HYDROCARBON PROCESSING KEY LESSONS FROM … · Special Supplement to HYDROCARBON PROCESSING® 40%...

Shell Global Solutions

KEY LESSONS FROM SUCCESSFUL HYDROCRACKER PROJECTS

Special Supplement to

HYDROCARBON PROCESSING®

Courtesy Grupa LOTOS SA

R03659-GS_HCP_Supp_Brochure_AW.indd 1 13/09/2011 11:35

Süleyman Özmen

Although industry analysts suggest that cost pressures and depressed refi ning margins will remain, there is still signifi cant growth in the hydrocracking market. Following the successful implementation of our recent hydrocracker projects at, among others, the Grupa LOTOS and CNOOC refi neries,, this supplement aims to capture some important lessons, best practices and thought leadership that may help other refi ners to deliver their own value-adding initiatives.

As a result of the global economic downturn, numerous refi nery projects were slowed down, shelved or even cancelled outright. And, although the economic recovery appears to be gathering momentum, a new set of challenges is emerging for refi ners.

For example, IHS CERA reports that the cost of refi nery construction projects is marching slowly back to pre-recession levels, with steel prices in particular showing a high level of volatility.

Then there are the changes in demand patterns. The downturn triggered a signifi cant drop in the short-to-medium-term global oil demand. Although it is now recovering, oil demand is now swinging from the West to the East; the fall occurred mainly in the OECD countries while the developing economies continued their strong growth.

Moreover, there is a huge shift under way in the global gasoline–distillate balance, as demand for high-quality low- and ultra-low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) skyrockets in Asia and the Middle East. Middle distillates such as diesel, jet fuel and kerosene now account for 35% of global product demand and are expected to gain an additional 10% by 2015.

The impact of these changes on refi ners, who are already contending with the changing feedstock slate and increasingly stringent environmental standards, has been severe.

Nevertheless, there are success stories. For instance, the Polish refi ner Grupa LOTOS has not only succeeded in implementing a residue conversion project at the Gdańsk refi nery (as part of its “10+ Programme”), it has also enhanced its margins by $5 a barrel (see page 18). Meanwhile, CNOOC Ltd has brought the $3 billion Huizhou refi nery on-stream, which includes a 4-Mt/y hydrocracker that is one of China’s largest in terms of single-unit capacity (see page 20). Both of these hydrocrackers were licensed by Shell Global Solutions.

Of course, these are all hydrocracking projects, but there are other common denominators across these initiatives that may explain why they have been successful in the current economic climate where others have not. These common factors include project phasing, solution integration and optimising the conversion level, and are detailed on page 14. Investigation of these factors may also provide insights into the steps that operators can take to help safeguard a project’s viability.

We are taking an in-depth look at hydrocracking in this supplement because the technology is seeing signifi cant growth; consultancy fi rm The Catalyst Group estimates that global hydrocracking capacity, which was at 5,835,683 bbl/d in 2010, will have increased by

KEY LESSONSfrom Successful Hydrocracker Projects

www.shell.com/globalsolutions

INTRODUCTION:

HYDROCRACKING: TODAY’S ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE




40% by 2013. This is because refi ners are leveraging hydrocracking to respond to the momentum in global dieselisation, especially as rising crude prices are forcing refi neries to consider upgrading distressed crudes and diffi cult feedstocks. Almost 60% of the new hydrocracker construction will be in the Middle East, Asia or Eastern Europe, The Catalyst Group suggests. Meanwhile, several hydrocracker projects will be implemented in North America, including two new units for Valero licensed by Shell Global Solutions.

In addition, the sulphur paradox – that crude supplies are becoming increasingly sour while plant emissions legislation seems set to continue tightening – remains vitally relevant. As we highlighted in our Hydrocarbon Processing


HYDROCRACKING: TODAY’S ECONOMIC IMPERATIVEsupplement earlier this year, although the hydrocracker can play a key role in the production of ultra-low-sulphur fuels, it is also important to have a robust plan for dealing with the displaced sulphur, as this will otherwise impact on refi nery emissions. An integrated solution is likely to be required.

Perhaps you are fi nding it diffi cult to make your planned investment viable as the project market heats up again. Perhaps you have concerns about costs, access to technology, how best to integrate new hardware into your facility or your overall sulphur balance. Whatever your challenges, I hope you can glean some valuable insights from this supplement that will help you to deliver a value-adding project.

Süleyman Özmen Vice President, Refi ning and Chemical LicensingShell Global Solutions International BV

ABOUT US■ Shell is one of the largest hydrocracker operators in the

world, with a capacity of 512,000 bbl/d.

