Production at Venezuela largest refinery hit by blackout

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Production at Venezuela's largest refinery, which can process about 645,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), was halted late on Saturday by an electrical fault that caused a blackout, according to five people familiar with the matter, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Amuay is the only refinery producing gasoline at the Paraguana Refinery Center (CRP) following a halt in some operations at the neighboring Cardon refinery while a reformer fault is fixed.
"Blackout in the Amuay refinery. An electrical problem. Total blackout. In Amuay, the distilling and catalytic plants might be affected, which is currently producing about 80% of the country's gasoline," one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

State-owned oil company PDVSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The issues arose from a failure in the power plant that supplies power to both refineries but affects Amuay the most, one of the sources said. While electricity had been restored the halt in processing has not been fixed, the source added.

PDVSA will work to restore electricity to Amuay on Sunday, two of the sources added. The CRP is located on Venezuela's northwest coast and is operating far below its capacity of processing 955,000 bpd. Venezuela's network of refineries has a production capacity of 1.3 MMbpd.

People from nearby communities that depend on electricity generated by the CRP took to social media to report power cuts. Venezuela faces intermittent gasoline shortages following years of disinvestment and poor maintenance across the state refining network, as well as electrical failures and limits on fuel imports due to U.S. sanctions seeking to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to leave office.

As per MRC, Iran and Venezuela, oil producers grappling with crippling U.S. sanctions, signed a 20-year cooperation plan in Tehran, with the Islamic Republic's supreme leader saying the allies would continue to resist pressure from Washington. The signing ceremony, carried by Iranian state TV, was overseen by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro and took place at the Saadabad Palace in north Tehran. The plan includes cooperation in the fields of oil, petrochemicals, defence, agriculture, tourism, and culture. It also includes repair of Venezuelan refineries and the export of technical and engineering services.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- India will only withdraw its windfall tax introduced last week for oil producers and refiners if global prices of crude fall as much as USD40 a barrel from present levels, said Hydrocarbonprocessing, citing Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj.

The tax on firms that have increased product exports to gain from higher overseas margins took effect on July 1, as the government moves to boost domestic supply and revenue. The taxes, and some accompanying export curbs, will hit the earnings of companies such as Reliance Industries, Nayara Energy, which is partly owned by Russia's Rosneft , the Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd and Vedanta Ltd.

"The taxation would be reviewed every 15 days," Bajaj said, adding that it would depend on international crude prices. "If crude prices fall, then windfall gains will cease and windfall taxes would also be removed."

The government believes such windfall gains will cease once prices fall $40 from existing levels, Bajaj said.

Brent crude futures slipped on Monday to about USD111.27 a barrel, as fears of a global recession weighed on the market even as supply remains tight amid lower OPEC output, unrest in Libya and sanctions on Russia.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at USD108.09 a barrel. Bajaj did not provide any estimate of the revenue increase for the government from its windfall tax move.

As per MRC, TotalEnergies has entered into an agreement with Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) to acquire a 25% interest in Adani New Industries Ltd. (ANIL). ANIL will be the exclusive platform of AEL and TotalEnergies for the production and commercialisation of green hydrogen in India. ANIL will target a production of 1 million t of green hydrogen per year (Mtpa) by 2030, underpinned by around 30 GW of new renewable power generation capacity, as its first milestone.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and MAN Energy Solutions have entered into a strategic partnership to pursue the construction of an industrial-scale heat pump at the BASF site in Ludwigshafen, said Chemeurope.

This project is intended to make an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, establishing the use of low-CO2 technologies in chemical production and reducing the site’s natural gas consumption. As a first step, the project partners are conducting a feasibility study that is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

The planned large-scale heat pump will enable production of steam using electricity from renewable energy, tapping waste heat from the cooling water system at BASF as a source of thermal energy. The residual heat in the water will be processed using compression to produce steam that will be fed into the site’s steam network. By integrating the planned heat pump into the site’s production infrastructure, up to 150 metric tons of steam can be produced per hour, equivalent to a thermal output of 120 megawatts. The project could reduce CO2 emissions at the site by up to 390,000 metric tons per year. At the same time, it would make the cooling water system more efficient and less dependent on climate and weather conditions.

Steam is the most important source of energy in the chemical industry. In Ludwigshafen, BASF requires around 20 million metric tons of steam per year. The plants at the site use much of this as process steam in production, for example, to dry products, heat up reactors or for distilling. Around half of the steam required at the Ludwigshafen site is already produced by recovering heat from production facilities using a low-CO2 process. The remaining steam demand, approximately 50 percent, is met by gas and steam power plants, which emit CO2 during generation.

With this project, the two partners want to gain experience in the integration and operation of industrial-scale heat pumps and pave the way for the standardization and deployment of the technology at other sites. The feasibility study’s findings with regard to the economic viability, efficiency and competitiveness of the technology will form the basis for the subsequent decision-making process for the construction of the heat pump.

BASF has set itself the goal of achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. In addition to the use of renewable energies and increasing energy efficiency in production, new technologies such as the electrification of steam production will contribute to meeting this target. Scaling up such climate-friendly processes to an industrial level will decisively influence the transformation to low-CO2 chemical production.

MAN Energy Solutions has put technical solutions to lower greenhouse gas emissions from industry, energy production and shipping at the heart of its future strategy. In addition to technologies to avoid harmful emissions, the company focuses in particular on the reduction or compensation of unavoidable residual emissions from industry.

As per MRC, BASF and Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd announced that they will build a major new production plant for 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (2-EHAcid). The new facility will be located at the site of their existing joint venture, BASF Petronas Chemicals, in Kuantan, Malaysia. Construction is anticipated to start in the second quarter of 2015. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

As per MRC, BASF completed a double-digit million euro investment to increase production capacity for Tinopal CBS optical brighteners at its Monthey site. Following phase one of the stepwise capacity increase in 2021, the recent completion of the investment program has now brought significantly increased capacity on stream to meet growing global customer demand.

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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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Atlas Copco has agreed to acquire National Vacuum Equipment Inc., a leading local US manufacturer of industrial vacuum pumps and packages for mobile use on tanker trucks, said Gasworld.

National Vacuum Equipment Inc. is headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan, USA and has around 100 employees. “The acquisition will add to our vacuum solutions portfolio, allowing us to enter the currently untapped mobile vacuum market,’’ said Geert Follens, Business Area President Vacuum Technique.

The purchase price is not disclosed. National Vacuum will become part of the Industrial Vacuum Division, within the Vacuum Technique business area. The acquisition is expected to close during Q3.

As per MRC, supporting its goal of driving the decarbonization of hydrocarbon processes and the road to net zero emissions, Atlas Copco Gas and Process will be supplying CO2 compression equipment to one of Europe’s most ambitious renewable biofuels plant projects. Thus, the equipment will be used in an 820,000 tpy biofuels facility, located at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands (formerly known as the Pernis refinery). Shell announced plans for the facility earlier last fall.

Great ideas accelerate innovation. At Atlas Copco we have been turning industrial ideas into business-critical benefits since 1873. By listening to our customers and knowing their needs, we deliver value and innovate with the future in mind. In 2021, Atlas Copco had revenues of BSEK 111 and at year end about 43 000 employees.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - BASF and THOR GmbH are combining their expertise in non-halogenated flame retardant additives to provide customers with a comprehensive solution that will enhance the sustainability and performance for specific plastic compounds, as well as meet stringent fire safety requirements, said Chemeurope.

Flame retardancy is an essential element for plastic components or composites which are commonly used in transportation, construction, household, and industrial applications, as accidental heat and flame exposure can lead to serious damage and endanger lives. The growing demand from the global construction and automotive industry combined with stricter fire safety standards will significantly influence demand for sustainable flame retardant chemicals.

The experts at THOR and in plastic additives at BASF have collaborated for many years in developing sophisticated solutions to meet the demanding flame retardant specifications focusing on alternatives to halogen containing additives. Both parties are active members of the Phosphorus, Inorganic and Nitrogen Flame Retardants Association PINFA and work closely to deliver sustainable polymeric systems that withstand ignition and fire propagation during their service life.

The combined expertise in flame retardant additives provides customers and end-users with information highlighting the synergistic benefits of BASF’s halogen-free flame retardant Flamestab® with THOR’s phosphonates AFLAMMIT technologies, for polyolefins which is typically a challenging flame resistance application.

"A thorough and multidimensional assessment of an additive solution is essential to shorten the time to market. The closer our suggested formulations are to the requirements of the end-users, the shorter the development time and costs for our customers. At THOR, we work continuously on improving our flame retardants and their performance in the desired plastics compounds. Depending on the market needs, a huge variety of fire safety standards are available for testing our own developed flame retardant formulations. As a service, our project partners, such as BASF, provide us with newly formulated plastics films, molded or extruded specimens for evaluation of performance,” explains Armin Eckert, BU-Head of Performance Chemicals, THOR GmbH.

"Providing superior fire safety to a plastic part while maintaining other characteristics such as mechanical performance and light stability is a real challenge,” explains Dr. Achim Sties, Senior Vice President, Performance Chemicals Europe, BASF. “BASF technical experts are hard at work to provide solutions to meet our customers’ requirements and leverage our strong experience and network to respond with cost effective and sustainable technological solutions. Together with THOR, we focus on technical combinations that help shorten the journey for a formulator or a converter to reach their flame retardancy target and progress efficiently towards certification in a complex norm and testing environment."

As per MRC, BASF and Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd announced on Monday that they will build a major new production plant for 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (2-EHAcid). The new facility will be located at the site of their existing joint venture, BASF Petronas Chemicals, in Kuantan, Malaysia. Construction is anticipated to start in the second quarter of 2015. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

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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