Why The Oil Industry’s $400 Billion Bet On Plastics Could Backfire

Scott Carpenter: Senior Contributor: Energy Sept 5, 2020Key takeaways:

• Oil companies plan to invest $400 billion into new petrochemical plants, betting that demand for plastic will keep growing.
• Authors of a new report say the industry and other forecasters fail to consider that large majorities favor legislation to curb plastic use and waste and that governments are acting.
• Plastics impose a cost of $1000 per tonne — through CO2 emissions, air pollution, and collection costs. Calls to shift those costs onto producers through taxes are growing.
• Outside experts said the long-term outlook for plastics demand remains uncertain and will depend on consumer preferences and government actions.

The COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating green growth around the world have eviscerated many of the oil industry’s dogmas: that renewables would suffer from high costs, that governments would slow-walk environmental commitments, that investors would continue to reward long-term bets on oil with generous market values.

But one nugget of wisdom has survived everything the market has thrown at it, and now oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell are wagering billions on it: that the world’s demand for plastics is still growing, with no end in sight. read more

The Guardian: ‘War on plastic’ could strand oil industry’s £300bn investment

Major oil firms plan to grow plastic supply to counter impact of shift against fossil fuels

Jillian Ambrose: Fri 4 Sep 2020 06.00 BST

The war on plastic waste could scupper the oil industry’s multi-billion dollar bet that the world will continue to need more fossil fuels to help make the petrochemicals used in plastics, according to a new report.

Major oil companies, including Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell, plan to spend about $400bn (£300bn) to help grow the supply of virgin plastics by a quarter over the next five years, to compensate for the impact of electric vehicles and clean energy technologies on demand for fossil fuels. read more

When BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, said he would cut the oil giant’s dividend in half earlier this month, he might have expected a backlash from the pension funds that rely on the £1.6bn quarterly payout. In the event, it caused little more than a ripple of interest. Nor was much attention paid to BP’s record $17.7bn (£13.5bn) loss, incurred over just three months and which compared with a profit of $1.8bn in the same period a year earlier.

Instead, the headlines were dominated by one of the most dramatic strategy shifts ever announced by a FTSE 100 company. BP, Looney said, would become a “very different energy company” as it increased tenfold its investment in low-carbon energy, while reducing oil and gas output by a billion barrels a day. much of the legacy oil business will be sold in the next five years and replaced by renewable energy generation. read more

POSTED BY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ON AUGUST 26, 2020 

Dow Chemical and Shell Oil were hit with a lawsuit Wednesday by South Pasadena accusing the companies of contaminating the city’s water supply with a toxic chemical found in pesticides the companies once made.

The suit filed in Los Angeles federal court alleges the companies knew or should have known that the chemical, known as 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP, is toxic and renders drinking water unsafe. The companies manufactured and marketed agricultural pesticides containing the chemical for years — and it was used on land in the vicinity of South Pasadena’s wells. read more

Big Oil’s Petrochemical Bet Is A Risky One

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Aug 19, 2020, 5:00 PM CDT

Petrochemicals are expected to underpin global oil demand growth in the future as growth in transportation fuels demand is set to slow with the increased use of electric vehicles, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in March in its annual Oil 2020 report with projections until 2025. But are petrochemicals really profitable?

“Petrochemical feedstocks LPG/ethane and naphtha will drive around half of all oil products demand growth, helped by continued rising plastics demand and cheap natural gas liquids in North America,” the IEA said in March when the COVID-19 pandemic was already upending global oil demand growth projections for this year. read more

Shell Looks To Snap Up $9 Billion India Petchem Stake

By Julianne Geiger – Aug 13, 2020, 10:30 AM CDT

Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell is planning to snap up a major stake in a petrochemical businesses, according to anonymous sources cited by Reuters.

According to the source, Shell signed a memorandum of understanding to pick up a 50% stake in India-based Nayara Energy’s petrochem project.

Nayara Energy Limited (formerly Essar Oil Limited), which also runs India’s second-largest single-site refinery that makes up 8% of India’s total refinery capacity, is 49.13% owned by PJSC NK Rosneft, which it picked up in August of 2017. read more

Exclusive: Shell eyes stake in Nayara’s $9 billion Indian petchem project – source

NEW DELHI/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> plans to buy a 50% stake in Indian-based Nayara Energy’s up to $9 billion planned petrochemical project, a source familiar with the matter said.

