BP CEO: Fuel efficiency has a bigger impact on demand vs. EVs

Fuel efficiency in new light vehicles is having a bigger impact on fuel demand than rising sales of electric vehicles, BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney said at an energy conference on Tuesday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As old vehicles in the world's 1.4 billion fleet of light vehicles are scrapped, newer vehicles with higher mileage per unit of gasoline have taken their place.

"That is locked in, and that's having a bigger impact on oil demand than electric vehicles," Looney said at the CERAWeek energy conference. Around 3% of the global vehicle fleet is EVs, he said.

The world's vehicle fleet is expected to grow to 2.2 billion vehicles by 2040, with much of the growth coming from China and India, he said.

With more efficient vehicles and many more electric vehicles on the road, fuel demand could fall by 5 MMbpd to 10 MMbpd by 2040, Looney said. The existing global light vehicle fleet consumes about 32 MMbpd, he said. That accounts for around a third of global oil demand.

We remind, BP has decided to end the publication of its statistical review of world energy after 70 years. The task has now fallen to the industry body the Energy Institute, which kicks off IE Week in London today – and is the same organisation that BP UK country head Louise Kingham used to head up. BP’s statistical energy review was first published in 1952, providing key data on global oil, gas and coal consumption.

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BTC Europe, BASF’S European distribution organization, and Sudarshan Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of high-quality pigments based in Pune, India, have signed an agreement on the distribution of organic and inorganic pigments as well as effect pigments in Europe, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Both companies seek to leverage their expertise and industrial know-how to offer customers access to a wide portfolio of high-quality pigments for various industries.

We are pleased to have found such a strong partner in Sudarshan who will be able to supply us with high performance pigments that cover the full color circle”, said Jose Corral Montilla, Managing Director of BTC Europe. “Our customers will benefit from access to a broad range of high-quality pigments for different applications and industries. Moreover, the collaboration between our two companies will enable us to extend our third-party product portfolio and thereby strengthen our competitive advantage in the pigments market."

“By combining the advantages of our solutions with BTC Europe’s strong position in the chemical distribution market in Europe, we can together seize new market potentials for high-quality pigments,” said Milan Krumbe, General Manager Sudarshan Europe. “I am very much looking forward to our cooperation and to opening up new channels for our products that serve a wide range of industries and applications.

We remind, BASF said it would cut 2,600 jobs, halt share buybacks and hike investment to improve competitiveness as it warned of a further decline in earnings due to rising costs. The German chemicals giant said in a statement that adjusted 2023 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), would fall to between 4.8-5.4 billion euros (USD5.09-USD5.69 billion) from 6.9 billion euros in 2022, which was down 11.5% from 2021.

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TotalEnergies workers on Wednesday took a majority vote to halt production at the Feyzin refinery close to Lyon as part of wider strike action across France against a planned pension reform, a CGT union official told Reuters.

Striking workers had so far only blocked shipments at the site. CGT representative Eric Sellini said the union was now negotiating the modalities on how to organize the shutdown with management.

Following a day of strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday, TotalEnergies' refinery deliveries were suspended on Wednesday, electricity output was reduced and train services remained disrupted as workers in key industries continued their action aimed at blocking the government's plan to delay the retirement age by two years to 64.

We remind, TotalEnergies is joining forces with Portuguese packaging player Intraplas to create commercial products with TotalEnergies renewable polymer – a range of the RE:clic portfolio, which uses renewable sources to lower carbon footprint. TotalEnergies’ biorefinery in La Mede, France, allows direct access to renewable feedstock for its drop-in RE: newable polymer range derived from bio-based products. The company claims these polymers retain virgin-like properties.

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Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Nanhai BV and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) have let a contract to Shell Catalyst & Technologies (SC&T) to deliver process technology for a third major expansion of ethylene production capacity at the operators' 50-50 joint venture CNOOC & Shell Petrochemicals Co Ltd's (CSPC) petrochemical complex in Daya Bay Economic & Technological Development Zone, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China, said the company.

As part of the Feb. 27 contract, SC&T will license a suite of technologies for CSPC’s Phase 3 expansion, including its proprietary production process for styrene monomer and propylene oxide (SMPO) and OMEGA catalytic process for manufacturing of ethylene-oxide-ethylene glycol (EO-EG), as well as its technology for production of linear alpha olefins (LAO) for a grassroots LAO plant to be built as part of the project, the service provider said.

SC&T said its scope of delivery under contract also includes provision of associated catalysts for the Phase 3 growth project, which will add a new 1.6-million tonne/year (tpy) ethylene cracker.

The contract for CSPC’s Phase 3 expansion follows the partners’ May 2020 confirmation that they would proceed with project development that was then only to include construction of a new 1.5-million tpy cracker.

Preceded by commissioning of a 1.2-million tpy ethylene cracker—the site’s second—in 2018, CSPC most recently completed startup of remaining derivatives units included under complex’s Phase 2 expansion in April 2021.

We remind, Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Nanhai BV and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) have started up new units to complete the Phase 2 expansion of their 50-50 joint venture CNOOC & Shell Petrochemicals Co. Ltd.’s (CSPC) petrochemical complex in Daya Bay Economic & Technological Development Zone, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China.

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Sulzer advanced separation technology will enable end-of-life plastics recycling at Indaver’s first plastic depolymerization plant currently under construction in Antwerp, Belgium, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new Plastics2Chemicals (P2C) plant will drive polymer circularity by using Sulzer separation technology to reclaim and purify 30,000 tpy of plastic waste. The resulting pure chemical feedstock can then be reused in manufacturing.

As a leading European sustainable waste management company based in Belgium, Indaver is leveraging Sulzer’s advanced separation technology to develop safe recycling methods for typically non-recyclable post-consumer plastic. This demo-plant is the first of several sustainable P2C facilities that Indaver plans to build in strategic locations across Europe, together which will upcycle 1 MMt of used plastic.

After breaking long plastic macromolecules (polymers) down to simple monomers through depolymerization, the new P2C facility will use Sulzer Chemtech equipment to recover and purify the monomers to be used in the production of packaging materials, such as butter dishes, chocolate foils, cups and yoghurt pots amongst others.

Indaver elected to partner with Sulzer in this project due to its extensive research and pilot testing at Sulzer Chemtech’s in-house pilot plant in Allschwil, Switzerland. Sulzer is delivering four units that will run proprietary processes to enhance the quality of the recovered styrene or oil fractions. The Sulzer Chemtech equipment is critical to purification of chemical feedstock, enabling the polymer circularity.

We remind, Sulzer has signed an agreement with circular technology company Fuenix Ecogy to acquire a strategic stake in its plastic upcycling business. The partnership will drive the development, commercialization and adoption of advanced, fully integrated solutions for plastic waste processing.

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