■ Shell Global Solutions provides technical support to over 50 sites worldwide. It has signed 12 hydrocracking licences in the last fi ve years, and has more than 60% of the hydroprocessing reactor internals market.

■ Criterion Catalysts & Technologies (Criterion) is a global leader in hydroprocessing catalysts and has a track record of over 50 years.

■ Zeolyst International (Zeolyst) is a global leader in commercial and speciality zeolites, and its advanced hydrocracking catalysts are currently installed in more than 70 of the world’s hydrocracking units.

■ Sulzer Chemtech is a leading supplier of mixing and separation technology. With Shell Global Solutions, it has developed a feed inlet device, the Schoepentoeter* Plus, that can cope with the most severe applications. *Schoepentoeter is a Shell trademark.



FOUR KEYHYDROCRACKING MISCONCEPTIONS

DISPELLING THE MYTHS:

HYDROCRACKING CONTINUES TO EMERGE AS THE CONVERSION METHOD OF CHOICE AROUND THE GLOBE, SO IT IS VITAL THAT OPERATORS UNDERSTAND THIS KEY PROCESS.






HYDROCRACKING CONTINUES TO EMERGE AS THE CONVERSION METHOD OF CHOICE AROUND THE GLOBE, SO IT IS VITAL THAT OPERATORS UNDERSTAND THIS KEY PROCESS.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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HYDROCRACKING CATALYSTS ARE COMMODITY ITEMS

By Lawrence Kraus, Hydroprocessing Product Manager, Criterion Catalysts & Technologies

Commoditising the catalyst you use in your hydrocracker will diminish the value that the unit can generate. These are complex units that utilise highly sophisticated catalytic materials. The top-performing refi ners understand that catalyst selection is a critical part of unit optimisation and that the catalyst can provide some real performance differentiators.

For instance, if you desire to process heavy feeds such as deasphalted oil (DAO) in your hydrocracker, then your catalyst company can help you to design a catalyst system that will facilitate its effi cient and reliable operation. Similarly, if your diesel’s cold fl ow properties are an issue, you can leverage catalysts to improve the cloud point or the pour point of the distillate.

Or, if you are feeding an ethylene cracker (EC), high hydrogen content bottoms is clearly an economic advantage, as it helps to restrict EC residue yield and boost ethylene production. Your catalyst supplier could, therefore, help you to tailor a catalyst system that adds hydrogen selectively into the bottoms’ products.

It is very important to know the feedstock and process objectives, and then to match them with tailored catalyst systems. Experience in tailoring catalyst systems for hydrocrackers to match the processing objectives is key. Many refi ners are benefi tting from this tailored approach. They may pay a premium, but it is more than offset by the improved margin of the hydrocracker because they will be making a higher value product. Catalysts can unlock so much value and yet account for only a small part of a hydrocracker’s total operating cost, so operators should not compromise in this area.


HYDROCRACKERS ARE EXPENSIVE

By Robert Karlin, Licensing Technology Manager, Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc.

Material costs for hydrocrackers can be high, particularly as high-pressure equipment is required. In addition, hydrocrackers utilise signifi cant volumes of hydrogen. In the past, the economic justifi cation for a hydrocracker may have been weak at best, but today, through the recent increase in the availability of natural gas, we have seen a corresponding decrease in the price of hydrogen. This, combined with increasing crude prices, has prompted refi ners to push as much hydrogen into liquid products as possible.

The economic case for hydrocracking is the production of high-quality transportation fuels from diffi cult-to-process streams, and is further strengthened by the volume gain that hydrocracking provides, particularly towards jet fuel and diesel. This will usually outweigh the capital and operating expenses, as there is such a large volume expansion from a hydrocracker operation.

Combined with the volume gain advantage, hydrocrackers are designed to meet the most stringent product quality specifi cations from around the world. In this realm, hydrocracking is superior as a conversion process when compared with fl uidised catalytic cracking (FCC) for producing diesel, as it generates a ULSD-quality product that is sent directly to tankage without further processing. In comparison, although FCC does not require hydrogen, its diesel quality is poor, even for use as a blending component. The FCC produces a light cycle oil (LCO) that has to be further processed, which requires hydrogen.

In fact, although FCC used to be the conversion method of choice, especially in the Americas, hydrocracking has increased in popularity at the expense of FCC owing to the increase in demand for diesel and jet fuel. Some grassroots refi neries designed in the last few years are based on a hydrocracker as the primary conversion unit, with no FCC unit in the confi guration.

Hydrocracking may have been dismissed in the past as an expensive process but, now that the cost of hydrogen is much lower than product values, it has developed into a very profi table operation. Despite the high capital cost, hydrocracking projects can return a very attractive net present value: payback periods of less than three years may be possible with well-executed hydrocracking projects.

