Azerbaijan, Belarus discussing launch of regular rail freight transportation

Azerbaijan and Belarus are discussing an expansion of their cooperation in the railway sector, including the launch of regular freight rail services, as per Interfax.

These issues were discussed at a meeting in Baku with the participation of Azerbaijan Railways Deputy Chairman Arif Agayev and a delegation headed by Belarusian Railways Deputy Chairman Andrei Yakobson.

"During the meeting, there was an exchange of views on the development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation within international organizations, the implementation of mutually beneficial projects and the organization of regular freight transportation between the two countries, including the dispatch of cargo by block container trains," Azerbaijan Railways said in a statement.

The Belarusian side also expressed interest in sending cargo through Azerbaijan to Turkey via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, as well as to Iran through the North South transport corridor.

At the meeting's conclusion, the parties agreed to continue negotiations on tariff policy, transportation technologies and digitalization, which were discussed at a trilateral meeting with Russian Railways (RZD) in October this year to strengthen cooperation as part of the North-South corridor.

"During the meeting, the parties expressed their readiness to discuss the possibility of Azerbaijan purchasing universal covered wagons and tank cars from Belarus," Azerbaijan Railways said.

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Air Liquide SA plans to start up its first pilot ammonia cracker at Antwerp, Belgium in the first quarter of 2025, as per company.

“We will have the first pilot unit started in Q1 2025 that will be the first of its kind in Belgium,” said Emilie Mouren-Renouard, Air Liquide’s CEO of the Europe, Africa, Middle East and India Industries Hub, speaking Dec. 4 in a panel discussion at the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) 18th Annual Forum, being held in Muscat, Oman.

“We have developed the technology process [for] ammonia cracking to convert it back to green or blue hydrogen in those geographies where there is demand,” she said in the panel session focused on sustainable solutions for the chemical industry.

Air Liquide announced in March 2023 that it would build the pilot ammonia cracker at the port of Antwerp, with the plant originally planned to be operational in 2024. The unit’s initial capacity was not given.

According to Air Liquide’s website, the ammonia cracking process uses the company’s proprietary next-generation reactor tubes heat-integration technology, which allows for the “highest possible ammonia-to-hydrogen conversion yield and zero direct CO2 emissions.” Under Advance, the company’s strategic plan, Air Liquide has committed to globally investing about €8.0 billion in the low-carbon hydrogen value chain by 2035.

Mouren-Renouard said the ability to quickly develop pilot units and gain experience from their initial operations is “absolutely key if we want to build at scale, critical mass, and at the end of the day, we want to reduce the cost.”

She referenced the Middle East’s growing number of announced projects for the production of blue and green ammonia, all being developed primarily for export markets such as Europe and Asia.

Mouren-Renouard also said that Air Liquide is seeing “real demand” for more circularity not only from the chemical industry but also other hard-to-abate industrial sectors such as the cement, lime and steel industries. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology will be key to achieving this, she said, with CCS “very relevant” for hard-to-abate sectors that are not able to relocate their plants and which would be unable to achieve lower emissions if the solution is not available. “We see demand picking up in all those hard-to-abate sectors,” she said.

Also speaking on the same GPCA panel, Ed Sparks, CEO of W.R. Grace, and Narongsak Jivakanun, CEO of Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical, flagged circularity challenges related to the recycling of waste plastics.

“The real challenge that we see — the tough nut on circularity — is how do you move beyond the limits of mechanical recycling, which are not going to be sufficient to meet targets for the recycling of plastics, and how do you make advanced chemical recycling real, affordable and scalable quickly?” Sparks said.

Pyrolysis is a “great first step and a viable solution in the near term,” he said. However, longer term, he said the real opportunity will lie in creating higher-value products from advanced chemical recycling. Grace is currently at pilot scale with its own advanced recycling solution, he said.

One of the biggest challenges for plastics recycling and the processing of waste oils is the “variability of feedstocks,” Sparks said. “How can you design processes that can span that variability and solutions that don’t require you to have a pure feedstream, because it won’t be.” Evolving the relevant supply chains is incredibly challenging, he noted, adding that “what it means is a robustness in process technologies and an ability to be able to handle those impurities and still make top-level products. I think that’s one of the real challenges.”

PTTGC’s Jivakanun said technology, however, is not the only challenge. On a waste plastics mechanical recycling project the company is developing, he said the issue was not technology, the end product, its certification or the end market. “People want to use it. The bottleneck is the raw material.”

