Air Products makes Managing Director appointment

Air Products has appointed Sushila Mani as Managing Director of Prodair Air Products India, said Gasworld.

Announcing the news on 20th June, the industrial gas giant said Mani will lead its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) centres in Pune and Vadodara, India.

Dr. Samir Serhan, said, “I am very pleased that Sushila has joined Air Products. Sushila has over 30 years’ experience in the EPC industry, as well as the business acumen and leadership skills to continue leading the region’s growth and the ongoing development of our outstanding, talented team in India."

"We are excited to have Sushila join our organisation and are confident her strong leadership will build on the successes we already have and enable new opportunities for our EPC organisation to support India’s energy and sustainability growth strategy well into the future."

Mani joins the Air Products team from Worley India, where she held a senior director role and managed an office of over 600 employees and had full profit and loss responsibility. Prior to that Mani led Project Management at BASF Chemicals India with accountability for project and construction management, construction safety and quality for all capital investment projects executed in Southeast Asia.

As per MRC, Air Products, a world leader in industrial gases and large-scale project development, execution and operation, today announced the signing of a long-term supply agreement with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), India’s flagship national oil company. Air Products will build, own and operate (BOO) a new industrial gases complex supplying hydrogen, nitrogen and steam to IOCL’s Barauni Refinery in Bihar, India. The new industrial gas complex will aid IOCL’s capacity expansion from six to nine million tonnes per annum producing Euro-VI or BS-VI compliant gasoline and diesel at its Barauni complex.
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SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, has announced that its production of a new range of SABIC® polypropylene (PP) compounds and STAMAX™ PP resins based on bio-renewable and advanced recycled feedstock at Genk, Belgium, has received TUV Nord accreditation under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS scheme, said the company.

This certified product offering aligns with SABIC’s extensive TRUCIRCLE™ initiative for accelerating the transition of the plastics industry to a circular economy and meets a globally growing customer demand for more sustainable material solutions.

"We are extremely proud of being the first in the industry to obtain ISCC Plus certification for PP compounds and resins produced with feedstock from renewable and recycled sources. This gives our PP customers a valid alternative for enhancing their environmental balance and achieving ambitious sustainability targets,” says Lada Kurelec, General Manager for PP & E4P[1] Business, SABIC. “The large-scale production of these new materials at our manufacturing site in Genk also ensures security of supply, while it contributes to our efforts of mitigating the impact of our products on climate change and fossil depletion."

The ISCC Plus certification honors the implementation of a mass balance accounting system that traces the material flow across complex supply chains from the feedstock to final products. The approach allows OEMs to document and quantify the sustainability of their applications made from certified materials. Moreover, brand owners can use the certification to highlight the sustainable material content of their products, offering consumers a more responsible choice. The mass balance accounting follows predefined and transparent rules, which then define whether a product can be classified as renewable or circular.

For SABIC, this means that for each ton of renewable or circular feedstock fed into the production process to substitute fossil-based feedstock, approximately one ton of the output material can be classified as either renewable or circular.

As per MRC, SABIC has introduced LNP ELCRIN WF0061BiQ resin, which uses ocean-bound PET bottles as a feed stream for chemical upcycling into polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin, said Interplasinsights.
Ocean-bound plastic is mismanaged waste that originates within 30 miles (50 km) of the coast and therefore likely to end up in the ocean. The new grade is the latest addition to SABIC’s extensive portfolio of chemically upcycled LNP ELCRIN iQ materials.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
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Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras has bought its first cargo of Guyanese crude for refining domestically, the company told Reuters, as South America's newest producer expands its market reach, said Reuters.

With the start of a second floating production facility in February, Guyana now sells two light and sweet oil grades with plans to pump up to 360,000 bpd this year. The sales are helping the tiny nation rapidly boost its revenue.
"Petrobras constantly monitors the international oil market looking for different suppliers and new production worldwide," a company spokesperson said in a statement.

The 1-MM-barrel cargo of crude loaded last week from the Liza Destiny and departed on Monday onboard the Bahamas-flagged tanker Cascade Spirit. The vessel plans to discharge in Brazil at month's end, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, which did not identify an arrival port.

Since January, Mataripe, an independent refinery operated by Acelen and backed by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, has bought two cargoes of Liza crude that marked Brazil's first imports of Guyanese oil. Imports of African, U.S. and Middle Eastern light grades often arrive in Brazilian ports to complement refiners' crude diets, according to Eikon data. Most purchases are made by Petrobras, which controls more than 80% of Brazil's refining capacity.

"The selection of crude grades varies depending on economic scenarios, trying to identify those that can meet domestic and international demand of refined products aiming at greater profitability for Petrobras," the company added. Guyana is poised to become an energy powerhouse following discoveries of 11 B barrels of recoverable oil and gas. It exported almost 37 MM barrels last year in only its second year of production. ExxonMobil, operator of the country's two platforms, has said it and partners CNOOC and Hess Corp plan to produce up to 1.2 MMbpd of oil and gas by 2027.