MYTH 1: MYTH 2:

THE ECONOMIC CASE FOR HYDROCRACKING IS THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH-QUALITY TRANSPORTATION FUELS FROM DIFFICULT-TO-PROCESS STREAMS

THE TOP-PERFORMING REFINERS UNDERSTAND THAT CATALYST SELECTION IS A CRITICAL PART OF UNIT OPTIMISATION AND THAT THE CATALYST CAN PROVIDE SOME REAL PERFORMANCE DIFFERENTIATORS





HYDROCRACKERS CANNOT PROCESS DIFFICULT FEEDSTOCKS

By Aris Macris, Licensing Technical Manager, Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc.

Enormous advances have been made in processing diffi cult feedstocks in recent years. Now, refi ners worldwide are using the latest Shell hydrocracking technology to produce high-quality diesel and jet fuel from even the most diffi cult feeds.

For instance, in the last fi ve years Shell Global Solutions has designed and started up three hydrocrackers for processing DAO or heavy coker gasoil (HCGO), which, historically, could only be processed in an FCC unit. One of these DAO units is now in operation at Grupa LOTOS in Poland (see page 18). The biggest design challenge with DAO is removing the metals; a reliable demetallisation catalyst is vital. DAO also has high Conradson carbon levels, but that is dealt with using pretreatment catalyst, and then it is all about conventional hydrocracking.

In North America, a Shell Global Solutions licensed hydrocracker is co-processing HCGO, which has traditionally been routed to the FCC unit via hydrotreating. In China, HCGO is also the feed to the hydrocracker at CNOOC’s refi nery, which is the fi rst plant in the world specially designed to process 100% heavy, high-acid crude oil. Complications arise with HCGO because it contains high levels of nitrogen, sulphur, aromatics, olefi ns and silicon. But, once these are saturated across the pretreatment catalyst, it is actually a very simple feedstock to handle.

Similarly, the two-stage hydrocracker at Shell’s Martinez refi nery in California, USA, is co-processing HCGO and heavy cycle oils from the FCC unit.

At Shell Global Solutions, Criterion and Zeolyst, we have a lot of experience with processing straight-run vacuum gas oil (VGO) and non-straight-run feedstocks such as DAO, HCGO and even thermally cracked gasoils and cycle oils from FCC units. We have processed them all, and designed hydrocrackers for all of these streams.

HYDROCRACKERS ARE NOT FLEXIBLE ON PRODUCT SLATE

By Ward Koester, Hydrocracking Technical Services Manager, Criterion Catalysts & Technologies/Zeolyst International

Operators can be forgiven for thinking that if their hydrocracker was designed for diesel production, it cannot be optimised to produce anything else. In fact, with tailored cracking catalyst systems, today’s hydrocrackers are highly fl exible and enable a refi ner to swing between the gasoline mode and the distillate mode to take advantage of seasonal product demand shifts. This switch may only require the adjustment of process operating parameters such as conversion, liquid recycle rate and product cut points.

Such fl exibility is especially valuable for US refi ners, which have been beset by enormous fl uctuations in the diesel-to-gasoline price differentials in recent years (Figure 1). Moreover, because the forecast move to sustained dieselisation has not yet fully materialised, this volatility is expected to continue in the short term.

Deploying a catalyst with the requisite product selectivity window during times of volatile product differentials can enhance the value that can be extracted from the hydrocracker. That is why Criterion and Zeolyst have expanded their hydrocracking catalyst portfolios to include a wider range of fl exible naphtha/middle distillate selective catalysts to bridge the naphtha to diesel selectivity gap and expand the hydrocracker’s operating window.

For truly fl exible operations, the two companies work closely with the refi ner to select and design catalyst systems that drive conversion while supporting the swing between gasoline and distillate modes. The approach focuses on cycle objectives, technical requirements and economics in order to improve hydrocracker fl exibility.


MYTH 3: MYTH 4:

Source: IEA

Figure 1: The price differential between diesel and gasoline for the summer and winter driving seasons in the USA used to fl uctuate predictably. In recent years, however, this differential has become increasingly volatile, which makes it diffi cult for refi ners to exploit margin opportunities.

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REFINERS WORLDWIDE ARE USING THE LATEST SHELL HYDROCRACKING TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE HIGH-QUALITY DIESEL AND JET FUEL FROM EVEN THE MOST DIFFICULT FEEDS



With global diesel demand continuing to rise in most regions while gasoline demand stagnates or even declines, the economic imperative for many refi neries to maximise their diesel yield has never been greater.

