Houthis attack Saudi Aramco refineries

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Friday that Yemen's Houthis had attacked Saudi Arabian state oil giant Saudi Aramco's facilities in the port city of Jeddah with missiles and the Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries with drones, reported Reuters.

Sarea added that the attack also targeted vital facilities in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

As MRC informed before, in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.

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 2,487,450 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.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

KBR and ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing will collaborate to bring significant advancements to propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technology, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the collaboration, ExxonMobil's new proprietary catalyst technology will be combined with KBR's proprietary K-PRO PDH technology to convert propane into propylene. Enabled by the superior performance of ExxonMobil's new catalyst, the combined technology solution could offer financial savings compared to PDH technologies currently available.

"KBR's K-PRO technology and our next generation catalyst are a great fit and our collaboration with KBR will significantly help to reduce time to commercialize our next generation catalyst for PDH," said James Ritchie, President of ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC.

As MRC reported before, in early March 2022, ExxonMobil said it will exit a major oil and gas project and cease investing in Russia, making it the latest western oil company to cut ties with the country following its invasion of Ukraine. The Texas-based energy supermajor said it was “discontinuing operations” at the Sakhalin-1 project in Russia’s far east, one of the largest foreign-operated oil and gasfields in the country. Exxon follows BP, Shell and Norway’s Equinor, which have said they will dump stakes in projects and sell out of Russian state-backed energy groups after Moscow was hit with a barrage of western sanctions.

We remind that in February, 2022, ExxonMobil and SABIC successful started up Gulf Coast Growth Ventures world-scale manufacturing facility in San Patricio County, Texas. The new facility will produce materials used in packaging, agricultural film, construction materials, clothing, and automotive coolants. The operation includes a 1.8 MM metric tpy ethane steam cracker, two polyethylene (PE) units capable of producing up to 1.3 MM metric tpy, and a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit with a capacity of 1.1 MM metric tpy.

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 2,487,450 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.

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

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said on Friday that the country's manufacturing output rose 17.6% year-on-year in February 2022, compared to a revised 2.4% increase in January, said Channelnewsasia.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, the output grew 16.8 percent year-on-year in February, compared to a revised 4.9% growth in the previous month. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, Singapore's manufacturing output increased 16.6 percent in February. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 12.3%.

As for the performance of different clusters, the electronics cluster's output surged 32.4% year-on-year in February this year. The chemicals cluster's output declined 2.7% year-on-year in February. In the precision engineering sector, a growth of 1% year-on-year was recorded in the month.

The transport engineering cluster's output increased 4.5% year-on-year in February, while that of the general manufacturing cluster rose 12.6% year-on-year last month. The biomedical manufacturing cluster saw its output grow 25.3% year-on-year in February, compared to a revised 8.8% decline in January.

As per MRC, Shell has become the first supplier of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Singapore, and plans to start blending the fuel at its plant in the aviation hub. The first batch of SAF was blended in Europe, Shell said in a statement.

Also, Neste plans to produce its first batch of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Singapore by the end of 1Q 2023 after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its expansion project. Neste produces renewable fuels, mainly from waste and residues such as used cooking oil, animal fat from food industry waste, fish fat from fish processing waste and residues from vegetable oil processing.

mrchub.com

SABIC has leveraged its successful ties with Polivouga, a manufacturer of flexible film products with operations in Portugal, to launch a new TRUCIRCLE project designed to reuse post-consumer plastic waste recovered from areas up to 50km inland from waterways that has the potential to end up in our rivers and oceans, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The collaboration with the Nueva Pescanova Group, a Spanish brand owner specializing in the fishing, farming, processing and marketing of fresh, chilled and frozen seafood products, has resulted in the development of the world’s first frozen food packaging solution using SABIC’s certified circular polyethylene (PE) from feedstock sourced from ocean bound plastic. The new sustainable packaging will be launched to coincide with World Oceans Day 2022.

The ocean bound plastic is converted using advanced recycling into an alternative feedstock which SABIC uses to produce certified circular polymers - SABIC linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) for further processing to flexible packaging film by Polivouga. Then, Nueva Pescanova packages its frozen seafood in bags made from this film.

The collaboration is SABIC’s first TRUCIRCLE project using recycled ocean bound plastic in certified circular PE. Sami Al-Osaimi, Vice President PE & Sales at SABIC said, “This is an exciting circular packaging solution for us, since it demonstrates how used plastic that has the potential to end up in our oceans, can be brought back into a circular material stream to be converted into high quality food packaging. It also underlines SABIC’s commitment to the United Nations’ Strategic Development Goal 14 for life below water. The results once again demonstrate the art of the possible when dedicated value chain partners collaborate with the aim of making a difference.”

As MRC wrote previously, earlier this month, SABIC announced a new collaboration with Kraton to deliver certified renewable butadiene from its TRUCIRCLE portfolio for use in Kraton’s certified renewable styrenic block copolymers.

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.

SABIC is a diversified company manufacturing chemicals, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest state-owned company in Saudi Arabia. SABIC is currently the world's second largest ethylene glycol producer, the third largest polyethylene producer, and the fourth largest polypropylene producer.
MRC

Sinopec, formally China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, has suspended the discussions to invest up to USD500 million in the new gas chemical plant in Russia, reported Reuters with reference to a source.

The plan has been to team up with Sibur, Russia's largest petrochemical producer, for a project similar to the USD10 billion Amur Gas Chemical Complex in East Siberia, 40% owned by Sinopec and 60% by Sibur, set to come online in 2024.

"The companies wanted to replicate the Amur venture by building another one and were in the middle of site selection," said the source.

Sinopec hit pause after realising that Sibur minority shareholder and board member Gennady Timchenko had been sanctioned by the West, the source said. The European Union and Britain last month imposed sanctions on Timchenko, a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other billionaires with ties to Putin.

The Amur project itself faces funding snags, said two of the sources, as sanctions threaten to choke financing from key lenders, including Russia's state-controlled Sberbank and European credit agencies.

"It's an existing investment. Sinopec is trying to overcome the difficulties in financing," said a Beijing-based industry executive with direct knowledge of the matter.

Sibur did not comment on the suspension of the talks for the new chemical plant but said it continues to cooperate with Sinopec. It said the two companies continue to work jointly on implementing the Amur plant.

"Sinopec is actively participating in the issues of the project's construction management, including equipment supplies, work with suppliers and contractors. We are also jointly working on the issues of project financing," Sibur told Reuters by email.

As MRC informed before, Dmitry Konov steps down as the Chairman of PSJC SIBUR Holding’s Management Board, from PJSC SIBUR Holding’s Board of Directors, and from the Management Boards at PJSC SIBUR Holding and SIBUR LLC. Upon completion of all necessary corporate procedures, powers of PSJC SIBUR Holding’s Management Board will be transferred to PSJC SIBUR Holding’s Board of Directors and to the Management Board of SIBUR LLC, PSJC SIBUR Holding’s management company. These organisational changes are made following Dmitry Konov’s nclusion in the EU and UK sanctions lists and are set to improve resilience of SIBUR’s business as one of the fastest-growing global petrochemical players.

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.

SIBUR is the largest vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemical company in Russia, uniting a number of production sites in various regions of the Russian Federation. The company sells products to consumers in the fuel and energy complex, automotive, construction, consumer goods, chemical and other industries in more than 80 countries around the world.
MRC