INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA announces renewable power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy Resources

INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA announced today it has entered into a renewable power purchase agreement which will enable the construction of a new 310-megawatt solar project located in north central Texas, said the company.

The INEOS Hickerson Solar Farm will be constructed, owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage. The entire output of the new solar project will be dedicated to INEOS O&P USA and is projected to cover the net purchased electricity load of all 14 of INEOS O&P USA’s manufacturing, fractionation and storage facilities in the U.S. The new solar project will be located in Bosque County, Texas, and is ultimately expected to produce 730,000 megawatt hours of clean energy annually – the equivalent of over 68,000 homes’ annual electricity use – and is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 320,000 tons per year.

“INEOS O&P USA seeks to be a bellwether of what the petrochemical community can do to adopt renewable energy among its long-term energy demands, and this is one of many important steps being taken globally to reduce the carbon footprint of all the INEOS businesses,” said CEO Mike Nagle.

“We’re pleased to work with INEOS O&P USA and support the company’s renewable energy goals,” said Matt Handel, senior vice president of development for NextEra Energy Resources. “We commend INEOS for taking a leading role in decarbonizing the petrochemical industry.” Construction on the INEOS Hickerson Solar Farm is expected to commence in Q1 2024, with a planned commercial operation date by December 2025.

We remind, Ineos has agreed a fourth joint venture with Sinopec that will see it take a 50% share in the Tianjin Nangang project, which is currently underway and due to go on stream at the end of 2023.

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The downward trend in European chlorine production continued in October, with output falling to a new 2022 low of 18,665 metric tons/day, 3.6% beneath the previous year-low figure set in September of 19,355 metric tons/day. It is also down 24.4% year on year (YOY), said Eurochlor.

At 18,665 tonnes, the October 2022 average daily production was 3.6% lower than September, and 24.4% lower than in October 2021.

Chlorine production has been lower than the previous year in every month of 2022 since February due to weaker downstream construction demand and high and volatile electricity prices.

Utilisation was also lower every month compared to both the previous year and the average since 2018. Utilisation, at 58.2% in October, was its lowest since December 2008, when it fell to 54.8%.

Caustic soda stocks saw a more mixed trend. At 186,491 tonnes, caustic soda stocks in October were 1% lower than in September, but 5,501 tonnes above volumes in October 2021.

We remind, European chloralkali utilization rates fell to the lowest level since 2009 in September according to the most recent Eurochlor figures, on the back of weak demand for chlorine. With 19,356 tonnes, the September 2022 average daily production was 8.7% lower than in the previous month, and 21.1% lower than in September 2021. The September 2022 caustic soda stocks stood at 188,164 tonnes, 11,624 tonnes below the level of September 2021.
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Air Liquide has signed a long-term contract to supply Kumho Mitsui Chemical (KMCI) in South Korea with additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO), said the company.

Supply will be used to help KMCI with its 50% expansion of methyl diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) production in South Korea’s Yeosu National Industrial Complex, which is scheduled to come online in 2024.

To do this Air Liquide will leverage its fourth hydrogen and CO unit in the Yeosu complex, the latter of which was coupled to a CO2 recycling facility installed this year.

The partnership reinforces the long-standing relationship between the two companies which started 20 years ago in Yeosu.

Since that time, Air Liquide has reinforced its presence in Yeosu, and the fourth unit has been integrated with the other three plants through a 40km pipeline supply network.

We remind, Air Liquide announces that it has signed an agreement to divest its business in Trinidad and Tobago to Massy Gas Products Holding Ltd. As a consequence of this divestiture, the approximately 30 employees of this business will be integrated within MGPHL. This transaction is part of Air Liquide’s strategy to regularly review its asset portfolio and focus on selected fast developing areas and activities.
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The EU Commission announced it will grant Air Liquide, Fluxys Belgium and Port of Antwerp-Bruges GDP144.6 MM under the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF-E) funding program., said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The funding is earmarked for the construction of shared CO2 transport and export facilities on the Antwerp port platform. The grant award is a major step towards the final investment decision, expected in 2023.

The project, named "Antwerp CO2 Export Hub”, is set up as an open-access infrastructure to transport, liquefy and load CO2 onto ships for onward permanent offshore storage. CO2 captured on industrial players sites on the Antwerp port platform will be collected and transported via an intra-port open-access pipeline network. A shared liquefaction and export terminal will be built, including a CO2 liquefaction unit, buffer storages and marine loading facilities for cross-border shipping. This innovative project will be among the first and largest multimodal open access CO2 export facilities in the world.

