Chevron agrees to join Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization

Chevron has announced an agreement to join the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD), according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Chevron’s involvement aims to help support GCMD’s efforts to develop potentially scalable lower carbon technologies – including those that enable the use of ammonia as a maritime fuel – and the commercial means to enable their adoption.

The GCMD is an independent, non-profit organization, established with support from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. It collaborates with the maritime industry, plans to conduct pilot projects and trials, and advocates for well-designed climate policies and standards.

“Shipping is a hard-to-abate sector and to reach the International Maritime Organization's climate goals, collaboration across the value chain is required,” said Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization. “We look forward to working with Chevron and capitalizing on its experience as a fuel producer, supplier and end user to operationalize pilots, which we believe will ultimately shorten the time to deployment and adoption of decarbonization solutions. This partnership will enable both organizations to work closely on the fuels of the future as well as carbon capture technologies, both of which are critical enablers expected to help the sector meet its net zero ambitions.”

As part of its pursuit of a lower carbon future, Chevron Shipping is continuing to explore new technologies, energy-saving devices, and lower carbon fuels, and is collaborating with industry organizations on these potential solutions.

In 2021, Chevron launched Chevron New Energies (CNE) to accelerate lower carbon businesses in hydrogen, CCUS, offsets and emerging energy opportunities, as well as support Chevron’s continued focus on renewable fuels and products. As part of its strategy, CNE is focused on customers in sectors of the economy with harder to abate emissions.

“Chevron is leveraging our capabilities, assets and customer relationships to identify opportunities to lower emissions of our own operations, while also identifying ways that essential sectors of the economy, such as the maritime industry, can achieve their lower carbon goals,” said Austin Knight, vice president of Hydrogen for Chevron New Energies. “Alongside Chevron Shipping, we look forward to collaborating with GCMD and its partners on this effort.”

As MRC reported earlier, Chevron plans to begin an overhaul of the crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 245,271-bpd Richmond, California, refinery in mid-April, 2022. Chevron spokesman Tyler Kruzich declined to comment on day-to-day operations. Chevron will shut the 240,000-bpd CDU for the overhaul. The CDU breaks down crude oil into hydrocarbon feedstocks for all other units at the refinery.

We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.

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.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
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Japan’s Mitsui & Co and Indonesian state-owned energy and petrochemicals company Pertamina are looking at commercial opportunities for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in Indonesia, said Reuters.

CCUS infrastructure is a factor in decisions where to locate new chemical plants. The companies have launched a feasibility study to evaluate the carbon dioxide (CO2) subsurface storage capacity of Indonesian oil and gas fields whose production volume has been declining.

Among those are the Duri and Minas oil fields in the Rokan Block on Sumatra, which is operated by Pertamina. The plan is to “examine potential commercialisation toward the establishment of a CCUS value chain”, including capture and transportation of CO2 emitted from industrial plants, power generation plants, and other facilities, Mitsui said.

The partners will also look into the potential of receiving CO2 from other nations, including Japan, via ship transportation, aiming to create new low-carbon solution business in Indonesia.

Mitsui added it would promote initiatives toward the creation of a CCUS value chain in the Asia-Pacific region through the partnership with Pertamina, thereby accelerating CCUS commercialisation projects around the globe.

"CCUS is expected to play a significant role in helping the Asia-Pacific region achieve a low-carbon economy while meeting its growing energy demand,” said Toru Iijima, an executive with Mitsui’s Energy Solution Business Unit.

“Leveraging our expertise in the oil and gas upstream business and extensive business networks, both of which represent Mitsui's strengths, we will work closely with Pertamina to provide industrial CO2 reduction solutions in Indonesia,” he said. Financial or other terms were not disclosed.

As per MRC, Olin Corp. (Calyton, Mo.) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Tokyo) announced a global strategic alliance to better serve customers. The companies have agreed to a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture that brings together Mitsui’s top-notch global logistics, deep supplier and customer relationships, and breadth of product portfolio with Olin’s scale, North American export capability, and production flexibility across the electrochemical unit (ECU) portfolio.

As per MRC, Mitsui Chemicals, Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Toyo Engineering Corporation and Sojitz Machinery Corporation announced that a joint pilot project to be demonstrated by the four companies is to be funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Covestro entered into an agreement with Mitsui Chemicals on the supply of raw materials phenol and acetone from ISCC Plus certified mass-balanced sources. Both components will be used for the production of polycarbonate at Covestro's Asian sites in Shanghai, China, and Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The high-performance plastic is used, for example, in car headlights, LED lights, electronic and medical devices and automotive glazing. Japan's Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsui & Co., Ltd are already a long-standing supplier to Covestro.

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INEOS is to develop a dedicated acetonitrile unit at its Cologne, Germany site to capitalise on anticipated pharmaceuticals sector demand for the material, said the company.

The company is to develop a 15,000 tonne/year production facility at the site to enhance supplies for its European customer base, on the back of anticipated demand from the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and bioscience sectors.

Acetonitrile is usually produced as a co-product of acrylonitrile (ACN) rather than as a standalone product, and is a key component in many drug and nutrition manufacturing processes.

The investment “demonstrates our commitment to underpin and reinforce our Nitriles production platform on the Cologne site”, said INEOS Nitriles CEO Hans Casier.

