Ineos eyes closure of Grangemouth ethanol plant

INEOS has proposed closing its ethanol plant at its Grangemouth site in Britain in the first quarter of next year, said the company.

"The decision comes after a lengthy review and is the result of a reduction in demand for ethanol in Europe combined with increasing pressure from imports of ethanol from other regions. This has resulted in the ethanol business at Grangemouth running at a loss for several years," the company said in a statement.

The firm said it will start consultations with employees and the trade union about the proposal.

"All ethanol-based employees will be offered an alternative role within our business. Moreover, customers will be offered the supply of ethanol from INEOS’ other plant in Herne, Germany," said Stuart Collings, chief executive of INEOS O&P UK.

We remind, Ineos Inovyn, the chlorvinyls arm of UK-based chemical company Ineos, has announced that its PVC production operations in Jemeppe, Belgium, will be partly powered by solar energy starting this summer, said the company. The Jemeppe site is one of the largest PVC production facilities in Europe, with 420,000 tonnes supplied to sectors such as building, automotive, and piping every year.

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Chevron USA Inc. division Chevron New Energies has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation to study a potential carbon dioxide (CO2) value chain in the Asia Pacific region, said the company.

The MoU provides a framework to evaluate the export of CO2 from Japan to carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Australia and other countries in the Asia Pacific region, the two companies said in a joint news release Monday.

The two companies are targeting to create a CCS value chain, transporting CO2 emitted from industries in Japan by ship to Chevron’s greenhouse gas portfolio in Australia. The collaboration will also “explore the opportunity to develop suitable transboundary policies and the potential development of CO2 storage sites in other countries in the Asia Pacific region”, according to the release.

“We look forward to building off our long-standing relationship with JX and ENEOS Group, the largest Japanese global petroleum and metals conglomerate, and hope that this joint study ultimately contributes to the further development of large-scale CCS hubs throughout the Asia Pacific region”, Chris Powers, Chevron Vice President of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), said. “We believe large-scale CCS value chain projects will play a key role in advancing Asia Pacific’s lower carbon aspirations, and that long-term collaborations are necessary to meet these aspirations”.

“This MOU is achieved thanks to the significant oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) relationship with Chevron that we have had over seven decades, and further demonstrates the commitment and dedication of the companies in helping advance lower carbon solutions”. JX Executive Vice President Tetsuo Yamada said.

“JX has positioned CCS as an important initiative in its business strategy under its 'Two-Pronged' approach, in which, in addition to the conventional oil and natural gas development business, decarbonization initiatives centered on CCS/CCUS are another prong of the company's operations such as the Petra Nova CCUS project in Texas, USA”, Yamada continued. “JX will contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society by leveraging the knowledge we have accumulated through our various CCS/CCUS-related businesses”.

Chevron in March 2023 also signed an MoU with JERA Co., Inc. to collaborate on CCS projects located in the USA and Australia. The MoU targeted to expand the LNG relationship between the two companies.

Earlier in the month, JX Nippon signed an MoU with ENEOS Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and PETRONAS CCS Solutions Sdn Bhd (PCCSS), an affiliate of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), to jointly evaluate CCS value chains between Japan and Malaysia.

Specifically, the companies will study capturing CO2 from industries in the Tokyo Bay area, or the Keihin and Keiyo areas, and shipping it to CO2 storage in Malaysia, according to a separate news release.

The companies estimate to capture around 3 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of CO2, potentially increasing to 6 million mtpa, and target to start operations by 2030. The project will be “one of the largest scale of the currently planned CCS projects” in Japan, JX Nippon said.
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Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co. Ltd. has reported CNY/RMB 34.6 billion ($4.8 billion) in revenue from petrochemical contracts for 2023, up 9.5 percent against 2022, said Rigzone.

The company, majority-owned by the state’s China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec Group), attributed the growth to domestic projects including an ethylene production facility of Exxon Mobil Corp., an ethylene co-venture between Sinopec and Ineos, and the second phase of Sinopec’s Zhenhai Base refining and chemical complex.

Texas-based ExxonMobil has made a multi-billion-dollar investment in the Huizhou City project, which has a planned steam cracker capacity of about 1.6 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa), according to the American oil and gas giant’s final investment decision announcement November 8, 2021.

Meanwhile the 50-50 venture between Sinopec and London-based petrochemicals, chemicals and oil products manufacturer Ineos in Tianjin city has a planned cracker capacity of 1.2 MMtpa. The project also includes a high-density polyethylene unit that can produce 0.5 MMtpa. The complex is expected to start production April 2024, according to an Ineos news release August 2, 2023.

At Zhenhai Base Phase II, Sinopec is building an 11 MMtpa refinery unit and a 0.6 MMtpa propane dehydrogenation and downstream unit. The second phase had an investment of CNY 11.25 billion ($1.6 billion) as of June 2023, according to a Sinopec report August 25, 2023.

“China’s high level of opening up to the world and the development needs from petrochemical industries and industrial facilities in many countries in the world have provided us a wide stage”, board chair Dejun Jiang said in a statement accompanying Sinopec Engineering’s annual report for 2024.

