BASF, SABIC and Linde building demonstration plant for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces

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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The German government said Thursday that it has nationalized energy company Uniper after the European Union gave its blessing for it to rescue the gas supplier, said Reuters.

The government announced its plan to nationalize Uniper in September, expanding state intervention in the energy sector to prevent a shortage resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine. The deal built on an initial rescue package agreed in July and features a capital increase of 8 billion euros (USD8.5 billion) that Germany is financing.

Uniper's existing shareholders approved the measures on Monday. The EU's executive Commission gave its conditional approval on Tuesday. The government is obliged to reduce its stake to 25% plus one share by 2028, a deadline that can only be extended with the Commission's approval. Germany's finance and economy ministries said Thursday that the government has now taken a stake of some 99% in the company. Uniper's existing management remains in place.

Uniper was controlled until now by Finland-based Fortum. The Finnish government has the largest stake in Fortum. Before the war in Ukraine, the company bought about half of its gas from Russia, which started cutting deliveries to Germany in June and hasn’t supplied any gas to the country since the end of August.

Uniper has incurred huge costs as a result of those cuts because it was forced to buy gas at far higher market prices to meet its supply contract obligations. Last month, it said it had initiated proceedings to seek damages from Russia’s Gazprom at an international arbitration tribunal in Stockholm.

We remind, Uniper and Shell have awarded contracts for the design studies of the main hydrogen production and carbon capture plant for the proposed Humber H2ub project. The project aims to produce low-carbon hydrogen using gas reformation with carbon capture technology at Uniper’s Killingholme power station site on the South Humber bank in the UK. Air Liquide Engineering & Construction, Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technip Energies have now been awarded contracts to deliver the process design studies.

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