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BP and Ipic expand solvents capacity
Filtration Industry Analyst
I'I- I RI )( III-\I11 \I',
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INDONESIAN POLYPROPYLENE PLANT
Salim Chemicals and Amoco Chemicals Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of the oil company Amoco Corp, are working on a joint feasibility study to develop a 200 000 ton per year polypropylene plant in Amoco Corporation and Ja- Merak, Indonesia. pan's Mitsui have dedicated The new plant is expected to the newest chemical facility in start-up in early 2001 and will Southeast Asia, a 350 000 met- employ Amoco's gas phase imric tons per year plant to pro- pact co-polymer technology. It duce purified terephthalic will be associated with the acid (PTA), the preferred raw Salim-BP cracker project which material for the manufacture will supply a secure source of of polyester. propylene feedstock. Both comThe plant is a joint venture panies have signed a memoranbetween Amoco. Mitsui Petro- dum of understanding to chemical Industries Ltd and develop the plant. Mitsui & Co Ltd and is the largest PTA facility built to date in BASF AND FINA Indonesia. Production from the plant will serve the growing InPLAN STEAM donesian polyester industry. CRACKER Capital costs of the project were not disclosed. The new facility, BASF Corporation of Mount brought on stream two years al- Olive, New Jersey and FINA ter the formation of the corn- Inc of Dallas, Texas are to espaw, PT Amoco Mitsui PTA tablish a 60/40 joint venture to Indonesia, uses Amoco's pro- build a world-scale liquids prietary F'TA technology, in- steam cracker. The unit will have a namecluding further technical plate capacity of 1.8 billion refinements by Mitsui. ~ounds of ethylene and 1.95 billion pounds of propylene. Total PROPYLENE/ investment will be approxiPOLYPROPYLENE mately US$800 million. The cracker, which is scheduled for FACILITY starl-up m the fl-mrth quarter of PROCEEDS 2000, will use integrated Marathon Oil Company and metathesis technology for enEpsilon Products Company hanced propylene production. have executed definite agree- The facility will be located at ments to develop polymer FINA's refinery in Port Arthur, grade propylene and poly- Texas, and be operated by propylene facilities at Mara- BASF Corporation. The investthon's refinery in Garyville, ment is subject to final board approvals of both companies, Louisiana, USA. Project engi.neering is under- which is expected in early 1998. way and the plants are expected to be operating by late third FOSTER quarter 1999. Marathon is to WHEELER, BOC IN build a 800 million pounds per year purification facility to proSOUTH duce the propylene and Epsilon AMERICAN will construct a I'N1POL START-UP polypropylene facility, also producing 800 million pounds per Venezuelan government offiyear. cials, representatives of the
AMOCO AND MITSUI OPEN LATEST CHEMICAL FACILITY IN ASIA
2:..
October 1997
II
state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), and senior executives of Foster Wheeler Power Systems Inc and BOC Gases have marked the start-up of the largest hydrogen plant in South America. Built, owned and operated by a joint venture between Foster Wheeler Power Systems and BOC Gases, the US$50 million plant, which was designed and constructed by Foster Wheeler USA Corp, is capable of supplying up to 50 million cubic feet per day of hydrogen to the PDVSA refining centre in Amuay, Venezuela. Located on the Paraguana Peninsula in northwest Venezuela, the Amuay refinery is one of the world's largest and is capable of processing up to 630 000 barrels per day of crude oil. Operating since 1950, the refinery has undergone several major upgrades to keep pace with advances in technology.
PHILLIPS' SINGAPORE VENTURE COMES ONSTREAM Phillips Petroleum Company's new 440 millimq pounds per year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Singapore has been completed and is in production. The joint-venture facility more than doubles the capacity of an existing plant, bringing total capacity to 870 million pounds per year. According to Jack Howe, senior vice president of chemicals and plastics, the expansion will help Phillips supply growing polyethylene markets in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Initial production from the first train ol the new plant began in mid-August, with startup of the second train in mid-September. Phillips Petroleum Singapore Chemicals (Private) Limited (PPSC), a wholly owned Phillips subsidiary, has a 50 per cent interest in the new plant.
