Air Liquide and BASF to develop world largest cross-border CCS value chain

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide and BASF plan to develop world largest cross-border CCS value chain. The goal is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the industrial cluster in the port of Antwerp, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The joint project Kairos@C has been selected for funding by the European Commission through its Innovation Fund, as one of the seven large-scale projects out of more than 300 applications.

Kairos@C will be jointly developed by Air Liquide and BASF at its Antwerp chemical site. By avoiding 14.2 MMt of CO2 over the first 10 years of operation, it will significantly contribute to the EU’s goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050.

Besides combining CO2 capture, liquefaction, transportation and storage on a large scale in the North Sea, the project includes several innovative technologies. Notably, for capturing the CO2 from production plants, Air Liquide will use its patented Cryocap technology and, for drying the CO2, BASF will apply its Sorbead solution.

The project is planned to be operational in 2025.

Kairos@C is paving the way for the next phases of carbon abatement in the port of Antwerp. The project will also be connected to shared CO2 transport and export infrastructures, including a first-of-its-kind CO2 liquefaction and export terminal, which will be built under the framework of Antwerp@C, a consortium that aims to halve CO2 emissions in the Port of Antwerp by 2030. Air Liquide and BASF are founding members of Antwerp@C.

As MRC informed earlier, BASF is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site. The new Catalyst Development and Solids Processing Center will serve as a global hub for pilot-scale production and process innovations of chemical catalysts. The new building is scheduled for completion by mid-2024.

We remind that BASF aims is to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

We also remind that in mid-February, BASF said it was restarting one of its steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen complex in Germany after operations were halted earlier that month due to a technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces ethylene and propylene, and is one of two crackers on the site. One has a production capacity of 420,000 metric tons/year, with the other"s capacity at 240,000 metric tons/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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries and Saudi Aramco have decided to re-evaluate their agreement for the Middle Eastern producer to buy a stake in the refining and petrochemical business of India's biggest private refiner, and both companies would look at broader areas of cooperation due to the changing energy scenario, said S&P.

Register Now Reliance said in a statement over the weekend that following this mutual decision by both companies, it would drop its plan to create a separate oil-to-chemicals unit, which was proposed to be named Reliance O2C.
"Due to evolving nature of Reliance's business portfolio, Reliance and Saudi Aramco have mutually determined that it would be beneficial for both parties to re-evaluate the proposed investment in O2C business in light of the changed context. Consequently, the current application with National Company Law Tribunal for segregating the O2C business from Reliance is being withdrawn," the statement said.

Reliance and Aramco signed a non-binding letter of intent in August 2019 for a potential 20% stake acquisition by Saudi Aramco in the O2C business of Reliance. Over the past two years, both the teams made significant efforts in the process of due diligence, despite COVID-19 restrictions.

The decision to re-evaluate the USD15 billion proposed sale of a 20% stake sale in its oil to chemicals business to Saudi Aramco comes at a time when Reliance is stepping up efforts to embrace renewable energy business amid plans to be carbon neutral by 2035.

The oil to chemicals deal was supposed to gain momentum following the appointment of Aramco chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan as an independent director to the board of Reliance Industries. Aramco wasn't immediately available for comment.

Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced plans in June to build a giga factory in Jamnagar for the storage of intermittent energy as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project.

Four giga factories will be part of the Jamnagar complex, which will include an integrated solar photovoltaic module factory; an advanced energy storage battery factory for storage of intermittent energy; an electrolyzer factory for production of green hydrogen; and a fuel cell factory for converting hydrogen into motive & stationary power.

As per MRC, Reliance Industries (RIL) has taken off-stream one of its polypropylene (PP) plants in Jamnagar, India for a scheduled maintenance. Thus, this unit with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons/year of PP was shut on 5 August 2021 and will remain idle for approximately one month. The local supply is expected to take a hit from the shutdown, especially when demand is recovering from the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The fire, which broke out at one of Pertamina’s fuel storage tanks in the Cilacap refinery and petrochemical complex on 13 November 2021, did not affect operations at any other plants at the same complex, according to CommoPlast with reference to the company's statement.

In fact, all other production lines were operating normally during the incident.

The fire was completely extinguished after about 12 hours.

“We are in mid of the investigation on the causes of the fire, but there is no need for any panic buying because the fuel stocks are very safe,” said, Chief Executive of Pertamina’s refinery and petrochemical said.

In addition, the incident does not affect propylene supply to Polytama’s PP plant at difference location RU VI Indramayu-Balongan.

As MRC reported earlier, the fire started around 7:20 p.m. (1220 GMT) on Saturday at a fuel storage unit. Amateur videos broadcast by local media showed a large blaze colouring the sky orange.

Cilacap is one of Pertamina’s biggest refining facilities and supplies around 34% of Indonesia’s fuel demand, Pertamina said on its website.

As MRC informed before, PT Pertamina resumed operations at its sole polypropylene (PP) plant in Plaju, South Sumatera in mid-October, 2021, after a scheduled maintenance. The outage at the company's 47,000 mt/year of PP plant began on 16 September and was to last for about 17 days. Thus, this plant was initially scheduled to resume operations on 3 October, 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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

1. Gazprom Neft to boost hydrocarbons output over 100 mln mt in 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's Gazprom Neft said Nov. 18 it would hit its long-standing goal of reaching annual hydrocarbons output of over 100 million mt of oil equivalent in 2021, reported S&P Global. The company was seeking to reach this target despite oil production limitations under the OPEC + pact by diversifying gas and condensate portfolio. The company's output of hydrocarbons totaled 96.1 million mt in 2020, or 1.95 million b/d of oil equivalent. "For the full year, the company is expected to produce over 100 million mt of oil equivalent for the first time in its history, with further growth potential next year," CEO Alexander Dyukov said in a release. Gazprom Neft "proactively" boosted hydrocarbons production in the third quarter, he added, amid recovering demand for oil.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia Nov. 22 as a risk-off sentiment continued to drive a sell-off in oil markets with Europe battling its fourth wave of COVID-19 infections and the possibility of a release of state oil reserves still present, reported S&P Global.

At 10:04 am Singapore time (0204 GMT), the ICE January Brent futures contract was down 59 cents/b (0.75%) from the previous close at USD78.30/b, while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract fell 46 cents/b (0.61%) to US75.48/b.

"The headlines surrounding COVID-19 resurgences in Europe (is) likely to lead market sentiments into the new week," said IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong.

"While the longer-term trend is still leaning towards more economic reopening, fresh restrictions drive concerns of a delayed process and that more countries may potentially follow suit in rolling back reopening plans to curb virus spreads," Yeap added.

Austria is set to go into full lockdown starting Nov. 22 as daily cases in the country crossed 15,000 last week, following the Netherlands which went into partial lockdown from Nov. 13. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has not ruled out following suit as the country's recent caseload hit record highs.

The bearish headlines, coupled with reports of the US and other major oil consuming countries possibly tapping into their oil reserves, have worked against the narrative of a tightly-supplied market and the consequent bull run in oil prices.

Since hitting multi-year highs in late October, crude prices have struggled to break further ground. Surging energy costs have drawn the attention of governments worldwide as they grapple with the accompanying rise in inflation.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, earlier this month, TotalEnergies and Daimler Truck AG signed an agreement on their joint commitment to the decarbonization of the road freight in the European Union. The partners will collaborate in the development of ecosystems for heavy-duty trucks running on hydrogen, with the intent to demonstrate the attractiveness and effectiveness of trucking powered by clean hydrogen and the ambition to play a lead role in kickstarting the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure for transportation.

We also remind that 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 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC