Petronas, Pertamina subsidiaries to study lube base oil project in Indonesia

PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI) has signed a jount study agreement (JSA) with PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (PT KPI) to explore the possibility of a developing a new greenfield lube base oil plant in Refinery Unit IV Cilacap, Central Java, said the company.

In a statement, PETRONAS said the two companies will carry out a technical and detailed feasibility study, which is expected to cater to the demand of the Indonesian market as well as growing regional markets including China and Southeast Asia.

The investment decision is expected to be concluded by 2025. "This JSA is part of our larger strategic efforts to complement and grow our existing portfolio of high-grade lube base oils.

"Through this collaboration, we will be leveraging each other’s strengths, capabilities and existing network distributions, reaching out to our customers better and faster,” said PETRONAS Lubricants International managing director and group CEO Hezlinn Idris.

According to the statement, the refinery is capable of processing raw materials from existing RU IV Cilacap, producing up to 800 tonnes a day of high-grade lube base oils as well as other supplementary products such as diesel fuel, naphtha and LPG.

We remind, Petronas sees its domestic oil and gas production peaking at about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2024. About 60-70% of its production is natural gas and will remain so going forward.

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BASF, a globally leading battery materials producer, and Nanotech Energy, a worldwide leader in the field of graphene-based energy storage products, have agreed to partner to significantly reduce the CO2 footprint of Nanotech’s lithium-ion batteries for the North American market, said the company.

The agreement aims to close the loop for lithium-ion batteries in North America, with BASF producing cathode active materials from recycled metals in Battle Creek, Michigan, for the usage in lithium-ion battery cells produced by Nanotech Energy. Feeding recycled metals into the production of new lithium-ion batteries can reduce the CO2 impact of batteries by about 25 percent compared to the use of primary metals from mines.

Both companies will additionally partner with American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), a lithium-ion battery recycling company in Reno, Nevada, and TODA Advanced Materials Inc. (TODA) with decades of experience in manufacturing specialized pCAM (precursor for Cathode Active Material) and metal hydroxide material located in Ontario, Canada, to establish such a localized battery value chain for the North American consumer electronics and automotive industries. Along that chain, battery scrap and off-spec material from Nanotech’s pilot operation in Chico, California, as well as from its planned commercial facility will be recycled by ABTC. The battery-grade metals as recovered by ABTC – such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium – will be subsequently used by TODA and BASF to produce new precursors and cathode active materials, respectively. Nanotech will then use these materials again in its battery cell production – overall, a truly circular economy in North America.

BASF recently announced battery recycling capacity in Europe and is already providing recycling services and cathode active material based on recycled metals as a closed-loop solution in Asia for years.

We remind, BASF signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) to purchase renewable electricity for its Zhanjiang Verbund site, which is under construction in Guangdong province, China. The PPA is a further step in the renewable energy partnership between BASF and SPIC following the framework agreement signed in March 2022.

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Project STOP and Banyuwangi Regent, Ipuk Fiestiandani, inaugurated one of Indonesia’s largest Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) in Songgon Municipality, said the company.

Built in collaboration with the regional government of Banyuwangi, the facility is a significant milestone towards establishing Indonesia’s premier regency-led circular waste management system.

Co-founded by Borealis and Systemiq, with broad support from National and Regional Governments, international institutions, academia and private sector, focuses on delivering measurable impact on the ground. Since its inception in 2017, it has steadily extended across the entire Banyuwangi Regency. The new MRF is part of its Banyuwangi Hijau expansion plan, aiming to positively impact the lives of up to 2 million individuals, across all Project STOP city and regional partnerships, create 1,000 full-time jobs and annually collect 230,000 tonnes of waste, including 25,000 tonnes of plastic.

“Plastic leakage to sea, land and air can be prevented by working closely with all stakeholders. Through the Project STOP Banyuwangi initiative, we work hand-in-hand to make tangible improvements to the health of the local environment and people living in Banyuwangi,” said Ipuk Fiestiandani, Banyuwangi Regent. “We hope this infrastructure can establish the implementation of a circular waste management system and become a benchmark to other regions in Indonesia.”

For the MRF’s construction, the Banyuwangi Regency Government allocated more than 1.5 hectares of land in the first phase of the Project in Banyuwangi. The circular waste system is designed to support the implementation of the Banyuwangi government’s Solid Waste Master Plan, co-developed by Banyuwangi Agencies, the Clean Oceans through Clean Communities (CLOCC) Program and Project STOP.

