Grupa Azoty Polyolefins set to come on stream soon

Grupa Azoty Polyolefins said on Thursday it has received a first delivery of propane in preparation for the launch of its world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) plant in Police, northwestern Poland, said the company.

The 22,000-litre delivery was made in line with a contract signed with Trafigura for the supply of $250m of propane that will meet 50% of the facility’s propane demand over 2023 and 2024, the company, a unit of largest Polish chemicals producer Grupa Azoty, added.

No date for the launch of the EUR1.5bn (USD1.7bn) PDH/PP plant was given by Grupa Azoty Polyolefins, but the company said it was “close to launch”. “The overall progress of the works [for the plant] is over 98%, and the reloading of propane to a tank located in the new gas terminal in Police should be treated as a symbolic beginning of the completion of the construction of the new chemical complex,” said Grupa Azoty CEO Tomasz Hinc.

The propane was delivered by gas carrier Guadelupe Explorer to a cryogenic tank at a maritime gas handling and storage terminal specifically built as part of the project. The terminal boasts two 40,000cbm propane tanks and a 12,000cbm ethylene tank.

The PDH/PP project general contractor is Hyundai Engineering. The PDH facility is based on Honeywell’s Olexflex UOP technology, while the PP installation will use Unipol technology from Grace Technologies.

The PDH facility will have a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year of polymer-grade propylene, while the polypropylene (PP) facility will have a 400,000 tonne/year capacity.

We remind, in August, Record natural gas pricing for Poland-based chemicals producer Grupa Azoty has driven the company to halt some caprolactam (capro), polyamide 6 (PA6), and nitrogen fertilizers production. The company is planning to halt production of nitrogen fertilizers, PA6, and capro at its Grupa Azoty SA division – the overall company parent, based in Tarnow, Poland – and reduce production at its Pulawy site in the country.

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BASF, Linde, and SABIC have begun the construction of the "world's first" demonstration plant for large-scale electrically heated steam cracker furnaces, said the company.

The new technology has the potential to lower CO2 emissions by using electricity from renewable sources instead of natural gas. The demonstration plant will be integrated into the existing steam crackers at BASF's Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

It will process about 4 tonnes/hr of hydrocarbon and consumes 6 MW of renewable energy. The start-up of the plant is slated for 2023. Both SABIC and BASF are investing together for the project while Linde is the engineering, procurement and construction partner. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has granted the project with EUR 14.8 mln.

We remind, BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany, and StePac, Tefen, Israel, are partnering to create new sustainable packaging specifically for the fresh produce sector. BASF says it will supply StePac with its Ultramid Ccycled product, a chemically recycled polyamide 6 that will provide StePac with greater flexibility to advance contact-sensitive packaging formats to a higher sustainable standard within the circular economy.
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MRC --Government of India and India's largest gas utility and gas supply company, through a wholly owned MOL subsidiary signed a time charter contract for a newbuilding LNG carrier and a joint ownership of an existing LNG carrier, said Polymerupdate.

The new building vessel will be the second MOL Group LNG carrier serving GAIL; the parties signed a contract for the first vessel in 2019. The existing vessel still has been chartered to GAIL through a wholly owned MOL subsidiary from 2021 and even now, MOL’s shipping service is highly regarded by GAIL. At this time, MOL and GAIL reached an agreement to share the vessel by transferring a portion of a wholly owned MOL subsidiary’s shares to GAIL.

By strengthening MOL and GAIL’s partnership, there will be synergies that will make MOL to provide more reliable services, and this will lead MOL to extend services even further against the demand that will grow in the future. MOL sets regional strategies as one of the pillars in “Rolling Plan 2022,” its fiscal 2022 management plan, and takes a proactive stance in its business expansion in Asia, especially in India, as a region with strong potential for growth. It will strengthen its presence and business base in India, where energy demand is expected to increase. MOL continues to work proactively to provide high-quality LNG transport services that precisely meet customer needs by leveraging the know-how and network it has accumulated as one of the world's largest LNG carrier ownership and management companies.

GAIL is constantly expanding its global presence through its participation in projects/ventures along the natural gas value chain. With the global LNG portfolio of around 14 MMTPA, GAIL has emerged as one of the leading global LNG players and is actively involved in the LNG trading business in the international market.

We remind, MOL announced that, through a subsidiary, it signed a long-term charter contract for three newbuilding liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with QatarEnergy. The vessels will be built at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. in China, and are scheduled for delivery in 2027. MOL signed a long-term charter contract with QatarEnergy in April 2022 for four newbuilding LNG carriers, and the relationship between QatarEnergy and MOL will be further expanded by three LNG carriers through the latest contract.

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Harvest Midstream will buy the Belle Chasse terminal in Louisiana from U.S. refiner Phillips 66, the privately held company said this week, a move that will boost its existing regional crude pipeline systems, said Reuters.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Phillips 66 had unveiled its plans in November last year to convert the 50-year-old facility, formerly known as Alliance refinery, into an oil and refined products terminal after the refinery was idled due to severe damage from Hurricane Ida.

The conversion allowed the 255,600 barrel-per-day refinery to take advantage of its position on the Mississippi River, 20 miles (32.19 km) south of New Orleans.

The facility sits on about 3,200 acres and has 1 MM barrels of active storage capacity, with two docks to load crude oil, Harvest said on Wednesday.

Phillips 66's shares rose 1.3% to USD103.98 in premarket trading.

We remind, Technip Energies has been awarded a contract for the supply of proprietary cracking furnaces for the 2,000,000 tpy ethane cracker for the Golden Triangle Polymers project, a joint venture between Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) and QatarEnergy, along the Gulf Coast in Orange, Texas. This latest award is in line with our early engagement strategy with CPChem and QatarEnergy, which resulted in the selection of our proprietary ethylene technology and includes the successful completion of the ethylene license and Process Design Package (PDP).

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Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its subsidiary Tecnimont S.p.A. has been awarded an EPC (Engineering, Procurement e Construction) Lump Sum contract relating to the implementation of a petrochemical project, said Polymerupdate.

The overall value of the contract is approximately USD 1.3 billion and relates to the realization of a petrochemical plant together with its associated utilities and offsite facilities. The project’s scope of work entails complete engineering services, equipment and material supply, erection, and construction activities up to mechanical completion which is expected in 2026.

We remind, Maire Tecnimont’s subsidiary NextChem, through the associate company GCB Polymers, inaugurates a new re-processing and upcycling plant for polymers today in the Kezad Industrial Zone, in the UAE capital city Abu Dhabi. This new plant processes a very wide range of polymer products, from near to prime to the lower end of plant scraps, post-industrial and post-consumer waste, and also recycled polymers.

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., a company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, heads an international industrial group that is a leader in the transformation of natural resources (plant engineering in downstream oil & gas, with technological and execution competences). Through its subsidiary NextChem, it operates in the field of green chemistry and the technologies to support the energy transition. Maire Tecnimont Group operates in about 45 countries, through approximately 50 operative companies and about 9,300 people.

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