Benjamin Storrow, E&E News reporter Climatewire: Tuesday, January 21, 2020

A recent study identified 88 petrochemical projects along the Gulf Coast that are either in the planning stage or under construction. If all are completed, their combined emissions output could reach 150.8 million metric tons, the equivalent of 38 coal plants.

The same oil and gas boom that helped clean up the power sector has also made it cheaper to turn natural gas into plastics, fertilizer and other products. The process is emissions-intensive. Large quantities of natural gas liquids like ethane and propane are fed into enormous furnaces and heated to extremely high temperatures, creating smaller hydrocarbon molecules that can be separated and turned into different plastic products. read more

Shell must grapple with its own existential crisis: How should a company that generates most of its profits by serving the world’s enormous appetite for oil navigate a long-term future in which shifting political and economic tides threaten to make fossil fuels obsolete?

BY JUSTIN WORLAND

A peculiar theme park in the Hague celebrates the history of the Netherlands through a series of miniature models. The Madurodam features little canals, old-fashioned windmills, tiny tulips and, amid it all, an homage to Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant that is the biggest company in the country and, by revenue, the second largest publicly traded oil-and-gas company in the world. There’s a Shell drilling platform, a Shell gas station and a Shell natural-gas field, complete with a drilling rig. The display is at once odd–energy infrastructure in a children’s theme park–and entirely fitting: Shell has been, for decades, one of the most powerful players both in Dutch politics and on the global economic stage. read more

In 2018 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accused Shell of violating clean air laws for over a decade and reached a settlement with the corporate giant shortly after.

Extracts

The Shell Norco Manufacturing Complex has been operating by the banks of the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana for almost a century. A sprawling set of oil refineries and petrochemical plants that dominate the landscape and pollute the air about 20 miles outside the city of New Orleans.

In 2018 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accused Shell of violating clean air laws for over a decade and reached a settlement with the corporate giant shortly after.

Since 2001 the Norco Civic Association, a community group heavily backed by Shell, has run a Christmas parade that winds through the industrial complex, which sits on the site of old sugarcane fields in the heart of a region known as “Cancer Alley” due to its high levels of industrial pollution. read more

HOUSTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – A malfunction in the gasoline-producing unit at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 225,300-barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery triggered flaring at the refinery on Monday, said sources familiar with plant operations.

The 112,000-bpd residual catalytic cracking unit (RCCU) remained in operation following the malfunction, the sources said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

SOURCE

Atlanta-based Nexus Fuels is turning hard to recycle plastic waste into liquid feedstock for Royal Dutch Shell to manufacture new plastics.

Extracts from an article by Jordan Blum Dec. 4, 2019

The world’s rapidly mounting plastic waste and the public reaction to its impact on marine and wildlife is challenging the booming petrochemical industry, but the world’s biggest energy companies are increasingly stepping up with new projects to take on these challenges.

Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Houston’s LyondellBasell have all announced new projects or pilot plants in recent weeks to address recycling plastics that are the hardest to transform back into reusable materials. The latest came from Shell, which has begun making petrochemicals from plastic waste in a process known as chemical recycling. read more

Shell: New steel tariffs would have “little-to-no” impact on Beaver County cracker plant

By Chrissy Suttles: 3 Dec 2019

Shell Chemicals representatives say President Donald Trump’s plans to restore tariffs on some steel imports would have minimal impact on final construction of Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant.

POTTER TWP. — President Donald Trump plans to restore tariffs on steel imports from Brazil and Argentina, a move Shell Chemicals representatives said would have little impact on final construction of Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant.

“Generally, all of our major steel deliveries have been made to the site, so there would be no impact or minimal impact,” said Michael Marr, Shell Chemicals’ business integration lead. “The impact would only be financial, and would not change the overall finances of the project.” read more

Perhaps Shell will be able to recycle the microplastic toxic waste from its Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex when it gets underway?

HOUSTON, Nov. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Today Shell announced it has successfully made high-end chemicals using a liquid feedstock made from plastic waste. The technique, known as pyrolysis, is considered a breakthrough for hard-to-recycle plastics and advances Shell’s ambition to use one million tonnes of plastic waste a year in its global chemicals plants by 2025.

“This makes sense for the environment and our business,” said Thomas Casparie, Executive Vice President of Shell’s global chemicals business.  “We want to take waste plastics that are tough to recycle by traditional methods and turn them back into chemicals – creating a circle. These chemicals will meet our customers’ growing demands for high quality and sustainable products.” read more

The Shell plant will erase 30 years’ worth of air quality improvements. It will result in higher rates of respiratory disease, heart disease, asthma, lost productivity, cancer, early deaths and adverse birth outcomes…

BY MATTHEW MEHALIK, PH.D.

As people concerned about the future of the Ohio River Valley, we wish to tell President Donald Trump, who is in Pittsburgh today bowing to petrochemical interests, that petrochemical development is the wrong path for our community. Our region has battled economic disinvestment following generations of heavy industrial development with a subsequent burden of cleaning up. One of the lessons we have learned is that life and health are precious.

The Shell plant will erase 30 years’ worth of air quality improvements. It will result in higher rates of respiratory disease, heart disease, asthma, lost productivity, cancer, early deaths and adverse birth outcomes in a community with existing poor health statistics. This industry will sacrifice our health and economy in order to overproduce plastics and put our water supply at risk. read more

Summary

*While Chevron, Exxon, Occidental and other oil majors are eagerly ramping up shale acquisitions and production, Shell has been more reserved in this regard.

*Shale resources may help companies improve on upstream production volumes and reserves, but profitability is questionable, leading to potentially net negative trade-off for investors.

