ExxonMobil offers new proposal to locked-out Beaumont refinery workers

ExxonMobil offers new proposal to locked-out Beaumont refinery workers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil, an American petrochemical major, offered its first concession in a new contract proposal to locked-out workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery and lube oil plant to include some seniority protection, reported Reuters.

Exxon on May 1 locked some 650 workers out at the 369,000-barrel-per-day refinery, replacing them with temporary workers and saying the company was afraid a strike might lead to disruptions to production.

"The amended offer, which comes after months of good-faith bargaining meetings, provides further support to our represented employees’ concerns about security and seniority," spokesperson Julie King said in an email.

The leaders of United Steelworkers union (USW) local 13-243, which represents the locked-out workers, said Exxon's new offer fell short.

"Although these changes are recognized as movement by the company, the overall 40-page comprehensive offer still leaves much to be desired," the leaders said in a statement issued Wednesday night.

Exxon has not withdrawn proposals that would eliminate lead operator positions, give it the right to right to move operators among different units regardless of job seniority and to eliminate the practice of workers bidding for jobs that come open, the leaders said.

"These three proposals alone are still a direct attack on the core values of the union’s safety, seniority and security," they said.

The new proposal includes seniority protection for job transfers between the lubricants and refinery portions of the complex. The USW 13-243 leaders said this was not a change, but clarified what Exxon had previously said. It also includes layoff protection for certain jobs and warehouse operator promotions in lubricants, Exxon said. The USW leaders said this proposal could result in the elimination of a department and the cutting jobs in another department.

The refinery and lube plant has continued to produce motor fuels and Mobil 1 oil with managers and supervisors.

If the new proposal is ratified before Nov. 1, the workers will receive a USD500 bonus, Exxon said.

As MRC informed before, ExxonMobil rejected three proposals in August made by the union representing 650 locked-out workers at the company’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery.

We remind that in mid-summer, 2021, ExxonMobil's Beaumont, Texas refinery was operating at about 60% of its 369,024-bpd capacity because of the lockout of union workers.

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 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

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

Chemtrade sells two specialty chem businesses to Vertellus

Chemtrade sells two specialty chem businesses to Vertellus

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund has agreed to sell its potassium chloride (KCl) and vaccine adjuvants businesses to Vertellus for about USD155m, said the Canada-based industrial chemicals company.

Vertellus, a Pritzker Private Capital (“PPC”) company, is acquiring businesses from Chemtrade that produce specialty ingredients essential in the efficacy of medications for hypertension and diabetes, production of next-generation biologics and improving the effectiveness of certain vaccines. The businesses, which had been classified as Assets Held for Sale in Chemtrade’s financial statements, are part of Chemtrade’s Water Solutions and Specialty Chemicals (WSSC) segment and are located in Midlothian, Texas (KCl) and Berkeley Heights, New Jersey (Vaccine Adjuvants).

Scott Rook, President and CEO of Chemtrade, said, “These are both good businesses, which have benefitted from our recent capital investment that expanded and upgraded both plants. As a strategic buyer, Vertellus will be able to add further value and will benefit from the skilled teams at both locations. We are confident that Vertellus and PPC will take the strong platform that we have built and make the businesses even stronger."

Chemtrade will use the net proceeds of the sale to reduce bank debt. Based upon the midpoint of guidance for 2021 provided by Chemtrade in August 2021, and after making a pro-forma adjustment for the loss of a full year’s EBITDA of the disposed businesses, this repayment will reduce Chemtrade’s senior ratio by approximately 0.7 times.

Due to the anticipated timing of the closing of this transaction, the sale will not have a material impact on Chemtrade’s 2021 reported distributable cash after maintenance capital expenditures. These businesses generated approximately USD14.3 million of EBITDA during the twelve months ended June 30, 2021.

Chemtrade’s management and Board of Trustees thank the employees at Midlothian and Berkeley Heights for their dedication and their commitment to operational excellence and wish them well.

As per MRC, Vertellus (Indianapolis, Ind) announced it has acquired Bercen Chemicals, a leading U.S. supplier of alkyl succinic anhydrides and additives used in the fuel, lubricant, and paper industries.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 411,200 tonnes in the first six month of 2021, up by 12% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes in June, compared to 85,890 tonnes a month earlier.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, The Vertellus group of companies was originally founded in 1857 as a manufacturer of niche specialty products. Today, Vertellus is one of the largest providers of unique specialty chemicals used in diverse applications, processes and market sectors, including personal care, healthcare, food & agriculture, performance coatings, paper additives, infrastructure and industrial specialties.
MRC

Spanish Repsol and Italian Versalis join“Cracker of the Future” consortium

Spanish Repsol and Italian Versalis join“Cracker of the Future” consortium

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The “Cracker of the Future” consortium announced two new members and accelerating the development of a game-changing technology for the electrification of the steam cracking process. This enables a revolutionary decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The consortium announced two new member companies: Repsol and Versalis (Eni) have recently joined the consortium.

Together with founding members Borealis (member of the OMV Group), BP, and TotalEnergies SE, the consortium covers ~1/3 of the European Union’s steam cracking capacity with units in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

There is a wide variety of possible electricity-based heating technologies, each offering its advantages, opportunities, disadvantages, and risks. The consortium has assessed many electricity-based heating technologies. It has selected a few for deeper dives to evaluate their development status and discuss potential cooperation with technology and equipment providers.

The consortium is currently evaluating different technology opportunities and will soon announce one of our preferred highly promising options while a few other promising concepts need further assessment before we can come to a decision. Such a progressive funneling of opportunities allows the consortium to elect the most promising technologies quickly, while maintaining space for potential new promising developments.

