Neste and ITOCHU celebrate first SAF delivery to Etihad Airways in Japan

Neste and ITOCHU are celebrating the first delivery of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Etihad Airways, one of the airlines of the United Arab Emirates, in Japan, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The delivery of Neste MY SAF to Etihad marks the first time in Japan that SAF will be supplied to an overseas airline at an airport in Japan. The SAF will be delivered to Etihad’s aircraft at Narita International Airport. This milestone is a result of the recently expanded partnership between Neste and ITOCHU to grow the availability of sustainable aviation fuel in Japan. ITOCHU acts as the branded distributor of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel in Japan, making Neste’s SAF available first at the two largest Japanese international airports: Tokyo Haneda and Narita.

SAF is a key element to achieving aviation’s emission reduction goals, and both Neste and ITOCHU are committed to supporting Japan in achieving the target of 10% SAF use by 2030, set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (“MLIT”).

"This delivery of our Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to Etihad is a major step forward in further growing the use of our sustainable aviation fuel in the Japanese market,” says Sami Jauhiainen, Neste’s Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Renewable Aviation. “Our partnership with ITOCHU aims to support domestic and international airlines as well as other fuel suppliers at Haneda and Narita International Airports in accelerating the adoption of SAF to reduce the carbon emissions of flying. I’m excited to see this partnership is already achieving concrete results and I look forward to supporting more airlines in Japan going forward."

“This delivery of SAF to Etihad Airways is the result of the partnership with Neste, and we are glad to be the first company to supply SAF to an overseas airline in Japan. ITOCHU will continue to cooperate with Neste and airlines departing from Japanese airports, and contribute to the decarbonization of the airline industry through the stable supply of SAF”, says Tsuyoshi Matsumoto, ITOCHU’s general manager of Petroleum Trading Department.

Neste is committed to working together with the global aviation industry to achieve its emission reduction targets. Neste is currently expanding its SAF production capacity to 1.5 MMtons per annum by the end of 2023. That includes up to 1 MMtons of SAF production capacity in Neste’s Singapore refinery via the ongoing Neste Singapore Expansion Project, which will start operations by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel is a solution for reducing the direct greenhouse gas emissions of flying immediately. It can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%*, in its neat form and over the life cycle, compared to fossil jet fuel. Neste-produced SAF is made from sustainably sourced, 100% renewable waste and residue raw materials. As a drop-in fuel it can be used with existing aircraft engines and airport fuel infrastructure, requiring no extra investment to them.

As per MRC, Neste and United Airlines announced that they have signed a new purchase agreement that provides United the right to buy up to 160,000 mtons (52.5 MM gallons) of Neste MY SAF over the next three years to fuel United flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and potentially other airports, as well. With this agreement, United became the first U.S. airline to make an international purchase agreement for SAF.

As MRC reported earlier, Neste has a target to process annually over 1 MM tons of waste plastic from 2030 onwards. The company plans to use liquefied plastic waste as a raw material at its fossil oil refinery to upgrade it into high-quality drop-in feedstock for the production of new plastics.
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MRC) -- Chevron Corp will consolidate its exploration and production and refining units under a single executive, it said on Thursday, as the company sharpens its focus on U.S. oil and gas production and cost efficiency, said Reuters.

Chevron's decision to raise its U.S. output has been reinforced by global sanctions against Russian oil, following the Ukraine invasion in February. The consolidation comes after a streamlining two years ago that would cut about 10% of its workforce. The second largest U.S. oil producer has pledged to add 15% this year to its output in the top U.S. shale basin, which supplies about 23% of its global production.

The combined upstream, midstream and downstream business segments will report to a new executive vice president, Nigel Hearne, effective Oct. 1. Hearne will run the Oil, Products & Gas business, Chevron said. He previously was president of its Europe, Asia and Pacific production.

The company is also consolidating upstream operations into two regions – Americas Exploration & Production and International Exploration & Production. Americas will be run by Bruce Niemeyer and International by Clay Neff, it said. Jobs affected are mainly at the senior executive level, a spokesperson said.