Global oil majors are looking at expanding foothold in the vast Indian market, where local refiners are investing billions of dollars to boost their petrochemical capacities. read more

Shell: 17 new COVID cases at cracker plant, 14 active

By Chrissy Suttles: Posted Aug 4, 2020 at 5:28 PM

The site has seen 35 confirmed COVID-19 cases since March — 14 active and 21 recovered. More than 1,000 tests have been conducted at Shell’s on-site lab, with approximately 1 percent coming back positive.

POTTER TWP. — The number of COVID-19 cases at Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant has nearly doubled in less than three weeks.

Another 17 employees at the Shell Chemicals complex have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since mid-July, and 35 people have been infected since the pandemic hit Pennsylvania in March. read more

Despite a growing number of cases, Shell says it has no plans to halt construction on the multi-billion-dollar plant.

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. (KDKA) — Five workers at the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County have recently tested positive for coronavirus.

On Thursday, Shell said 18 workers have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic.

Earlier this month, KDKA’s Paul Martino reported that Beaver County Commissioner Daniel Camp was concerned after a ninth employee at the plant tested positive. read more

POSTING ON OUR SHELL BLOG 

In a recent town hall, the current project director of the Pennsylvania tax dodge, suggested the construction was 60% complete? WTF?

At least he is not to blame, he was saddled with the errors and over promises of AR, who landed a holding position as “VP HSE”, doing “TFA”, prior to a new position that seems also completely invented … and purposefulessness.

Can’t we just move helpless & hopeless leaders out of the organization?

Unless another senior leader is worried about his role in yet another profitless folly? read more

BY FRANK ESPOSITO: JAN 5, 2020

Shell Chemical says the development of a major plastics and petrochemicals complex under construction near Pittsburg remains “important”  to its overall global effort, despite a report that questioned its viability. 

In an email to Plastics News, Michael Marr, Shell business integration lead, responded by saying that Shell’s chemicals business at Monaca, PA., “enjoys strong fundamentals” and that the Pennsylvania project “is an important part of our global effort to build-out new business models that will allow Shell to participate and thrive in the energy transition.” read more

One closely-watched project already under construction in western Pennsylvania faces heightened risk as well. Royal Dutch Shell is building a gargantuan ethane cracker in the heart of the Appalachian shale gas region… “The complex is likely to be less profitable than expected and face an extended period of financial distress.”

A Perfect Storm For Petrochemicals

By Nick Cunningham – Jun 04, 2020, 5:00 PM CDT

The oil majors have made huge bets on plastics and petrochemicals in recent years, but those investments look increasingly shaky following the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn. read more

Shell plastics plant Trump touted faces oversupply risks: Energy institute report

04 Jun 2020 12:16PM (Updated: 04 Jun 2020 02:58PM)

WASHINGTON: A massive Pennsylvania plastics project that President Donald Trump touted during a visit last year faces risks of oversupply and a low price outlook for the materials, a report by an institute that examines energy issues said on Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Petrochemical Complex plant in Beaver County, owned by Shell, has been promoted by some as an economic savior in a region still suffering from the demise of steel industry in the 1980s. read more

BP, Shell Must Face Claims Emissions Caused Fatal Cancer

law360.com — Law360 (May 19, 2020, 7:51 PM EDT) — An Illinois appeals court has restored a wrongful death lawsuit brought against BP and other companies over a man’s cancer allegedly linked to a nearby refinery’s benzene emissions, deciding that suspicion alone of benzene’s link to the cancer isn’t enough to start the clock running on a claim.

CNOOC, Shell to invest 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in new ethylene project

GUANGZHOU, May 17 (Xinhua) — China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the largest offshore oil and gas producer in China, and Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s leading energy and petrochemical conglomerate, signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement worth 5.6 billion U.S. dollars on Sunday.

Representatives in Guangzhou, capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province, Beijing, and The Hague, signed the agreement via 5G video link. read more

By Rachel Adams-Heard: 3 May 2020, 23:12 BST

A controlled fire at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s refinery near Houston cast a plume of black smoke over the city’s industrial suburbs.

A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said Shell alerted the agency of the burn off. The smoke had subsided by 4:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. The refinery in the town of Deer Park on Houston’s east side can process 275,000 barrels of crude a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shell sent a notice through a community alert system at 3:16 p.m. warning that the company was performing activities that could lead to flaring and noted there wasn’t any threat to nearby residents.

SOURCE read more