Peter Vanacker, currently president and CEO of Finnish refiner Neste, has been tapped to be the new CEO of LyondellBasell (LYB) starting at the latest in June 2022. He will succeed Bhavesh (Bob) Patel, who is leaving the company at the end of 2021 to become chief executive of W. R. Grace from January 2022. Vanacker will also sit on LYB’s board.
LyondellBasell has won two separate contracts from Chinese companies to license its PE and PP technology. In the first, Lianyungang Petrochemical, owned by Zhejiang Satellite, has chosen the company’s Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) for a second 400,000 t/y HDPE plant to be built at Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.
In a sign that the administration of US president Joe Biden will be tougher on environmental offenses than that of former president Donald Trump, three companies belonging to petrochemicals producer LyondellBasell have received fines for improper operation, maintenance and monitoring of flares that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said used too much steam.
LyondellBasell has been selected by Spanish energy and chemicals company Repsol Químic to provide its Spherizone technology for a PP plant to be built in Portugal. The 300,000 t/y plant will be located at Repsol’s existing complex in Sines and is due for startup by 2025.
Bhavesh (Bob) Patel, who announced on Aug. 25 his resignation as CEO of US polyolefins giant LyondellBasell, will lead W. R. Grace with effect from January 2022. The appointment was confirmed by Standard Industries Holdings, which expects to close its acquisition of W.R. Grace in the final quarter of 2021. The US chemical producer will subsequently be de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange and become a privately held standalone company within Standard.
LyondellBasell (LYB) has announced it is restarting its polymers and olefins units at La Porte, Texas, USA, where a production facility was hit by an acetic acid leak on Jul. 27, killing two people and injuring 30 others.
Two fatal accidents, one in Germany, another in the US, rocked the international chemical industry on Jul 26 and 27, killing at least four workers. Another five people were still missing and feared dead on Jul. 28.
LyondellBasell has taken over 100% of PolyPacific Polymers (PPM), a compounder based at Port Klang, Malaysia. The Malaysian production facility, which has capacity to produce 25,000 t/y of reinforced and modified polyolefin compounds, will be rebranded as LyondellBasell. All employees will transfer.
LyondellBasell's Spheripol PP technology has been chosen by Inner Mongolia Baofeng New Material for a 2 million t/y complex in China.
The EU Commission’s ambitious plan for a European Green Deal, launched shortly before the pandemic struck in early 2020, aims to make the continent the world’s first climate-neutral region by 2050. The goals spelled out in January last year call for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% up to 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
LyondellBasell has won another contract to supply its technology in China. Under a deal agreed with Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, the US-managed chemical group will supply its Lupotech T high-pressure PE process for two new lines to produce 200,000 t/y LDPE and 300,000 t/y LDPE/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) at Shandong Yulong Petrochemical’s facility in Longkou, Yantai, Shandong province.
Advanced Global Investment Company (AGIC), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian PP producer Advanced Petrochemical, has received approval from the Ministry of Energy for the allocation of feedstock to supply its proposed petrochemical complex in Jubail Industrial City.
LyondellBasell (LYB) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, better known as Sinopec, have finalized plans for a 50:50 joint venture to produce propylene oxide (PO) and styrene monomer (SM) in China for the domestic market. A non-binding Memorandum Understanding (MoU) was signed at the end of 2019.
LyondellBasell has agreed to pay $2 billion for a 50% stake in Sasol’s glitch-plagued production complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA, The deal, scheduled to close at year’s end, includes joint ownership of the site’s new ethane cracker and downstream plastics production.
LyondellBasell has pledged to produce and market 2 million t/y of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030 as part of a range of new sustainability targets.
Dutch-domiciled, US-managed olefins chemicals and plastics major LyondellBasell and China's Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group (Bora) have started up their new polyolefins complex at Panjin in northeastern China’s Liaoning province. Bora is one of the largest private petrochemical enterprises in the region.
LyondellBasell has been chosen by Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC) to license its PP and HDPE technologies for new plants to be built in Al Duqm, Oman. The plants will have capacities of 280,000 t/y PP and 480,000 t/y HDPE, using Spheripol and Hostalen technologies, respectively.
LyondellBasell has been awarded a contract by Hyosung Vina Chemicals to supply its Spheripol PP technology for a new plant to be built in the Cai Mep industrial zone in Vung Tau province, Vietnam.
