Spanish Repsol invests USD2.96 billion in renewable hydrogen value chanin by 2030

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish oil and gas company Repsol says it will invest EUR2.549 billion (USD2.958 billion) in the entire hydrogen value chain by 2030, according to Offshore Energy.

Renewable hydrogen is one of Repsol’s strategic pillars to achieve zero emissions by 2050. Thus, the company presented its hydrogen strategy for up to 2030.

Its goal is to become the market leader in the Iberian Peninsula. It also wants to position itself as a relevant producer in Europe. By 2030, the company additionally plans to have an equivalent installed capacity of 1.9 gigawatts. That is why it is planning all this investment.

Repsol said it will use different technologies to reach its renewable hydrogen production targets. These include electrolysis, biogas production, and photoelectrocatalysis. The last is a proprietary technology developing since 2018 with Enagas as a partner.

The plans will kick off with a demonstration plant in 2025. If successful, this will give Spain a leading technological position in the new H2 value chain, Repsol thinks.

As MRC reported earlier, Repsol and Portugal's EDP have just signed an agreement to jointly develop renewable hydrogen projects in the two countries. The companies plan to develop projects in Asturias and the Basque Country in Spain, and Sines in Portugal.

We remind that the “Cracker of the Future” consortium has announced two new member companies: Repsol and Versalis (Eni) have recently joined the consortium.

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. Its products are distributed in nearly 100 countries to around 24 million customers. Repsol Industrial Complex in Sines is the largest chemical site in Portugal.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Rongsheng Petrochemical has bought its first condensate cargoes for its mega refinery to be delivered in December, reported Reuters with reference to trade sources.

The trading arm of Chinese private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical purchased a North West Shelf (NWS) condensate cargo from BPand a Bayu Undan condensate cargo from Glencore , they said.

It is unusual for the refiner to purchase condensate as it typically buys medium to heavy sour crude for its mega refinery, traders said.

The refiner might be blending the condensate cargoes with the 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basra Light crude it purchased in a tender from Chinese trader Unipec earlier this week, one of the sources said. Condensate yields more naphtha, a feedstock for the refiner’s petrochemical production.

Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd (ZPC) operates China’s largest refinery capable of processing 800,000 barrels per day of crude in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province.

As MRC informed before, earlier this year, ZPC started up its No. 2 cracker in Zhoushan, China, which is part of the company's phase 2 petrochemical project in the cournty. 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 in early April 2021. The commercial production at this facility was received two weeks later.

We remind that ZPC started operations at its No. 1 cracker in the first half of November 2019, whereas the commercial production at this cracker was received in late December 2019.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With its name change from Total to TotalEnergies amid its transition from fossil fuels, the major oil company is investing more in renewables and energy storage while decreasing emissions from its natural gas business, reported S&P Global with reference to CEO Patrick Pouyanne's statement Oct. 14.

"Everyone wants to transition, and there is huge pressure to quit fossil fuels, but fossil fuels represent 80% of the energy supply today on the planet," Pouyanne said in a fireside chat during the remotely held S&P Global Energy Summit.

It was 80.2% 10 years ago, and it is 80.1% this year, and in that time energy demand has increased, he said.

"We want to decarbonize energy, so we need to invest largely in renewables and decarbonized energy," he said, adding that TotalEnergies plans to invest 75% of its capital expenditures in hydrocarbons and 25% in renewables and electricity, "which is quite new."

Pouyanne said he is not sure that is the right balance, but it is the current strategy. Globally, the oil industry has not been investing enough in conventional oil production to fight against natural decline rates, he said.

The company said in late May during its shareholders meeting that investors had approved a resolution to change names from Total to TotalEnergies in order to represent the "strategic transformation into a broad energy company," according to the company's website.

Specifically, TotalEnergies has businesses focused on oil, natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, biomass, wind and solar power.

Pouyanne said the strategy is linked to the evolution of oil and power demand because the speed at which automakers are shifting to electric vehicles "is impressive" and is expected to lead to global oil demand declines, though it remains unclear when that will happen.

The company remains "quite bullish" on natural gas, and LNG in particular, because TotalEnergies sees gas as the right energy for the transition, he said.

"We are building today a multi-energy company with oil and gas, but also renewables and electricity, and tomorrow hydrogen and other technologies," Pouyanne said.

Asked about the role of gas in the energy transition and whether investing in gas-related assets locks in greenhouse gas emissions for the life of those assets, he responded that at first it is better to make electricity from gas rather than coal, which cuts the emissions in half, and power demand is increasing.

