Univar Solutions and BASF expand collaboration

BASF’s Glyoxal is utilized by customers as a cross-linking agent in numerous industries, said the company.

Effective June 1, 2022, Univar Solutions has been named the exclusive distributor for BASF's Chemical Intermediates’ Glyoxal in the US and Canada. With this agreement BASF and Univar Solutions expand their collaboration to better serve customers through a host of sustainable solutions across a range of applications.

Glyoxal is readily biodegradable by showing more than a 90% decrease of dissolved organic carbon according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines 301 C-E and 303 A.

"We are honored and excited to expand our partnership and portfolio of offerings with BASF to match up best in class chemistry with our reliable and flexible service model to the market in the United States and Canada,” said Brian Jurcak, SVP, product marketing management and global trade for Univar Solutions.

"We are proud to extend our relationship with Univar to exclusively represent our Glyoxal product line in the United States and Canada,” said Kevin AndersonVP, business management Amines, Acetylenics, and Carbonyl Derivatives, Chemical Intermediates, North America for BASF. “Univar Solutions’ supply chain capabilities coupled with their extensive market reach will provide customers with the reliability and convenience needed to service their Glyoxal requirements."

BASF’s Glyoxal is utilized by customers as a highly efficient cross-linking agent in the textiles, disinfection, paper, leather, cosmetics and epoxy industries.

As per MRC, BASF and Brookfield have finalized a term sheet for a 25-year renewable electricity supply agreement to purchase solar and wind power for the BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site in China. Under the fixed-price agreement, Brookfield will develop and build dedicated solar and wind farms, as well as possible storage solutions to support the renewable energy demands of BASF site.

We remind that BASF is to increase its production capacity for plastic additives at its sites in Pontecchio Marconi, Italy and Lampertheim, Germany. BASF did not disclose, however, current or future capacities for its production of plastic additives hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS).

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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Air Products has today (8th June) unveiled plans to build, own and operate a new industrial gases complex in Bihar, India, to supply Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) with hydrogen, nitrogen and steam, said the company.

Marking the industrial gas giant’s second gas complex in India, the site will aid IOCL’s capacity expansion to produce nine million tonnes per annum of Euro-VI or BS-VI compliant gasoline and diesel at its Barauni refinery.

Set to come on stream in 2024, the gases complex will showcase the latest generation multi-feed hydrogen production facility, capable of supplying 70,000 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/hr) of hydrogen as well as steam, and a high-efficiency air separation unit producing 4,000 Nm3/hr of nitrogen.

Dr. Samir Serhan, Chief Operating Officer at Air Products, said, “We are honoured to work with IOCL, the largest petroleum refining company and largest public sector undertaking in India."

“As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, our latest strategic investment in India will provide an efficient combination of industrial gas production technologies, enabling IOCL to meet ever-increasing transportation fuel demand. We look forward to reliably supplying IOCL’s industrial gas needs for decades to come."

We remind, Pertamina and Air Liquide Indonesia, signed a joint study agreement on capturing carbon emissions from its Balikpapan hydrogen production facility and storing the carbon in the Kutai basin area off East Kalimantan province. Some of the emissions would be converted into products like methanol, which can be used to produce low-carbon fuels, Pertamina said in the statement. Indonesia, which relies heavily on fossil fuels for its energy, aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 and aims to nearly double the proportion of renewables in its energy mix to 23% by 2025.

As per MRC, Air Products announced that it is teaming up with World Energy to build a new USD2 B major expansion project at World Energy’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and distribution hub in Paramount, California. The L.A. county facility is the world’s first commercial scale and North America’s only SAF production facility and its total fuel capacity will be expanded to 340 MM gallons annually.
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PPG announced that it will feature its recently acquired Vanberg Specialized Coatings line of agriculturally focused protective coatings and repair mortars at the World Pork Expo, June 8-10, 2022, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, said the company.

PPG added the Vanberg product portfolio as part of its acquisition of VersaFlex Inc. in February 2021. For 33 years, Vanberg coatings have provided long-lasting, cost-effective restoration and protection of concrete and metal surfaces in pork production facilities.