The reorganization will "bring strategy, policy and business development into tighter alignment as we focus on leveraging our strengths to deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world," Chief Executive Michael Wirth said in a statement.

Chevron's U.S. oil and gas production rose 10% in the first quarter over a year earlier, while international output fell 8%. The company pumped 3.06 MMbpd in the first quarter. Production in the Permian, the largest U.S. shale basin, grew to a record 692,000 boepd. It recently lifted its full-year Permian guidance by 15% over 2021 to between 700,000 and 750,000 bpd. Wirth recently said Chevron was looking for U.S. acquisitions to enhance its natural gas and LNG operations.

As per MRC, Chevron and ExxonMobil have signed separate agreements with state energy company PT Pertamina to explore lower carbon business opportunities in Indonesia. Chevron signed an MoU through its subsidiary, Chevron New Ventures Pte. Ltd, and is looking at potential businesses in new geothermal technology, carbon offsets through nature-based solutions, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), Pertamina said.

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.
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Worley announced it will be working with Phillips 66 Limited to integrate Shell’s carbon capture technology – CANSOLV – into the refinery and design the infrastructure required to export the CO2 into the proposed transport and storage network, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We’ve been working at the Humber Refinery for more than two decades, and we look forward to collaborating with Phillips 66 Limited and Shell on this significant project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at scale,” said Brad Andrews, President at Worley.

Currently, the Humber region produces 40 percent of the UK’s industrial carbon emissions. This project supports Humber Zero, a first-of-a-kind project, and puts the Humber Refinery on track to become the first refinery in the world to reduce its carbon emissions using CANSOLV. This could provide a model for decarbonizing refineries and make a significant impact on the UK’s net-zero ambitions.

CANSOLV will be deployed to capture carbon produced in the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process. The technology has the potential to capture at least 95 percent of the CO2 in the FCC flue gas, compressing it before the gas is transported to be safely stored under the North Sea.

Humber Refinery General Manager Darren Cunningham, the Lead Executive for Phillips 66 in the UK, described the project as “hugely significant” from a technology perspective. "There are more than 300 FCCs in the world,” Cunningham said. “We would be developing technology that has the potential to decarbonize them. “We’re looking forward to working with the Shell team, which brings a huge amount of carbon capture experience to the table, and with Worley, delivering this important project to the region."

“This project is aligned with Worley’s focus and investment in capability to help decarbonize existing industrial assets in the UK and our purpose in delivering a more sustainable world,” said Andrews. The projected start-up of the facility is expected in 2027.

As per MRC, Worley has announced that its strategic partnership with Avantium Renewable Polymers is now progressing to the next phase. Worley previously announced the partnership on 29 January 2021. Following the recent positive final investment decision (FID), Worley and Avantium have signed a technology cooperation agreement and Worley will now deliver engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to develop the Avantium flagship facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.

As per MRC, Worley has bagged a front-end engineering and design (FEED) services contract from Trinseo for its first-of-a-kind chemical recycling plant in Belgium. Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics and latex binders. The plant will use gasification technology to depolymerise post-consumer polystyrene waste into pure styrene. It’s a first-of-its-kind project on an industrial scale.
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ExxonMobil said it plans to grow shareholder value by delivering solutions that help meet the global need for energy and for lower greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer, outlined how the company’s strategy leverages its capabilities and competitive advantages at the annual meeting of shareholders. "We have opportunities to play a leading role in helping society achieve its net-zero ambitions and in meeting the world’s growing demand for energy and essential products,” said Woods. “Recent events have reminded us how globally connected energy markets are. They’ve also underscored the importance of our role in creating sustainable solutions that improve quality of life, while supporting a lower-emissions future."

ExxonMobil in April streamlined its business structure to consist of three core businesses – Upstream, Product Solutions and Low Carbon Solutions – to fully leverage the company’s competitive advantages of scale, integration, technology, functional excellence and highly skilled workforce.

