Chevron and KazMunayGas announce collaboration on lower carbon opportunities

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiary Chevron Munaigas Inc. (Chevron), and JSC NC KazMunayGas (KMG) have announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore potential lower carbon business opportunities in Kazakhstan, said the company.

Chevron and KMG plan to evaluate the potential for lower carbon projects in areas such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS); hydrogen; energy efficiency and methane management; and carbon financial disclosure methodology.

The MoU was signed by Derek Magness, managing director for Chevron’s Eurasian Business Unit, and Magzum Mirzagaliyev, chairman of the Management Board of KMG in Nur-Sultan on the eve of the 34th Plenary session of the Foreign Investors Council chaired by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chevron’s executive vice president of Upstream Jay Johnson.

“Chevron has been investing in Kazakhstan for close to three decades. We are proud of our history of partnership and are committed to investing in the country’s energy future. This MoU with KazMunayGas marks a new chapter in our company’s efforts to support the development of Kazakhstan’s energy sector,” Magness said. “We firmly believe that we can play an important role in the country’s energy transition and achievement of its carbon-reduction targets. Through our collaboration with KMG, we hope to contribute to providing affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy, and help the industries and customers who use our products to advance their lower carbon goals."

“Chevron knows the future of energy is lower carbon and achieving the global net zero ambitions of the Paris Agreement will require partnership and collaboration,” said Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies, which was launched in 2021 to focus on establishing lower carbon businesses in CCUS, hydrogen, renewable fuels, offsets, and other emerging areas. “We are excited about the opportunity to pursue these lower carbon opportunities with KazMunayGas and help advance the energy transition in Kazakhstan."

The collaboration between Chevron and KMG is part of the efforts from both companies to support Kazakhstan’s target vision to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

As per MRC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunayGas (KMG) group and industrial gases and engineering company Linde have signed a memorandum of understanding on developing clean energy projects that may include production of green and blue hydrogen and ammonia. Having inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today (1st Nov) to explore both green and blue hydrogen and ammonia production, the duo hopes to accelerate clean energy projects in the region.

As per MRC, the National Oil and Gas Company of Kazakhstan KazMunayGas (KMG) and the country's largest oil producer, Tengizchevroil LLP, have agreed to supply propane to the polypropylene plant in Karabatan.
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Finland-based VTT Technical Research Centre is piloting a new transparent cellulose film that it says is indistinguishable from the traditional oil-based plastic used until now, said the company.

The development is a significant one: Thin plastic films are nevertheless difficult to recycle, and they often end up in the wrong places after use.

In packaging, these thin plastic films are often combined in various ways with cardboard, either as plastic windows or even in alternating layers of fibres and plastic. This type of packaging often ends up being disposed of as mixed waste as consumers find it difficult to know where it should go. If it lands in a cardboard recycling bin, the plastic can be removed, but it then usually incinerated. The new regenerated cellulose film product can replace plastic simplifies these choices for consumers as it can be placed in cardboard recycling along with the rest of the packaging.

“Cellulose film can resist dampness, but in nature it disappears as completely as a sheet of paper does. The product is biobased and biodegradable”, said VTT Research Professor Ali Harlin. Scientists at VTT have been researching cellulose films for more than ten years, and have been working on the use of regenerated or recrystallised cellulose for the past six.

The production of packaging material is in the pilot phase, and it could be in extensive industrial use in 5–7 years.

For Finland, packaging material is becoming more and more important as a replacement for the paper that was so long one of the mainstays of the its forestry industry. The country has made a strategic push over the past decade towards more circular and bioeconomic development and, in the light of the shrinking paper market ,has sought to shift the focus towards more value-added innovations. Flexible, transparent cellulose film is one such product. The world market for plastic films was about 110 billion dollars last year.

As per MRC, a six-year project in France to develop a recycling solution for monolayer and multilayer food packaging PET trays has led to a new technology that makes it possible to process the monolayer trays into a recycled product that is suitable for new tray production. With the support of the French not-for-profit organisation Citeo, Indorama-owned Wellman France Recycling and Valorplast, a company specialised in the collection and management of household plastic packaging, collaborated for six years on the project.
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Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) announced plans to expand its polyalphaolefins (PAO) business with the construction of a new unit in Beringen, Belgium, said the company.

Once local permits are approved, this significant investment will double the company’s PAO production capacity in Belgium (to 120,000MT) upon targeted startup in 2024. "Our Beringen plant has a long history of safe, reliable production of PAOs and of serving our customers with excellence"

For over 40 years, CPChem has been a leader in the development of high-quality PAOs, which are marketed under the Synfluid brand. PAOs are specially designed chemicals made from alpha olefins. They are used in many synthetic products such as lubricants, greases, and fluids and have emerged as essential components in applications including automotive, industrial, cosmetics, technology, and military use.

"Our Beringen plant has a long history of safe, reliable production of PAOs and of serving our customers with excellence,” said Mitch Eichelberger, executive vice president of polymers and specialties. “The construction of a new unit near our existing assets will allow us to benefit from strong local expertise and leverage Belgium’s central position to meet customer needs globally."

