Japan receives first low-carbon ammonia cargo from Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan received its first low-carbon ammonia cargo from Saudi Arabia on Friday which it plans to use for co-firing with fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions, a joint statement from the four companies involved in the deal said, said Reuters.

Energy-poor Japan wants to add hydrogen and ammonia to its energy mix, a move criticized by climate activists as costly and not fully effective. Japan has agreed with a number of countries to study hydrogen and ammonia supply chains.

Ammonia shipped to Fuji Oil Company (FOC) on Friday was produced by SABIC Agri-Nutrients using feedstock from Aramco and the cargo was delivered by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, the four companies said in the joint statement.

The statement did not disclose the amount or value of the cargo but said that ammonia - considered low-carbon as CO2 from the associated manufacturing process was captured and utilized - was transported to FOC's Sodegaura refinery for use in co-fired power generation.

Japan aims to boost its fuel ammonia demand to 3 million tons annually by 2030 from nearly zero at present. Its top power generator JERA has been co-firing ammonia with coal in a trial project at its power station in central Japan since 2021.

We remind, Finnish engineering and technologies company Coolbrook announced a collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals major SABIC on piloting its RotoDynamic Reactor (RDR) technology for decarbonised ethylene production. RDR technology aims to replace the burning of fossil fuels with electrification in steam crackers. SABIC agreed to assess the potential for industrial deployment of RDR technology at its production sites.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A crude distillation unit (CDU), a coker and the alkylation unit are shut at TotalEnergies' 238,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, people familiar with plant operations said Reuters.

The refinery since Sunday has been dependent on the neighboring BASF SE chemical plant for steam following the shutdown of its cogeneration plant because of a fire, the sources said. The BASF steam supply went down on Friday morning.

TotalEnergies spokeswoman Tricia Fuller said the refinery lost its steam supply at about 7:55 a.m. CDT (1255 GMT) on Friday. “The refinery immediately responded by following established procedures to minimize emissions,” Fuller said. “The steam loss caused operational upsets at some process units resulting in process upset gas being routed to the refinery flares.”

In a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the company said a coker was also shut at the refinery. The refinery shut the ACU-3 CDU on Friday afternoon while the alkylation unit and sulfolane unit were shut earlier in the day, the sources said.

CDUs break down crude oil into feedstocks for all production units at the refinery. Cokers convert residual crude oil from distillation units into either feedstock for motor fuels or petroleum coke, a coal substitute.

We remind, TotalEnergies and Paprec, leader in plastic recycling in France, have signed a long-term commercial agreement to develop a French value chain for advanced recycling of plastic film wastes. The agreement will secure the supply of TotalEnergies' future advanced plastic recycling plant in Grandpuits. Following the terms of this agreement, Citeo, the main organization in charge of end-of-life household packaging in France, will provide a stream of flexible plastic waste sorted from post-consumer packaging.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- UK supermajor Shell has awarded the Serikandi Kent Energy Solutions joint venture a five-year commissioning and start-up services contract for its activities in Brunei Darussalam, said Upstreamonline.

Details and the value of this long-term contract – the first win for Serikandi Kent Energy Solutions - were kept under wraps although Joe McCormick, Kent’s executive vice president for Asia Pacific, said the JV would be building up its local resources in tandem with the BSP work.

Revi Bhaskaran, Serikandi Oilfield Services chief executive, said: “We are excited that Serikandi Kent Energy Solutions has won this business.

"This is another step towards our vision of becoming Brunei's first EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) company, supporting Brunei's Wawasan 2035 goals of producing educated, highly skilled and accomplished people and building a dynamic and sustainable economy."

Serikandi Kent Energy Solutions, which was established last October, is a Bruneian incorporated JV between Dubai-headquartered Kent and local player Serikandi Oilfield Services.

It aims to provide integrated services including engineering, procurement and construction, and EPCM, to clients in the sultanate for greenfield and brownfield projects, asset integrity and rejuvenation.

One of the key projects on its radar is understood to be Petronas’ on-off Kelidang field development that could yet get off the drawing board in the not too distant future.

We remind, CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Ltd (CSPC), a joint venture established by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Royal Dutch Shell, signed a framework agreement worth USD5.6-bn with China’s Huizhou city government to expand its ethylene project in the city. CSPC is expected to add 1.5 million tons per annum ethylene production capacity on top of its existed 2.2 million tons in Huizhou, according to a statement issued by CNOOC on Sunday night.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- 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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MOSCOW (MRC) -- 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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