Swiss company Clariant to build cellulosic ethanol plant in Romania in 2018
Switzerland-based specialty chemicals company Clariant said on Tuesday it will start the construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Romania in 2018.
The new plant will be located in southwestern Romania and will have a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of cellulosic ethanol, Clariant said in statement filled to the NASDAQ bourse. The size of the investment was not disclosed.
The ethanol will be obtained from agricultural residues using its sunliquid technology, a registered trademark of the company.
The plant is anticipated to deliver its first batch of product in 2020.
Peak sales from the sunliquid cellulosic ethanol plant are expected to be in the mid double-digit million range. At full capacity, the new plant will process approximately 250.000 tonnes of wheat straw and other cereal straw annually, which will be sourced from local farmers. Co-products from the process will be used for the generation of renewable energy with the goal of making the plant independent from fossil energy sources.
"The investment also brings substantial economic benefits to the region. By locally sourcing feedstock, greenhouse gas savings can be maximized and additional business opportunities arise in the region along the value chain," Clariant head of start-up business, biofuels and derivatives Markus Rarbach said.
In August 2016, Romania's finance ministry said that Clariant had requested a 68 million lei state aid for its plant in Romania. In January 2017, the ministry denied Clariant's request.
Clariant is a speciality chemicals company, formed in 1995 as a spin-off from Sandoz. Headquartered near Basel, Switzerland, the public company encompasses 110 operating companies in 53 countries, with manufacturing sites located in Europe, North America, South America, China and India.
Shanghai Electric to build gas-fired TPP in Serbia
Serbian oil group NIS [BEL:NIIS] said it signed a contract for the construction of a 200 MW gas-fired thermal power plant (TPP) in Pancevo, in northern Serbia, with China-based Shanghai Electric Group.
Shanghai Electric Group won a tender for the project, competing with companies from Greece, Austria, Switzerland and China and will start the construction of the TPP in the second quarter of 2018, NIS said in a statement on Tuesday.
A total of 180 million euro ($209.4 million) will be invested in the construction of the power plant, as the bulk of the funding will be provided by Gazprom, the majority shareholder of NIS, the Serbian oil group said.
"Reliability of electrical and heat power supply to Pancevo refinery and additional volumes of electrical power to be placed on the market will ensure the required energy stability for the country’s citizens," the CEO of NIS, Kirill Tyurdenev, said in the statement.
The heat installed capacity of TPP Pancevo will amount to 121 Gcal. The power plant will be built within an unprecedentedly short period and the planned plant start-up is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019, the director of the plant's operator, TE-TO Pancevo, Aleksandr Varnavsky, said.
In 2015, NIS said a joint venture with Gazprom Energoholding's unit Tsentrenergoholding plans to build of a 140 MW gas-fired TPP in Pancevo. Tsentrenergoholding owns a 51% stake in the joint venture and NIS holds the remainder. There is a possibility to expand the TPP in the second phase and in that case, its capacity would be raised to 208 MW, while the investment would go up to 183 million euro, NIS said back then.
Russia's Gazprom Neft controls 56.15% of NIS, while the Serbian government owns a 29.87% stake.
Russia's Rosneft, Iran's NIOC agree to team up on oil and gas projects worth $30 billion
Russian oil producer Rosneft and the National Iranian Oil Company have agreed an outline deal to work together on a number of “strategic” projects in Iran together worth up to $30 billion, Rosneft’s head Igor Sechin said on Wednesday.
The potential collaboration with Iran would further strengthen Rosneft’s position in the Middle East, the company having already secured a number of deals in the region, including the acquisition of a majority stake in Iraqi Kurdistan’s main oil pipeline.
The recent deals appeared to be part of a strategy by President Vladimir Putin to boost Moscow’s political and economic influence in the region, which was weakened by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The outline agreement on working with Iran was signed during Putin’s visit to the country on Wednesday.
Sechin said the preliminary deal paved the way for legally-binding documents to be signed within a year. Output from the joint project is seen plateauing at 55 million tonnes per year (1.1 million barrels per day), he said.
“We are talking about several oil and gas fields, which we will develop with our partners,” Sechin told reporters, adding that Rosneft has invited Iran to develop offshore and other projects in Russia.
It is not yet clear how the investments will be split between the two companies.
Russia and cash-strapped Iran have long been working on oil-for-goods deals worth up to $20 billion.
Sechin said the preliminary agreement envisaged some swap deals, as well as oil and oil products deliveries.
BP, Oman Oil to conduct feasibility study for acetic acid project
British oil giant BP and Oman Oil Company are conducting a feasibility study for building a major acetic acid project in Duqm, said Yusuf Al Ojaili, president of BP Oman here.
“We hope the project to be on stream by 2023-2024, in line with the development of a petrochemical complex by Duqm Refinery,” he added.
According to earlier reports, the project with a projected cost of $1 billion would manufacture acetic acid using BP’s patented technology–the SaaBre process. This is a new process for converting synthetic gas to synthetic acid, which helps in reducing manufacturing costs.
“Recently, we had a discussion with our partner and the government and both parties showed an interest in developing the project,” he said, adding; “It has a lot of potential for developing downstream derivatives in the Duqm area.”
