BP Rotterdam refinery resuming some operations

Operations are resuming at BP's large Rotterdam refinery, a spokesperson confirmed on Saturday, said Reuters.

The refinery has been idle for a week amid a dispute with workers over pay. A spokesperson for unions said earlier on Saturday that workers are planning to restart some operations on Monday.

"We are happy to report that operations at the BP Rotterdam refinery resumed today," the BP spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

"We are still in dialogue with the unions to reach an agreement."

We remind, BP refinery in Rotterdam processes about 400,000 barrels of oil annually and is an important supplier of diesel to Northern Europe. BP's final offer in talks over a new collective labor agreement under discussion since April had been for a 5% wage increase and one-off bonus of 4,000 euros (USD4,000).

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Covestro has started up the production of naphthylen-diisocyanate (NDI) at its newly built facility in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, said the company.

The NDI production will support the manufacture of Vulkollan-branded polyurethane elastomers, which are billed as “one of the most powerful elastomers in the market,” by the German manufacturer, said Covestro in a 24 Nov statement.

Covestro broke ground on the Map Ta Phut plant in late 2020 with a “mid double-digit million euro” investment, with the aim to expand its elastomers business in the region.

“We believe in the growth of the cast elastomers market and want to meet the increasing demand,” said Sucheta Govil, chief commercial officer at Covestro.

“With this new production plant, we achieve a significant improvement of our global infrastructure and strengthen our presence for high-performance elastomers in the Asia-Pacific region," she added.

The expansion, she said, will aim to support industries with high-end performance requirements. According to Covestro, the Volkollan elastomer combines “highest mechanical load-bearing characteristics with highest dynamic load-bearing capacity” as an “ultra-high-performance elastomer”.

"The start up of our Map Ta Phut plant is the latest step of several investments in our elastomers business to support the Vulkollan brand," said Thomas Braig, head of the business entity elastomers.

"We firmly believe in the strong potential of this historic and well-known brand and are prepared, with this investment, for its future growth and the development of its customers."

The facility in Thailand now employs 25 people.

The elastomers produced from the raw material are suitable for applications including in forklift wheels, roller coaster wheels as well as couplings and seals for the engineering industry.

We remind, Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) broke ground in Antwerp, Belgium for a new world-scale production facility for the manufacture of aniline. With the Covestro breaks ground in Antwerp for new aniline plant.

Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from Covestro are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, cosmetics and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.

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Synthetic rubber and chemicals manufacturer Kumho Petrochemical has advanced its plans to produce rubber using recycled styrene monomers (RSM) recovered from plastics waste, said European-rubber-journal .

The South Korean company has now signed a memorandum of understanding with Technip Energies to license a pyrolysis process enabled by US recycling technology company Agilyx.

Technip Energies is the exclusive licensor for the Agilyx technology for the production of the recycled monomer via the pyrolysis of waste polystyrene.

In a 23 Nov announcement, Agilyx said Kumho Petrochemical will use the RSM in the production of solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), a key component for the manufacture of tires.

The MoU follows an earlier agreement between Agilyx and Kumho Petrochemical in August last year to study the development and construction of a chemical recycling project in South Korea.

According to Agilyx, Kumho Petrochemical’s stated goal is to commercialise RSM-content products at the beginning in 2026.

Technip Energies' remit is to provide support in all project areas, including around the transfer of a technology license to Kumho Petrochemical.

We remind, Kumho Petrochemical has announced a major investment initiative which will see the South Korean group pumping KRW6,000 billion (EUR5.5 billion) into existing and new businesses over the next five years. As part of the initiative, Kumho will invest KRW3,300 billion in its ‘core business areas’, which includes nitrile butadiene latex (NB latex) production and styrene solution butadiene rubber (SSBR) manufacturing.

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The South African chemicals company hopes to refinance its debt and fund wider commercial activities by raising USD 750 million from the bonds market, a deal on which it was supported by a US law firm.
South African chemicals company Sasol has launched a USD 750 million bond offering, said Iclg.

The Johannesburg-headquartered company said the bonds, due to mature in 2027, would be used for “general corporate purposes including, but not limited to, the refinancing of debt”. The bonds were issued on 8 November by Sasol’s subsidiary Sasol Financing USA, and are expected to be made available for trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange 30 days after the closing date. They will be convertible into shares in Sasol or cash.

Co-ordinator for the offering was BofA Securities, while the book-runners were Citigroup, JP Morgan and BofA Securities. Co-lead managers were Mizuho, MUFG and SMBC Nikko.

Sasol was represented on the offering by a mostly London-based team from New York-headquartered law firm Shearman & Sterling, led by partners Trevor Ingram and James Duncan, with support from Washington, DC, tax partner Kristen Garry and an associate in New York.

As per MRC, Sasol Chemicals will lease land adjacent to its plant to Hamburger Energiewerke, Hamburg’s municipal utility, which plans to build the facility by the end of 2024. When fully operational in 2025, the plant will supply at least 70,000 megawatt hours of steam to Sasol each year, enabling the company to reduce its CO2 emissions from the plant by approximately 13,000 metric tons annually. In addition to green steam, the plant will produce more than 90,000 megawatt hours of sustainable electricity annually.

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Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co., a unit of the state-owned oil producer, has received regulatory approval for an initial public offering in Riyadh, as the world’s biggest crude producer looks to list some of its subsidiaries, said Bloomberg.

The IPO will consist of the sale of 50 million shares -- a 29.7% stake -- in the company, Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority said Thursday. The unit, also known as Luberef, makes base oils used in lubricants for motor vehicles, ships and industrial machinery.

Saudi Aramco this month reported its second-highest earnings as a listed company, although its downstream unit, responsible for refining, chemicals and fuel distribution, made a pretax loss of USD1.1 billion, versus almost USD4 billion in profits a year earlier.

Jadwa, which is expected to sell a stake in the IPO, had acquired its Luberef holding in 2007 from Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon had originally invested in the refinery in 1978.

As per MRC, Saudi Aramco said it plans to invest in a USD7 B project to produce petrochemicals from crude oil at its South Korean affiliate S-Oil Corp's refining complex in the port city of Ulsan. The project, named Shaheen, is the Saudi company's biggest investment in South Korea and will mark the first commercial use of Aramco and Lummus technology to produce chemicals from crude, Aramco said in a statement.
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