CHEVRON CHEMICAL PLANS NAO PLANT Chevron Chemical Co is to conduct front-end engineering for a world-scale normal alpha olefin (NAO) plant to be located at one of the company's two Gulf Coast sites. Using Chevron's proprietary technology, the plant will produce annually 750 million pounds of alpha olefins and is expandable to one billion pounds. It is scheduled to begin production in mid-2000. The company selected Bechtel to perform engineering services. The project supports Chevron's plans to develop a complete slate of NAO products. Chevron manufactures 11 different linear alpha olefin fractions. Alpha olefins are chemical intermediates used to make a variety of ~roducts, including polyethylenes, surfactants, synthetic lubricants and additives. Chevron Chemical currently operates an 800 million poundsper-year NAO plant at its Baytown, Texas, facility. At that site, the original unit was built in 1965 and a subsequent unit was added in 1990. Expansion and debottlenecks have brought the units up to current capacity.
BP AND IPIC EXPAND SOLVENTS CAPACITY BP and PT Inter Petrindo Inti Citra (IPIC), a company owned by the Indonesian majority shareholders in PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Corporation (CAPC), have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a number of solvents plants in Cilegon, West Java. This follows a BP-CAPC agreement in August to study a ~olybutenes investment at lhe CAPC site. As with the polybutenes project, the shareholding in the new solvents joint venture, lo be known as PT Citra
October 19t,7
Pacific International Esters, will be on a 50150 basis. The first unit will be a flexible esterification plant producing up to 50 000 tonnes of ethyl or butyl acetate per year, which will be onstream by late 1998. The process uses acetic acid, which will be supplied from a new plant in Malaysia due onstream in 1999 in which BP has a 70 per cent interest, and ethanol and butanol feedstocks sourced from within the region. The plant will be designed with a production capacity of up to 120 000 tonnes each year, from 2000 onwards. Ethylene will be supplied from the nearby Chandra Asri Petrochemical Centre. In addition, a feasibility study is also being undertaken lor a third plant with an annual capacity of up to 25000 tonnes of synthetic ethanoh This prodact will be targeted to supply those customers in the pharmaceutical and speciality end of the market who require high purity product.
NESTE SELLS 50 PER CENT HOLDING IN BOREALIS Finnish oil company Neste OY has signed a letter of intent covering the disposal of its 50 per cent interest in the Copenhagen-based Borealis petrochemicals group. The buyms are Austrian oil and gas company OMV and the International Petroleum Investment Compan},, which handles Abu Dhabi's foreign investments in the oil and petrochemicals sector. Due to take effect from the New Year. the sale calls for each of these two companies to take hall of Neste's holding in Borealis. Statoil will retain its 50 per cent of the group. At the same time, Borealis has signed a letter of intent on the acquisition of Austrian polyolefin producer Petrochemic Danubia (PCD), currently a subsidiary of OMV
Filtration Industry Analyst
ABB, K V A E R N E R TO U P G R A D E PERUVIAN HYDRO FACILITY A unit ofABB Inc will participate in a US$3.5 million contract to increase the output at Peru's Carhauquero hydroelectric plant by 12 MW. ABB's share of the project is approximately US$2 million. The contract has been awarded to ABB Power Generation lnc's Hydro Power business and to Kvaerner Hydro Power lnc, San Francisco, California, by EGENOR SA, a recently privatised subsidiary of Peru's government-owned utility, EIectroperu. Under the terms of the agreement, ABB will mcrease the installed capacity of the plant from 75 to 87 MW. This deal follows a US$56 million retrofit/expansion contract awarded by EGENOR to Asea Brown Boveri SA ol Lima, Peru in June. Under that contract, a consortium that includes ABB Hydro Power and Kwmrner will increase EGENOR's Caqsn del Pato facility by 9() MW.
ENRON WINS SOUTH AMERICAN POWER BID A consortium of two indirect subsidiaries of Enron International Inc, a subsidiary of Enron Corp, is to provide 1000 MW of electricity to be transported from Argentina to Brazil under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Brazilian regional utilities, Eletrosul and Fnrnas.
sion station to allow the two countries' power grids to be connected for the first time. Enron's other activities in the region include equity participation in the Bolivia to Brazil pipeline, ownership and operation of Bolivia's Transredes natural gas transportation system, and ownership and operation of a recently awarded 480 MW natural gas-fired power plant to be constructed in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
TENASKA BUYS MAJORITY INTEREST IN HIDROELECTRICA BOLIVIANA Tenaska International LLC has acquired a 75 per cent interest in Hidroelectrica Boliviana SA, a hydroelectric generating company which is developing 77.1 MW of electricity generation on the Taquesi River in Bolivia. Tenaska International is an affiliate of Tenaska lnc, an energy development company headquartered m Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Hidroelectrica currently owns and operates a 2.1 MW hydroelectric plant and will construct three additional 25 MW plants to be commercial in 20(X). Hidroelectrica's remaining 25 per cent interest is owned by' International Mining Company SA and Hydro Power SRL.
