacity in January 2025.

The Amur GPP will produce 38 billion cubic meters. m per year of commercial gas supplied to the PRC. Also, the enterprise will annually produce up to 2.6 million tons of ethane, up to 1 million tons of propane, about 500 thousand tons of butanes and up to 200 thousand tons of pentane-hexane fraction.

After the Amur GPP reaches its full design capacity, Gazprom's refining capacity will increase by 80%. Ethane output will increase sevenfold, and helium output - 16. This is about a third of current world consumption.

The Amur GPP is located near the city of Svobodny, Amur Region. It will become one of the largest natural gas processing enterprises in the world. The largest is only the Prudhoe Bay Unit Central Gas Facility in Alaska, USA.

The design capacity of the plant will be 42 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It includes six lines of 7 billion each. At the moment, the readiness of the second line is 65%, the third - 41%, the fourth - 15.6%, the fifth - 6.4%. Less than six years have passed since the sinking of the first pile to the present moment of launch, Gazprom recalled. "Today we are launching the plant strictly on schedule," Miller said at the launch ceremony.

In addition to the gas processing plant, 30 kilometers of roads, a railway line from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the plant site, as well as a temporary berth on the Zeya River for unloading large-tonnage equipment were built. The Svobodnenskaya thermal power plant was erected near the plant. Russian equipment was used here, including steam power boilers and turbine plants.

The investor and customer of the project is Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk LLC. The construction is managed by the general contractor NIPIGAZ (SIBUR group). In 2019, the facility attracted project financing for EUR11.4 billion. Funds were provided by 22 banks from Europe, Japan, China, Russia.

The products of the Amur GPP are commercial gas (methane) and components extracted from it for the gas chemical and other industrial sectors. The plant will produce 2.4 million tons of ethane, 1.5 million tons of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG), 200 thousand tons of pentane-hexane fraction. The main consumer of ethane and LPG from the Amur GPP will be the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (a joint project of SIBUR and Sinopec).

Earlier it was reported that in December last year SIBUR Holding chose Spheripol LyondellBasell polyolefin technology for its Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGHK) under construction. The technological process will be used at a polypropylene plant with a capacity of 400 thousand tons per year, which will be built in the town of Svobodny, Amur Region.

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 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.

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 USD8.2 billion, EBITDA - USD2.6 billion. Over the past 10 years, SIBUR has implemented a number of large-scale investment projects worth about 1 trillion rubles.

PJSC Gazprom is a Russian energy company engaged in geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sale of gas, gas condensate and oil, as well as the production and sale of heat and electricity. The largest company in Russia, the largest gas company in the world, owns the longest gas transmission system (over 160 thousand km). It is the world leader in the industry.
MRC