Robot to Replace Inspection Engineer in the Chemical Industry

We all know how difficult a decision would be for the management of the refining and petrochemical plants when inspection engineers will need to do critical inspection when the integrity of the plant is in doubt. In chemical industry such as production of highly combustible gases and gases that self-ignite upon loss of containment, this is very dangerous.

A Mexican company has come up with a prototype of RoboPipe, a robot that could do the inspection of

PETRONAS Criticized for Overpaying Canadian Progress Energy Shale Gas

Malaysian state-oil company, PETRONAS has been criticized by the Malaysian opposition party for purchasing the stakes in Progress Energy at almost double the market price.

Rafizi Ramli, the opposition party strategic director has questioned the move made by PETRONAS started in 2012 for the takeover of Progress Energy in Canada. The multi-billion dollar takeover ensures that PETRONAS secures the rights for shale gas in Canada. The shale gas hyped has driven the natural gas in United States and Canada to shoot up recently but price has since stabilized. The deals was likely made on the basis of high natural gas price and a for a significant premium above the share price. PETRONAS has previously indicated that the premium was necessary to counter a bid from another company for Progress Energy.

Royal Dutch Shell Entering Iraq with New $11 Billion Cracker Project

Royal Dutch Shell is entering Middle East, in particular Iraq with a force. It has recently announced a downstream petrochemical complex in the southern part of Iraq pending Heads of Agreement signing. 

The petrochemical facility will produce cracked ethylene from ethane gas cracker. The complex is eavesdropped to be costing $11 billion. Shell is the world leader in integrated energy from upstream to downstream and feedstock for the petrochemical facility will most likely to come from Shell presence in Iraq in the Majnoon oil field near Basra. The oil field is currently churning out almost 200kbpd of oil.

It is not clear when the project is expected to come on-stream. Taking the already existing MoU last year, it is expected that the project will be on fast track.

Saudi Aramco Envision to Become World's Biggest Refinery-Petrochemical by 2020

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company is setting a new target to become the world's biggest refinery-petrochemical company. The company is currently developing multiple joint ventures in order to reach its vision by 2020. This ambitious target is coherent with the target of the company to further develop its value chain down the chemical line.

Analysts are divided as to how this will balance out with the advent of its brother, SABIC in Saudi Arabia venturing into many chemicals production through its momentous acquisitions of overseas company mainly in Europe.

SABIC Expands to India and China

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is seeking expansion of its technology arm outside Middle East with new technology centers in Bangalore India and Shanghai China. The company is looking to invest more on innovations, new chemicals and in the area of sustainability development with the help of around 500 professionals in various areas. The new centers are targeted to be opened in 2013 close to year end focusing on new technologies and strategic business research. 

SABIC has been proclaimed as on of the world's leading petrochemical companies due to recent acquisitions and agressive build-up model and expansion attitude surpassing many of other established multinational petrochemical companies.

Alfa Laval Offers More Heat Exchangers Via Acquisition

Alfa Laval has made an announcement that it is acquiring ACE (Air Cooled Exchangers) in December 2012. With the new acquisition, Alfa Laval will be able to add custom made air cooled heat exchangers in its portfolio on top of the current established list of heat exchangers. Alfa Laval already has a good base of heat exchangers on offer especially on fluids, centrifugal separation and normal types of heat exchangers.

Supercomputers to Replace Engineers in Oil & Gas Company?

The latest trend in oil and gas companies including some of petrochemical players are setting the horizon for the upcoming age of abundance, and possibly replacing most engineers and skilled individuals in the oil and gas industry by the supercomputers. The likes of BP has spent millions of dollars of building its supercomputer, aimed at seismic imaging and interpreting geological data previously done by groups of skilled geologists. 

BP datacenter in Houston houses 2 petaflops supercomputer which is also used for drilling activities. Already

Indonesia's Pertamina To Become Asia Oil & Gas Major in Asia

Pertamina, Indonesian state oil company which was once considered a pioneer in government-owned oil and gas major is setting a goal to become the Asia's biggest oil and gas player by 2025. The announcement came after a recent announcement that it is currently looking at petrochemical partner to further add value of its downstream petrochemical business. 

 Pertamina owns many of Indonesia's refineries and is venturing into partnership with PTT Global Chemical into bringing alive its petrochemical business again. Many considered Pertamina demise was due to the influence of Indonesian government into its business during its peak.

Malaysian Politics Pull Both Strings on PETRONAS

Malaysia politics from both end of the string, ruling and opposition are trying to impose power on PETRONAS as the Malaysian poll is approaching. The opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim is asking for change of PETRONAS policy, a state oil and energy company, towards boosting overseas expenditure.

He calls for reduction of PETRONAS dividend to the state but also a change in policy of payment according to certain percentage. The announcement is seen to also impact many of PETRONAS project in domestic Malaysia especially the new mega refinery-petrochemical project in southern Johor, a the tip of the peninsular Malaysia, at the Pengerang site. 