INEOS is a global manufacturing company making the raw materials and energy used for everyday life. Its products make an indispensable contribution to society by providing the most sustainable options for a wide range of societal needs.

As per MRC, INEOS Aromatics has completed a USD70 million modernisation of its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Merak, Indonesia, that significantly reduces emissions and increases capacity, supporting the competitiveness and growth of the Indonesian polyester industry. The installation of a larger oxidation reactor, reconfiguration of the reactor’s heat recovery system and revamp of the process air compressor train will both reduce CO2 emissions per ton by 15% and increase the site capacity by 15%, from 500,000 tonnes to 575,000 tonnes per annum.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2021, INEOS Styrolution joined the US Plastics Pact in their support for collaborative, solution-driven initiatives intended to drive significant system change in the design, use, and reuse of plastics. The US Plastic Pact unites cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy, and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.

We remind that in April 2021, INEOS Styrolution, Recycling Technologies and Trinseo announced that they had reached a significant milestone in their plans to build commercial polystyrene (PS) recycling plants in Europe. Recycling Technologies has been selected as the technology partner.

INEOS Styrolution is the leading global styrenics supplier, with a focus on styrene monomer, polystyrene, ABS Standard and styrenic specialties. With world-class production facilities and more than 90 years of experience, INEOS Styrolution helps its customers succeed by offering solutions, designed to give them a competitive edge in their markets. At the same time, these innovative and sustainable best-in-class solutions help make the circular economy for styrenics a reality. The company provides styrenic applications for many everyday products across a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, household, construction, healthcare, packaging and toys/sports/leisure. In 2020, sales were at 4 billion euros. INEOS Styrolution employs approximately 3,600 people and operates 20 production sites in ten countries.

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Indian packaging major Cosmo Films will invest around rupee (Rs) 1.4bn (USD18.44m) to build a 25,000 tonnes/year cast polypropylene (CPP) line in western Maharashtra state, said Indiatimes.

The plant will be located at Aurangabad and is expected to commence commercial production in two years, the source said. The required investment will be funded through internal accruals and debts.

The expanded capacity will help Cosmo meet the growing demand for CPP films, the source said, adding that the company’s current CPP capacity is being fully utilized.

Cosmo Films also expects to bring on line its 30,000 tonnes/year specialty biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) line by July-September 2023, the source said. The new BOPET line is being set up at the company’s Waluj site at Aurangabad.

The company’s new biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) line is on schedule to commence operations in financial year 2025, he added. Cosmo Films is India’s largest exporter of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films and has a BOPP production capacity of 196,000 tonnes/year, and CPP capacity of 10,000 tonnes/year at its sites in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

As per MRC, Cosmo Films Ltd., a global leader in specialty films for flexible packaging, labeling and lamination applications as well as synthetic paper, has launched Enhanced Barrier Metalized BOPP Film specially designed for packaging applications with very high moisture and good oxygen barrier properties and high metal bond.

As MRC informed earlier, Cosmo Films introduced BOPP based heat resistant (HR) films. The films have been engineered to work as printing layer replacing BOPET film in multi-layer laminates for various packaging applications in both food and non-food segments. The company has also launched a barrier version of the film.

Established in 1981 and founded by Mr. Ashok Jaipuria, Cosmo Films today is a global leader in specialty films for packaging, lamination, labeling and synthetic paper. With engineering of innovative products and sustainability solutions, Cosmo Films over the years has been partnering with worlds’ leading F&B and personal care brands and packaging & printing converters to enhance the end consumer experience. Its customer base is spread in more than 100 countries with sales & manufacturing units in India and Korea and additionally sales & distribution base in Japan, USA, Canada and Europe.

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Vagit Alekperov, President of PJSC Lukoil, and Valery Radaev, Governor of the Saratov region, visited the Saratovorgsintez LLC petrochemical plant, said the company.

This facility is the only Russian manufacturer of acetonitrile and acrylonitrile, as well as a major manufacturer of sodium cyanide.

In 2021, the plant completed a large-scale environmental project of an in-depth overhaul of a waste incinerator. This allows for complete smokeless combustion of organic matter. The implementation of the project will be instrumental in reducing CO2 emissions by over 20,000 tonnes per year.

The plant is developing projects for construction of new units to increase production volume and improve efficiency. Consistent work on imports phase-out is underway with respect to catalysts, chemicals, spare parts, and equipment.

Following their visit to the petrochemical plant, Vagit Alekperov and Valery Radaev held a working meeting with the leaders of Lukoil Group organizations in the Saratov region.

As per MRC, the board of Russia’s second-largest oil company, Lukoil, has called for an end to conflict in Ukraine as its shares collapse amid ongoing divestments from the Russian energy sector. Lukoil produces around 2% of the world’s crude supplies and employs around 100,000 people, making it Russia’s second-largest oil company behind state-owned giant Rosneft.

As per MRC, Lukoil entered into an agreement to acquire a 50% operator interest in the Area 4 offshore project in Mexico through the acquisition of the operator's holding company.

It was also reported that Lukoil plans to invest about USD3 billion in petrochemical projects in the next 6 years, V. Alekperova also told reporters in June. At the same time, the company does not plan to adopt a separate petrochemical strategy, he said then.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include operations for the exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest privately-owned oil company in the world in terms of proven hydrocarbon reserves. The structure of Lukoil includes one of the largest petrochemical enterprises in Russia - Stavrolen.

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