At the same time, however, many operators are capital constrained, and all have different strategic objectives, so various technology solutions are being deployed. “In my experience, every customer’s situation is unique,” says John Baric, Licensing Technology Manager, Shell Global Solutions International BV. “There can never be a silver bullet solution; a solution must always be customised, and that requires experience and an innovative mindset.”

Baric explains that Shell Global Solutions has developed two fundamental hydrocracking processes: single-stage and two-stage. But he is quick to add that these are almost always customised to the application. Each design is always tailored to the type of feedstock, the capacity of the unit and the specifi c processing objectives to help optimise both capital and operating costs.

Maximising yield with full conversionThe two-stage hydrocracker process confi guration is best suited for large units and for processing diffi cult, high-nitrogen feedstocks,

says Baric. “Almost all of the unconverted bottoms are recycled and conversion levels of 95–99% can be achieved,” he explains. “Doing things in two stages involves more capital expenditure and consumes more energy, but it is all paid back by the extra distillate yield. The two-stage hydrocracker is typically installed as a standalone unit and does not involve integration with any other units.”

Cost-effective partial conversion Single-stage designs are a lower cost option and tend to be better suited to existing refi neries where opportunities are likely to exist for profi table integration with other units. Here, the bottoms are fed to the FCC unit, to the base oil plant for production of Group 2 or Group 3 base oils, or to an ethylene cracker.

“Depending on the customer’s requirements, several process confi gurations are available,” says Baric. “The single-stage hydrocracker can be designed for fl exible operation; high yield of diesel, kerosene or naphtha in recycle mode; or partial conversion in once-through mode when integrated with other downstream units. The single-stage hydrocracker can easily process a variety of feedstocks, including VGO,

CONFIGURING A VALUE-ADDING HYDROCRACKER THERE IS A MULTITUDE OF HYDROCRACKING CONFIGURATION OPTIONS, AND THE DESIGN SHOULD ALWAYS BE OPTIMISED FOR THE OPERATOR’S OBJECTIVES.






HCGO and DAO, to produce a range of high-quality middle distillates along with unconverted bottoms.”

For each application, Shell Global Solutions matches the optimum confi guration with the given feedstock and the required processing objectives. Additional product slate fl exibility can be achieved through the choice of catalyst system or by adjusting the process conditions.

Margin-enhancing revampsRevamps can also be extremely cost-effective solutions: advanced reactor internals technology and leading-edge catalysts can facilitate higher reactor volume utilisation, longer catalyst run length, uniform production quality and less hot-spot formation.

The reactor internals perform several functions, including increasing the catalyst utilisation (see boxed text on page 11, Reactor internals technology). They also protect the catalysts from particulates and foulants, and this, according to Baric, is a key differentiator of Shell Global Solutions hardware. “In today’s refi ning environment, the contribution of the hydrocracker to the refi nery margin and its profi tability is signifi cant.

CONFIGURING A VALUE-ADDING HYDROCRACKER

THERE CAN NEVER BE A SILVER BULLET SOLUTION; A SOLUTION MUST ALWAYS BE CUSTOMISED, AND THAT REQUIRES EXPERIENCE AND AN INNOVATIVE MINDSET

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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Refi ners expect – and rightly so – that these units are going to operate at high levels of utilisation and availability (or on-stream factor) for the entire planned catalyst cycle. This has become more challenging with the trend towards processing VGO originating from heavier, higher sulphur crudes and feedstocks from cokers and thermal conversion units.”

In any multi-bed hydrocracking reactor, particulates can accumulate and affect the top-bed catalyst performance, even with sophisticated automatic backwash feed fi lters. So, Shell Global Solutions installs special fi lters in the top domes of all VGO hydrocrackers.

Says Baric, “This has been shown to be effective at removing the particulates that can cause pressure drop and maldistribution in the catalyst bed, which can often lead to a costly unplanned shutdown of the hydrocracker. A liquid–vapour distribution tray beneath the fi lters enables the vapour and the liquid to have full radial dispersion across the catalyst bed, which can result in nearly 100% utilisation of the catalyst.”

PROOF POINT: PULAU BUKOM REVAMPA revamp project at Shell Singapore’s Pulau Bukom refi nery is a prime example of the value of tailored process confi gurations and catalyst systems.

When Shell Singapore was evaluating the economic potential of building a petrochemical site alongside Pulau Bukom refi nery and integrating the two complexes, deploying off-the-shelf solutions would have missed a valuable opportunity to capture additional margin.

The existing refi nery featured a two-stage hydrocracker operating at high conversion. The unit focused on high conversion of VGO feeds into large quantities of distillates, such as kerosene and diesel.

