China refiner ZPC enters strategic fuel marketing deal with Sinopec

Privately controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), operator of China's largest refinery, said on Thursday it has reached a strategic agreement with state refining giant Sinopec on the domestic marketing of its fuel, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under a deal reached earlier this week, Sinopec will handle more than 60% of ZPC's domestic refined products sales, worth about USD8.0 B a year, the company said in a statement posted on its WeChat account. China, already with the world's largest refining capacity, is continuing to add processing plants, with production far outpacing growth in fuel demand and competition for home fuel markets becoming more fierce.

"With the growing new refining capacity at home, the mismatch between refined fuel supply and demand will become more and more prominent," ZPC said in the statement. ZPC, controlled by private chemical group Rongsheng Petrochemical Co Ltd,operates an 800,000 barrels-per-day refinery in the eastern port of Zhoushan.

Earlier this week, Rongsheng Petrochemical agreed to sell a 10% stake in itself to Middle Eastern energy giant Saudi Aramco for USD3.6 B. The deal included agreements on Aramco supplying crude oil to two Chinese refiners, oil storage for the Saudis in Zhoushan and the supply of petrochemicals from Rongsheng back to Saudi Arabia over a span of 20 years.

We remind, Sinopec Corp announced that it has completed trial runs at a 1-MMtpy ethylene plant in the southern Chinese province of Hainan that will boost exports. The facility is part of a 28.6 B-yuan (USD4.15 B) complex built at the site and is the second major petrochemical plant starting this year after a similar-sized facility was announced last week by PetroChina in Guangdong province.

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Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG) announced a recent contract award from Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) for a new 12,580 bpd hydroisodewaxing (HIDW) unit at the GasLub Hub, a lubricant plant in Itaborai, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Chevron Lummus Global's scope includes the technology license, basic design engineering, and research unit testing services.

Employing CLG's ISODEWAXING and ISOFINISHING technologies, the unit will produce a wide viscosity range of premium API Group II/ II+ lubricating base oil grades for the first time in Brazil and South America. The addition of this unit is expected to bring significant benefits to the region by minimizing existing dependence on imported base oils, which is part of Petrobras' strategy to produce higher value-added and quality products to better serve the market.

Decades of dedicated research and development have made Chevron Lummus Global the most trusted technology provider for premium base oils. Since Chevron's invention of ISODEWAXING technology in 1993, CLG lube base oil technologies have provided operators worldwide with enhanced performance, profitability and optimum utilization of existing assets.

We remind, 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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Honeywell announced that Biotrend Energy signed equipment supply, production license, and warranty agreements to build Turkiye’s first commercialized advanced waste recycling plant using Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The facility will convert mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock (RPF), helping enable the development of a circular economy for plastics.

Two parallel 30,000 metric ton units of modular design will be built in the Izmir region of Turkiye and are expected to start up in 2025. The planned advanced recycling plant is expected to have the capacity to transform 60,000 metric tons of mixed waste plastics into RPF per year, twice the amount of the originally projected 30,000 metric tons announced in 2022. Biotrend Energy will provide the feedstock for the plant and Honeywell UOP will provide related engineering and technical services, including startup, commissioning, and technical support services during the plant’s lifetime. The plant is anticipated to be the first advanced recycling plant in Turkiye and one of the first in the world.

“There is an increasing demand for recycled plastic products as a result of the circular economy commitments made by the world's leading companies, and Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology can support Biotrend’s efforts to increase recovery volumes of circular materials,” said Salih Tuncer Mutlucan, Member of the Board of Directors of Biotrend Cevre ve Enerji Yat?r?mlar? A.S. “The advanced recycling facility we plan to establish in Turkiye will be one of the first in Turkiye and in the world, the facility will be able to recycle original raw plastic material and enable a true circular economy."

Currently, Biotrend Energy is only able to recover a low percentage of mechanically recycled materials. Moreover, there are some types of plastic waste that cannot be recycled mechanically due to certain process limitations caused by contamination, colors, and additives used in plastic production. Currently, the plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled are either converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or stored in landfills.

We remind, Honeywell announced that SGP BioEnergy will implement Honeywell’s Experion System Technology at its Golden City Biorefinery in Colon, Panama. As one of SGP’s key automation contractors, Honeywell will deploy its Experion technology solutions for the plant’s distributed control and safety systems (DCS) and Experion Industrial Security systems for its integrated telecommunications to build a sustainable aviation fuel refinery.

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Valero Energy Corp is preparing to restart the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 335,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas refinery after completing a planned overhaul, said people familiar with plant operations, said Hyrocarbonprocessing.

A new coker at the Port Arthur refinery will start up initial production once the 115,000-bpd AVU-147 CDU restarts, the sources said. A Valero spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment.

The 55,000-bpd coker is expected to come on-line by early May, company officials have said. Cokers convert residual crude oil from distillation units into either feedstock for motor fuels or petroleum coke, a substitute for coal.

CDUs break down crude oil into feedstock for all other units at the refinery.

We remind, Valero Chief Executive Joe Gorder said this week U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was told at a recent White House meeting with energy executives that refineries shuttered in the last few years won't return production.

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INEOS has completed the purchase of Mitsui Phenols Singapore in a USD330m deal, giving the UK-based firm over 1m tonnes/year of additional Asia production capacity, said the company.

Based on Jurong Island, Singapore, the entire asset base of the Mitsui subsidiary will be transferred to INEOS. The business has a production capacity of 410,000 tonnes/year of cumene, 310,000 tonne/year of phenol and 185,000 tonnes/year of acetone.

Mitsui Phenols Singapore can also produce 150,000 tonnes/year of bisphenol A (BPA) and 20,000 tonnes/year of alpha-methylstyrene, the company added. The division has an annual turnover of USD750m, with the sale intended to reduce earnings volatility for Mitsui, the company said at the time of the announcement of the deal.

Prior to the INEOS deal, Mitsui Phenols Singapore was 95%-owned by Mitsui Chemicals and 5% held by Mitsui & Co. The parent company agreed to transfer its minority stake to Mitsui Chemicals prior to the close of the sale.

The Jurong phenol chain and BPA assets offer integration opportunities with related INEOS assets in Germany, Belgium and the US, the company said, as well as growing its footprint in Asia and opening up new markets in the region. “We look forward to developing new markets and customer relationships associated with bisphenol A which will be a new product for INEOS” said Gordon Adams, business director for INEOS Phenol.

We remind, INEOS Energy is entering US oil and gas production for the first time with the acquisition of a portion of Chesapeake Energy’s oil and gas assets in the Eagle Ford shale, south Texas for USD1.4 billion. The deal marks INEOS Energy’s entry as operator into the US onshore oil and gas market, as it acquires 2,300 wells, producing net 36,000 BOED. The acquisition, which includes production and exploration leases across 172,000 net acres, is expected to complete in Q2, with an effective date of October 2022.

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