BASF, Sabic, and Linde to build the world’s first electrically heated steam cracker furnaces hit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The joint project between BASF, Sabic, and Linde to build the world’s first electrically heated steam cracker furnaces hit an important milestone recently with the installation of the last transformers for the demonstration plant, said the company.

This is one of the final and most crucial steps of the construction and has taken place about a year after construction started. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023, followed by a stepwise commissioning.

The electricity-based heating concepts for olefin production, which will be tested at the plant in the future, require a total of six megawatts of renewable energy. The transformers convert current to the voltage required at the plant. There are nine transformers in total, and through each of them flows several thousand amps of current.

Thanks to the novel heating concepts, and by using electricity from renewable sources instead of natural gas, electric steam cracker furnaces, one of the most energy-intensive production processes, can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by at least 90% compared to conventional technologies.

The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection is sponsoring the project with 14.8 million euros as part of the “Decarbonization in Industry” funding program, financed by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU fund.

We remind, BASF has commenced construction of its syngas plant at the Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. This world-scale syngas facility, fully integrated into the Verbund site, is scheduled to start up in 2025.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products has been chosen by the city of Montreal to supply oxygen equipment to support an ozone generation site that will remove impurities from wastewater at the Jean-R-Marcotte Wastewater Treatment Plant, one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in North America, said Process-online.

Jean-R.-Marcotte treats almost half of Quebec’s wastewater before releasing it into the St. Lawrence River. On average, the wastewater treatment plant releases 2.3 million cubic meters of water into the river per day.

As part of its agreement with the city of Montreal, Air Products will provide oxygen equipment, including four vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) oxygen plants, to support the city’s new state-of-the-art ozone generation system. The ozone generation system will disinfect the water, removing viruses, bacteria and pharmaceutical products.

“Air Products is proud to collaborate with the city of Montreal on this important project. Air Products’ oxygen generating plants will support the city’s efforts to expand a sustainable water purification process to benefit the citizens of Quebec and the wildlife that depend on the St. Lawrence River,” said Air Products’ Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Samir J. Serhan. “As Air Products celebrates the 50th anniversary of Air Products Canada, this project reflects our continued commitment to Canada.”

We remind, Air Products has signed an investment agreement with the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Uzbekneftegaz JSC (UNG) to acquire, own and operate a natural gas-to-syngas processing facility in Qashqadaryo Province, Uzbekistan for 1 billion dollars. The natural gas-to-syngas industrial complex is an integral part of state-owned energy company Uzbekneftegaz JSC’s multi-billion gas-to-liquid (GTL) facility?one of the most advanced energy plants in the world?producing 1.5 million tonnes per year of high value-add synthetic fuels for domestic use and potentially export.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's Gazprom said on Tuesday that its Astrakhan gas processing plant had resumed diesel output after maintenance works, Reuters said.

Energy Ministry Nikolai Shulginov on Monday mentioned Astrakhan as one of a number of refineries where maintenance was nearing completion, which he said should ease a shortage of fuel on the domestic market.

We remind, Russia loaded the second oil cargo for delivery to Brazil in September, two traders said and LSEG data showed. A tanker Apus loaded 100,000 tons of Varandey oil sourced by Lukoil in the Arctic port of Murmansk on Sept. 10, LSEG data shows. The vessel is expected to arrive in Brazil's Pernambuco area at the end of the month, according to LSEG data.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiners across the top-importing region of Asia are being forced to adapt buying patterns as the additional output cuts by Saudi Arabia have reduced availability of their preferred medium sour grades of crude, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

On September 5, the Kingdom, the top oil exporter and de facto leader of the OPEC+ group, extended its voluntary production cut of 1 MMbpd until the end of the year, while Russia, the second largest producer in the group, extended its 300,000 bpd output cut over the same period.

Reacting to tighter supplies, global benchmark prices have risen: Brent reached $90/bbl last week for the first time in 10 mos. But the main benchmarks are toward the light sweet end of the crude spectrum, whereas the impact of the OPEC+ output cuts has been felt most strongly in the medium sour segment.

Many of the newer, complex refineries in Asia prefer medium sour crude, as it offers a higher yield of middle distillates such as diesel and jet fuel. The lower exports from Saudi Arabia and several other Middle East producers, such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have left them scrambling to secure supplies. As a consequence, prices for these grades have outperformed the light sweet benchmarks.

The Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps, which measures the difference between Brent and Dubai, a medium crude, has narrowed and briefly flipped from its usual premium for Brent to a discount. Brent slipped to a discount of $0.17/bbl to Dubai on August 28, before recovering slightly to end at a premium of $0.85 on Monday.

However, it is worth noting that at the start of this year, Brent commanded a premium of $5.97/bbl over Dubai, and it reached as high as $17.50 in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A medium sour crude such as Iraq's Basrah Light, which historically has traded at a discount to dated Brent, is currently commanding a premium of $2.63/bbl.

Altered flows. The higher prices for medium crude grades are impacting the ways in which crude is flowing around the world.

India is a case in point, with Asia's second-biggest importer switching to Russian Urals crude and away from more expensive Middle East grades.

Russian crude has been sold at a wide discount to other grades as a result of Western sanctions against Moscow, but this discount has narrowed sharply in recent weeks. The reason is that India's refiners are struggling to source medium crudes such as Urals and have little choice but to pay more for the Russian grade.

India's imports from Iraq were 29.17 MMbbl in July, the highest month so far this year, but they dropped to 26.43 MMbbl in August and are on track to drop again to around 24.63 MMbbl this month, according to data compiled by commodity analysts Kpler.

China is also changing its buying patterns by boosting imports from suppliers outside of OPEC+. Assessing imports from Iran is difficult, as China doesn't formally report purchases from the Islamic Republic, which is under Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

We remind, Russia loaded the second oil cargo for delivery to Brazil in September, two traders said and LSEG data showed. A tanker Apus loaded 100,000 tons of Varandey oil sourced by Lukoil in the Arctic port of Murmansk on Sept. 10, LSEG data shows. The vessel is expected to arrive in Brazil's Pernambuco area at the end of the month, according to LSEG data.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's Sakhalin Energy, which produces liquefied natural gas and oil, has fully resumed production following maintenance, as per Reuters, quoting Gazprom's Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov.

The company has said it planned maintenance in July without providing a timeframe. Sakhalin Energy's Sakhalin-2 operating company was transformed into a Russian entity via a presidential decree amid Western sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.

Global energy major Shell has left the project and operations in Russia. It 2022, Sakhalin-2 produced 11.5 million tons of LNG and 3.7 million tons (74,000 bpd) of oil.

Apart from Gazprom, Japanese companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi also have stakes in the project, jointly owning 22.5%.

We remind, Russia is shipping its first crude oil cargo to Brazil, as it seeks to diversify its list of buyers, which has been drastically limited by U.S. and EU sanctions. Russia has been heavily relying on India and China as main buyers of its crude after European embargo and price cap policies were imposed in December last year after Russia's action in Ukraine that Moscow calls a special military operation.

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