Woods highlighted the company’s strong performance in 2021, noting that earnings significantly improved to USD23 B and cash flow from operating activities totaled USD48 B, the highest since 2012. Future plans include structural cost savings of USD9 B per year by 2023, compared to 2019, and more than USD15 B of investments through 2027 on initiatives to lower greenhouse gas emissions. They include investments to reduce emissions from company operations and to advance critical technologies like carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and biofuels, which together are expected to develop into multi-trillion-dollar markets in the decades ahead.

In the near term, ExxonMobil is increasing production of the energy resources and products the world needs. For example, in Guyana, the company has two oil fields in production and two more in development, and made new discoveries that increased the estimated recoverable resource to nearly 11 B barrels of oil equivalent.

In the Permian Basin in the United States, ExxonMobil expects to produce more than 550,000 oil equivalent barrels per day this year, which would represent a production increase of 25% on top of the increase achieved in 2021. The company’s state-of-the-art Corpus Christi chemical complex started production on schedule and under budget and delivered positive earnings and cash flow in its first quarter of operations.

ExxonMobil continues to mitigate emissions from its operations and achieved its 2025 emission-reduction plans four years earlier than planned. This progress supports the company’s more aggressive 2030 greenhouse gas emission-reduction plans and its ambition to achieve net-zero scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions from operated assets by 2050.

During the annual meeting, shareholders re-elected ExxonMobil’s board of director nominees, supported the company’s executive compensation program, ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent auditors and passed one proposal by shareholders. The proxy voting results will be made available on the company’s website as soon as practical.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil has made three new discoveries offshore Guyana and increased its estimate of the recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block to nearly 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels. The three discoveries are southeast of the Liza and Payara developments and bring to five the discoveries made by ExxonMobil in Guyana in 2022.

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.
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VinylPlus exceeds 810,000 tonnes of PVC recycling in 2021, said Sustainableplastics.

At the 10th VinylPlus Sustainability Forum, livestreamed from Brussels today, participants could look back at a successful first year of the new VinylPlus 2030 Commitment, the voluntary 10-year commitment adopted last year by the European PVC industry aimed at minimising the environmental impact of PVC production and manufacturing. VinylPlus 2030, building on the efforts of the previous two voluntary 10-year commitments, aims to proactively contribute to addressing priorities at the European and global levels.

"We aim to contribute to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a particular focus on sustainable consumption and production, climate change and partnerships,” said Brigitte Dero, Managing Director of VinylPlus. “This, in full alignment with relevant EU policies under the European Green Deal, such as the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability."

Despite the fraught conditions of the past year, 810,775 tonnes of PVC waste were recycled and used in new products by European PVC industry through the voluntary commitment, which represents around 26.9% of the total PVC waste generated in 2021 in the EU-27, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. VinylPlus’ recycling rate is above the 23.1% recycling rate estimated by AMI Consulting for the overall plastics recycling in Europe in 2021. In total, some 7.3 million tonnes of PVC having been recycled into new products since 2000, preventing the release of more than 14.5 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

VinylPlus has also made advances in ensuring the traceability of waste. To that end, Recovinyl, responsible for monitoring and verifying the recycling of PVC waste throughout Europe, launched RecoTrace to further enhance its recording and tracing schemes for recycling volumes and the uptake of recyclates in new products. RecoTrace is the first system to comply with the monitoring requirements of the EU Circular Plastics Alliance.

We remind, PVC and caustic soda manufacturer Vinnolit, a Westlake company, will be renamed Westlake Vinnolit.
As part of its ongoing growth, the parent company Westlake is standardizing the brand identity of the entire Group.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC was about 999,300 tonnes in 2021, up by 7% year on year. The emulsion and suspension PVC market showed stronger demand, despite over a twofold price increase. December estimated SPVC consumption was 81,200 tonnes (excluding deliveries to the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan) versus 74,690 tonnes a month earlier.
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