Stepan to expand alkoxylation capacity in the USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stepan plans to invest USD220m to build a new alkoxylation plant at its site in Pasadena, Texas, said the company.

The new plant will provide “a flexible capacity” of 75,000 tonnes/year, capable of both ethoxylation and propoxylation, and better position the company to serve growing global demand in its surfactant and polymer businesses, it said.

"We are excited to expand the alkoxylation capabilities of our North American network at the Pasadena site. This world-scale, state of the art investment will enable Stepan to support the growth in our core markets," said F. Quinn Stepan Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Stepan.

The plant is expected to come online in late 2023. When operational it will bring Stepan's alkoxylation network to three plants and position the company with a footprint in the globally strategic US Gulf Coast, it added.

As MRC informed before, Stepan conducted planned maintenance at its 90,000 tonnes/year phthalic anhydride (PA) plant Millsdale, Illinois, US, from early October to end-October, 2020.

Phthalic anhydride is widely used in for the production of paints and varnishes and plasticizers for PVC products. In a small amount it is used in the manufacture of rubber products, tires. In addition, it is used in the light, pharmaceutical and electrical industries.

According to MRC's DatasScope report, last month's SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market decreased to 2,300 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes in August, Ukrainian companies reduced their shipments of polymer from the USA. Overall SPVC imports reached 20,800 tonnes in January-September 2021, compared to 26,800 tonnes a year earlier. Limited export quotas of European and North American producers were the main reason for such a major fall in imports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has initiated the process for engineering, procurement and construction contracts as part of its plans to expand carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its LaBarge, Wyoming facility, which has already captured more CO2 than any other facility in the world, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The expansion project will capture up to 1 MM metric tons of CO2, in addition to the 6-7 MM metric tons already captured at LaBarge each yr.

“The expansion of our carbon capture and storage operations at LaBarge underscores our commitment to advancing CCS projects around the world,” said Joe Blommaert, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “This technology is critical to help meet society’s lower-emissions goals, and with the right policies in place, is immediately deployable. ExxonMobil has long supported policies that provide a predictable price on carbon emissions, which enable new or expanded carbon capture and storage investments.”

The LaBarge expansion project is in the design and permitting phase and a request for bids for engineering, procurement and construction contracts has been issued to third parties. A final investment decision is expected in 2022 and will be based on several factors, including regulatory approvals. Operations could start as early as 2025.

The proposed USD400 MM investment is the latest in multiple expansions of carbon capture at LaBarge. The location currently represents nearly 20% of all CO2 captured in the world each yr. The expansion will further mitigate emissions by capturing up to an additional 1 MM metric tons of CO2 each yr.

ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions is evaluating several other large-scale CCS projects in the US Gulf Coast, Europe and Asia. The company has an equity share in approximately one-fifth of global CO2 capture capacity and has captured approximately 40% of all the captured anthropogenic CO2 in the world.

ExxonMobil established its Low Carbon Solutions business to commercialize low-emission technologies. It is initially focusing its CCS efforts on point source emissions, the process of capturing CO2 from industrial activity that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, and injecting it into deep underground geologic formations for safe, secure and permanent storage. The business is also evaluating strategic investments in biofuels and hydrogen to bring those lower-emissions energy technologies to scale for the highest emitting sectors of the global economy.

As MRC reported earlier, ExxonMobil plans to build its first, large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, and is expected to start operations by year-end 2022. The new facility follows validation of ExxonMobil’s initial trial of its proprietary process for converting plastic waste into raw materials. To date, the trial has successfully recycled more than 1,000 metric tons of plastic waste, the equivalent of 200 million grocery bags, and has demonstrated the capability of processing 50 metric tons per day.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

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) -- On 15 October 2021, a meeting of SIBUR's Board of Directors elected new members to the Management Board of PJSC SIBUR Holding, expanding it to nine people, said the company.

So, Alexey Kozlov and Alexander Petrov dropped out, five new people entered, four of whom were representatives of the top management of SIBUR and General Director of TAIF JSC Ruslan Shigabutdinov.

The composition of the board of SIBUR LLC has grown from 16 to 17 people, it includes two Tatarstan citizens - Deputy General Director - Commercial Director of PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim Timur Shigabutdinov and Deputy Director of TAIF JSC for Energy and Information Technologies Ruslan Gizzatullin.

Also, the composition of the board of directors of TAIF PSC has changed. He grew from 10 to 12 people. Rustem Sulteev, Radik Shaimiev, Vladimir Presnyakov, Guzelia Safina, Alexander Fridman, Olga Ignatovskaya, Timur Shigabutdinov dropped out of the council. Their places were taken by the chairman of the board of SIBUR Holding, Dmitry Konov, the chairman of the board of SIBUR, Mikhail Karisalov, and other top managers of SIBUR.

