Petronas reports fire at Johor refinery and petrochemical complex

Malaysian state energy firm Petronas said a fire and explosion occurred on Thursday at the Pengerang refinery-petrochemical complex, a joint venture it operates with Saudi Aramco in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, said Straitstimes.

No casualties were reported and the incident poses no immediate threat to the surrounding communities, Petronas said in a statement.

The fire occurred at one of the interconnecting pipes at the Pengerang Integrated Complex at 1540 local time and was completely extinguished in about an hour, Petronas said.

The 300,000 barrel-per-day complex has seen such accidents before.

In March 2020, five people were killed in a fire at the complex, forcing it to close for more than two years. It restarted in May, MRC reported.

Pengerang in located in south-east Johor, across from Pulau Tekong.
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Linde’s sales and earnings rose year on year in the third quarter on the back of higher selling prices and sales volumes, said the company.

The margin for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), a key measure of a company’s profitability, fell slightly to 31.1%, down from 33.4% in the third quarter of 2021.

Linde’s sales in the Americas stood at USD3.69bn for the third quarter, up 20% year on year. In Asia Pacific, sales stood at USD1.6bn, up 6% year on year, while in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) sales came in at USD2,13bn, up 11%.

Linde’s CEO, Sanjiv Lamba, said: “Linde employees delivered another strong quarter of financial results with EPS [earnings per share] increasing 14% despite 7% currency headwinds.

“Irrespective of the macro-economic uncertainty, I have confidence in our business model and high-performance culture to continue creating shareholder value for years to come.”

We remind, Linde plc announced its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of USD1.17/share. The dividend is payable on 16 Dec 2022 to shareholders of record on 2 Dec 2022. Despite the economic slowdown underway, Linde remains optimistic for Q4. The company said it expected net income and EPS to be between 1-5% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2021.

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Rohm and OQ Chemicals officially broke ground on their new world-scale methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Bay City, Texas, the chemical producers announced.

The plant will be the first to employ Rohm's LiMA ("Leading in Methacrylates") technology on a large industrial scale, which is its latest proprietary production technology.

It will have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year once completed in early 2024, which will enable Rohm to serve increasing demand for MMA and support the reliability of its supply chain towards its customers globally.

OQ Chemicals has invested significantly in additional propionic aldehyde capacity and local infrastructure in order to supply the plant with key raw materials and provide site services and utilities to Rohm.

Propionic aldehyde is an intermediate material used in applications in pharmaceuticals, plastics, insecticides and fragrances production.

Nearly all MMA is polymerised to make homopolymers and copolymers, the largest application being the casting, moulding or extrusion of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or modified polymers.

In February 2021, Rohm and OQ signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate the construction of a new production plant for methyl methacrylate (MMA) on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The proposed facility has a design capacity of 250,000 tons of MMA annually. It will utilize Rohm’s proprietary ethylene-based LiMA technology. Under the MoU terms, OQ Chemicals will integrate the plant into its existing site and provide raw materials, utilities, and site services to Rohm.
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Neste and Rolls-Royce have agreed to build a strategic partnership on accelerating the use of renewable diesel as a lower-emission solution for diesel engines, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Both parties share a common vision of renewable fuels playing a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in off-highway applications, such as construction and power generation.

The key focus in the collaboration will be on promoting the use of more sustainable fuels in applications based on the existing internal combustion engine technology, accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, and increasing knowledge sharing on renewable diesel and the benefits it provides to its users.

Under the mtu brand, Rolls-Royce sells high-speed engines and propulsion systems for ships, power generation, heavy land and rail vehicles, military vehicles, and the oil and gas industry, as well as diesel and gas systems and battery containers for safety-critical applications, continuous power generation, combined heat and power, and microgrids.

“Through our 'Net Zero at Power Systems' sustainability program, we have committed to realigning our mtu product portfolio so that by 2030, sustainable fuels and new mtu technologies will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent compared to 2019. This near-term target plays an important role in the Rolls-Royce Group’s Net Zero ambition by 2050 at the latest. Our collaboration with Neste, the world's leading producer of renewable diesel, will help us achieve our goals and those of our customers”, says Tobias Ostermaier, President Stationary Power Solutions from the Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems.

“With Neste MY Renewable Diesel the GHG emissions can be reduced by as much as 75-95%* when emissions over the fuel's life cycle are compared with fossil diesel. Companies can reduce their climate emissions significantly in an instant by just changing the fuel,'' says Lars Peter Lindfors, Senior Vice President Innovations at Neste.

Neste MY Renewable Diesel is produced from 100% renewable raw materials. It is a drop-in fuel, not requiring any modifications to the existing vehicles, energy systems or fuel distribution infrastructures.

We remind, Bugaboo, DSM Engineering Materials, Fibrant and Neste announce that their cross-value chain partnership has successfully enabled the launch of an entire Bugaboo stroller portfolio made with bio-based materials. Specifically, the majority of the strollers’ plastic parts are made using DSM Engineering Materials’ Akulon® 100% bio-based B-MB polyamide 6 (PA6), which in turn is made using bio-based feedstock from both Fibrant and Neste. DSM Engineering Materials uses a mass-balancing approach with renewable waste and residue raw material to enable a ~75% PA6 carbon footprint reduction compared to conventional PA6 and up to 24% of the entire stroller.
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TotalEnergies (TTE) and Casa dos Ventos (CDV), Brazil's leading renewable energy developer, announced today the creation of a 34%(TTE)/66%(CDV) joint venture to jointly develop, build and operate the renewable portfolio of Casa Dos Ventos, said Polymerupdate.

This portfolio includes 700 MW of onshore wind capacity in operation, 1 GW of onshore wind under construction, 2.8 GW of onshore wind and 1.6 GW of solar projects under well advanced development (COD within 5 years).

Besides, the newly formed JV will have the right to acquire the current and new projects that are or will be developed by CDV as they reach execution stage. The JV will thus be able to jointly foster its growth by accessing an additional portfolio of at least 6 GW, that CDV will continue to expand.

TotalEnergies will pay a cash consideration of USD550 million (R$ 2,920 million) and up to USD30 million (R$ 159 million) in earn-out to complete the acquisition. In addition, TotalEnergies will have the option to acquire an additional 15% equity share in the JV after 5 years.

TotalEnergies will support the JV accelerating its growth thanks to its global presence in the Corporate PPA market, its purchasing power resulting from its worldwide size, its trading expertise well suited to the Brazilian merchant market and its strong balance sheet allowing the JV to improve its financing cost. CDV, which has developed 25% of the onshore wind assets in operation today in Brazil, will bring to the JV its deep knowledge of the Brazilian market and a very high-quality portfolio while shifting from a developer to a producer business model.

We remind, the Flemish government recently awarded TotalEnergies the contract to install 1,500 electric vehicle charging points in Antwerp. In the heart of Europe and in Belgium's most populous city, the company is reinforcing its commitment to offering and developing sustainable mobility, with the aim of becoming Belgium's leading company in the public charging market by 2024.

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible.
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