ExxonMobil and Keppel in low-carbon hydrogen drive

US supermajor ExxonMobil and Singapore’s Keppel teaming up to develop low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia for scalable commercial and industrial applications in the city state, said Upstreamonline.

In addition to being a hydrogen carrier and storage medium, ammonia can be used directly as a carbon-free fuel or broken down into carbon-free hydrogen for power generation, as well as feedstock for refinery and petrochemical operations.

The memorandum of understanding between ExxonMobil Asia Pacific and Keppel Infrastructure follows the Singapore government’s launch last October of its National Hydrogen Strategy, which expects hydrogen to meet up to half of Singapore’s power needs by 2050.

As part of this hydrogen strategy, the Energy Market Authority and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore issued an expression of interest in December for proposals to build, own and operate low or zero-carbon power generation and bunkering facilities on Singapore’s Jurong Island.

Natural gas today meets the lion’s share of the nation’s power generation demand. The Keppel-ExxonMobil collaboration has been formed to address the call to develop competitive solutions that can support Jurong Island’s sustainability goals and Singapore’s hydrogen strategy.

Keppel is also looking to use low-carbon hydrogen for Singapore’s first hydrogen-ready 600-megawatt combined-cycle power plant.

We remind, ExxonMobil Corp has started up its long-planned project to expand light crude oil processing capacity by 250,000 b/d at ExxonMobil Product Solutions Co's integrated refining and petrochemicals complex along the US Gulf Coast in Beaumont, TX, US.

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BASF has released preliminary figures for the 1Q 2023, said the company.

Sales declined by 13.4% in the 1Q 2023 to EUR 19,991 M (1Q 2022: EUR 23,083 M). This was mainly driven by considerably lower volumes. Sales were considerably lower than average analyst estimates for the 1Q 2023 (Vara: EUR 21,819 M). EBIT before special items of BASF Group amounted to an expected EUR 1931 M in the 1Q 2023, a decline of 31.5% compared with the prior-year quarter (1Q 2022: EUR 2818 M) but considerably above the analyst consensus for the 1Q 2023 (Vara: EUR 1599 M). In particular, EBIT before special items in the Agricultural Solutions segment considerably exceeded average analyst estimates.

Chemicals, Materials and Surface Technologies were also considerably above the respective average analyst estimates for EBIT before special items in the 1Q 2023. In the Industrial Solutions and Nutrition & Care segments, EBIT before special items missed average analyst estimates slightly and considerably, respectively. In Other, EBIT before special items was weaker than expected by analysts on average.

The BASF Group's EBIT amounted to an expected EUR 1867 M in the 1Q 2023, considerably below the figure for the prior-year quarter (1Q 2022: EUR 2785 M) but considerably above the analyst consensus (Vara: EUR 1533 M). Net income reached EUR 1562 M, considerably above the figure in the prior-year quarter (1Q 2022: EUR 1221 M) and considerably above average analyst estimates for the 1Q 2023 (Vara: EUR 1081 M). In the prior-year quarter, impairments on the participation in Wintershall Dea had burdened net income of BASF Group.

We remind, BASF announced that it has received the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS for certain grades of plastic additives produced at its manufacturing sites in Kaisten, Switzerland and McIntosh, Alabama, United States.

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Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries has decided to withdraw the proposal to merge subsidiary Reliance New Energy Limited (RNEL) with itself and, instead, let the venture undertake the renewable energy venture of the conglomerate, said Moneycontrol.

The development comes after a board meeting reviewed the new energy business and investment structure last week. "Based on a review of the new energy / renewable energy business and investment structure, the Board has decided that the new energy / renewable energy business should be undertaken through RNEL and the Scheme be withdrawn," the oil-to-telecom conglomerate said in a regulatory filing.

In May last year, the company had said that Reliance New Energy (RNEL) would be amalgamated as the renewable energy initiatives and be undertaken by RIL directly. RNEL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL. However, the scheme presently pending with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai Bench for approval, has now been decided to be withdrawn.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had in 2021 announced the conglomerate’s ambitions to recast itself increasingly as a clean energy enterprise, powered by huge investments as it braces for a new future. Ambani had revealed the plans lined up to pursue RIL’s clean energy goals, which will entail an investment of Rs 75,000 crore over three years. For its clean energy initiatives, RIL will invest over Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years and invest an additional Rs 15,000 crore in value chain, partnerships and future technologies, including upstream and downstream industries, Ambani had said in the annual report for FY22.