We remind, Petrobras said it has signed a deal with TSE and Toyo Engineering Corp to build a new diesel hydrotreating unit at its Paulinia refinery. The move will require USD458 million in investments and is in line with Petrobras’ 2022-2026 business plan, the company said in a securities filing. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, said the hydrotreating unit is expected to enter production in 2025.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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Nouryon, a global specialty chemicals leader, has received multiple awards from the Texas Chemical Council (TCC) and Association of Chemical Industry of Texas (ACIT) recognizing the company’s manufacturing facilities for continuous improvement in safety, emergency response, security, and environmental stewardship in 2021, said the company.

"Maintaining strong safety and environmental stewardship performance are top priorities for Nouryon, and employee teamwork is essential for meeting our values of ‘We aim high, We own it, We do it right’,” said Larry Ryan, Nouryon Executive Vice President and President, Performance Formulations and the Americas. “We are very proud of our teams in Texas for consistently meeting or exceeding safety standards and environmental performance. The annual TCC-ACIT awards recognize the programs we have in place to protect the communities in which we operate and keep our employees safe."

The Caring for Texas Awards program was established by the TCC Board of Directors in 1998 to honor companies for their commitment to continuous improvement in community involvement, emergency response, and environmental stewardship. Recipients of the annual awards are selected by a panel of judges made up of industry leaders and community representatives who determine if a facility qualifies based on submitted metrics for the previous year.

Nouryon’s sites in Battleground, Pasadena, Fort Worth, and Houston were each honored with TCC Caring for Texas awards. Notably, the Battleground and Pasadena sites each received an Excellence in Caring for Texas award, a distinction only awarded to the top companies in categories based on employee size.

As per MRC, Nouryon (formely AkzoNobel Specialy Chemicals), a global specialty chemicals leader, has started production at a new manufacturing facility located at its site in Ningbo, China, to meet increasing demand in the Asia region for polymers used in the Packaging, Paints and Coatings and Construction end-markets. The facility, which began development in 2020, has an annual capacity of 35,000 tons and will produce two key intermediates - tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and tert-Butyl alcohol (TBA) - which are essential ingredients in the production of polymers and composites.
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Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth rebutted White House officials' criticism of the oil industry over energy costs, saying reducing fuel prices will require "a change in approach" by the government, said Reuters.

The letter is the latest in a series of acrimonious exchanges between the U.S. oil industry and President Joe Biden over who is to blame for high fuel prices that have helped drive inflation to 40-year highs. The White House asked the CEOs of seven refiners and oil companies including Chevron to a meeting this week to discuss ways to increase production capacity and reduce energy prices. Wirth said he would attend.

"Your administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry," Wirth said in a letter to Biden. "These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face." A couple of hours later, Biden told reporters in Washington the executive was being too sensitive.

"I didn't know they'd get their feelings hurt that easily," the president said, when asked about Wirth's letter. On June 10, Biden blasted oil companies for making record profits and urged them to increase oil production and refining capacity to alleviate gasoline prices. He also accused Exxon Mobil Corp of making "more money than God" and not drilling enough in comments in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Biden is under pressure over record gasoline prices, and inflation is a top issue for voters ahead of the November elections with control of Congress at stake. Wirth said the oil industry needs clarity and consistency on policy matters ranging from leases and permits on federal lands, to the ability to permit and build critical infrastructure and regulation that considers costs and benefits.

"We need an honest dialogue," Wirth said. "One that recognizes our industry is a vital sector of the U.S. economy and is essential to our national security." Refiners are struggling to meet global demand for diesel and gasoline, exacerbating high prices and aggravating shortages from big consumers like the United States and Brazil to smaller countries like war-ravaged Ukraine and Sri Lanka.

U.S. pump prices are near USD5 a gallon as soaring demand for motor fuels coincides with the loss of about 1 million barrels per day of processing capacity. In the last three years many plants were closed when fuel demand cratered at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The last U.S. refinery was built in the 1970s, Wirth said earlier this month in a webcast, and reduced exports from Russia and China also contributed to global supply shortages. "I personally don't believe there will be a new petroleum refinery ever built in this country," Wirth said earlier this month in a webcast. "The world is constrained at a time when product demand is growing."

As per MRC, Worley and Chevron have entered into a global master services agreement covering Chevron’s upstream, midstream, and downstream business needs. The agreement can be used by Chevron’s business units including those involved in onshore and offshore assets as well as during project development.

As per MRC, QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (CPChem) have awarded the early site works contract for the Ras Laffan Petrochemical Project (RLPP) to Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC). The contract award marks the commencement of execution of the RLPP. CCC has secured a lump-sum contract to prepare the site for the new facility within Ras Laffan Industrial City. Early works on the project will begin in June, at the conclusion of which the EPC contract for the project is expected to be awarded.
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