lEA COUNTRIES STRENGTHEN RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICIES
According to the recently published study Renewable Energy Policies in lEA Countries: Volume 1, Overview, most IEA countries have With a bid of US$27.50 per strengthened their support megawatt hour, power delivery for renewable energy use in is expected by the fourth quarter recent years. of 1999. Enron's bid includes the construction of electric transmission lines and a conver-
These actions grow out of increasing concerns over global warming and local pollution,
combined with a growing appreciation of other benefits from 1 the use of renewables. The report provides a c o m p r e h e n s i v e overview of these pohcies, an assessmenl ol their effectiveness and a statistical overview of the status of renewable energy m lEA Member countries. The costs of renev, able energy systems are generally higher than those of competing energy sources. Although these costs have fallen recently, they will have to fall still more if renewable energy forms are to become fully competitive with other energy sources. Government actions to help renewables therefore remain important. Premium rates tor electricity generated by renewable means, especially when guaranteed over a number of years, have resulted in rapid increases in its use. However. the aim of these and other economic incentives should be to improve the competitivenes~ oI renewables rather than merely to increase their u~,e.
NEW UK GAS-FIRED POWER PLANT PLANNEI) Entergy, a 1N-based global energy company, is to build a 740 MW gas-fired power station in Southeast England. Construclion is scheduled to start m April 1098.The power plant, to be known as l)amhead ('reek. wi]l use state-~ff-the-art combined ~yclc gas turbine technolog!e. ']"he plant will be Enlergy's third major presence in the [inited Kingdom electricily market It ~ill operate as a merchant plant and be built on a 40-acre site on the Thames estuary some 30 miles from London. Enterg!~, which is headquartered m New Orleans~ Louisiana, USA. owns London Electricity, the electricity distribution company serving two million cuslmners in England. In addition. Entergy is constructing Saltend, ti~e 12(X)
I1
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,,,,,,
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I'I- I RI )( III-\I11 \I',
F<
INDONESIAN POLYPROPYLENE PLANT
Salim Chemicals and Amoco Chemicals Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of the oil company Amoco Corp, are working on a joint feasibility study to develop a 200 000 ton per year polypropylene plant in Amoco Corporation and Ja- Merak, Indonesia. pan's Mitsui have dedicated The new plant is expected to the newest chemical facility in start-up in early 2001 and will Southeast Asia, a 350 000 met- employ Amoco's gas phase imric tons per year plant to pro- pact co-polymer technology. It duce purified terephthalic will be associated with the acid (PTA), the preferred raw Salim-BP cracker project which material for the manufacture will supply a secure source of of polyester. propylene feedstock. Both comThe plant is a joint venture panies have signed a memoranbetween Amoco. Mitsui Petro- dum of understanding to chemical Industries Ltd and develop the plant. Mitsui & Co Ltd and is the largest PTA facility built to date in BASF AND FINA Indonesia. Production from the plant will serve the growing InPLAN STEAM donesian polyester industry. CRACKER Capital costs of the project were not disclosed. The new facility, BASF Corporation of Mount brought on stream two years al- Olive, New Jersey and FINA ter the formation of the corn- Inc of Dallas, Texas are to espaw, PT Amoco Mitsui PTA tablish a 60/40 joint venture to Indonesia, uses Amoco's pro- build a world-scale liquids prietary F'TA technology, in- steam cracker. The unit will have a namecluding further technical plate capacity of 1.8 billion refinements by Mitsui. ~ounds of ethylene and 1.95 billion pounds of propylene. Total PROPYLENE/ investment will be approxiPOLYPROPYLENE mately US$800 million. The cracker, which is scheduled for FACILITY starl-up m the fl-mrth quarter of PROCEEDS 2000, will use integrated Marathon Oil Company and metathesis technology for enEpsilon Products Company hanced propylene production. have executed definite agree- The facility will be located at ments to develop polymer FINA's refinery in Port Arthur, grade propylene and poly- Texas, and be operated by propylene facilities at Mara- BASF Corporation. The investthon's refinery in Garyville, ment is subject to final board approvals of both companies, Louisiana, USA. Project engi.neering is under- which is expected in early 1998. way and the plants are expected to be operating by late third FOSTER quarter 1999. Marathon is to WHEELER, BOC IN build a 800 million pounds per year purification facility to proSOUTH duce the propylene and Epsilon AMERICAN will construct a I'N1POL START-UP polypropylene facility, also producing 800 million pounds per Venezuelan government offiyear. cials, representatives of the
AMOCO AND MITSUI OPEN LATEST CHEMICAL FACILITY IN ASIA
2:..