However, the economics of the refi nery and the petrochemical hub would be greatly enhanced, the Shell Global Solutions strategic planners calculated, if the hydrocracker were to be used to produce large amounts of unconverted oil (hydrowax) instead of the more commonly used naphtha as the feedstock for the 800,000-t/y ethylene cracker.

And so, working with Bukom management, Shell Global Solutions revamped the hydrocracker into two parallel single-stage reactors, thereby almost doubling the feed rate. This was designed to deliver 70% of its output as hydrowax, with the remaining 30% being converted into high-quality distillate products.

Srinivas Iyer, Senior Refi ning Technologist, Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd, comments, “The technical modifi cations that were required in the hydrocracker unit were not particularly complex. What was key here was devising the initial concept and developing a tailored catalyst solution to produce a deeply hydrogenated hydrowax: it demonstrates Shell’s fl exibility.”

REFERENCE LISTCustomers that have licensed Shell Global Solutions’ hydrocracking technology include:

■ Valero, North America’s largest refi ner, which is constructing a 50,000-bbl/d, unifi ed-design, two-stage hydrocracker at each of its refi neries in St Charles, Louisiana, and Port Arthur, Texas, USA;

■ CNOOC, which choose the dual-service hydrocracking process for its new refi nery in Guangzhou Province, China. At 80,000 bbl/d, this is the highest capacity hydrocracker operating in the country. It has the fl exibility to operate in integration mode with the ethylene cracker at Nanhai Petrochemicals Complex and the refi nery’s FCC unit.

■ A major North American refi ner, which brought a 70,000-bbl/d unit online in early 2010. It leverages a catalyst package that enables it to operate in a highly fl exible regime and swing between gasoline and diesel modes while operating in integration mode with the FCC unit.

■ Grupa LOTOS, Poland’s second largest refi ner, which has started up a new-generation 45,000-bbl/d DAO hydrocracker at its Gdańsk refi nery; and

■ North Atlantic Refi ning Company, which adopted Shell Global Solutions reactor internals and Criterion catalysts when it originally revamped the single-stage, 37,000-bbl/d hydrocracker at its refi nery in Newfoundland, Canada.






REACTOR INTERNALS TECHNOLOGYThe reactor internals that are used in a hydrocracker can play an important role in determining its capital cost, as they can improve the volume available for catalyst and therefore can help to reduce the reactor size. They also have a major infl uence on its performance, as they can drive its on-stream factor, utilisation, cycle length, product yields and even product quality.

A key focus of Shell Global Solutions research and development has been on ensuring that its internals technology distributes gas and liquid uniformly, minimises thermal instabilities and maximises reactor catalyst inventory and catalyst utilisation.

The result is a reactor internals system that includes:

■ HD2 (high-dispersion) trays for highly uniform vapour–liquid distribution and excellent thermal distribution (Figure 2);

■ fi lter trays to prevent foulants from entering the catalyst beds;

■ UFQ (ultra fl at quench) interbed internals for uniform process and quench mixing at the interbeds;

■ catalyst support grids; and

■ compact bottom baskets to help maximise the catalyst volume in the bottom domes.

Conventional tray10–15% wetting

Inert material Dry catalyst Wet catalyst

Bubble cap tray20–30% wetting

Shell HD2 trayNear-perfect wetting

Figure 2: HD2 tray technology applies customised nozzles that use the gas fl ow momentum to disperse the liquid as a mist. This differentiates Shell Global Solutions technology from conventional downcomers or bubble caps because the nozzles fully and uniformly wet the entire catalyst surface and make effi cient use of the top part of the catalyst bed.

■ Shell ConSep* trays can be applied in the distillation section of a hydrocracker. These can increase capacity by 30–100% compared with most other trays.

■ The Schoepentoeter can be applied in the separators of the reactor section and in the hydrocracker main fractionator, where separation effi ciency is vital. It offers excellent distribution and phase separation, even at high capacity, and operates with negligible pressure drop.

■ Shell provides a special option hydrocracker product work-up section. Featuring a single main fractionator, this innovative confi guration provides a 35–40% reduction in fractionation furnace energy consumption when compared with a conventional stripper–fractionator confi guration. Shell’s fractionator-led confi guration has been proven at Shell-designed hydrocrackers. It has operated for over 25 years at several facilities, including the Shell Scotford refi nery in Canada (since 1984) and the Saudi Aramco Shell Refi nery Company (SASREF) refi nery at Al Jubail (since 1985). Shell’s fi rst hydrocracker design with a single main fractionator has been operating for over 15 years.

*Shell ConSep is a Shell trademark.

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS


Q: SHELL GLOBAL SOLUTIONS WORKS CLOSELY WITH CRITERION AND ZEOLYST; HOW DOES THIS BRING VALUE TO CUSTOMERS?

