ExxonMobil working on CCS projects across Asia

ExxonMobil working on CCS projects across Asia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp, one of the world's petrochemical major, is pursuing carbon capture storage (CCS) hubs across Asia and has started talks with some countries with potential storage options for carbon dioxide, reported Reuters with reference to the company's head of low carbon solutions' statement on Monday.

One of Exxon's key projects is to build CCS hubs in Southeast Asia, similar to one being built in Houston, Texas, ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions President Joe Blommaert told Reuters.

CCS traps emissions and buries them underground but is not yet at the commercialization stage.

CCS advocates, including oil majors and the International Energy Agency, see the technology as being essential to help meet net zero emissions and key to unlocking large-scale economic hydrogen production, although critics say CCS will extend the life of dirty fossil fuels. Melbourne-based Global CCS Institute said in October that global plans to build CCS projects surged 50% over the last nine months.

For CCS to take off, a transparent carbon price and cross-border pricing adjustment systems will be necessary to enable CO2 to be captured in one country and stored elsewhere, Blommaert said in an interview ahead of the Singapore International Energy Week.

"That's why a transparent value of carbon is so important, that it is a durable mechanism, that it is agnostic to what kind of technology that goes ... and that it works across borders because emissions do not know any borders," Blommaert said, adding he expects discussions of carbon border tax similar to that in Europe to occur in Southeast Asia.

"Because much of the world doesn't have carbon pricing, there's a risk that some operators will move to countries that don’t yet price emissions," he told the conference.

Last month, the US energy major said 11 companies have agreed to begin discussing plans that could lead to capturing and storing up to 50 MM tons per year (tpy) of CO2 in the Gulf of Mexico by 2030.

"Unlike in Houston, the storage capacity here is not close to the areas with the highest emissions," Blommaert said.

"That's why we've been studying the concept of placing CO2 capture hubs in some of Asia's heavy industrial areas such as here in Singapore and then connecting them to CO2 storage locations elsewhere in the region," he said, adding that CO2 could be transported via pipelines or ships.

Southeast Asia's industrial CO2 emissions exceeded 4 B tpy, Blommaert said, citing 2019 data from the International Energy Agency.

ExxonMobil has listed Singapore, home to the major's largest refining-petrochemical center globally, as one of its CCS projects. However, Singapore does not have suitable CO2 storage sites, a recent CCS study commissioned by Singapore government showed.

Another study by the Singapore Energy Centre, partly founded by ExxonMobil, estimated nearly 300 B tons of CO2 storage capacity in depleted oil and gas fields and saline formations in Southeast Asia, Blommaert said.

Countries in the region with potential storage sites include Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia where ExxonMobil has oil and gas production facilities. The US major also operates a joint refining-petrochemical complex in eastern China Fujian with Sinopec and Saudi Aramco.

Dwi Soetjipto, the head of Indonesia's upstream regulator SKK Migas, told reporters last week that ExxonMobil is planning a CCS project at its mega Cepu block in East Java.

As MRC informed before, ExxonMobil shut down at its cracker in Singapore for maintenance last year. Thus, the company halted operations at the cracker on September 14, 2020. The cracker remained off-line till end-October, 2020. Located at Jurong Island, Singapore, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 450,000 mt/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 1,396,960 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

Solvay increased distributors composite and adhesive materials in the Americas

Solvay increased distributors composite and adhesive materials in the Americas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay has now four authorized distributors: Boeing Distribution Services Inc., Composites One LLC, Integral Products, and NSL Aerospace, said the company.

These distributors will have access to select leading composite and adhesive material solutions that Solvay offers, including structural prepregs, DAPCO sealants, structural adhesives, surfacing films and tooling prepregs.

As developments to multiple advanced industries such as aerospace, automotive, industrial, electronics and e-mobility markets continue to move at a rapid pace, Solvay’s channel partnership strategy will be vital to delivering customer value. Solvay's authorised stocking distributors will bring expert sales and technical teams to respond to customer needs with advanced composite material solutions to drive sustainable progress and innovation.

