CSPC again selected LyondellBasell’s Spherizone technology

LyondellBasell announced that CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited (CSPC), a 50:50 joint venture incorporated by CNOOC Petrochemicals Investment Co., Ltd. and Shell Nanhai B.V., has selected LyondellBasell’s Spherizone process technology, said the company.

The Spherizone process technology will be used for a 500 kiloton per year (KTA) polypropylene line located in Huizhou, Guangdong, P.R. of China.

“We are very excited to announce that CSPC has again chosen LyondellBasell’s Spherizone process technology for their new polypropylene plant. This represents the second Spherizone line from a total of five polyolefin lines, licensed from LyondellBasell at the Huizhou site,” said Neil Nadalin, Director, Global Licensing and Services for LyondellBasell. Nadalin added, “Spherizone process technology continues to demonstrate the ability to produce differentiated polymer grades in the highly competitive Chinese market, which remains a key requirement for our customers."

The Spherizone multi-zone circulating reactor (MZCR) provides a unique and innovative platform to manufacture polypropylene products with novel architecture and enhanced product properties. Almost 10 million tons of the Spherizone process for differentiated polypropylene production capacity has been licensed by LyondellBasell around the world.

The plant will commence operation using LyondellBasell Avant ZN catalyst. New licensees take advantage of LyondellBasell in-house expertise of continuous production improvement, continuous product development and catalyst know-how, by optionally joining our Technical Service program.

We remind, LyondellBasell announced that its leading polypropylene (PP) technology has been selected by Stavian Quang Yen Petrochemical, Ltd. (Stavian) for a new world scale production facility. The facility will include a 600 kiloton per annum (KTA) polypropylene plant using LyondellBasell’s Spheripol technology. The facility will be built in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam.

mrchub.com

Frederique van Baarle is moving up to the Management Board of Cologne-based specialty chemicals company LANXESS. The Supervisory Board has appointed the 51-year-old as Labor Director, said the company.

She takes over this function from Management Board member Anno Borkowsky. Van Baarle currently heads the High Performance Materials business unit at LANXESS, which is to be incorporated into a planned joint venture for high-performance plastics with private equity firm Advent. She will take up her new position on the Management Board as soon as this transaction is completed. Van Baarle will also assume board responsibility for the Americas region from the second half of 2023. She will perform her new role from Pittsburgh, LANXESS' U.S. headquarters.

LANXESS CEO Matthias Zachert: "Frederique van Baarle has led one of our largest business units very successfully. She knows LANXESS like only a few others. I am very much looking forward to working with her on the Board of Management. The fact that she will perform her duties from the U.S. underscores how important this growth market is for us."

Frederique van Baarle began her career in the chemical industry in 2000 at the Dutch company Royal DSM after studying business administration, earning an MBA and graduating from the French business school INSEAD. At Royal DSM she held various management positions. In 2011, she joined LANXESS and took on various management positions in sales and marketing in the then High Performance Elastomers business unit and in the business unit High Performance Materials. The native Dutchwoman was responsible for central purchasing and logistics at LANXESS since the end of 2018. She has been heading the High Performance Materials business unit since June 2020.

We remind, on 31st May 2022, Advent and LANXESS announced the joint, Advent controlled, acquisition of DSM Engineering Materials, alongside its combination with LANXESS High-Performance Materials (subject to competition clearance), to establish a leading global engineering materials company with sales of around EUR 3 bn.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 6.1 billion in 2021. The company currently has about 13,200 employees in 33 countries. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives and consumer protection products. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
mrchub.com

Wood has been awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) scope for Gen2 Energy’s green hydrogen production facility, located in Mosjoen in northern Norway, said the company.

Gen2 Energy is a Norwegian company dedicated to developing, building, owning and operating an integrated value chain for green hydrogen. The company targets having several large-scale production facilities for green hydrogen, making it easy and cost efficient for consumers to adapt to green hydrogen.

As a leader in hydrogen production solutions, Wood will apply its decades of hydrogen expertise and breadth of project implementation capabilities to develop the new 100MW plant – the first large-scale commercial green hydrogen production facility in Norway.

The award follows Wood’s initial conceptualisation of the plant as well as other production facilities that Gen2 Energy is developing to accelerate the distribution of hydrogen produced in Norway via zero-emission renewable energy to the UK and across Europe.