Van Dijk: One of the key benefi ts is that, because we develop the solution in close co-operation with Criterion and Zeolyst, we can provide customers with a combined guarantee that covers the performance of the process hardware and of the catalyst. Most refi ners fi nd that extremely reassuring.

Moreover, it means that we can optimise the solution. We do not design a hydrocracker in isolation and then simply add catalysts; we work closely with our counterparts at Criterion and Zeolyst to match the Shell design with the Criterion catalysts and arrive at a design that works and delivers what the customer wants in terms of product quality, yield, capital cost and so on.

Criterion and Shell have global experience of designing catalyst systems for a variety of feedstocks and in all hydrocracking confi gurations, including dual-service, once-through and two-stage, and their know-how can be extremely benefi cial for customers.

Adarme: The hydrocracker at CNOOC’s Huizhou refi nery is a good example of this. The refi nery is the fi rst plant in the world designed to process 100% heavy, high-acid, naphthenic crude oil. Obviously, processing VGO originating from heavy naphthenic crudes places special demands on catalysts because these oils contain higher levels of harmful contaminants and it can be especially challenging to achieve the desired high distillate quality. To mitigate this, Shell Global Solutions and Criterion worked closely together to confi gure a catalyst system and optimise it for the design feed, the desired product slate and the process technology. It worked: all the performance guarantees were met.

Q: CATALYST PERFORMANCE HAS IMPROVED SO MUCH IN RECENT YEARS, IS IT REALISTIC FOR REFINERS TO EXPECT NEXT-GENERATION CATALYSTS TO CONTINUE DELIVERING PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS?

Adarme: Yes, I think so. I do not think we are at the end; in fact, I think we are at the beginning of a new era in terms of catalyst development


STRAIGHT TALK ON HYDROCRACKING CATALYSIS

because new research and development techniques are accelerating product development timelines.

The market is frenetic and furious, and new products are being launched all the time. At Criterion, we have developed an extremely broad portfolio. We have invested a lot in research and development to help us design, develop and commercialise better products, quicker.

For instance, we are using enhanced experimentation techniques that enable us to test 16 catalysts simultaneously. We use this for the development of pretreatment and cracking catalysts. It is a very effi cient way to develop new catalyst technologies.

Q: WHAT IS CRITERION FOCUSING ITS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ON TO ADVANCE THE START OF THE ART OF HYDROCRACKING CATALYSIS?

Adarme: Well I can only say so much because, of course, much of it is highly confi dential. But I can tell you that we are always looking at ways of improving zeolite systems, metal sulphide functions and catalyst shapes, all aimed at increasing product yields and targeting specifi c product qualities.

Van Dijk: Yes, and there have been some important developments there recently. For instance, Criterion’s new Advanced Trilobe Xtreme technology is a trilobal catalyst extrudate rather than a cylindrical one, which can increase diesel yield by up to 1.5%. This is because over-cracking occurs if the reactants remain inside the catalyst too long, which reduces diesel yield and creates more undesirable products such as naphtha and gas. So a 50,000-bbl/d hydrocracker can produce up to 750 bbl/d more diesel product simply by changing the catalyst shape.

Adarme: We have had successes with zeolite manufacturing processes as well; we can now manufacture the zeolite powder such that the zeolites are much more

Senior hydrocracking experts Nicolaas van Dijk, Global Process Technology Manager, Hydroprocessing, Shell Global Solutions International BV, and Raul Adarme, General Manager, Hydrocracking, Criterion Catalysts & Technologies, discuss how their respective organisations work together – and what their affi liation means for customers.


Raul AdarmeNicolaas van Dijk





selective. Being more selective means that it is not going to over-crack the feed to gas or liquefi ed petroleum gas, so you get better selectivity for cracking heavy naphtha and producing jet fuel and diesel. It also offers better middle distillate selectivity than our previous-generation zeolites.

Advances in nanotechnology have helped us to optimise the active sites, which led to a next-generation CENTERA® catalyst technology for hydrocracking pretreat.

Q: HOW DO CENTERA PRODUCTS COMPARE WITH PREVIOUS-GENERATION PRODUCTS?

Adarme: CENTERA offers the fl exibility to help increase run length, process more diffi cult feedstocks or increase throughput for refi ners. CENTERA products are providing performance improvements in the start-of-run, weighted-average bed temperature of up to 14°C lower than previous-generation products.

As always though, we advocate tailored rather than off-the-shelf solutions. We offer a range of CENTERA products including the CENTERA DN-3620 product, which is designed for diffi cult feeds and high catalyst stability, and CENTERA DN-3630, which is very well suited for hydrocracking units processing feeds containing LCO.

