bp layoffs at Ohio refinery after fire indicate prolonged shutdown

bp laid off most contractors at the approximately 160,000 barrel-per-day Toledo, Ohio, refinery it owns with Cenovus Energy Inc, according to sources familiar with the matter, indicating that the plant will experience a prolonged shutdown following last week's explosion and fire, said Reuters.

The explosion killed two United Steelworkers members, identified as brothers Max and Ben Morrissey. The more than 100-year-old refinery has been offline since the middle of last week following the explosion and could be shut for several months.

At least one contracting company is on site assessing the damage. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is also investigating the incident, which it said additionally caused the release of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and significant property damage.


Cenovus has referred comment to BP, which has declined to comment further. The outage caused Chicago gasoline cash differentials to reach new highs on Wednesday. Chicago CBOB gasoline gained 7.75 cents, trading 80 cents per gallon above futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, traders said, more than 700% higher than prices were a year ago.

The official cause of the explosion has not been reported. Leaking fumes from a crude unit may have caused the ignition in another unit at the facility, a source told Reuters. Multiple units were engulfed in flames, the source said.

Workers finished a maintenance turnaround at the facility in recent weeks and the plant had resumed operating. In August, Cenovus said it would buy the remaining 50% stake it does not already own in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.

In 2008, Husky Energy Inc formed a joint venture with BP by acquiring a 50% stake in the Toledo refinery. The stake then moved to Calgary-based Cenovus when it combined with Husky in 2021.

We remind, BP Plc restarted the largest crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 435,000 bpd Whiting, Indiana, refinery.
BP restarted the 250,000-bpd Pipestill 12 CDU as part of restoring production at the Whiting refinery following an Aug. 24 fire, which idled key utilities forcing the entire plant to shut down.
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Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, announced it has initiated an information and consultation process with the Works Council of Trinseo Deutschland GmbH regarding the potential closure of its styrene monomer production site in Boehlen, Germany, said the company.

The facility, which has a nameplate annual capacity of 300 kilotons, generated negative profitability of approximately USD30 million over the last four quarters ending Q2 2022.

Frank Bozich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trinseo, commented, “Given the current economic outlook of higher inflation, lower customer demand and elevated energy costs, we are evaluating asset optimization across our portfolio."

Bozich continued, “The cost position of the Boehlen facility is challenged due to the current energy cost environment in Europe as well as the facility’s smaller scale, and it’s difficult to envision significant earnings improvement at the site in the near to medium term. Therefore, we have decided to evaluate the potential closure of this plant. In addition to improved profitability for Trinseo, we believe a closure will aid in achieving our 2030 sustainability goals, as Boehlen is one of our most carbon intensive plants."

We remind, Trinseo announced that it has appointed Han Hendriks to the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective Oct. 1, 2022. As CTO, Hendriks will be a member of Trinseo’s executive leadership team and will be based in The Netherlands. In this role, he will drive the development of differentiated technology and innovation, allowing Trinseo to meet unfilled and unrecognized customer needs and develop sustainable solutions across Trinseo’s innovation pillars.

Trinseo a specialty material solutions provider, partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart, and sustainability-focused manner by combining its premier expertise, forward-looking innovations and best-in-class materials to unlock value for companies and consumers. From design to manufacturing, Trinseo taps into decades of experience in diverse material solutions to address customers’ unique challenges in a wide range of industries, including consumer goods, mobility, building and construction, and medical. Trinseo’s approximately 3,400 employees bring endless creativity to reimagining the possibilities with clients all over the world from the company’s locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Trinseo reported net sales of approximately USD4.8 bn in 2021.
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Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea, Flemish Minister for The Environment and Energy Zuhal Demir and the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Energy Supply in Denmark, Mr. Dan Jorgensen, have entered into a ground-breaking agreement to enable captured CO2 to be shipped across their boarders to be permanently stored in a sandstone reservoir 1800 meters beneath the seabed of the Danish North Sea, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The agreement allows Project Greensand to move forwards with Europe’s first ever trial of the entire supply chain for carbon capture and storage to be carried out later this year. Carbon Dioxide, captured by INEOS from its plant at the Zwijndrecht site can now be shipped via the port of Antwerp to INEOS’ Nini West oil platform 200 kms off the West Coast of Denmark where it will be injected as a liquid, into the former oil field below the seabed surface.

There is currently no captured CO2 in Denmark that is suitable for storage in connection with the demonstration phase of Greensand. But with the new agreement, it will be possible to transport captured CO2 from INEOS in Belgium to Project Greensand's storage locations in the North Sea.

Project Greensand is one of the frontrunners of CO2 storage projects in Europe. It brings together a consortium of 23 specialized companies, research centres, institutions and logistics partners led by INEOS and Wintershall Dea, with an ambition to eventually store up to 8 MMt of CO2 per year by 2030.

Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea: "The development of new methods to reduce carbon emissions is vital for the future of our planet. The sea can play a key role in this. Not only has it always been very important for regulating our climate, but it also offers opportunities for carbon capture, recycling and storage. Our Belgian industry is very much involved in this. The Greensand project is one of the leading CO2 storage projects in Europe. This is a promising technology. We have signed an agreement with Denmark to cooperate on this so that we can store our captured CO2 in their empty oil and gas fields."

"We are very pleased that the Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Energy Supply and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of North Sea of the Belgian government as well as the Flemish Minister of Justice and Enforcement, Environment and Energy have concluded this groundbreaking agreement. It has been the subject of many and lengthy negotiations - and we would like to acknowledge their great efforts. This is an important step forward to continue Project Greensand, which is making an important contribution to the green transition in Denmark," explains Soren Reinhold Poulsen, project director of Project Greensand.