Due to good access to low-priced electricity, Mosjoen in Vefsn municipality in northern Norway is an excellent place for large-scale production of green hydrogen. The first phase of Gen2 Energy's plan is to build a 100MW plant with a continuous production of around 45 tonnes of green hydrogen per day.

This contract will be delivered by Wood’s existing teams in Norway, with support from the company’s global experts from within its operations and projects business units. Wood will execute the FEED study jointly with personnel from Gen2 Energy.

We remind, OMV, the international, integrated oil, gas and chemicals company headquartered in Vienna, and Wood signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enter into a mutually exclusive collaboration agreement for the commercial licensing of OMV’s proprietary ReOil® technology. The two companies aim to agree on a binding cooperation by mid-2023.
mrchub.com

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global sustainable chemical producer, reported a strong 3Q 2021 performance amid record production volumes, said the company.

The company maintained its positive outlook for the rest of the year and 2022, noting caution as headwinds including higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions weigh against resurgent consumer demand.

IVL reported EBITDA of USD478 million in Q3 versus USD552 million in the previous quarter and USD240 million a year earlier. Production volumes reached 3.73 million metric tons, a record, as the global recovery drove consumer demand for IVL’s products.

As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, consumer appetite and increasing Brent crude oil prices are testing supply chains and driving a commodity boom, with manufacturers running at full capacity. This has driven increases in freight prices and a shortage of materials.

Mr. D K Agarwal, CEO of Indorama Ventures, said, “The recovery in major economies from the pandemic has benefited us through the year, and we expect strong demand for our products to continue into next year. However, the recovery is uneven as some nations in Asia are slower to reopen, and resurgent consumer demand is being met with higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions. Our business model of integrated and regional supply across a diversified geographical and product base is proving its robustness. Building sustainability across all our businesses is a key focus as our colleagues work tirelessly towards a future ready organization."

Still, IVL posted a solid YTD performance, ending the first nine months of 2021 with EBITDA of USD1,512 million, up 123% YoY. The Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) segment will start to reap the full benefits of the hot commissioning of the Lake Charles gas cracker (IVOL) in Q4 and beyond, as well as continued advantaged shale gas economics.

In Q3, Project Olympus, the company’s cost saving and business transformation project, achieved US$63 million in efficiency gains, and is on track to achieve a total US$610 million of savings by 2023. IVL also implemented enhanced disclosures in governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, and launched a comprehensive financial policy and governance structure to accelerate environmentally driven projects.

We remind, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global sustainable chemical company, celebrated the completion of a plant to manufacture high-performance nylon yarn for automobile airbags. The new plant in Rayong, Thailand, was constructed by Toyobo Indorama Advanced Fibers Co., Ltd. (TIAF), a joint venture that Indorama Ventures established with Toyobo Co., Ltd in November 2020.
mrchub.com

PJSC Lukoil finished construction of a Petroleum Residue Recycling Facility with production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes per year at its LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez LLC refinery, said the company.

The facility is comprised of a delayed coking unit, diesel fuel and gasoline hydrotreatment unit, fractioning column, hydrogen and sulphur production unit, as well as infrastructure facilities.

Implementation of the project will allow to increase annual Euro 5 diesel production by 1.1 million tonnes, decrease fuel oil share in production mix, as well as create over 200 high-tech jobs in the region.

The construction of the facility started in 2018. Up to 7 thousand people worked every day at the 430 thousand m2 construction site.

We remind, Italian authorities have provided Lukoil with a "comfort letter" to help a refinery it owns in Sicily get bank financing to buy non-Russian oil and remain operational. The move is aimed at staving off worries that Lukoil's ISAB refinery, which accounts for around 20% of Italian refining capacity, stops working due to an embargo on seaborne Russian oil that comes into force on Dec. 5. ISAB has been forced to rely solely on Russian oil after creditor banks halted financing and stopped providing guarantees needed to buy oil from alternative suppliers.

Lukoil is one of the largest oil & gas vertical integrated companies in the world accounting for over 2% of crude production and circa 1% of proved hydrocarbon reserves globally. LUKOIL enjoys a full production cycle to control the entire value chain from upstream to downstream. Lukoil employs over 110 thousand people who join their efforts and talents to secure the Company’s market leadership.

mrchub.com