CENTERA technology is the culmination of years of in-depth research. It has a strong legacy built on the innovations of the CENTINEL GOLD and ASCENT platforms along with eight years and nearly 300 cycles of commercial operations for customers around the world.

Q: WHAT STEPS DO YOU TAKE TO ENSURE THAT YOUR PRODUCTS REMAIN VITALLY RELEVANT TO REFINERS?

Van Dijk: It is worth noting that Criterion’s research and development is, in part, informed by the operational feedback received from Shell Global Solutions customers. For instance, we provide a lot of feedback to the catalyst researchers about what to develop; we tell them what our clients need.

Adarme: Indeed, Criterion’s research and development programmes are based on the input we get from our customers through our technical service personnel. That input helps us to defi ne what we need to aim for when we are developing next-generation catalysts.

Generally, refi ners in the USA are looking for higher heavy naphtha production and ways to reduce hydrogen consumption. In the rest of the world, it is more about maximising diesel. These aims and objectives are refl ected in our research and development programmes.

Van Dijk: There is also a distinct trend for new refi neries to be designed for full-conversion hydrocracking to maximise diesel yields. That trend has ramped up over the last couple of years, so, in

response to market demand, we have been working with the catalyst development teams to develop a new catalyst specifi cally for the second-stage service. We are in the process of commercialising this catalyst. The early indications are that it will unlock 6–7% more diesel from a two-stage hydrocracker compared with previous products.

Q: WHEN SHOULD A REFINER CONSIDER COMMISSIONING PILOT PLANT TESTS?

Van Dijk: Pilot plant testing is most relevant when a refi ner is in a distinct situation. For instance, we ran a pilot plant test to verify the catalysts selected for Grupa LOTOS’s hydrocracker because the company was breaking new ground with a DAO feed (see page 18).

The pilot plants are extremely well equipped and provide substantial insights into how a catalyst will perform at a customer’s facility. Over the years, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that these tests are representative of commercial operation. We do not necessarily have to devise a new pilot plant test for each customer, though. We just have to be aware of the different types of operations and feedstocks that they use, and to have data about them.

Adarme: Once we have determined that a pilot plant test will be constructive, we sit with the customer and discuss the parameters that are important to ensure that we measure them. So, we look at yields, activity, selectivity, product properties and so on.

Q: IN SUMMARY THEN, WHAT DIFFERENTIATES THE CRITERION AND ZEOLYST PRODUCTS FROM THE OTHER HYDROCRACKING CATALYSTS THAT ARE ON THE MARKET?

Adarme: Well, Criterion is a global leader in hydroprocessing catalysts and Zeolyst is a global leader in commercial and speciality zeolites. But, as we said, getting the best out of a unit also requires a deep understanding of the intricacies of the hardware and the process. That is why it is so important, so valuable, that Criterion and Zeolyst technologists work with the Shell Global Solutions process team and the customer.

Van Dijk: The fact we are both affi liated with Shell is hugely important too. It means we can work together on research and development, seamlessly share computer models and pilot plant testing facilities, co-design units and join forces on unit performance optimisation and troubleshooting. All of this means that customers can not only adopt leading-edge catalysts from a highly experienced licensor, but they also receive a solution that is tailored to meet their specifi c challenges.



THE ANATOMY OF SUCCESSFULHYDROCRACKER PROJECTS:SIX VALUABLE TRUTHS






THE ANATOMY OF SUCCESSFULHYDROCRACKER PROJECTS:


▲

Across the industry, there are numerous recent examples of large refi nery projects stalling at the front-end engineering and design phase, as their costs spiralled out of control or fi nancing became diffi cult. Nevertheless, several multibillion-dollar hydrocracking projects have been delivered successfully. Here, hydrocracking technology and catalyst experts discuss some of the insights gleaned from recent projects that may help to make projects viable in the current economic climate.

1. Phase the investment: The pentagon modelWhile the global economic upturn continues to gain momentum, many refi ners are still fi nding themselves short of cash and securing the fi nancing for new projects can be testing. That is why Süleyman Özmen, Vice President, Refi ning and Chemical Licensing, Shell Global Solutions International BV, proposes a three-pronged strategy for when refi ners are planning an investment – the multiplatform Shell Global Solutions Pentagon Model.

Short term = just surviving

Operationalimprovements

Short termrevampsolutions

Phasedinvestments

over thelong term

Short to medium term = surviving/starting to thrive

Long term = thriving

Health, safety and environmentalissues are of great importance to

Shell Global Solutions and are therefore central to all of the pentagon options.