Roel De Vil, site manager INEOS Oxide in Zwijndrecht, said: "INEOS Oxide has built on extensive experience in capturing CO2 emissions from its ethylene oxide process. Over the past 12 years, we have worked in collaboration with two other industrial partners to capture, purify and liquefy CO2 on the site. Thanks to our expertise, we can supply CO2 that can be used for the pilot project. In addition to our role in the Greensand consortium, INEOS will also be the first Belgian company to store CO2 in the Danish North Sea under the agreement. The project will play a pioneering role in the refinement of carbon storage technology and will make an important contribution to the achievement of the Danish, European and Belgian climate objectives. "

Quote Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp Zeebrugge: "Seeing is believing. This project will demonstrate very tangibly that the storage of CO2 under the North Sea is technically possible and can also be carried out safely. I'm delighted to work together with INEOS as part of the Greensand project, carrying out this pilot from the port of Antwerp as a first mover, giving us a front row seat to support it. CCS ('carbon capture and storage') is therefore an indispensable intermediate step in our transformation to a sustainable port."

We rermind, INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has introduced a lineup of commercially available sustainable polystyrene products that is second to none. The new products provide customers a choice to select the best fit for their application. The complete lineup introduced today follows initial announcements on mechanically-recycled polystyrene solutions in 2021[1]. The new “ECO” products offer the performance of the respective virgin products, but with a significantly lower CO2 footprint. All products are drop-in solutions.
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Johnson Matthey (JM), and Dow announced Anqing Shuguang Petrochemical Oxo Co., Ltd. (Anqing), has licensed LP Oxo Technology to produce approximately 200 kta 2-ethylhexanol and 25 kta iso-butyraldehdye, said the company.

This licence, the second LP Oxo? Licence for Anqing and the 23rd licence of LP Oxo? Technology served in China, will support expanding Anqing's oxo business in the growing oxo alcohols' market. The plant is expected to come online in 2024. Anqing first started operating LP Oxo? Technology in 2016 to produce 100kta 2-ethylhexanol, 115 kta nomal butanol and 23 kta iso butanol.

Hector Miravete, Global Commercial Director - Catalyst Technologies at Johnson Matthey says: "This is a significant endorsement of our technology. The new design includes improvements we have made to ensure LP Oxo? Technology remains world leading. We have started the process design and look forward to working closely with Anqing as they construct the plant."

"This second licence for the use of LP Oxo? Technology with Anqing reinforces the value of this proven technology and its broad intelluctual property portfolio," said Lauren James, global business director, Dow Industrial Solutions. "Further, this project provides the opportunity for quick expansion in the China oxo alcohols market with new innovations to complement a technology with which Anqing has extensive operating experience. As an official licensee, Anqing will have access to new innovations to complement the first plant and access to JM and Dow expertise in support of this new second plant."

2-ethylhexanol is used for plasticising PVC, making speciality adhesives and paints. Iso-buyraldehyde is used for speciality coatings and solvent applications.

We remind, Dow introduced DOWSIL™ Immersion Cooling Technology, a next-generation solution for cooling hyperscale cloud and enterprise data centers with optimized efficiency and sustainability. Award-winning DOWSIL™ Immersion Cooling Technology offers a revolutionary approach to thermal management and sustainability for fast-growing data centers in a new era of high-speed, high-volume data communications.

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Kolon Industries Inc. (KRX: 120110), top chemical materials and textile maker in South Korea, announced it has completed the expansion of its tire cord production plant in Binh Duong Province, c, and is speeding up to boost its global competitiveness, said the company.

The company said it has increased 19,200 tons of the annual capacity of PET (polyester) tire cord production from 84,000 tons to a total of 103,200 tons. This expansion is its second investment since the first expansion of 16,800 tons of PET tire cord Vietnam plant in 2018, and is expected to greatly improve the production efficiency once again.

Tire cords are high-strength fibers used as reinforcing materials for tires, which serve as frames for tires and keep them in shape. Tire cords are important as they affect the safety and performance of automobiles. Depending on the raw materials, there are PET, nylon, rayon, and steel tire cords. Kolon Industries produces PET tire cords, which are mainly used in passenger car tires.

Kolon Industries’ tire cord plant is located in Bau Bang Industrial Park, Vietnam. It brought in the latest production facilities and thus owns a consistent production system from yarn spinning to weaving, processing, heat treatment, and finished products. The Vietnam plant is currently in full operation after quality approval from global tire manufacturers.

Kolon Industries’ tire cord expansion is in line with the growth of the global tire market. Demand for replacement (RE, Replacement Equipment) tires increased last year, and shipments of new vehicle (OE, Original Equipment) tires increased this year. According to an automobile market research agency, the tire market is recovering to its pre-COVID-19 level from this year and is expected to grow at an annual average of 4%.

Kolon Industries has formed partnerships with major global tire companies since it started its tire cord business in 1973. Following the establishment of a new factory in Nanjing, China in 2004, the company secured international production bases with the best technology and price competitiveness through this continuous investment in Vietnam.

“This investment will help expand sales of Kolon Industries high-performance and high-value premium products, along with the global market dominance and tire cord business profitability,” a company official said.

We remind, VSIP, a joint venture between Singapore's Sembcorp and Vietnam's Becamex, is planning to develop its second industrial park in Quang Ngai province next year. In a meeting with the central province's authorities this week, Kelvin Teo, CEO of the Singapore-based Sembcorp Development and co-chairman of VSIP Group, said they hoped to receive support from Quang Ngai for the new plan.
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