Shell with partners signs gas concession agreement to develop Block 10 in Oman

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Integrated Gas Oman BV, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, along with its partners, OQ and Marsa Liquefied Natural Gas LLC (a joint venture between TotalEnergies and OQ), have signed a concession agreement with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals on behalf of the government of the Sultanate of Oman to develop and produce natural gas from Block 10, as per Shell's press release.

The parties also signed a separate gas sales agreement for gas produced from the block. The two agreements follow an interim upstream agreement signed in February 2019.

Shell’s entry into this block signifies a further commitment to Oman, while enhancing and diversifying Shell’s gas supply.

“These agreements represent a major step for Shell and for our relationship with Oman. They generate value and strengthen our Integrated Gas business, which we need to deliver the energy Oman and the world need today. And we are looking at how Shell can help Oman with developing low-carbon energy in the future,” said Wael Sawan, Shell Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions Director.

The concession agreement establishes Shell as the operator of block 10, holding a 53.45% working interest, with OQ and Marsa Liquefied Natural Gas LLC holding 13.36% and 33.19% respectively. For the initial phase, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is building the infrastructure for the project, including the main pipeline to the Saih Rawl gas processing facility, on behalf of the Block 10 venture partners. The venture will drill and hook up wells to maintain the production beyond the initial phase. The block is expected to reach production of 0.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (bscf/d). Start up is expected within the next two years.

In addition, Shell and Energy Development Oman (EDO) signed an agreement to process the natural gas from Block 10 in EDO’s Saih Rawl facility.

Shell and the government have agreed that, in parallel to the development of Block 10, Shell will develop options for a separate downstream gas project in which Shell could produce and sell low-carbon products and support the development of hydrogen in Oman. Any project would be subject to further agreements and future investment decisions.

As MRC reported earlier, Royal Dutch Shell plans to build a pyrolysis oil upgrader to turn plastic waste into chemical feedstock at its petrochemical complex in Singapore, part of its shift from oil and gas to renewables and low-carbon energy. The company is also considering building a CCS regional hub and a 550,000 tpy biofuels plant at its 60-year-old Pulau Bukom manufacturing site, one of five remaining energy and chemical parks owned by Shell globally. The projects form part of Shell Singapore's plans to cut emissions from its own operations by half by 2030, from 2016 levels on a net basis, Shell Downstream Director Huibert Vigeveno said in November, 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.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) surged 24.2% year-on-year in November, marking the biggest jump in nearly a decade and 12th straight month of growth, said Channelnewsasia.

The rise extended the 17.8% increase in the previous month, and is the highest since February 2012. Both electronics and non-electronics exports grew, according to data released by Enterprise Singapore (ESG) on Friday (Dec 17).

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX increase by 1.1% in November, following the previous month’s increase of 4.1%. Electronic exports continued to grow, recording a 29.2% increase on a year-on-year basis, driven primarily by integrated circuits, personal computers and disk media products, said ESG.

Shipments of non-electronic products grew by 22.7%, led by specialised machinery, petrochemicals and primary chemicals. "NODX to the top markets as a whole rose in November 2021," said ESG, although exports to Thailand declined.

The largest contributors to this increase were China, Taiwan and South Korea. Exports to China grew by 45.3 per cent due to specialised machinery, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. Shipments to Taiwan expanded by 36.5% due to integrated circuits, measuring instruments and petrochemicals.

Exports to South Korea rose by 57.9% due to specialised machinery, integrated circuits and personal computers. Shipments to emerging markets grew by 54.2%. This growth was mainly due to South Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, as well as Latin America.

As it was written before, Japan's chemical exports in November rose by 20.2% year on year to yen (Y) 907.1bn ($7.95bn), supporting the overall growth in shipments abroad. Exports of organic chemicals rose by 39.5% year on year to Y191bn in November, while shipments of plastic products were up by 14.4% at Y250.6bn, according to data from the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Levima New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. issued an announcement comprehensive utilization of 100,000 tons/year by-product carbon 4 & carbon 5 and supporting technical transformation of olefin separation system, has been successfully put into production and the technical and economic indicator calibration has been completed, said the company.

Levima Technology's OCC project started construction on August 13, 2019, and was completed on August 31, 2020. A trial run was successful On October 15, 2020 and qualified ethylene and propylene products were produced. At present, it has realized continuous and stable operation.