October 1997
II
state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), and senior executives of Foster Wheeler Power Systems Inc and BOC Gases have marked the start-up of the largest hydrogen plant in South America. Built, owned and operated by a joint venture between Foster Wheeler Power Systems and BOC Gases, the US$50 million plant, which was designed and constructed by Foster Wheeler USA Corp, is capable of supplying up to 50 million cubic feet per day of hydrogen to the PDVSA refining centre in Amuay, Venezuela. Located on the Paraguana Peninsula in northwest Venezuela, the Amuay refinery is one of the world's largest and is capable of processing up to 630 000 barrels per day of crude oil. Operating since 1950, the refinery has undergone several major upgrades to keep pace with advances in technology.
PHILLIPS' SINGAPORE VENTURE COMES ONSTREAM Phillips Petroleum Company's new 440 millimq pounds per year high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Singapore has been completed and is in production. The joint-venture facility more than doubles the capacity of an existing plant, bringing total capacity to 870 million pounds per year. According to Jack Howe, senior vice president of chemicals and plastics, the expansion will help Phillips supply growing polyethylene markets in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Initial production from the first train ol the new plant began in mid-August, with startup of the second train in mid-September. Phillips Petroleum Singapore Chemicals (Private) Limited (PPSC), a wholly owned Phillips subsidiary, has a 50 per cent interest in the new plant.
CHEVRON CHEMICAL PLANS NAO PLANT Chevron Chemical Co is to conduct front-end engineering for a world-scale normal alpha olefin (NAO) plant to be located at one of the company's two Gulf Coast sites. Using Chevron's proprietary technology, the plant will produce annually 750 million pounds of alpha olefins and is expandable to one billion pounds. It is scheduled to begin production in mid-2000. The company selected Bechtel to perform engineering services. The project supports Chevron's plans to develop a complete slate of NAO products. Chevron manufactures 11 different linear alpha olefin fractions. Alpha olefins are chemical intermediates used to make a variety of ~roducts, including polyethylenes, surfactants, synthetic lubricants and additives. Chevron Chemical currently operates an 800 million poundsper-year NAO plant at its Baytown, Texas, facility. At that site, the original unit was built in 1965 and a subsequent unit was added in 1990. Expansion and debottlenecks have brought the units up to current capacity.
BP AND IPIC EXPAND SOLVENTS CAPACITY BP and PT Inter Petrindo Inti Citra (IPIC), a company owned by the Indonesian majority shareholders in PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Corporation (CAPC), have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a number of solvents plants in Cilegon, West Java. This follows a BP-CAPC agreement in August to study a ~olybutenes investment at lhe CAPC site. As with the polybutenes project, the shareholding in the new solvents joint venture, lo be known as PT Citra
October 19t,7
Pacific International Esters, will be on a 50150 basis. The first unit will be a flexible esterification plant producing up to 50 000 tonnes of ethyl or butyl acetate per year, which will be onstream by late 1998. The process uses acetic acid, which will be supplied from a new plant in Malaysia due onstream in 1999 in which BP has a 70 per cent interest, and ethanol and butanol feedstocks sourced from within the region. The plant will be designed with a production capacity of up to 120 000 tonnes each year, from 2000 onwards. Ethylene will be supplied from the nearby Chandra Asri Petrochemical Centre. In addition, a feasibility study is also being undertaken lor a third plant with an annual capacity of up to 25000 tonnes of synthetic ethanoh This prodact will be targeted to supply those customers in the pharmaceutical and speciality end of the market who require high purity product.