"Since we founded Project STOP together with Systemiq in 2017, we established waste management systems in Muncar, Pasuruan and Jembrana as first phase. Based on the learnings done in the first three cities, we will now expand the reach of Project STOP to the Banyuwangi region. Beyond that, we hope that Project STOP serves as inspiration and blueprint for other projects to accelerate the establishment of a circular economy and to avoid waste leakage into the environment,” commented Thomas Gangl, Borealis CEO.

We remind, In July 2023, our polyolefin (PO) compounding site in Monza, Italy received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC PLUS). With this latest certification, we have achieved the milestone of having all our European PO and PO compounding sites as well as our recycling sites in Oostende, Belgium, and in Austria ISCC PLUS certified.

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Solvay, a global market leader in high-performance materials, and Shanghai Shengjian Environment Technology Co. Ltd. have signed a strategic partnership framework agreement to strengthen their business relations and expand into new markets, said the company.

Based on over 10 years of mutual success in important segments of the semiconductors, FPD, solar power and other growth industries, the partners will intensify their collaboration across all fields of new product and new application development, market development, technical exchange and material supply.

“Shengjian has a leading position in flat panel display and semiconductor applications supported by our innovative material supply, and is seeking to boost its business growth with our technical support and high-performance product portfolio,” says Peter Browning, President of Solvay’s Specialty Polymers Global Business Unit. “By reinforcing the strong bond between our companies, this agreement will also create a win-win situation for seizing new business opportunities and strengthening our ties with strategic end-customers.”

Under the new agreement, Solvay and Shengjian will jointly promote the development and marketing of components, systems and processes in the semiconductor, flat panel display, solar power and expand other demanding industries with deeper cooperation. Solvay will utilize its existing technological capabilities and business resources to assist Shengjian in winning new customers and expanding into new market segments. Besides regular information exchange and technical meetings, both Parties will also support each other through seminars and participation in industry conferences, exhibitions etc. The agreement secures Shengjian’s strategic procurement of critical high-performance materials from Solvay, gaining bigger market share of their expanding products.

We remind, Solvay announces the expansion of its China Research & Innovation Center (R&I), with the inauguration of a new research building in the Solvay Shanghai Technology Park. The company has invested more than 4 billion RMB (approx 500M euros) in its Chinese R&I hub since 2005, to better support local customers and fulfill the booming demand for innovative and sustainable solutions in the region.

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NOVA Chemicals has declared a force majeure on its Polyethylene resins, including both HDPE and LDPE, produced at its facilities in Ontario, Canada, said Theplasticsexchange.

The announcement, made on September 14, attributes the disruption to an unplanned outage at its nearby Corunna Cracker which supplies the Ethylene feedstock for the Moore and St. Clair sites. The Moore facility has an annual production capacity of 840 million lbs of Polyethylene; the St. Clair River site has an annual PE capacity of nearly 400 million lbs.

INEOS Olefins & Polymers has declared a Force Majeure (FM) on its Polypropylene Homopolymer (HoPP) production at its Carson, California facility. The announcement, made September 12, cites complications associated with the acquisition of Polymer Grade Propylene (PGP) feedstock as the reason for the disruption and may potentially extend to all grades of Polypropylene, not just those produced at the Carson plant. INEOS' Carson plant has a production capacity of approximately 500 million lbs. It is the only Polypropylene production facility located west of the Rocky Mountains.

CPChem previously declared Force Majeure on August 16 for its HDPE resins produced at its Orange, TX facility with 900 million lbs of annual production capacity. The move was triggered by an equipment failure.

These force majeure declarations are not isolated incidents but part of a larger, more complex Petrochemical industry issue currently straining the supply chain. Other recent upstream disruptions include Dow Chemical's PDH unit that makes PGP monomer in Freeport, TX and Enterprise PDH 1 in Chambers County, TX as well as the recent shutdowns of two of the nation's largest refineries due to fire, BASF / TotalEnergies in Port Arthur, TX and Marathon in Garyville, LA.

We remind, Nova Chemicals is investing in a mechanical recycling facility located in Connersville, IN, US. The recycling facility will process post-consumer plastic films to make Syndigo branded recycled polyethylene (rPE) at commercial scale as early as 2025. By 2026, the company anticipates delivering over 100 M lbs of rPE to the market. The facility will be run by Novolex Holdings. Nova Chemicals intends to boost its recycling footprint over the next several years to help it attain its 2030 ambition of 30% recycled content as a share of its overall polyethylene sales.

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