C4 &C5 are common by-products of catalytic cracking units, which are less economical and often used for fuel. How to further use C4 & C5 to produce high value-added products and improve the overall economy of the plant is a problem that methanol-to-olefin companies have been seeking to solve. According to the market information of Zhuo Chuang Information, on December 23, 2020, the market price of C4 is about 3900 yuan/ton, and C5 about 4900 yuan/ton, while the market price of ethylene is about 8,200 yuan/ton, and propylene about 7,950 yuan/ton. The conversion of by-products such as C4 & C5 into ethylene and propylene has high economic value.

The project adopts the first domestic second-generation OCC technology jointly developed by Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute and Levima. Compared with the first generation OCC technology, the second generation technology has stronger adaptability to raw materials, higher ethylene propylene yield and better economy.

The announcement shows that after Levima Technology’s OCC project is put into operation, the conversion of C4 & C5 (by-products from DMTO (methanol to olefin) plant) to ethylene and propylene can greatly reduce the unit consumption of main raw material methanol. Ethylene and propylene can also be further processed to produce high-performance ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, polypropylene special materials, functional ethylene oxide derivatives and other high value-added new material products. In 2019, the methanol consumption of Levima Technology was 1.35 million tons. After the OCC project is put into operation, the methanol unit consumption is expected to drop by about 10%, which will greatly reduce the company's production costs and have significant economic benefits.

As MRC informed before, Shandong Levima New Material took its methanol-to-olefin (MTO) plant off-stream for maintenance in early-October, 2017. The plant remained off-line for around 6 weeks. Located in Shandong, China, the MTO plant has an ethylene capacity of 170,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 200,000 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 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dutch chemicals distributor IMCD has agreed to acquire 100% of the shares of Austria-based Polychem Handelsges.m.b.H. (POLYchem), a provider of chemical raw materials and additives in Austria and southeast Europe, said the company.

The acquisition of POLYchem, expected to close in Q1 2022, would provide IMCD with a platform to better serve customers throughout southeast Europe. The acquisition price was not disclosed. Last year, POLYchem, with a staff of 65 people, had sales of about EUR25m.

As per MRC, South Korean Kumho Polychem in June closed production at its ethylene-propylene rubber plant in Yeosu, South Korea for scheduled repairs.

Kumho Polychem cut production utilization at its ethylene propylene rubber plant in Yeosu, South Korea in September last year following a scheduled overhaul.

Established in 1978, POLYchem started trading raw materials, machinery, and additives for the GRP industry. Their diverse product offering and expanded coverage across Southeast Europe has made them a distribution partner to leading speciality chemical manufacturers in the region. In 2020, they generated a revenue of approximately EUR 25 million and they add 65 employees to the IMCD Southeast Europe team.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices were mixed on Monday, with Brent edging up while US crude futures slipped after airlines called off thousands of flights in the US over Christmas holidays amid surging COVID-19 infections, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 41 cents, or 0.6%, to USD73.38 a bbl by 0053 GMT. The contract did not trade on Friday because U.S. markets were closed for the Christmas holiday.

Brent crude rose 40 cents, or 0.5%, to USD76.54 a bbl after settling down 0.92% on Friday.

Both contracts jumped 3% to 4% last week after early data suggested that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may cause a milder level of illness.

However, the highly transmissible variant is causing COVID-19 case numbers to surge across the world. In the past three days, thousands of passengers traveling during Christmas have been stranded after US airlines cancelled flights due to COVID-related staffing shortages.

In Europe, natural gas prices touched record highs last week on tight supplies, supporting Brent crude prices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the European Union can only blame its own policies for record gas prices, saying some of its members resell cheap Russian gas at much higher prices within the bloc.

Looking ahead, oil investors are focused on the next OPEC+ meeting on Jan. 4. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, will meet to decide whether to go ahead with a 400,000 bpd production increase in February.

Russia believes oil prices are unlikely to change significantly next year with demand recovering to pre-pandemic levels only by the end of 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

As MRC informed before, Novatek and Uniper have just signed a term sheet on the long-term supply of large volumes of low-carbon ammonia. These supplies will be delivered to Uniper’s markets in Germany and North-West Europe. Novatek is developing a major low-carbon ammonia production facility on the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia, making use of the vast local gas reserves. Carbon dioxide formed during the natural gas-to-hydrogen production process will be captured and stored using a highly efficient underground storage infrastructure (CCS).
MRC