In the scenario aimed at, and with public innovation support, a demonstration can be undertaken in 2023, and commercial availability could be delivered as early as 2026. The availability of sufficient affordable renewable electricity (and infrastructure) is key for commercial deployment.

Steam crackers convert naphtha or natural gas liquids into basic building blocks (including ethylene, propylene, and aromatics), the start of many chemical value chains. However, the conversion requires a significant amount of energy and is conducted in furnaces at about 850 degrees Celsius, typically achieved by the combustion of fossil fuels. The building blocks are converted into a large variety of chemical products, delivering the functionality for our way of life ranging for instance from medical applications, to packaging to protect food, and polymers in wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and light-weighting of cars.

European Crackers are currently annually emitting ~30 Mton of CO2 (~20-25% of the European Chemical Industries’ overall greenhouse gas emissions). The majority of these emissions originate from the crackers' furnaces. In combination with other electrification measures, electric cracking with renewable energy can eliminate the cracker's greenhouse gas emissions to a large extent.

Currently, European crackers predominantly operate on fossil-naphtha feedstock with some light feedstock such as LPG and ethane originating from refining of oil and from natural gas liquids. Electric crackers will also be able to convert bio naphtha and pyrolysis oil from waste plastics (chemical recycling) and thus enable key process routes for the circular economy.

Meeting Europe’s Green Deal and becoming climate-neutral and circular requires enormous and disruptive changes. Developing electric cracking is one of the key changes. More than ever, a public-private partnership will be essential to achieve the objectives.

As MRC reported earlier, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) have announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies have agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Repsol is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Repsol was ranked as the 645th-largest public company in the world. It has more than 24,000 employees worldwide.

Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC

SIBUR developed an additive to extend the life cycle of polymers

SIBUR developed an additive to extend the life cycle of polymers

MOSCOW (MRC) - SIBUR has developed and patented an additive to extend the life cycle of polymers, the company said in a statement.

RF Patent No. 2717664 "Concentrate Composition and Method for Increasing the Viscosity of a Polymer" was obtained by SIBUR last year. The invention relates to the use of bottle plastic - PET, one of the most popular types of polymers in processing.

"The development took about a year. We needed to find a solution that would allow us to obtain a product of better quality. We did it. And this is the result of the teamwork of our R&D center," commented Irina Ryzhikova, a leading researcher at NIOST.

The additive developed at NIOST allows maintaining the basic physical and mechanical properties of this material at the primary level even after its mechanical processing. "This increases the number of possible PET recycling cycles and removes restrictions on the options for its recycling, which could arise due to a decrease in the quality of the material after mechanical processing," said Vladimir Bushkov, General Director of NIOST.

Commitment to the principles of a circular economy and the development of polymer recycling are among the key focuses of SIBUR's Sustainable Development Strategy. Plastic has a high recyclability and can be reused in a production cycle up to 10 times or more. The use of recycled polymers in production reduces the impact on the environment: it reduces the carbon footprint of the final product and helps to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

The company’s statement notes that according to the results of the International Conference on Intellectual Property, the additive developed at SIBUR, which allows to extend the life cycle of polymers, was included in the list of ten main Russian inventions of the 21st century.

Earlier it was reported that the Polyef is planning to produce PET granules with the addition of secondary raw materials in 2022 in Bashkiria. The company's demand for secondary raw materials is estimated at 34 thousand tons annually, contracts have already been signed for the supply of more than 50% of this volume. At the same time, the Russian Environmental Operator (REO) plans to implement an investment project for the production of PET flakes from used food packaging for further supply to SIBUR. The supply of recyclable materials is expected to begin in 2024.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 411,200 tonnes in the first six month of 2021, up by 12% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes in June, compared to 85,890 tonnes a month earlier.

SIBUR is a vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemical company operating at 26 production sites located in various regions of the Russian Federation. SIBUR sells products to over 1,400 consumers in the fuel and energy complex, automotive, construction, FMCG, chemical and other industries in 75 countries around the world.

US crude, fuel inventories rise as production rebounded from recent storms

US crude, fuel inventories rise as production rebounded from recent storms

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week as the production rebounded from recent storms, reported Reuters with reference to the US Energy Information Administration's statement.

Crude inventories rose by 4.6 MMb in the week to Sept. 24 to 418.5 MMb, EIA data showed, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.7 MMb drop.

The rebound came as US crude output jumped by 500,000 bpd to 11.1 MMbpd, a level consistent with activity before Hurricane Ida slammed into the US Gulf Coast about a month ago. Analysts consider weekly production data less reliable than monthly figures, which are released on a lagging basis.

Refinery crude runs rose by 68,000 bpd in the last week. Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.6 percentage point to 88.1% of total capacity on the week.

US gasoline stocks posted a modest gain of 193,000 barrels to 221.8 MMb, compared with expectations for a 1.4 MMb rise. Gasoline product supplied was 9.2 million bpd over the last four weeks, or about 1% below pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 385,000 barrels in the week to 129.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.6 MMb drop.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for US futures rose by 131,000 barrels in the last week, the EIA said.

US oil prices briefly dipped on the news before rebounding to trade around even on the day, down 3 cents to US75.26 a barrel as of 10:39 a.m. ET (1439 GMT). Brent lost 14 cents to USD78.95 a barrel, also recovering some losses.

As informed earlier, Shell said earlier this month it observed damage from Hurricane Ida to its transfer station West Delta-143 offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. West Delta-143 serves as the transfer station for all production from its assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals. Shell said then it was not yet safe to send personnel offshore to learn the full extent of the damage and estimate the effect on production.

We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
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