“As a leader in the coatings industry with deep expertise in corrosive applications and environments, PPG is proud to expand its services to pork processors,” said Michael Masorli, PPG director, resinous flooring, Protective and Marine Coatings. “We are committed to growing our technology portfolio and providing the agricultural community with the highest-quality product solutions that are backed by unmatched support."

Presented by the National Pork Producers Council, World Pork Expo is the world’s largest trade show for the pork industry.

We remind that in June 2021, PPG announced an expansion of its coatings manufacturing capacity in Europe for packaging applications. The investments at sites in The Netherlands and Poland will support growing customer demand in the region for the latest generation of coatings for aluminum and steel cans used in packaging for beverage, food and personal care items. The projects include a further expansion of the company’s location in Tiel, The Netherlands, which will increase the plant’s production capacity for PPG INNOVEL non-BPA internal coatings for beverage cans by 30%. Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, the project follows a 50% expansion completed at the end of 2020.

PPG is a leading supplier of powder coatings to the automotive, transportation, appliance, furniture and other markets. The company expanded the business with its 2020 acquisition of Alpha Coating Technologies, which manufactures powder coatings for light industrial applications and heat-sensitive substrates, and its 2021 acquisition of Worwag, which makes liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. PPG recently agreed to acquire the powder coatings business of Arsonsisi, including a manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy.
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U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week, while crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by a record amount as refiners ramped up production to pre-pandemic levels, as per Reuters.

Crude inventories rose by 2 MM barrels in the week to June 3 to 416.8 MM barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.9 MM-barrel drop. SPR crude stocks fell by a record 7.3 MM barrels to 519.3 MM, their lowest since March 1987.

Refinery crude runs rose by 354,000 barrels per day to 16.4 MMbpd, their highest since January 2020, and utilization rates jumped by 1.6 percentage points to 94.2% of capacity, their highest since December 2019, the EIA said. On the East Coast, utilization rose to 99.2%, its highest since November 2017.

"The commercial crude build is in part due to inventory shifts from the drawdowns in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but those inventories continue to move aggressively lower and that's the expectation for the next several months," said Tony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging. "That's a bullish consideration."

Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) rose immediately following the data release, along with gasoline and distillate futures. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI fell by 1.6 MM barrels last week, EIA said.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 800,000 barrels in the week to 218.2 MM barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1.1 MM-barrel rise.? Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.6 MM barrels in the week to 109 MM barrels, more than double forecasts for a 1.1 MM-barrel rise, the EIA data showed. Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.69 MMbpd, EIA said.

As per MRC, oil prices were largely unchanged after choppy trade on Monday, buoyed by Saudi Arabia raising its July crude prices but amid doubts a higher output target for OPEC+ oil producers would ease tight supply.

We remind, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release on Friday retroactive mandates for the volume of biofuels oil refiners were required to blend into their fuel for the years 2020 through 2022.
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Europe's plan to double down on renewable fuels in response to rising fuel costs could have the unintended short-term effect of increasing prices and slow down the energy transition, Chevron Corp Chief Executive Michael Wirth said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"That can erode the public support that will be necessary for the energy transition"," Wirth said. "There is a bit of a paradox that I observe." Fuel prices have been soaring around the world amid declining investments in fossil fuel projects. Prices have accelerated since sanctions were imposed this year against energy exporter Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Gasoline and diesel prices are a top electoral topic in different countries of the world, including U.S. Congressional elections and a Brazil presidential run, both later this year. A persistent period of U.S. diesel at USD6 per gallon and natural gas prices nearing USD10 per MMbtu could have political implications for policy makers, Wirth said.

"One of the things I worry the most about is a period of high prices that voters begin to identify with energy transition ambitions," Wirth said.

The CEO called for policy that would incentivize carbon emission reductions instead of restricting oil and gas supply before renewable fuels such as solar and wind power have scale to replace traditional fossil fuels. Wirth defended the need of a pricing mechanism for carbon in the United States similar to the one set in Europe.

"A price on carbon is a simple way to create a price signal that would create a business model that would mobilize capital," Wirth said. "We need to find some sort of a commercial framework. And it needs to be enabled by policy."

As per MRC, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) announced plans to expand its polyalphaolefins (PAO) business with the construction of a new unit in Beringen, Belgium. 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.

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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