However, the Beijing-based company, which provides engineering, procurement, construction and logistic services to the energy and chemical industries, saw net profit land largely flat at CNY 2.3 billion ($324.5 million) as refining and coal revenues fell.

“Due to the refining projects such as Hainan Refining are [sic] settled and ended, Huajin and other newly signed refining projects are in the pre-construction stage, the revenue from the oil refining industry was RMB6.773 billion [$940.8 million] representing a decrease of 8.7 percent on a year-on-year basis”, Sinopec Engineering said in the report posted on its website.

“Due to the impact of the reduction of new coal chemical on-hand contracts, the revenue from new coal chemicals industry was RMB557 million ($77.4 million), representing a decrease of 39.0 percent on a year-on-year basis”.

Independent clients in China accounted for 45.9 percent of orders, while overseas clients accounted for 26.7 percent. The parent company, Sinopec, accounted for 27.4 percent.

Yearly basic earnings per share stood at CNY 0.53 ($0.07), up 2.2 percent year-on-year. The board has proposed a total annual dividend per share of CNY 0.343 ($0.05).

Net cash flow from operating activities totaled CNY 2.5 billion ($347.3 million) for 2023, down 63 percent year-over-year.

Sinopec Engineering said it will focus on settling trade debts and reining in working capital spent on operating activities. It ended 2023 with CNY 72.6 billion ($10.1 billion) in current assets and CNY 48 billion ($6.7 billion) in current liabilities.

We remind, Sinopec Corp announced that it has encountered substantial oil and gas flows in a pivotal exploration shale well located in southwest China. The Xingye-9 well, situated in the Liangping area of Chongqing municipality, is positioned within the gas-rich Sichuan basin. Sinopec has revealed that the well exhibited a daily production of 108.15 cubic meters of oil and 15,800 cubic meters of gas during its testing phase.

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Japan-based chemical company Sumitomo Chemical has begun construction on its pilot plant to develop new process technology to manufacture propylene directly from ethanol, said the company.

The development of this propylene manufacturing technology is being financed by the Green Innovation Fund of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

The pilot factory is being built at Sumitomo's Chiba Works site in Sodegaura, Japan. The company plans to complete the facility by the first half of 2025, with an aim to employ the technology as quickly as possible thereafter.

Sumitomo previously created a prototype plant at its Chiba Works facility to attempt to make ethylene using ethanol as a raw material while simultaneously attempting to develop a registered new technology to produce propylene using ethanol.

Construction of that pilot facility to produce renewable ethanol-based ethylene was completed last year.

This new method, which produces propylene directly from ethanol, is said to be compact and affordable compared to conventional procedures that entail many intermediates.

We remind, Sumitomo Chemical has decided to close down its production facilities for cyclohexanone (also known as anone) at its Ehime Works located in Niihama City, Ehime, Japan and exit the business, said the company. The closure of the production facilities is scheduled for the end of March 2024.

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In February 2024, Singapore witnessed a 1.8% decline in petrochemical exports, amounting to S$1.06 billion, juxtaposed towards a backdrop of worldwide financial challenges, said Xpert Times.

This downturn was a part of a broader contraction in non-oil home exports (NODX), which barely fell by 0.1% to S$13.0 billion, marking a major reversal from the earlier month’s progress.

The decline in petrochemical exports underscores the broader financial pressures going through Singapore’s manufacturing and export sectors. Elements together with tight monetary circumstances in main economies, such because the US and EU, together with ongoing challenges in China’s property market, have dampened client and enterprise sentiment globally. These circumstances have instantly impacted Singapore’s export-driven financial system, notably its strong petrochemical business.

Amid these exterior challenges, Singapore’s manufacturing buying managers’ index (PMI) skilled a slight dip in February 2024, transferring to 50.6 from 50.7 in January. This minor decline, influenced by the Lunar New 12 months holidays, hints on the nuanced pressures going through the manufacturing sector. Regardless of a year-on-year restoration anticipated from a low base impact in 2023, the sector’s month-on-month momentum may stay subdued within the first half of 2024 because of weakened exterior demand.

Wanting forward, there are indicators of potential restoration within the manufacturing sector by mid-2024. As central banks in main superior economies may start to ease coverage charges in response to moderated inflation, a gradual restoration in exterior demand could possibly be on the horizon.

This easing of monetary circumstances is predicted to help a resurgence in consumption and funding actions, thereby offering a much-needed increase to Singapore’s export-oriented industries, together with its petrochemical sector.

Regardless of the present downturn, the resilience of Singapore’s petrochemical business, coupled with strategic changes to world financial circumstances, might properly place it for restoration and progress within the latter half of 2024. The evolving financial panorama will proceed to check the adaptability and innovation of key sectors inside Singapore’s financial system.

We remind, Air Liquide and infrastructure provider Vopak have joined forces to look into the development and operation of infrastructure for ammonia import, cracking, and hydrogen distribution in Singapore. The companies have formalized their intention through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they will study and explore the joint development of low-carbon ammonia supply chains in Singapore.

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