Acetic acid is a versatile intermediate chemical, used in a variety of products, such as paints, adhesives and solvents, as well as in the production of purified terephthalic acid, used extensively for manufacturing polyester.
Few years ago, BP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Oil and Gas to build the project, which will be of strategic importance to Oman’s economy.
Oman has already started a pipeline project to transport natural gas to Duqm from central Oman since natural gas is the feedstock for several petrochemical industries planned in Duqm. The 290 kilometre-long pipeline will be completed in 2019.
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Lukoil lets contract for Kstovo refinery
PJSC Lukoil has let a contract to CB&I, Houston, to provide detailed engineering, procurement, and supply of process equipment (EPS) for a deep conversion complex to be built at subsidiary LLC Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s 17 million-tonne/year Kstovo refinery in central Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region.
As part of the EPS package, CB&I will deliver two of its proprietary delayed coking heaters for the units, which will use delayed coking technology licensed by Chevron Lummus Global (CLG)—a joint venture of CB&I and Chevron Corp.—to process 2.1 million tpy of refinery residues, the service provider said.
Alongside its scope of delivery under the newly awarded contract, CB&I said it also is working closely with Lukoil to assess a broader range of unidentified solutions for the project.
The service company disclosed neither the value nor duration of the EPS contract.
Ongoing modernization
The proposed delayed coking complex follows Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s startup of a second 2 million-tpy catalytic cracking (CC) complex for vacuum gas oil (VGO) at the refinery in 2015 as part of Lukoil’s broader program to boost overall processing capacities and production qualities of its refining assets (OGJ Online, July 9, 2015).
Alongside installation of VGO-CC Unit 2, the project included the addition of the 327,500-tpy hydrofluoric alkylation Unit 2 as well as a 1 million-tpy gasoline hydrotreater to remove sulfur from gasoline feedstock from VGO-CC Unit 2, according to Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’s web site.
The Lukoil subsidiary also is considering the addition of a hydrocracking complex for heavy residues at the refinery in line with the company’s goal of increasing refining depth of the Kstovo manufacturing site to 90% from its current 73.7%.
Weir Oil & Gas wins maintenance contract from Eni Iraq for Zubair oilfields
Oilfield services major Weir Oil & Gas Dubai has announced it has been awarded a contract with Eni Iraq BV (Eni) to provide maintenance services.
As part of the agreement, Weir will be providing maintenance for gas compressor units and associated equipment located in the three Initial Production Facilities (IPF) plants in the Zubair oilfields in southern Iraq.
The gas compressor units comprise gas engines, gas compressors and relevant associated equipment. There are 30 compressors in total, with 18 at Hammar, six at Zubair and six at Rafidya. Weir’s engineers are now responsible for maintenance servicing of all compressors at each of the sites.
“Weir was selected for this contract due to our experience in Iraq, local footprint and know-how of the specific rotating machines and Field Maintenance methodologies,” Ronan Le Gloahec, EMEA regional managing director of Weir Oil & Gas, was quoted as saying in a press release.
“In addition to our manufacturing facilities in Dubai and service centre in Abu Dhabi, we have a dedicated service centre in Basra, the first facility in Iraq has both API and ISO licenses,” Le Gloahec said.
The Zubair field, also known as Az-Zubayr, is located in southern Iraq, 20 kilometres from Basra city. The field comprises four areas named respectively (from north to south) Hammar, Shuaiba, Rafidya, and Safwan. The southernmost dome, Safwan, partially extends beyond Iraq’s border and into Kuwait, where it is known as Abdalli Field. The Zubair field is approximately 60km long and 10-15km wide.
The first discovery was in 1949 and the field has been in operation since 1951. There is significant existing infrastructure, which includes a number of existing production stations distributed around the field in addition to IPF located in Zubair, Hammar and Rafidya.
Fertiliser maker Yara may build $2 bln Mozambique gas-fired plant
Norwegian fertiliser maker Yara International is considering building a $2 billion plant in Mozambique and may seek partners to share the cost, the chief executive said.
Mozambique awarded Yara a project in January to make ammonia and urea from the country’s gas output, saying the firm could produce up to 1.3 million metric tons of fertilisers annually.
The fertiliser project has seen limited progress so far and has no construction timeframe but discussions on a development programme were continuing, Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether told Reuters in an interview at a business summit in Oslo.
“The value of the project, if I use industry benchmarks, will be about $2 billion investment,” he said, adding that it was too early to say if Yara would develop the project alone.
“We are working on it and time will tell what the structure will be,” Holsether said.
If developed, Yara would be able to use between 80 million and 90 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to produce ammonia and urea. In addition to making fertilisers, the site would have a power plant with capacity of 50 megawatts (MW).
Mozambique wants to reduce fertiliser imports, which are now vital for its agricultural industry, and replace them with local products made from its natural gas resources.
Yara, which is seeking acquisitions outside Europe, has been considering assets in Africa, Holsether said without giving a timeframe for any purchase.
“Africa is going to be our largest market at some point. I am just looking at the fundamentals — land availability, climate, water — tick all the boxes on that. I do believe the fundamentals are in place,” he said.
Yara International already produces fertilisers in Libya and is building a terminal in Tanzania, according to its website. The company is also assessing the viability of a potash mining facility in Ethiopia, it said.