Oil and gas industry announcements: 22 July 2014

CH2M Hill

CH2M Hill has announced that the Board of Directors has unanimously appointed President and CEO Jacqueline Hinman as Chairman of the Board of CH2M Hill, effective 18 September 2014. Lee McIntire is retiring as Chairman and Director of CH2M Hill on September 18 during the company’s quarterly board meeting.

Chevron

Chevron Corporation subsidiary Chevron USA Inc., has announced that its has begun commercial production of premium base oils from a newly constructed manufacturing facility at the company’s Pascagoula refinery. Base oils produced at the plant will add to capacity from the company’s refinery in Richmond, California and a joint venture facility in Yeosu, Korea, approximately doubling Chevron’s production capacity and positioning it to be the world’s largest producer of premium base oil.

Base oils from the new facility will supply customers in the US East, Europe and Latin America, with Richmond continuing to supply the US West, and both Richmond and Yeosu supplying Asia. The facility is designed to manufacture 25 000 bpd of premium bas oil, helping countries around the world meet increasingly strict regulatory requirements and higher performance standards for lubricants. Premium base oil is the main ingredient in the production of top tier motor oils that help improve fuel economy, lower tail pipe emissions and extend the time between oil changes. Base oils are used to make lubricants and greases for machinery and equipment in the commercial and industrial sectors.

Chiyoda

Dr. Shinya Hodoshima et al., members of Research & Development Center, made an oral presentation regarding producing propylene in the 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChe) Spring Annual Meeting & tenth Global Congress on Process Safety and won the Best Paper Award in the Fuels & Petrochemicals Division. The paper, ‘efficient propylene production by catalytic cracking of light naphtha with MFI-zeolite/metal-oxide composites,’ was selected among 204 papers presented in the division, while the total papers in this meeting were approximately 800.

The paper focused on the excellent properties of zeolite based catalysts on the basis of original concept for producing propylene in terms of catalytic chemistry and chemical engineering. Propylene is quite important as a raw material in the petrochemical industry and mainly produced by thermal steam cracking of hydrocarbon feedstock such as naphtha at present.

Clariant

CB&I and Clariant have announced their new Ziegler Natta (ZN) polypropylene catalyst production plant in Louisville, Kentucky, is on schedule to begin production in 2015. The plant is part of a long term strategic partnership between Clariant’s catalysts business unit and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business. Based at Clariant’s largest US production hub, the state of the art facility will combine innovative catalysts, jointly developed by both companies with high capacity output to serve the fast growing polypropylene industry.

The partnership strengthens both companies’ position in polypropylene catalyst and technology by leveraging Clariant’s catalyst research and development and production know how together with CB&I’s vast knowledge in catalyst, process design and licensing of polypropylene plants. As a result of the intensive joint efforts from research and development teams of Clariant and CB&I, a series of new ZN polypropylene catalysts to be produced in the Louisville plant have been developed. The PolyMax and NHP catalyst series with merged and improved technical and commercial features from both Clariant’s and CB&I’s research and development pipelines is a drop in catalyst based on a one for all solution. Both series are currently being tested in several commercial polypropylene plants demonstrating outstanding performance.’

ExxonMobil

In another important step forward for the Alaska LNG project, an application to export LNG has been submitted to the US Department of Energy. The application requests authorisation to export up to 20 million tpy of LNG for a period of 30 years to countries that have existing free trade agreements with the US, as well as to non-free trade agreement countries. The Alaska LNG project would provide significant economic benefits to Alaskans including state revenues, new job opportunities and access to decades of domestically produced natural gas for homes and businesses in Alaska.

Steve Butt, senior project manager said, ‘this is a significant milestone for the Alaska LNG project and demonstrates continued progress toward developing Alaska’s resources. Filing of an export application is a critical step in commercialising North Slope natural gas.’

TruStar Energy

TruStar Energy has announced the groundbreaking of its first TruStar Energy branded public fast fill compressed natural gas (CNG) station, in Orlando, Florida, USA. He new station is located on Exchange Drive, within the Orlando Central Park development and will be constructed to serve Class Eight vehicles with four traffic lanes and tow fuelling islands, allowing for easy access for both commercial vehicles and private CNG powered consumer vehicles.

Veolia

Veolia has been shortlisted for the ICAEW Sustainable Business category at this year’s National Business Awards. The company launched a new strategy last year that focused on the key objectives to manufacture green products and create green energy. The strategy focused on sustainable development and around 15 projects encompassing improved operational efficiency and growth in areas like organic products, biogas, fuel from solid waste and decommissioning as well as leveraging diversity for growth and becoming known as the champion of sustainability.

Finalists were chosen from hundreds of businesses that entered or were nominated across 17 award categories. They will now prepare for live presentations to expert juries who will decide the overall winners that will be revealed at the awards ceremony on 11 November.

Edited from various sources by Claira Lloyd

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