ExxonMobil to expand CCS at LaBarge facility

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has made a FID to expand CCS at its LaBarge, Wyoming facility. The expansion project will capture up to 1.2 metric MMt of CO2, in addition to the 6-7 metric MMt captured at LaBarge each year, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Carbon capture and storage is a readily available technology that can play a critical role in helping society reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Joe Blommaert, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “By expanding carbon capture and storage at LaBarge, we can reduce emissions from our operations and continue to demonstrate the large-scale capability for carbon capture and storage to address emissions from vital sectors of the global economy, including industrial manufacturing."

ExxonMobil completed front-end engineering and design work for the project in December 2021 and expects to issue the engineering, procurement and construction contract in March. Pending regulatory approvals, startup is estimated in 2025 with an estimated investment of USD400 MM. The expansion is part of the company’s 2030 emission-reduction plans and supports the company’s ambition to achieve net-zero GHG emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) for its operated assets by 2050. By capturing an additional 1.2 metric MMt of CO2 each year, ExxonMobil can reduce GHG emissions from its upstream operated emissions by 3%. The LaBarge facility currently captures nearly 20% of all human-made CO2 captured in the world each year.

“Our state has always been a leader in carbon capture, utilization and sequestration and we are pleased to see projects like this that bring that technology forward. Wyoming and our industries do more than talk about carbon capture technologies. We help develop and deploy them,” said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. “This announcement is a great example of what industry can do to reduce greenhouse emissions and develop resources. I am delighted that ExxonMobil has decided to move forward with their expansion in Wyoming. This helps Wyoming advance its commitment to develop the technology to become carbon negative.

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.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes in 2021, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of 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) -- Cabot Corporation (Boston, Massachusetts) announces the groundbreaking of a new specialty compounds facility in Cilegon, Indonesia, according to SpecialChem.

The new facility is co-located with Cabot’s existing carbon black manufacturing site and will add 20,000 metric tons of annual global capacity for specialty compounds, including black masterbatch and conductive compounds.

It is expected that the facility will be operational at the end of 2022. The new capacity will provide a reliable, local supply to support the increasing need for specialty compounds in the rapidly growing masterbatch and conductive compounds market in Southeast Asia and globally.

The specialty compounds facility will incorporate Cabot’s latest technology advances into the plant design and operations. Additionally, being co-located with Cabot’s existing carbon black facility will enable Cabot to utilize integrated site economics through manufacturing efficiencies and reduced waste, including the use of recovered waste-heat energy from the carbon black facility.

This demand is driven by economic growth in the region as well as the evolving mobility landscape, increases in sustainable infrastructure developments and a rise in the production of electrical devices to support global connectivity needs.

This will reduce the environmental impact of the project in alignment with Cabot’s recently announced ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

“As a global leader in black masterbatch and conductive compounds, we are pleased to break ground on this new facility to expand our global reach and better serve our customers in the region and around the world,” said Aaron Johnson, senior vice president and president, formulated solutions.

“This new facility will enable us to meet the growing needs of our customers for innovative solutions that improve performance of their products and support their sustainability needs. Furthermore, we are proud that this facility will incorporate state-of-the-art technologies and energy reuse to help us achieve our sustainability goals and net zero ambitions,” added Johnson.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2016, Cabot Corporation announced a planned investment in new capacity to enhance its production capabilities for plastic formulations specifically for conductive compounds and masterbatches for engineering thermoplastic applications. The strategic investment at its manufacturing facility in Pepinster, Belgium was to support continued growth of Cabot’s Specialty Compounds business which aligns with Cabot’s broader strategy to drive application innovation and develop in the area of formulation solutions.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Cabot Corporation is an American specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company operates in over 20 countries with 36 manufacturing plants, eight research and development facilities and 28 sales offices.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has made a final investment decision (FID) to expand its carbon-capture and storage site in LaBarge, Wyoming, said the company.

The expansion will cost USD400m and increase carbon-capture capacity to 1.2m tonnes/year, ExxonMobil said. Current capacity is 6m-7m tonnes/year. ExxonMobil did not specify if the captured carbon dioxide (CO2) would be permanently sequestered or if it would be used for purposes such as enhanced oil recovery.

ExxonMobil completed front-end engineering design (FEED) in December 2021, the company said. In March, it should award a contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC). The expansion should start up in 2025.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil completed its first commercial sale of certified circular polymers, using its Exxtend technology for advanced recycling of plastic waste. The purchaser is Berry Global, which will use the circular polymers to manufacture containers for high-performance food-grade packaging on a mass balance approach.

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.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes in 2021, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of 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) -- Tranter received an order from a European based EPC company for a petrochemical project in Europe, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project is one of the largest petrochemical investments in Europe in the last two decades.

Tranter's scope of delivery to the project is a total of 37 large heat exchangers, including four jumbo-sized shell-and-plate heat exchangers that will be used in close temperature approach heat recovery services. These shell-and-plate heat exchangers each hold around 1100 plates, which corresponds to 1060 m2 of heat transfer surface.

In addition, Tranter’s scope includes another five shell-and-plate heat exchangers handling heat transfer between flammable liquids, four NovusBloc heat exchangers in 254SMO for high fouling and high temperature services, and 24 large and medium sized gasketed plate heat exchangers in low temperature/non-flammable services.

"The latest addition to our product portfolio, our NovusBloc welded plate heat exchanger, enabled us to offer the most efficient and suitable plate heat exchangers for each of the many heat transfer services required for this plant, thus giving us competitive advantage towards our customer’s key decision criteria," said Thomas Cassirer, Sales Manager, Global Accounts.

This plant is one of the first of its kind in Europe in many years and is built to produce important chemical raw materials for other plants, which produce plastics, fibers, detergents and other downstream chemicals.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, Kraton Corporation has recently announced its CirKular+ performance enhancement series C2000 and C3000 have been approved as fully compatible with recycling of polypropylene (PP) containers in Europe according to RecyClass. Pellets containing 5 wt.% of either CirKular+ C2000 or C3000 resin blended in an injection molding PP grade matrix were tested according to the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) critical guidance for PP rigid containers.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Canadian midstream energy company Pembina Pipeline expects to decide by the end of March on whether to proceed with a planned expansion of its Prince Rupert propane export terminal in British Columbia province, said the company.

The terminal, with a capacity of 25,000 bbl/day, was commissioned early last year and began loading propane onto vessels in April. It exports propane of petrochemical quality, the officials said.

Engineering of the expansion is "essentially complete", with a final decision on whether to proceed being dependent on “market dynamics”, such as customer demand, shipping costs, and North American and international pricing, the officials said.

They did not comment on the expansion project's costs or capacities. The propane for the terminal is extracted off-site from natural gas supply in northern British and Alberta, and is transported from Pembina's Redwater fractionation complex northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, to Prince Rupert by rail.

As per MRC, Pembina Pipeline and Inter Pipeline (IPL) are mulling the prospects of dehydrogenation/polypropylene (PDH/PP) production in Alberta province. On May 31, 2021, Pembina and Inter Pipeline entered into an agreement (the "Strategic Combination") to create one of the largest and best positioned energy infrastructure companies in Canada. Together the companies' diversified and integrated asset base can support and grow an extensive value chain for natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil, from wellhead to end user, that far exceeds anything either company can do separately.

Pembina Pipeline has been a gas supplier to the North American power system for over 60 years. Pembina owns and operates pipelines that transport a variety of hydrocarbon fluids, including conventional and synthetic crude oil and others, produced in Western Canada and North Dakota.
MRC