As part of the project, Air Liquide and Fluxys intend to form a joint venture for the construction and operation of the CO2 liquefaction and export terminal. The joint venture will benefit from Air Liquide’s expertise in CO2 liquefaction and handling and from Fluxys’ experience in terminalling activities. Air Liquide will provide its proprietary technology for the CO2 liquefaction plant, which will be a first of a kind in its scale and design. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges reserved a plot of land for the terminal on a strategic location inside the port, and will build new quay infrastructures for the mooring of CO2 ships.

We remind, Air Liquide announces that it has signed an agreement to divest its business in Trinidad and Tobago to Massy Gas Products Holding Ltd. As a consequence of this divestiture, the approximately 30 employees of this business will be integrated within MGPHL. This transaction is part of Air Liquide’s strategy to regularly review its asset portfolio and focus on selected fast developing areas and activities.

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These works are part of the Refinery Development Master Plans (RDMP) launched by PT Pertamina to revitalize the Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan refineries to improve their production capacity and competitiveness, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sarens is playing a major role in these works, which will be completed in 2024, by taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, weighing approximately 43,000 tons at the inside bounday area and 13,700 at the outside bounday area thanks to the use of eight of its cranes.

Thanks to the lifting operation of the residual fluid catalytic cracking unit (RFCC), which contains a first-stage generator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage generator weighing 902.5 tons, Sarens is now part of the heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as this regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

The PT Pertamina (Persero) refinery in the Indonesian town of Balikpapan will increase its production of oil derivatives to 360 MMbpd once its upgrading and improvement works are completed during 2024. These works are part of the Refiney Development Master Plans (RDMP) promoted by Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company to increase the production capacity and competitiveness of five of its plants in Cilacap, Balongan, Dumai and Balikpapan.

The Balikpapan plant is currently the second largest refinery belonging to PT Pertamina, and is responsible, with approximately 260 million barrels per day produced, for 25% of Indonesia's oil & gas exploitation. Thanks to the upgrading works that are part of the company's RDPMs, this plant will not only decisively increase its production, but will also increase the added value of its products, which will become cleaner and greener to align with the Indonesian government's strategy to implement the Euro V standard in the country by 2027.

Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, is playing a major role in these upgrades and improvements, taking responsibility for the installation of 1,300 items throughout the plant, including, among others, the residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit, which contains a first-stage regenerator weighing 1,198.9 tons and a second-stage regenerator weighing 902.5 tons. This operation, which required the use of an SGC-90 ring crane and a CC-8800-1 crawler crane, has enabled Sarens to make heavy lifting history in Indonesia, as the regenerator is the largest unit currently in existence in the country.

In total, Sarens is expected to move approximately 43,000 tons at the inside boundary area (ISBL) and 13,700 tons at the outside boundary area (OSBL), using up to eight different crane models, including, in addition to the SGC-90 ring crane and the CC-8800-1 crawler crane, units such as the CC-2800-1 or the CC-2500 and auxiliary equipment such as Goldhofers.

One of the most demanding tasks faced so far by the Sarens technical team was the need to move the SGC-90 ring crane for use on two different jobs in the plant. To do this, the Sarens team used 2x30 axle lines SPMTs (Self-Propelled Modular Transports) to transport the main deck and, when the second location was ready, the SPMTs completed their transport approximately 800 meters from the initial location. The remaining components were moved to the new location by two Goldhofer units with 10 axle lines SPMTs each, in an operation that, in total, required 32 working days.

Sarens has more than 60 years of international experience in the development and installation of strategically important projects. In the energy sector, Sarens has been recently involved in the Clean Fuel Project works in Thailand, in the lifting maneuvers of a 4,500-ton LQUP (Living Quarters and Utilities Platform) at the PTSC M&C plant in Vietnam, in the expansion of the S-Oil plant in Ulsan, South Korea, in the construction of the Petroperu refinery in Talara (Peru), and in the Skikda refinery in Algeria among others.

We remind, the Heads of Agreement builds upon a joint study and memorandum of understanding that was signed at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland to assess carbon capture and storage technologies, low-carbon hydrogen and geologic data, said the company. The agreement defines next steps for the project including concept-select, pre-Front End Engineering Design, and a subsurface work program.
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