Chevron Lummus Global announces ISOFINISHING award from BPCL

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp has chosen Chevron Lummus Global’s (CLG) ISOFINISHING technology for a catalytic processing unit at its Mumbai refinery, said the company.

Once complete, the 200,000 tonne/year facility would be the first catalytic process unit to manufacture de-aromatised solvents and white oil in India, CLG said in a brief statement on Wednesday. Production from the new unit would replace imports of these specialty products, it added.

CLG's scope for the Mumbai project includes the technology licence, engineering services, proprietary equipment and catalyst supply. Financial details or the expected startup timeline were not disclosed.

CLG is a joint venture between Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Lummus Technology.

We remind, Chevron Corp. posted a record USD36.5 bn profit for 2022 that was more than double year-earlier earnings but fell shy of Wall Street estimates, undercut by an asset writedowns and a retreat in oil and gas prices.
The second largest U.S. oil producer's adjusted net profit for 2022 beat by about USD10 billion its previous record set in 2011. But USD1.1 B in writedowns in its international oil and gas operations in the fourth quarter left earnings short of forecasts for adjusted net profit of USD37.2 B.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A joint venture made up of Enterprise Products and Navigator plans to increase the export capacity of an ethylene terminal in the US by at least 550,000 tonnes/year to up to 2m tonnes/year, said the company.

The project would increase the total export capacity at the terminal to a maximum of 3m tonnes/year, Navigator said. Construction should finish by the end of 2024.

The project will increase the instantaneous ethylene refrigeration capacity to 375 tonnes/hour from 125 tonnes/hour, Navigator said.

The terminal is at Morgan's Point, Texas, and it is operated by the joint venture, Navigator Ethylene Terminal.

We remind, Enterprise Products Partners will expand its 1 million mt/year ethylene export terminal 50% by the second half of 2023 and double it to more than 2 million mt/year by 2025, the company said May 2, 2022.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- OCI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korean company Lotte Fine Chemical for the supply of low-carbon and green ammonia, the companies said in a statement.

The first shipments will start this year from OCI's US facilities. The companies are also looking to co-operate to build a global supply chain of bunkering for ammonia-powered vessels in Ulsan, Korea, which are expected to be commercialised from 2025 onwards.

Under the agreement, OCI will supply Lotte Fine Chemical from OCI's existing low-carbon ammonia production capacity in Texas starting this year. Lotte Fine Chemical will introduce OCI's ISCC Plus bio-ammonia, derived from bio-methane, for supply to its domestic customers. When bio-certified, plastic products made of this material will be eligible for tax benefits when exported to Europe.

We remind, Linde has announced it signed a long-term agreement to supply clean hydrogen and other industrial gases to OCI’s new world-scale blue ammonia plant in Beaumont, Texas. Linde said it will build, own and operate an on-site complex which will include autothermal reforming with carbon capture, plus a large air separation plant, and will be integrated into their Gulf Coast industrial gas infrastructure.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asahi Kasei Plastics North America (APNA), global compounder of of advanced engineered polymers and Asahi Kasei Asaclean Americas (AKAC), global supplier of purging compounds and concentrates, are merging effective April 1, 2023, said Canplastics.

The combined company will operate as APNA and be headquartered in Fowlerville, Michigan. The merged entity creates a plastics-focused powerhouse with customers spanning the automotive, industrial, and consumer industries. APNA’s broad portfolio now includes Xyron modified PPE, Thermylene chemically coupled PP, Leona nylon 66, 66+6i, Tenac homopolymer and copolymer POM, Thermylon nylons 6 and 66, and Asaclean purging compounds and concentrates.

Following the integration, the company will have over 350 employees with four locations in North America to support the diverse needs of customers in different segments. Said president and COO of APNA Todd Glogovsky, “The merger will provide significant internal and external benefits for our employees, customers, and communities. We expect to drive value creation and synergies between APNA and AKAC to leverage both companies’ strengths. We have a strong team with industry expertise to serve our partners’ needs while expanding our growth.”

The leadership at both APNA and AKAC see this merger as an opportunity to enhance their strategic growth plans while better-serving customers. Several opportunities have already been taken advantage of, such as the production of Asaclean products, new product commercialization, and warehousing of raw materials and finished goods. The goal is to improve the customer experience by providing both the production material and the materials that clean the resin in one place to reduce downtime and deliver efficiencies. By consolidating relevant resources, customers can streamline items such as invoicing and product support through one partnership.

Said Phani Nagaraj, v.p. of AKAC and after the merger, APNA’s v.p. of commercial operations, “This partnership benefits our mutual customers through areas such as connected customer service and technical support while maintaining the relationships that have been cultivated for years. From a product and customer experience standpoint, nothing changes. The Asaclean products will deliver the same quality and consistency that has been trusted for nearly 30 years.”

We remind, Asahi Kasei is set to start the sale of sustainable synthetic rubber materials after the company’s Synthetic Rubber Division earned the internationally recognised ISCC Plus certification in October. The company announced it would be marketing its ISCC Plus-certified Tufdene-branded solution-polymerised styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) and Asadene butadiene rubber starting in November. Both products are made using the mass-balance approach at Asahi Kasei Synthetic Rubber Singapore Pte. Ltd. and the Synthetic Rubber Plant of Asahi Kasei's Kawasaki Works.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Unipar’s earnings and net income fell sharply in 2022 despite an increase in sales on the back of higher costs for feedstocks, the Brazilian chemicals producer said this week.

The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), the best metric to measure a company’s financial soundness, fell by nearly 16% to Brazilian reais (R) 3.16bn (USD605m).

In the fourth quarter of 2022 alone, EBITDA fell by more than 56%, year on year. The company's stock was down more than 7% on Tuesday afternoon trading, compared with the prior close, to R75.30/share.

Unipar produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC), caustic soda, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), ethylene dichloride (EDC) and other chlorine derivatives, among others; its three main production facilities are in Cubatao and Santo Andre, Brazil, and Bahia Blanca in Argentina.

Capacity utilisation during 2022 rose, year on year, to 84%, said the company. In 2021, capacity utilisation stood at 78%. Unipar said 50% of its sales came from PVC, down from 62% in 2021. Sales of caustic soda amounted to 37% of the total, up from 26% in 2021, and sales of chlorine and tis derivatives stood at 13% of the revenue, practically unchanged from 2021.

By country, Unipar sales in Brazil in 2022 stood at R5.18bn (71.2% of the total) and at R2.09bn in Argentina, or 28.7% of the total. Speaking to reporters from the company’s headquarters in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, Unipar’s CFO said 2023 may also be a challenging year for earnings due to the woeful global economic environment.

“Costs for natural gas and ethylene went up sharply in 2022. For 2023, we expect a more challenging year, with more restricted prices and margins, expectations of high inflation globally, and continued economic and political instability in Argentina,” said Antonio Marcos Campos Rabello.

We remind, Unipar has recently appointed Marco Rabello as its new CFO and director of investor relations, the company announced. The new hire comes to strengthen the company's business model directly related to expansion on greenfield projects and acquisitions focusing on domestic and international markets. Unipar's new CFO began his career at Odebrecht Group companies including Novonor, where he held the same position for four years, and Ocyan, the new brand of the former Odebrecht Oil and Gas Company. Marco has also worked for other major corporations such as Braskem and will succeed Christian Schnitzlein, who has been in charge for the past seven years.

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