Stamicarbon secures contracts for ultra-low energy urea plant in China

MRC -- Shandong Lianmeng Chemical Company awards licensing and equipment supply contracts for a grassroots urea melt and prilling plant in China to Stamicarbon, the nitrogen technology licensor of MAIRE Group, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The plant located in Shouguang city of Shandong province in China will use Stamicarbon’s Ultra-Low Energy design with a highly efficient pool reactor concept and have a capacity of 2334 MTPD.

Stamicarbon will provide the license, proprietary equipment, including high-pressure equipment made of super duplex stainless steel and associated services. This grassroots project will be the eighth urea plant worldwide to utilize Stamicarbon’s proprietary Ultra-Low Energy design.

The Ultra-Low Energy Design allows heat supplied as high-pressure steam to be used three times instead of two, compared to the conventional CO2 stripping processes. This results in a 35% reduction in steam consumption and a 16% decrease in cooling water use. The efficiency of this design is proven with two operational plants, making its energy savings unparalleled in the market.

"We are thrilled to start this project in collaboration with Stamicarbon, a global leader in urea technology. We are looking forward to seeing the cutting-edge technology in action and are confident in the advantages it will bring," said Mr. Wang Xinjian, the General manager of Shandong Lianmeng Group.

We remind, Belarus expects to receive $640 MM from Russia in 2024 to compensate for losses sustained by its oil refineries, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday, citing the Belarusian Finance Ministry. Belarus used to import discounted oil from Moscow for years and resold some of it, as well as oil products refined from the Russian crude, on to Europe. Russia stopped the practice in 2019 amid changes to its tax policy, resulting in costs of $330 million to Belarus that year, according to Minsk's estimates.

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MRC -- DHL Express and World Energy, a leading SAF producer and low-carbon solutions provider, have signed a long-term strategic agreement to accelerate the decarbonization of aviation logistics through the purchase of approx, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

668 million liters of Sustainable Aviation Fuel via sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc). The seven-year contract, to run through 2030, is the one of the longest and largest SAFc agreements in the aviation industry to date.

The agreement is expected to reduce approx. 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the aviation fuel lifecycle – this is equivalent to handling the approximately 77,000 annual aircraft movements of DHL Express in the Americas carbon neutrally for a full year. The milestone agreement is further testament to DHL Group’s ambitious Sustainability Roadmap, which includes the goal to reduce the Group's annual greenhouse gas emissions to below 29 million tons CO2e in 2030 across scopes 1, 2 and 3.

"DHL Express is firmly dedicated to pioneering a sustainable future in aviation logistics," said John Pearson, CEO DHL Express. "By partnering with World Energy and confirming this milestone agreement, we are taking another concrete leap towards minimizing our carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future. We want to inspire more suppliers to accelerate industry-wide production and adoption of SAF.”

“We are honored to team up with DHL on this quest to decarbonize aviation,” said Gene Gebolys, World Energy CEO. “Decarbonizing the hard-to-abate sectors requires commitment across the value chain, and partnerships like the one we are launching today are key to enabling companies like DHL to meet their ambitions climate goals.”

With SAFc, the fuel’s environmental attributes are separated from the fuel itself using a “Book & Claim” chain of custody model. The Book & Claim approach enhances transparency and accountability of sustainable fuels by ensuring that the emission reductions associated with each credit are accurately transferred and verified by a third party. It allows DHL Express to purchase SAFc, utilize the associated emission reductions, and extend the environmental attributes to its customers through the GoGreen Plus service. SAFc delivered through Book & Claim also helps to minimize both logistical costs and emissions as the fuel does not need to be shipped around the world. This helps make SAFc the most efficient way to decarbonize aviation. All of World Energy SAFc for DHL will meet rigorous sustainability certification standards from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). In addition, all volumes will be traced through an independent registry to ensure traceability of claims related to SAFc. The fuel itself will be supplied to Los Angeles area airports, close to World Energy’s production facility in Paramount, CA.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

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MRC -- Belarus expects to receive $640 MM from Russia in 2024 to compensate for losses sustained by its oil refineries, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday, citing the Belarusian Finance Ministry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Belarus used to import discounted oil from Moscow for years and resold some of it, as well as oil products refined from the Russian crude, on to Europe. Russia stopped the practice in 2019 amid changes to its tax policy, resulting in costs of $330 million to Belarus that year, according to Minsk's estimates.

The row between the two states even led to major Russian oil companies suspending supplies to Belarus at the start of 2020, which in turn disrupted Belarusian oil exports to Germany.

Russia agreed in 2021 to compensate Belarus for its losses on an ongoing basis.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

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MRC -- Chandra Asri has successfully obtained the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). With the attainment of ISCC, Chandra Asri's facilities are certified to meet the standards for processing bio-feedstock into bio-based products, such as Bio-Propylene, Bio-Ethylene, Bio-Crude C4, and Bio-Pygas, said the company.

This accomplishment also supports Chandra Asri's efforts in transitioning towards more sustainable alternative raw material utilization. Bio-based raw materials have a lower carbon footprint since they come from plants that have absorbed carbon from the atmosphere. This process balances the carbon dioxide released during production with the carbon absorbed during plant growth, resulting in a closed-loop system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

We remind, Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) plans to build a world-scale chlor-alkali plant in Indonesia, in line with the southeast Asian country’s pursuit of investments in the nickel value chain amid growing global demand for electric vehicles. The Indonesian petrochemical producer and sovereign wealth fund Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the project, which is expected to produce more than 400,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda and 500,000 tonnes/year of ethylene dichloride (EDC). Financial details of the project were not disclosed.

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MRC -- Global commodities trader Trafigura is seeking to charter at least one large tanker to export Venezuelan fuel oil, according to two people with knowledge of the deal, a move that follows this week's easing of U.S. sanctions on the OPEC country's energy industry, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Washington announced on Wednesday a broad easing of sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas sector to encourage a fair 2024 presidential election in the nation. The U.S. first imposed the measures four years ago after President Nicolas Maduro's re-election, which it and other Western governments rejected as a sham.

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has quickly reacted to the new authorizations by contacting customers willing to reactivate or renegotiate contracts. Trafigura was a business partner of PDVSA before sanctions. The trading house is in the market for a Suezmax, Aframax or Panamax vessel or a combination of them, two sources familiar with the matter said. A third source said PDVSA has closed a deal involving Trafigura.

Trafigura did not respond to a request for comment after working hours. PDVSA did not reply to a comment request. PDVSA's trading division has lost many of its skilled staff with oil traders departing due to low salaries. That means new negotiations could take time or produce few new deals in the six months of the U.S. authorization, according to separate sources.

The state company urgently needs operational vessels to boost exports, and is seeking to resume business relationships with established trading firms formerly banned by sanctions, which has forced it to rely on unknown intermediaries trading its oil at heavy discounts to Chinese buyers.

Venezuela's oil exports average some 695,000 bpd so far this year, with about 430,000 bpd going to China, according to PDVSA's data and vessel tracking. The head of SLB said the top oil service company is planning a quick return to Venezuela, which holds the largest crude reserves in the world, following the easing of sanctions.

We remind, Evergreen targets to achieve net-zero by 2050 in line with the International Maritime Organization's GHG strategy. To do so, Evergreen has teamed up with the world's largest fund manager within greenfield renewable energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for a collaboration on hydrogen-based marine fuels.

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