Meanwhile, shares of Reliance Industries on April 21 closed 0.14 percent higher at Rs 2,348.90 apiece on the BSE. On April 21, India's biggest company in terms of valuation reported net profit, attributable to the owners of the company, at Rs 19,299 crore for the March quarter of the financial year 2022-23, up 19 percent from the year-ago period. The profit beat estimates driven by a strong performance across businesses. Gross revenue from operations of India's most valued company came in at Rs 2.39 lakh crore, registering a year-on-year rise of 2.8 percent. Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.?

We remind, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) unveiled India’s first Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine technology solution for heavy duty trucks flagged off by Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Energy Week in Bangalore. The Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2ICE) powered trucks will emit near zero emissions, deliver performance on par with conventional diesel trucks and reduce noise and with projected reductions in operating costs thus redefining the future of Green Mobility.

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Chinese state oil giants and major private refiners are sweeping up more Russian crude, supporting prices and forcing smaller independents to seek out cheap alternatives such as Iranian oil, according to trade sources and shipping data, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The demand from China's biggest buyers, which had shied away from Russian crude in the immediate aftermath of Western sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, shows growing confidence in the trade after state refiners PetroChina and Sinopec resumed imports in February.

Large private oil refiners Hengli Petrochemical and Jiangsu Eastern Shenghong Co started receiving Russian crude from March, attracted by wide discounts for the oil, according to traders and shiptracking data from Refinitiv, Kpler and Vortexa.

Four cargoes of about 740,000 barrels each of low-sulfur ESPO crude discharged at Hengli's Dalian berth in March while another two arrived in April, the Kpler data showed. Shenghong imported a Urals crude cargo of about 720,000 barrels in March and 1 million barrels in April, Kpler showed.

In April, PetroChina received a Urals crude cargo of 1 million barrels via Myanmar's Made Island port, which is linked by pipeline to its Yunnan refinery, the Kpler data showed. PetroChina, Hengli and Shenghong did not reply to requests for comment.

China's overall Russian crude imports, including pipeline and ships, rose to a record 9.61 million tons, or 2.26 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, customs data showed on Friday.

We remind, Russia has increased its diesel exports to Brazil and other parts of Latin America following an embargo on shipments to Europe, traders said and Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Russia has long been the main diesel supplier for Europe, where refineries do not produce enough fuel to meet domestic demand for diesel cars. But a full EU embargo on Russian oil products since Feb. 5 has diverted Russian diesel exports to Asia, Africa, the Middle East and STS loadings.

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Senate lawmakers have reintroduced two pieces of bipartisan legislation focused on improving the nation’s recycling and composting systems, said Recyclingtoday.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) have reintroduced The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act as well as the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act.

Both bills were introduced last year, and they had support from several industry groups, including the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics) and the Solid Waste Association of North America. Senate lawmakers passed these bills in August 2022; however, the companion legislation introduced in the House of Representatives did not proceed past a hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change.

According to a news release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which is chaired by Sen. Carper, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would improve data collection on the nation’s recycling systems and explore the potential of a national composting strategy. The legislation would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to collect and publish data on recycling and composting rates across the country to provide an accurate reflection of performance both nationwide and at the state level.

The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act would establish a pilot recycling program at the EPA, which would award grants on a competitive basis to eligible entities for improving recycling accessibility in communities. According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the goal of this program is to fund eligible projects that would significantly improve access to recycling systems in underserved communities through the use of a hub-and-spoke model for recycling infrastructure development.

We remind, more than 120 European packaging industry associations issued a joint letter urging co-legislators to preserve the internal market legal basis of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation in its entirety, as the best way to achieve the environmental and economic objectives of the proposal. The internal market legal basis addresses the differences among the various national rules on the management of packaging and packaging waste and resulting internal market barriers, while providing a high level of environmental protection.

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