Marathon's Galveston Bay, Texas FCC remains shut

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The gasoline-producing FCC at Marathon Petroleum's 593,000 bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, remained shut on Friday, people familiar with plant operations said Reuters.

Investigators from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as early as Friday are expected to begin probing a fire on Thursday night that shut the 140,000-bpd FCC, the sources said. No injuries were reported from the fire. A Marathon spokesperson did not reply to a request for immediate comment.

The fire broke out in the FCC's regenerator, which removes carbon from the fine powder catalyst that converts gas oil into unfinished gasoline. Removing the carbon extends the life and efficiency of the catalyst.

On Thursday, a power plant supplying the refinery sustained a leak in a steam boiler. Texas City residents were warned about noise from the leak on the high-pressure line. The leak was repaired on Thursday afternoon, sources told Reuters. The Galveston Bay Refinery is the fourth largest by capacity in the United States.

In a May 15 fire on a reformer at the refinery, a Marathon employee was killed and two contract workers were injured. Marathon is repairing the reformer. The repairs are expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year. A contract worker was also killed in March at the site when he was electrocuted.

An Aug. 25 fire at Marathon's Garyville, Louisiana refinery led to an evacuation order for residents within two miles of the refinery. Two giant storage tanks burned to the ground and two minor injuries were reported.

The Garyville refinery is the third largest in the United States. The reformer converts refining byproducts into octane-boosting components added to unfinished gasoline to make premium grades.

Marathon is the largest U.S. refiner. Its 13 refineries have a combined capacity of 2.9 million bpd, or 16% of national capacity.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras will make a scheduled maintenance stoppage at its Gabriel Passos Refinery (Regap) in Minas Gerais state, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The unit, which has the capacity to process 150,000 barrels of oil per day, has two refining trains (units) and each of them is expected to stop for around a month, one of the sources said, adding the first stoppage will be next week and the other in October.

Regap processes fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, among other products. Its output supplies a large part of Minas Gerais state and, occasionally, its neighbor Espirito Santo.

Maintenance shutdowns are carried out periodically, in compliance with regulatory standards.

Petrobras did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

We remind, Petrobras remains eager to repurchase a refinery from Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala despite antitrust barriers, and a new biofuels partnership could open the door to future talks. Petrobras on Monday announced a memorandum of understanding with Mubadala for potential investment in a biofuel refinery under development in Bahia state by Mubadala-owned Acelen.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, and its affiliate companies in Europe announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS), ABS and SAN grades, said the company.

Effective September 1, 2023, or as existing contract terms allow, the prices for the products listed below will increase as follows:

STYRON™ and STYRON™ X-TECH general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) by +180 Euro per metric ton
STYRON™ and STYRON™ A-TECH, STYRON™ C-TECH and STYRON™ X- TECH high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) by +180 Euro per metric ton
MAGNUM™ ABS resins by +135 Euro per metric ton
TYRIL™ SAN resins by +150 Euro per metric ton

We remind, Trinseo's sales volumes have stabilised at levels that are 20% below typical mid-cycle levels. So far, demand in the third quarter is similar to that in the first half of the year, said Frank Bozich, CEO.

Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart and sustainably focused manner by combining its premier expertise, forward-looking innovations and best-in-class materials to unlock value for companies and consumers.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Innovation has revealed its 2022 ESG Report on its company website, said the company.

Since 2020, SK Innovation has expanded and published its existing sustainability reports into ESG Reports that incorporate the requirements suggested by key investors, ESG assessment agencies, civic groups, etc. This year’s report has been enhanced in aspect of the addition of annual goals and performance, the preemptive application of global disclosure standards, and the enhancement of ESG data tracking capabilities and transparency.

SK Innovation stated, “Recently, stakeholders are demanding specific goals and achievements in ESG management,” and added, “This year’s ESG Report has significantly expanded the scope of information disclosure, including annual road maps and detailed performance by key tasks, and has further strengthened internal and external verification on disclosure data, enhancing accuracy and transparency.”

SK Innovation has expanded the scope of information disclosed in this year’s report. While last year’s report unveiled the ESG management strategy “G.R.O.W.T.H system*” and mid-to-long-term key tasks, this year, it has added the annual performance and goals for each task, as well as execution plans. Therefore, the report enables stakeholders to verify the degree of the company’s fulfillment in ESG management.

It is also noteworthy that the company established a “Special Page” for each G.R.O.W.T.H area that genuinely conveys specific examples of major achievements through the voices of stakeholders, such as cooperative companies, members, and business partners.

It is the strategy that SK Innovation has established and has been promoting as a specific implementation methodology for its Financial Story. The strategy includes achieving Net Zero through “Carbon to Green” innovation (Green Innovation, Road to Net Zero), strengthening safety/health/environment (SHE), which is the foundation of sustainable growth, and winning stakeholders’ trust (Outstanding SHE Management, Winning the Trust) and the ultimate goal of shareholders’ happiness (Together with Society, Happiness for all). These are the company’s management directions reflected as core tasks.

This report by SK Innovation has been prepared in compliance with international sustainability reporting standards, such as the revised items of “GRI 2021”, TCFD*, SASB**, and other global ESG disclosure standards. In particular, the report preemptively applied newly suggested standards of industry-specific indicators (Oil & Gas Sector) and the double materiality test. The double materiality test is a method of analyzing both the impact external factors have on a company’s financial state and the effect of the company’s business activities on the outside to identify key issues in the report.

We remind, SK Innovation has become the first in the oil refining industry to complete a Life Cycle Assessment (hereafter, LCA) for its entire oil-petrochemical related products. The company aims to strengthen its response to domestic and international clients who are increasingly focused on ESG evaluation standards, and plans to utilize the findings for process improvement data.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiner and trader Varo Energy plans to build a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) manufacturing facility at Gunvor's Rotterdam refinery with a USD600 MM investment which will meet up to 7% of the EU's 2030 SAF target, as per Hydrocarbonprocesing.

The new facility will be wholly owned by Varo and have capacity to produce 245,000 metric tons a year of SAF, with first production set for the fourth quarter 2026, Varo said.

Varo in February signed an initial agreement with Lufthansa to supply it with SAF from 2026 onwards. Along with SAF, the facility will also produce bio-naphtha and bio-propane, with total feedstock capacity reaching 350,000 tons a year, Varo said.

SAF is produced using waste and renewable biomass sources, as opposed to conventional jet fuel which is refined from crude oil. Gunvor said it will "further participate through an operations and maintenance agreement and other investments".

The energy trader operates a 75,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery at Rotterdam.

We remind, Russia will extend its voluntary reduction in oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year "to maintain stability and balance" on oil markets, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in a statement on Tuesday. Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, has been cutting output and exports in tandem with Saudi Arabia on top of existing OPEC+ supply reductions.

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