Despite working closely at community and household levels and organizing more than 300 drop points, Jivakanun said this is “still not enough ... it’s not just technology anymore, it’s how do we create a supply chain. We’re going through the same exercise with our sustainable aviation fuel program that will be starting up next year. Those are the challenges, and it’s real.”

We remind, Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Allentown, Pennsylvania) has issued a letter to shareholders urging them to support the company’s board nominees over the nine nominations proposed by activist investor Mantle Ridge (New York). The company criticized Mantle Ridge’s campaign as a “reckless desire for short-term gain at the expense of other shareholders.” Air Products has scheduled its 2025 annual meeting for Jan. 23, 2025.

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Pakistan has invited Russia to participate in the reconstruction of an oil refinery, the two countries' respective energy ministers said following a meeting of the Russia-Pakistan intergovernmental commission, as per Interfax.

"We are supplying oil. We have discussed participating in the reconstruction of the oil refinery. We are considering other opportunities for Russian companies to participate in the oil and gas sector to work in Pakistan," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev told reporters.

Tsivilev said that the parties considered the possibility of utilizing the North-South corridor for railway transport, as well as the prospects of establishing direct flights from Islamabad to Moscow.

Pakistan's Energy Minister Awais Leghari in turn said that the country requires additional oil refining capacity, and it is interested in attracting investment from Russia and "improving the technological component."

We remind, Russian GDP grew an estimated 3.2% year-on-year in October, the Economic Development Ministry said in a report on the current situation in the economy. GDP grew 3.2%, adjusted from 2.9%, in September also. It rose 2.5%, adjusted from 2.4%, in August, 3.4% in July, 3.2% in June, 4.7% in May, 4.6% in April, 4.2% in March, 7.6% in February and 4.8% in January. The economy grew 4.1% year-on-year in January-October.

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The European Commission has opened a second renewable hydrogen production subsidy auction under the European Hydrogen Bank mechanism, with a budget of up to €1.2 billion and a price ceiling of €4 per kilogram, as per Chemweek.

The price ceiling for the second auction was lowered from €4.50 per kg in the first auction in 2023 after it cleared well below expectations at €0.37-0.48 per kg, supporting 1.5 GW of electrolysis across six projects.

"With a budget increased by €400 million compared to the first [innovation fund] IF23 Auction, the new IF24 Auction will support projects for renewable hydrogen production regardless of the sector in which it will be consumed, with a dedicated budget of €1 billion; as well as hydrogen production in projects with off-takers in the maritime sector, with a dedicated budget of €200 million," the commission said in a Dec. 3 statement.

Hydrogen project bidders have until Feb. 20, 2025, to apply via the EU’s Funding and Tenders Portal. Successful bidders would then sign grant agreements within nine months after the call closure, the commission said.

Projects have a five-year timeline for commissioning from grant award and a two-and-a-half-year deadline to reach final investment decision. The fixed premium subsidy helps bridge some of the price gap between production costs and the market price for renewable hydrogen over 10-year contracts.

EU member states have pledged additional funds to support national auctions under the commission's "auctions-as-a-service" initiative. This allows member states to finance projects that had bid but were not selected for Innovation Fund support due to budget limits.

”This enables member states to use national funds to support projects on their territory without the need to run a separate auction at national level,” the commission said. Spain, Lithuania and Austria have announced their participation in service this year, pledging up to €836 million in national funds to support renewable hydrogen production projects.

Finally, the auction parameters include "security of supply" criteria stipulating that 25% of electrolyzer capacity at stack level cannot be sourced in China. Bidders must provide proof at various stages that they are using electrolyzer manufacturers in European Economic Area countries as part of a procurement strategy, the commission said in an accompanying document. Further, if a project replaces stacks during operation, "the requirements on limiting sourcing from China still apply," it said.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the cost of producing hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in Europe at €8.34 per kg on Dec. 2 — Netherlands, including capital expenditure — based on month-ahead power prices. Proton exchange membrane electrolysis production was assessed at €8.52/kg.

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has approved amendments to an intergovernmental agreement with Russia on exports of crude oil and oil products, the president's press service reported, as per Interfax.

"Lukashenko signed a decree on December 4 with which he approved, as a basis for holding negotiations, a draft protocol on amending the January 12, 2007 agreement between the governments of Belarus and Russia on measures to regulate trade and economic cooperation in the area of oil and oil product exports," the press release said.

This protocol calls for extending the agreement to December 31, 2026 and beyond for subsequent one-year periods with the preservation of its current provisions.

"The government of Belarus is authorized to hold negotiations on the draft document and sign it," the press service said.

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