*The ethane plant in Pennsylvania is an example of Shell wisely making use of lower natural gas prices, rather than being on the upstream side, losing money.

Much has been made lately of the deep dive into shale that the likes of oil majors such as Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE:XOM) decided to take in the past few years. A fight over Anadarko (NYSE:APC) between Chevron and Occidental (NYSE:OXY) was perhaps the most emblematic symbol of this industry-changing trend. Analysts and investors quickly jumped to the conclusion that it is imperative for all oil majors to jump in and compete with each other on acquiring and developing shale assets. Exxon and Chevron are currently planning to increase shale production to 1 mb/d each. Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has been more timid in this regard, and given the profitability profile of the overall shale industry, I am fully satisfied with its position in this regard. Shell’s downstream investments, such as the Pennsylvania ethane plant, meant to take advantage of low shale prices, seems to make far more sense than rushing to produce the low-priced natural gas. Nor does it seem all that wise to rush to produce shale oil, which requires extremely high capital expenses to produce. Some investors may believe that it is more important to maintain reserves and production by diving into the shale patch. I personally think that it is not worth diluting Shell’s overall profitability profile by producing shale oil and gas for the sake of maintaining the company’s overall production numbers. read more

Posted 20 Sept 2019

Federal courts require asbestos manufacturers to compensate cancer victims

Plant workers employed before 1981 diagnosed with various cancers are entitled to special benefits. Lung cancer, esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, pharyngeal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, and mesothelioma are frequently caused by asbestos exposure. Asbestos-laced products were used for decades at Shell Chemical.

Neither employees nor management were aware of the asbestos risk. read more

by Aileen Robertson: September 6 2019, 8.28am

Shell is in “commercially sensitive” talks to find a solution to continuous flaring at its Mossmorran plant.

The petrochemical giant, which operates Fife Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Plant alongside Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP), run by ExxonMobil, said it is trying to stem a flow of ethane which needs to be burned off by ground flares at the site.

Since the failure of two of its three boilers in mid-August, the ExxonMobil plant has been shut down. However, the Shell plant is still running.

Shell’s Fife NGL Plant produces hydrocarbons for industry including ethane, which is piped to FEP to be processed. read more

A memo sent to union leaders by Shell before an appearance by Donald Trump — displayed by a recipient via Twitter — warns against protests and threatens pay reduction. read more

Before plastic is made into anything else, it is made into pellets. And those pellets are leaking everywhere. When completed, the new facility will pump out 1.8 million tons (1.6 million metric tons) of plastic each year.  The vast majority of that plastic, like the vast majority of all plastic made up to now, will likely not be recycled. And it will exist virtually forever, crumbling into microplastics that show up most everywhere scientists look for them. Those small spheres, sometimes known as “nurdles,” are a massive source of plastic pollution, escaping into the environment before they have a chance to be molded into a useful shape. With roughly 22,000 nurdles per pound of plastic, the Shell plant intends to produce the rough equivalent of 80 trillion nurdles per year. As the Royal Dutch Shell plant rises in Pennsylvania, environmental groups and scientists are worried about the lack of regulation to specifically address plastic pellet pollution. (Shell did not return a request for comment.) 

By Zoë Schlanger: 19 Aug 2019

Some 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a township adjacent to a state forest, oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell is building a sprawling new plant to support what it sees as the future of its business: making millions of tons of new, virgin plastic.

US president Trump visited the facility last week, highlighting the 5,000 construction jobs it has created. The plant is just one of more than 300 new plastic facilities proposed or permitted for the US in the near future. Shell, along with other major oil and gas companies like Exxon, sees plastic as one avenue for growth as natural gas prices plummet—and, longer-term, as a way to weather the world’s slow rejection of fossil fuels as an energy source. read more

Shell Petrochemical Plant under construction in Beaver County Pa., Crowded with Cranes. Aug 2019

Operating Heavy machine is no joke. If anything goes wrong, it can claim lives. 

So, as a crane operator, you should make sure the whole operations go smoothly. Following, we are giving you a few safety tips to help you out!

What You Need to Know

Tower and mobile cranes are useful for different construction scenarios. But they do present a few hazards like:

Collapse: Crane collapse are unfortunate events that may lead to severe (even fatal) injuries to both workers and bystanders.

Load Falling or Line Snapping: As tower cranes are high, there is a possibility that high winds or tight spaces can make the load fall. This is a great danger for everyone on the ground level. read more

“Jeering, protesting or shouting was not tolerated, a leaked memo said. Staying away was allowed, but then the overtime allowance would be reduced.”

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT, Financieele Dagblad.

With the call, the contractors wanted to improve the fragile relationship between the unions and President Donald Trump. Photo: Justin Merriman / Bloomberg

Construction workers at Shell factory were asked to treat Trump kindly

Van onze redacteur: 19 August 2019

To the great satisfaction of the contractors, the thousands of construction workers from a Shell plant under construction northwest of Pittsburgh received President Donald Trump on Tuesday with loud applause.

The construction companies had asked their employees to treat the president in a friendly manner in an attempt to improve the fragile relationship between the White House and the trade unions. Jeering, protesting or shouting was not tolerated, a leaked memo said. Staying away was allowed, but then the overtime allowance would be reduced. read more

Workers ordered not to criticise the president

• Marisa Iati,
• Morgan Krakow
• 18 Aug 2019

Workers at a Royal Dutch Shell plant in Pennsylvania were forced to choose between attending a speech by Donald Trump or earning less than their coworkers who did.

Attendance was optional, but contract workers who chose not to stand in the crowd would not qualify for time-and-a-half pay when they arrived at work on Friday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Workers at the unfinished Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex had to arrive at 7am, scan their ID cards and stand for hours until the US president’s speech began. read more