 The project which involves numerous of parties and commercial partners will be subject to the opposition review of viability and will call for certain transparency. The announcement comes to a no surprise to industry analysts which foresee that new political power will play its role on the country's biggest state company. There is likelihood that the new marginal fields in the domestic Malaysia will require further review.

SABIC signed TDI/MDI agreement with Mitsui Chemicals in Polyurethane Technology Deal

The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has signed a TDI and MDI technology license agreement with Mitsui Chemicals for collaboration in the polyurethane chain inked in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The agreement was signed by Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC vice chairman and CEO, and Toshikazu Tanaka, Mitsui Chemicals president and CEO.

Under the deal, SABIC will use Mitsui’s technology to produce polyurethane raw materials which are TDI and MDI, which are both raw materials for producing polyurethane. SABIC will also be able to participate in joint technology development for TDI and MDI.

Oil & Gas Engineering Market to be Severely Uptight

With demands of new oil and gas related plants, especially petrochemicals projects coming up with the world economic demand, it is highly forecasted that the engineering market will be severely impacted.

This is coupled with the highly skilled engineers are now reaching their retirement age within the next decade. Engineering professionals will be highly sought after beginning of 2012 onwards, a source familiar with the arena told.

Berkshire Hathaway Acquired Lubrizol

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has acquired Lubrizol for $9.7 Billion or $135/share in an all-cash transaction. The transaction includes $700 million in debt of the lubricant business company. There is only four well-known detergent companies globally with the recent fifth coming from China. The move is seen as Warren's new agenda towards the energy market.

Pertamina Collaborating with Petronas & Total for Natuna Project

Indonesian state oil and gas company PT Pertamina will be in collaboration with Malaysia’s Petronas and France’s Total SA for East Natuna project in Indonesia waters. This comes amids Pertamina inking agreement with ExxonMobil earlier.

Pertamina is looking for collaboration both for investment and technology provider such as one in regards to high CO2 content in the oil field.

Shell Expanding its Saudi Arabia Sadaf JV

Shell is conducting a study for its Saudi Arabia joint venture, Sadaf with SABIC for expansion of capacity under the provision of enough and reliable feedstock supply from its partner. The expansion will be looking specifically for additional capacity of polyurethanes (PU), polyols and alpha-olefins even though the Sadaf JV also produces ethylene, crude industrial ethanol, styrene, caustic soda, ethylene dichloride and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

Saudi Aramco Launching New Petchem Products Through JVs

Saudi Aramco which has joint venture projects with Japan's Sumitomo Chemicals and Dow Chemicals is expected to introduce petchem products higher in the value chain including metallocene-based elastomers, glycol ethers, methyl methacrylate (MMA), polymethyl metaacrylate (PMMA), nylon and EP rubber. This comes as Phase II expansion of PetroRabigh is expected to commence which currently produces 1.3 million tonne per year of ethane cracker and 700,000 tonne per year of MEG.

Engen Petroleum Ltd Acquired Chevron Corp.'s assets in Africa

Malaysian Stateoil Petronas subsidiary, Engen Petroleum Ltd. has just reportedly completed acquisition of Chevron assets in Malawi, Zambia and the French territory of Reunion. Engen Petroleum which operates South Africa’s largest fuel retailer is also in stage of getting regulatory approval to buy Chevron’s assets in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and Mauritius in 2011.

PETRONAS & BASF Signing MoU for Joint Feasibility Study

BASF and PETRONAS has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to undertake a joint feasibility study for new complex producing specialty chemicals in Malaysia worth MYR 4 Billion. The partnership is said to leverage on the existing BASF-Petronas Chemicals joint venture plant in the Malaysian Pahang state.

Petronas and BASF will both evaluate the technical, commercial and economic viability of jointly owning and operating world-scale facilities for the production of specialty chemicals. The scope is said to include C4 based specialty chemical products including non-ionic surfactants, methanesulfonic acid and iso-nonanol.

Higher Plastic Usage in Cars to Increase Demand of Plastics

The global car industry sees jump in cars demand as rising economies in China and rest of Asia sees increase in middle class population. China has already surpassed Japan for largest automotive producer and close to overtaking US as the largest automotive market.

Engineering polymers which widely used in the cars production is expected to increase from 18% to 25% per car as the auto sector scouting for means for weight savings to enhance fuel efficiency and costs.

PETRONAS Chemical Group to Offer RM5 per IPO share

Integrated petrochemicals producer Petronas Chemical Group Bhd has been cited in the local news to be selling its IPO share for RM5 (USD1 = RM3.01). However the report has also indicated that the company which is at its infant stage as a group of companies will likely to reduce and revise the price.

TOTAL Bringing Up GLNG Project

Total entry via acquisition in the GLNG project has expedited the project to progress further. Total had previously announced the acquisition of 15% and 5% stakes in GLNG from Santos and PETRONAS respectively. Under the new arrangement, Total will also take up the volume of 1.5 million tonnes per annum from the project for 20 years.