NESTE SELLS 50 PER CENT HOLDING IN BOREALIS Finnish oil company Neste OY has signed a letter of intent covering the disposal of its 50 per cent interest in the Copenhagen-based Borealis petrochemicals group. The buyms are Austrian oil and gas company OMV and the International Petroleum Investment Compan},, which handles Abu Dhabi's foreign investments in the oil and petrochemicals sector. Due to take effect from the New Year. the sale calls for each of these two companies to take hall of Neste's holding in Borealis. Statoil will retain its 50 per cent of the group. At the same time, Borealis has signed a letter of intent on the acquisition of Austrian polyolefin producer Petrochemic Danubia (PCD), currently a subsidiary of OMV
Filtration Industry Analyst
ABB, K V A E R N E R TO U P G R A D E PERUVIAN HYDRO FACILITY A unit ofABB Inc will participate in a US$3.5 million contract to increase the output at Peru's Carhauquero hydroelectric plant by 12 MW. ABB's share of the project is approximately US$2 million. The contract has been awarded to ABB Power Generation lnc's Hydro Power business and to Kvaerner Hydro Power lnc, San Francisco, California, by EGENOR SA, a recently privatised subsidiary of Peru's government-owned utility, EIectroperu. Under the terms of the agreement, ABB will mcrease the installed capacity of the plant from 75 to 87 MW. This deal follows a US$56 million retrofit/expansion contract awarded by EGENOR to Asea Brown Boveri SA ol Lima, Peru in June. Under that contract, a consortium that includes ABB Hydro Power and Kwmrner will increase EGENOR's Caqsn del Pato facility by 9() MW.
ENRON WINS SOUTH AMERICAN POWER BID A consortium of two indirect subsidiaries of Enron International Inc, a subsidiary of Enron Corp, is to provide 1000 MW of electricity to be transported from Argentina to Brazil under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Brazilian regional utilities, Eletrosul and Fnrnas.
sion station to allow the two countries' power grids to be connected for the first time. Enron's other activities in the region include equity participation in the Bolivia to Brazil pipeline, ownership and operation of Bolivia's Transredes natural gas transportation system, and ownership and operation of a recently awarded 480 MW natural gas-fired power plant to be constructed in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
TENASKA BUYS MAJORITY INTEREST IN HIDROELECTRICA BOLIVIANA Tenaska International LLC has acquired a 75 per cent interest in Hidroelectrica Boliviana SA, a hydroelectric generating company which is developing 77.1 MW of electricity generation on the Taquesi River in Bolivia. Tenaska International is an affiliate of Tenaska lnc, an energy development company headquartered m Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Hidroelectrica currently owns and operates a 2.1 MW hydroelectric plant and will construct three additional 25 MW plants to be commercial in 20(X). Hidroelectrica's remaining 25 per cent interest is owned by' International Mining Company SA and Hydro Power SRL.
lEA COUNTRIES STRENGTHEN RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICIES
According to the recently published study Renewable Energy Policies in lEA Countries: Volume 1, Overview, most IEA countries have With a bid of US$27.50 per strengthened their support megawatt hour, power delivery for renewable energy use in is expected by the fourth quarter recent years. of 1999. Enron's bid includes the construction of electric transmission lines and a conver-
These actions grow out of increasing concerns over global warming and local pollution,
combined with a growing appreciation of other benefits from 1 the use of renewables. The report provides a c o m p r e h e n s i v e overview of these pohcies, an assessmenl ol their effectiveness and a statistical overview of the status of renewable energy m lEA Member countries. The costs of renev, able energy systems are generally higher than those of competing energy sources. Although these costs have fallen recently, they will have to fall still more if renewable energy forms are to become fully competitive with other energy sources. Government actions to help renewables therefore remain important. Premium rates tor electricity generated by renewable means, especially when guaranteed over a number of years, have resulted in rapid increases in its use. However. the aim of these and other economic incentives should be to improve the competitivenes~ oI renewables rather than merely to increase their u~,e.
NEW UK GAS-FIRED POWER PLANT PLANNEI) Entergy, a 1N-based global energy company, is to build a 740 MW gas-fired power station in Southeast England. Construclion is scheduled to start m April 1098.The power plant, to be known as l)amhead ('reek. wi]l use state-~ff-the-art combined ~yclc gas turbine technolog!e. ']"he plant will be Enlergy's third major presence in the [inited Kingdom electricily market It ~ill operate as a merchant plant and be built on a 40-acre site on the Thames estuary some 30 miles from London. Enterg!~, which is headquartered m New Orleans~ Louisiana, USA. owns London Electricity, the electricity distribution company serving two million cuslmners in England. In addition. Entergy is constructing Saltend, ti~e 12(X)
I1
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