And while it is better from a climate perspective to generate power from gas instead of coal, the challenge for gas usage is reducing methane emissions, he said. Gas-fired power plants are controllable assets that can ramp up and down, which helps deal with renewable energy intermittency, and although batteries can help, long-duration energy storage remains a difficult challenge, Pouyanne said.

Regarding decarbonization strategies, Pouyanne said carbon offsets do not help and Total is focused on cutting emissions directly from its operations. Also, a certified and efficient carbon credit market that is clearly regulated is needed, "and we will work with that," he said.

As MRC informed before, TotalEnergies has recently inaugurated the extension of Synova in Normandy, the French leader in recycled polypropylene production. TotalEnergies is therefore doubling its mechanical recycling production capacity for recycled polymers, to meet growing demand for sustainable polymers from customers, such as Automotive Manufacturer (Auto OEM) and the construction industry.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

TotalEnergies is a broad energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, and electricity. The company rebranded itself from Total to TotalEnergies during Q2 2021. The French firm has announced allocating part of surplus revenues to share buybacks. Its 105,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, clean, reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OLAX Engineering has been selected and awarded the Owners Engineers and Project Management Services (PMC) contract for the FEED of the BUA grassroots 200K bpd grassroots refinery and petrochemical complex to be located in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This multi-billion-dollar integrated project aims at producing Euro-V fuels - high-quality gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG and polypropylene for the domestic and regional market. OLAX has deployed a complete project management team overseeing all contractors and licensors on the project, the FEED project execution is from UK and Nigerian offices.

Abdulsamad Rabiu, the founder and Chairman of BUA Group visited the Reading offices of OLAX Engineering in the United Kingdom to review project progress and said “We are very happy with the outstanding work OLAX are doing, they have an excellent and well experienced team. I have full confidence that working with OLAX will help us achieve our project goals and objectives"

Dr. Jamal Akinade, CEO and Founder of OLAX Engineering said: “This is a very exciting project for us, for BUA Group and for Nigeria, we are very proud to be part of this major project, and this is a testament to our ambitions as a growing company. We are grateful to the BUA group for trusting us with this hugely important role. We pride ourselves on technical integrity and being reliable partners and we shall adhere to these core values in delivering this project within schedule and budget".

As MRC, ExxonMobil Synthetics (ExxonMobil) announced it is responding to customer needs and has confirmed plant feasibility to significantly increasing high viscosity metallocene polyalphaolefin (High Viscosity mPAO) synthetic base stock production.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian oil refiners' margins have rallied back to their highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, spurred by a doubling of gasoil profits as the global economic recovery and power shortage drive demand for the fuel, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to analysts and traders' statement.

Gasoil demand has surged as power generators seek alternatives to record-high natural gas and coal and as industrial consumption has climbed while economies reopen from COVID-19 restrictions. That has pushed the gasoil profit margin nearly 60% higher in the past month, replacing gasoline as the key component of overall refinery profits.

The Singapore complex refining margin, a proxy for Asian refiners' profitability, jumped to more than USD7 a barrel earlier this month, the highest since September 2019.

The rebound will incentivise Asian refiners to boost output in the coming months although regional supplies of refined oil products are expected to stay capped by declining Chinese exports and low inventories.

"We see improving momentum for Asian refiners ahead, benefiting not just from the near-term gas-to-oil switching this winter but also on peaking of Chinese oil products exports," Citi analyst Oscar Yee said in a note, raising the bank's outlook for South Korea's SK Innovation, Thailand's Star Petroleum Refining Pcl and IRPC PCL, and Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp.

The release of pent-up demand could see regional gasoline consumption rising by some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) over November and December, while gasoil demand is expected to rise by some 200,000 bpd between now and December, underpinned by the resumption of more economic activities, said Dylan Sim, an analyst at consultancy FGE.

"Low exports from China will continue to support Asia’s gasoil complex through to the end of 2021," he said.

Also, middle distillate inventories across key storage hubs in Asia are at their lowest for this time of the year since 2013 and are now 9.1 million barrels lower than the 2017-2019 average, Sim said, after refiners cut output because of the recent lower profits.

Global power shortages caused by natural gas and coal price spikes will also drive consumers to switch to diesel for power. Consultancy Rystad Energy expects the switch in fuels to boost Asia's oil demand by 400,000 bpd on average over the next six months.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, Formosa Plastics Company (FPC), part of Formosa Petrochemical, is in plans to take off-stream its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao, Taiwan for a scheduled turnaround on 8 June, 2021. This cracker with an annual capacity of 700,000 tons of ethylene and 350,000 tons of propylene is expected to remain shut unitl mid-July, 2021.

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.
MRC