As per MRC, Solvay, a science company delivering high performance materials for safe and reliable food packaging, has conducted a proof of concept showing that polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) has the potential to be recycled. PVDC is used in food, beverage and healthcare multilayer barrier packaging across the world.

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.

Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of EUR10.2 billion in 2019. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program.
MRC

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat will build first production of superabsorbent polymers in Russia

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat will build first production of superabsorbent polymers in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gazprom neftekhim Salavat will build Russia's first production of superabsorbent polymers Gazprom neftekhim Salavat has signed an agreement for the development of a basic design and a license agreement for the use of Songwon Industrial technology for the production of superabsorbent polymers (SAP), said the company.

The company will continue the chain of converting acrylates into superabsorbent polymers at its production site. In Salavat, crude acrylic acid, butyl acrylate and glacial acrylic acid are already being produced at the facilities of the acrylic acid and butyl acrylate production complex commissioned in 2017. In the production of products, we use our own raw materials - propylene from EP-355 and butanol from shop No. 52.

The production of SAP will be a logical continuation of the development of acrylate processing. In addition, superabsorbents based on acrylic polymers are included in the “Action Plan for Import Substitution of the Chemical Industry of the Russian Federation” approved by order of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia dated 06.07.2021 No. 2471. The implementation of the import-substituting project will allow the company to cover 60-70% of the needs for superabsorbents in Russia. Investments in a new project with a capacity of 45 thousand tons / year will be approximately Rb11 bn.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, GNS resumed the production of LDPE after the scheduled maintenance works from 1 October. The outage was quite long and started from 20 July. The plant"s annual production capacity is 45,000 tonnes.

OAO "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly OAO "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of the leading petrochemical companies in Russia, carrying out a full cycle of processing hydrocarbon material. The list of products manufactured by the plant includes more than 140 items, including 76 grades of the main products: gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrenes, silica gels and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols and amines, a wide range of household products made of plastics, surfactants and much more.
MRC

Olin to permanently shut down remaining chlor-alkali capacity by end of Q3 2022

Olin to permanently shut down remaining chlor-alkali capacity by end of Q3 2022

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Olin Corporation (Clayton, Missouri) has announced that it plans to permanently shut down the remaining diaphragm-grade chlor-alkali capacity at its McIntosh, Alabama facility, by the end of third quarter 2022, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The closure of approximately 200,000 electrochemical unit (ECU) tons is in addition to the 200,000 ECU tons shut down at McIntosh in first quarter 2021.

"When this shutdown is complete, Olin will have rationalized approximately 855,000 ECU tons of high-cost, low-value diaphragm-grade chlor alkali capacity since early 2021," remarked Scott Sutton, Olin Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. "This action reinforces our commitment to lift our ECU values to a more sustainable level."

As MRC reported earlier, in July 2021, Olin Corporation entered into an agreement with ASHTA Chemicals, Inc. to purchase and sell the chlorine produced at ASHTA's Ashtabula, OH facility. Existing contracts will be honored for chlorine customers of both companies.

We remind that June production of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) in Russia was 103,000 tonnes (100% of the basic substance) versus 105,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of caustic soda totalled 642,500 tonnes in the first half of 2021, down by 1.2% year on year.

Olin Corporation is a leading vertically-integrated global manufacturer and distributor of chemical products and a leading US manufacturer of ammunition. The chemical products produced include chlorine and caustic soda, vinyls, epoxies, chlorinated organics, bleach, and hydrochloric acid. Winchester's principal manufacturing facilities produce and distribute sporting ammunition, law enforcement ammunition, reloading components, small caliber military ammunition and components, and industrial cartridges.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 25.10.2021

1. Indian refiners crude oil processing edged higher in September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian refiners' crude oil throughput in September edged higher from the previous month, government data showed on Friday, as refineries boosted output to meet surging demand, reported Reuters. Refiners processed 4.45 MM barrels per day (bpd) (18.21 MM tons) of crude oil last month, up from the 4.36 MMbpd in August, which was the lowest in 10 mos. "Refiners have been boosting throughput in order to meet demand during the festive season. Demand is expected to increase compared to previous months, as people travel more during festivities," Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq said.



MRC