Three representatives of TAIF remain on the council: Albert and Ruslan Shigabutdinovs and Timur Sulteev.

Earlier it was reported that in early October the merger of SIBUR Holding PJSC and TAIF JSC was completed. SIBUR received 100% of TAIF shares, and the shareholders of the Tatarstan company received 15% of SIBUR Holding shares, plus remuneration in the form of company bonds worth USD3 billion. The merged SIBUR company included Kazanorgsintez, Nizhnekamskneftekhim and TGK-16.

It was also noted that the European Commission approved the deal on 1 October.

TAIF JSC is the parent company of the largest non-public group in the Russian Federation. The group's netted revenue over the past 12 months amounted to more than RUB 720 billion. TAIF plans to enter the production of commercial products in the amount of more than 1.7 trillion rubles by 2035. per year, for this planned investment of 1.8 trillion rubles. for the next 15 years.

SIBUR manufactures and sells petrochemical products on the Russian and international markets in two business segments: olefins and polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene, BOPP, etc.), as well as plastics, elastomers and intermediate products (synthetic rubbers, expanded polystyrene, PET, etc.).
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1. AkzoNobel sees costs inflation peaking this quarter as it posts weaker earnings

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel's net income fell by 25.5% year on year to EUR164m in the third quarter following drop in operating profit due to significant raw material cost hikes, said the Dutch paints and coatings firm. Dutch paints and coatings maker Akzo Nobel warned on Wednesday that raw material costs inflation could peak in the fourth quarter before stabilising next year as it reported weaker-than-expected quarterly core earnings. “We expect the raw material situation in 2022 to be less hectic,” Chief Executive Thierry Vanlancker said in a call with analysts, adding that inflation will still be at the forefront in the first half of the year. “Hopefully we will get a little bit more breathing room, but we’re not betting on that, and our whole pricing plan and our whole market plan is based on the current situation,” Vanlancker said. The rebound in economic activity as coronavirus restrictions are eased has exposed shortages across supply chains, with companies scrambling to find workers, ships and even fuel to power factories, threatening the recovery and keeping central bankers on high alert over inflation and its impact on rate decisions.



MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India said Oct. 20 that surging oil prices could potentially create hurdles for a post-pandemic economic recovery, and urged the world's leading producers to take steps to potentially rectify the current supply and demand imbalances, reported S&P Global.

Speaking at the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek, Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the steep rise in prices was a wake-up call that investments need to flow into the oil and gas sector consistently.

"I am sure our friends in OPEC+ will take into account the sentiment voiced in forums like these. We are trying to ensure economic activity, but if high prices undermine that economic activity then economic activity will slow down and demand for oil and gas will also go down," Puri told the India Energy Forum.

Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the forum that OPEC and its allies do not see any crude oil shortages in the market, dismissing calls from consuming countries to increase supplies to tame rising prices.

Dated Brent prices have more than doubled in the last year, with S&P Global assessing the benchmark at USD85.03/b on Oct. 19.

OPEC+ members are currently adhering to an agreement to increase crude production by 400,000 b/d every month, but key customers, including India, the US and Japan, have complained that the alliance is still holding back too much supply.

"The energy markets today are characterized by imbalances. We need to accept that the world needs reliable supply of oil and gas until we can build new energy infrastructure," Puri said.

India's 2021 oil demand is forecast to grow 295,000 b/d to 4.9 million b/d, which would still be well below 2019 levels. The country is expected to reach a prepandemic level of oil demand in 2022, according to S&P Global Analytics.

Puri said India's crude import bill, which accounts for about 20% of the country's overall import bill, had risen to USD24 billion in the quarter ended June from USD8.8 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

"Those facts speak for themselves. Due to this extreme volatility, prices of fuels, such as petrol and diesel, have rallied to some of the highest levels in the country," he added.

Domestic gasoline consumption had sharply bounced back to a level higher than even prepandemic levels while diesel was also witnessing robust growth, Puri said.

India's per-capita energy consumption was about one-third the global average, creating the need to invest in building a wide variety of fuels to meet the anticipated growth in consumption, Puri said.

"India is focused on moving towards cleaner energy and developing a gas-based economy, while also achieving the 450 GW renewable energy target by 2030. There will be great dependence on domestic resources, such as biofuels, and moving into energy products, such as green hydrogen," Puri said.

As MRC wrote previously, the Indian company Nayara Energy, 49.13% of which is owned by Russia's largest state oil company - Rosneft, has launched a USD750 million petrochemical development program. Nayara Energy has the second largest refinery in India with a capacity of 20 million tons per year. The Indian company has already launched a refinery development program: within the first stage, it is planned to build units for the production of polypropylene (PP) with a capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes per year.

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 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC