Baystar starts commercial ops at Port Arthur ethane cracker

Bayport Polymers LLC (Baystar) has started commercial operations at its 1m tonne/year ethane cracker at Port Arthur in Texas, parent firms Borealis and TotalEnergies said.

The almost USD2bn project was built on the site of TotalEnergies’ refinery in Port Arthur. The ethylene produced by the cracker will be used as feedstock to supply Baystar’s existing polyethylene (PE) units, as well as a new PE unit currently under construction in Bayport, Texas. Baystar’s Bayport site has 400,000 tonnes/year of PE capacity.

Baystar is currently constructing a 625,000 tonne/year PE unit in Bayport which uses Borealis’ proprietary Borstar technology. “The start-up of the new ethane cracker is an important milestone for Baystar becoming a fully integrated polyethylene company. The focus is on growing the polymers market in North America and leveraging the power of partnerships, " Borealis said in a statement.

As per MRC, TotalEnergies signed with Sonatrach, Occidental and Eni an extension of its Production Sharing Contract for a period of 25 years for onshore Blocks 404a and 208 in the Berkine basin, in Eastern Algeria. This contract, signed under the new Algerian Hydrocarbon Law published in 2019, will allow to develop additional liquids hydrocarbon resources, while reducing these fields carbon intensity through a dedicated carbon reduction program. The opportunity to develop and valorize associated gas resources will be studied by the partners, thus increasing export potential towards Europe.
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Cepsa Quimica has supplied consumer goods major Unilever with the first linear alkylbenzene (LAB) surfactant to be both renewable and biodegradable, said the company.

The LAB is made using green carbon derived from biomass instead of conventional fossil fuels and has been created using the Mass Balance approach for use in cleaning in laundry applications. Through Mass Balance, black carbon sources are blended and co-processed with green carbon from plant-based feedstocks of certified origin to make linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS).

Renewable LAB surfactant has identical properties and performance compared to traditional material, and lowers the carbon footprint of the final products.

We remind, Cepsa will invest up to EUR5 billion in Andalucia to produce green energy. It represents 60% of the total amount (EUR8 billion) that the company will invest to lead the generation of sustainable energy in Spain and Portugal and to be a benchmark in the energy transition. The investment will place Andalusia at the forefront of Europe in the latest technologies for the generation of green hydrogen and biofuels.

Cepsa is a Spanish petrochemical company. Full name Compania Espanola de Petroleos S.A. The company is headquartered in Madrid. Refining is one of the main activities of CEPSA. The production of asphalt and other road surfaces is another of the company's core activities; nine CEPSA factories are engaged in the production of these products.
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Linde plc (Woking, U.K.) announced it has signed a long-term agreement to supply high-purity industrial gases to PT Freeport Indonesia, a leading mining company in Indonesia, said Chemengonline.

Linde will build, own and operate an air separation unit (ASU) to supply oxygen and nitrogen to PT Freeport Indonesia’s new copper smelter and refinery in Manyar, Indonesia. The new copper smelter, the largest copper processing site in the world, will process concentrates from PT Freeport Indonesia’s Grasberg mine. The new on-site facility is expected to start up in mid-2024 and will be one of the largest ASUs in Indonesia.

"Copper plays a key role in the electrification of transportation and industrial processes. We are excited to help PT Freeport expand its processing capacity in Indonesia,” said Moloy Banerjee, President, ASEAN & South Asia, Linde. “By deploying Linde’s advanced technology, we will deliver a customized plant which will significantly improve energy efficiency."

“Linde’s track record for the safe and reliable supply of industrial gases made it our partner of choice as we expand our operations,” said Tony Wenas, President Director, PT Freeport Indonesia.

As per MRC, Linde has completed their efforts as part of implementing the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGCC) construction project. "Linde has completed its work within the AGCC project framework. We are dealing with its adaptation to new conditions together with partners from Sinopec," the Russian chemical giant said. Early in 2020, Linde made the contract for provision of pyrolysis services for AGCC. The Amur Gas Chemical Complex is the joint venture of Sibur (60%) and China’s Sinopec (40%) for polyethylene and polypropylene production. The capacity of the plant will be up to 2.7 mln tonnes of polymers annually.
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Chemicals company Eastman announced a planned increase of its Therminol 66 heat transfer fluid manufacturing capacity in Anniston, USA. The plant expansion is expected to be complete in 2024, said Process-worldwide.

With the expansion of its capacity for Therminol 66, Eastman increases its production volume for this heat transfer fluid in the US by 50?%. The expansion of the company’s plant in Annistion, USA, is expected to be completed in 2024.

"We are significantly investing in the expansion of our worldwide capacities to ensure we meet the needs of our customers around the world for years to come,” said Sharon Dunn, Eastman’s general manager for specialty fluids and energy.

In addition to its Therminol site in Anniston, Eastman manufactures the product at its Newport, Wales, U.K., facility. Eastman also manufactures other Therminol products in Suzhou, China, under a joint venture.

As per MRC, Eastman has entered an exclusive negotiation with Port-Jerome-sur-Seine as the preferred location of the molecular recycling facility it plans to build in France. This is an important step toward a significant milestone in the company's plan to invest up to USD1 B and build the world's largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant in France - a facility that will recycle approximately 160,000 tpy of hard-to-recycle polyester waste.

We remind that Eastman is increasing capacity for its Naia-brand cellulosic filament yarn at its plant in Barcelona, Spain. Eastman is increasing its capacity to produce Naia cellulosic filament yarns at its plant Barcelona, by 30% by mid-2021, and by more than 50% by the end of 2022.

Eastman is a multinational chemical company serving customers in approximately 100 countries. Sales in 2015 amounted to around USD9.6 Billion. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The company employs approximately 15 thousand people around the world.
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U.S. crude oil stockpiles edged lower last week but gasoline inventories posted a larger-than-expected build on weakened demand, said Reuters, citing the Energy Information Administration.

Crude inventories fell by 446,000 barrels in the week to July 15 to 426.6 MM barrels, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 MM-barrel rise. Demand figures rebounded from the previous week's sharp fall, and product supplied rose to 21 MMbpd. However, gasoline demand continued to sag, and supply of that product over the last four weeks was 8.7 MMbpd, or about 7.6% lower than the same time a year ago.

"You don't really don't want to be going backwards on gasoline in the middle of the summer," said Robert Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho. U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.5 MM barrels in the week to 228.4 MM barrels, compared with expectations for a 71,000-barrel rise.

"The demand destruction is only still two weeks but sufficient to say it’s there. That's the big takeaway," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. Oil prices were lower on the data. U.S. crude lost 1.8% to USD102.35 a barrel while Brent dropped 1.1% to USD106.09 a barrel.

Refinery crude runs fell by 321,000 bpd in the last week, EIA said. Refinery utilization rates fell by 1.2 percentage points in the week, but refiners are still running at 93.7% of overall capacity. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 MM barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.1 MM barrels last week, EIA said. Net U.S. imports of crude were down sharply week, falling by 891,000 bpd, a move almost entirely attributed to a surge in crude exports to 3.8 MMbpd.

As per MRC, the recovery in Russian oil production has continued this month as higher domestic demand offset a slight drop in exports to key markets. The nation’s producers pumped 10.78 million barrels a day on average from July 1 to 17, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit that was seen by Bloomberg. That’s 0.6% above the June level, according to calculations based on the data, indicating that the pace of the country’s output recovery has slowed.
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