Synfluid® PAOs offer strong advantages due to their unique properties, and they support the company’s commitment to accelerating change for a sustainable future. PAOs help reduce energy consumption through efficient lubrication; by reducing friction, they can lower fuel consumption and emissions. The growing demand for PAOs is fueled by the performance of these molecules at extreme temperatures, and also by new applications such as electric and fuel-efficient vehicles and heat transfer fluid.

“Increased production from this new investment will be critical to support growing demand at a time of great innovation in several sectors that require PAOs,” said Antoine Janssens, Europe Africa region general manager.

Ideally located in the heart of Europe, the new PAO unit will enjoy significant advantages in infrastructure, feedstock availability, and operational expertise. CPChem already operates PAO units in Beringen, Belgium, and Baytown, Texas. With this new investment, the company is reinforcing its commitment to being the supplier of choice for its growing global customer base.

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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OMV’s Ordinary General Meeting has resolved on a dividend of EUR 2.30 per share for 2021, said the company.

In addition, a new Remuneration Policy for the Executive Board, the Remuneration Report for the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board for 2021, the Long Term Incentive Plan 2022 and the Equity Deferral 2022 were resolved, and the elections to the Supervisory Board were carried out.

Today's Annual General Meeting approved a dividend of EUR 2.30 per share. The payment date is June 14, 2022. The annual financial statements approved by the Supervisory Board were presented. The Executive Board, except for the former Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO Rainer Seele, and the Supervisory Board were discharged for their activities in the 2021 financial year. Ernst & Young Wirtschaftsprufungsgesellschaft m.b.H., Vienna, was elected as auditor and group auditor for the 2022 financial year.

The General Meeting has adopted a new Remuneration Policy for the Executive Board, which considers, amongst others, a higher weighting of sustainability aspects as well as key performance indicators to measure the implementation of the Strategy 2030.

As per MRC, OMV reported utilization of 83% at its European refineries in H1, 2021, down by 3% on the year yet "relatively resilient in light of the COVID-19 impact". It expects the utilization rates at its European refineries to remain at the 2020 level this year. Last year its refineries reported 86% utilization. The company's refineries in Europe ran at 85% utilization in Q2, up from 81% in the year-ago quarter.

As MRC wrote before, OMV is investing EUR40 million (USD48 million) to expand and modernize a steam cracker and associated units at its refining and petrochemicals complex at Burghausen, Germany. The upgrade will increase the site’s ethylene and propylene production capacity by 50,000 metric tons/year. Following a planned turnaround of the refinery, the revamped cracker and petchem units are expected to start operations in the third quarter of 2022. Initial groundwork is already underway ahead of the upgrade.

OMV produces and markets oil and gas, innovative energy and high-end petrochemical solutions – in a responsible way. With Group sales of EUR 23 bn and a workforce of around 20,000 employees in 2019, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies.
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Clariant unveils its ground-breaking digital tool, to ease the research and selection of natural ingredients for personal care formulations, said the company.

Powered by standardized data on the Renewable Carbon/Natural Origin indices of over 800 Clariant and non-Clariant ingredients for personal care applications the new tool offers formulators and brands the chance to calculate the percentage natural content of any formulation. What is more, the tool is designed to showcase the individual impact of specific ingredient choices on formulation naturality - a huge advantage for kick-starting future product development.

"BeautyForward is always about understanding and addressing needs in personal care. There is evident increasing consumer preference for natural, specifically plant-based ingredients, as well as a growing expectation for brands to understand and communicate on naturality with transparency. Our calculator equips them to do this, by providing the necessary personal care ingredient data in an intuitive, digital format. We’re proud to support the creation of more sustainable personal care products,” comments Hermann Bach, Global Head of Strategic Marketing and Innovation at Clariant.

As the industry’s focus on developing lower impact beauty grows, Clariant steps up to standardize, quantify and share the naturality of personal care ingredients - including that of over 300 ingredients stemming from their own portfolio. The new tool calculates personal care formulation naturality according to the ISO 16128[1] methodology and offers two options to aid research.

First up, users can create their own new natural formulation from scratch, adding constituent ingredients in their respective quantities by INCI or trade name. Based on this, the individual ingredient’s naturality is provided, following the Renewable Carbon Index (RCI) for carbon-based ingredients, and the Natural Origin Index (NOI) if non-carbon-based. The tool continues by calculating the total formulation naturality based on each ingredient’s contribution.

Alternatively, the users may opt for a more guided approach; the BeautyForward calculation tool comes equipped with a series of exemplary and customizable skin and hair care formulations, with up to 99% naturality. Users can copy the formulations and edit them, playing around with ingredient selection by adding and removing products to find the ideal fit for their needs and percentage natural content targets.

Formulations can be saved within each user’s personal accounts for access and reference at a later date. To support with ingredient research, the tool also makes it possible for users to access more detailed ingredient information, as well as to request samples.

Lummus Technology announced it and its catalyst partner Clariant have been awarded a major contract by Fujian Meide to supply CATOFIN technology and catalysts for a new, world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Fuzhou, China. Already operating one PDH unit at its Fuzhou petrochemical complex, Fujian Meide is now building one of the largest PDH units in the world and has selected the CATOFIN process and catalysts for the project's second phase. The new unit will produce 900,000 mtons of propylene annually and is scheduled to commence operation in 2023.
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