Figure 3: Because of the substantial return on freed capital, there is an argument for investing the cash generated by Pentagon I in revamps – Pentagon II. These can help to further improve margins, thereby helpingto fund a phased investment programme – Pentagon III.

Industry experts reveal some of the latest thinking concerning hydrocracking project design and technology confi guration, and the potential for controlling capital costs.


KEY TRUTH: Economies of scale can substantially enhance project economics – but reference sites should always be studied.

3. Make maximum use of existing equipment: Integrate solutions

One of the most effective ways to reduce investment costs is the intelligent integration of process units, writes Yvonne Lucas, Licensing Technology Manager, Refi ning, Shell Global Solutions International BV.

“One customer in Europe wanted to build a mild hydrocracker complex to process a mix of medium and heavy VGO, and also to hydrotreat the gasoil from a crude distiller,” Lucas explains. “We could have offered two separate standard designs. Instead, to squeeze down the capital cost, we designed an integrated reactor section: the hydrodesulphurisation (HDS) reactor and the hydrocracking reactor were combined with a common separation, compression and fractionation section. Because the customer only needed one unit instead of two, the capital cost was signifi cantly reduced.”

KEY TRUTH: Designs should make maximum use of existing equipment. Integration with other process units can help to keep costs down.

4. Optimise the conversion level The greater the level of conversion, the greater the capital expenditure required. Mike Street, Hydroprocessing Principal Process Engineer, Shell Global Solutions International BV, says the licensor’s objective should be to fi nd the conversion sweet spot, which is strongly affected by the properties of the feed.

He explains: “In recent projects, we have confi gured the hydrocracking processes in such a way that the capital cost is balanced against the potential margin. Along with the future

“Pentagon I advocates a focus on operational improvements such as reliability and energy management projects that do not require capital expenditure,” he says. “These are short-term initiatives and can help to fund Pentagon II initiatives, which are short-to-medium-term revamp solutions. In turn, the cash generated from those initiatives can be used for the larger, more capital-intensive projects of Pentagon III.” Each of the three pentagons has investment options on all fi ve sides (Figure 3).

Hydrocracker-related projects are fundamental to this model, as is the Shell Sulphur Technology Platform.

Designed to help refi ners process heavier, sourer crudes, while meeting stringent emissions and product requirements, the Shell Sulphur Technology Platform is a portfolio of integrated, comprehensive technology solutions customised to meet a refi ner’s specifi c needs. It includes technologies from carefully selected key companies to manage sulphur in various forms, including sulphur in crude; sulphur in products; hydrogen sulphide; sulphur dioxide; mercaptans; and solid sulphur.

KEY TRUTH: High-performing companies are enhancing the viability of major projects by phasing their investment programmes. They are using the cash generated by low-cost projects to fund larger, more capital intensive projects.

2. Leverage economies of scaleMaximising the capacity of each train can help to bring capital expenditure down, says Nicolaas van Dijk, Global Process Technology Manager, Hydroprocessing, Shell Global Solutions International BV. But, he says, it is vital for the licensor to be able to demonstrate that such capacities are achievable.

“To enhance the economics of CNOOC’s new hydrocracker, we suggested during the development phase that they could achieve the same capacity from two trains instead of three,” he says. “That brought the cost down signifi cantly, but an important element of their decision making was that we were able to show them another site, the Shell Pernis refi nery in the Netherlands, successfully operating a hydrocracker with similarly sized trains.”






licensee, we work hard to closely integrate the new hardware into the rest of the refi nery. Designs that are based on partial conversion of the feedstock manage the capital cost of the hydrocracker better, integrate more effectively within the refi nery and can produce an excellent return on investment.”

Street continues, “Total conversion, or anything approaching that, is too expensive for many refi ners in today’s market. There are projects that went after 98% conversion but that required such huge reactors and catalyst volumes that the cost became unmanageable.”

KEY TRUTH: Designs should fi nd the conversion sweet spot. For relatively tough feeds, this is typically at a 60–80% conversion level, as long as integration with other units is possible. This can be an effective way to manage the cost and still provide a reasonable refi ning margin.

5. Consider the sulphur balance; manage the bottom of the barrel

Although there are robust technologies, such as KBR’s Residuum Oil Supercritical Extraction (ROSE) unit, for preparing high-quality DAO that can be used as hydrocracker feedstock (see page 18), they also yield a high-sulphur asphaltenic residue that can be diffi cult to utilise economically.

Some of this residue can be economically converted to higher-value products such as bitumen, but it is also typically used as an on-site fuel. This, however, can increase a refi nery’s sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions.

However, Stéphane Charest, Business Development Manager, Cansolv Technologies Inc., describes an elegant solution for a scenario in which crude vacuum distillation products are sent directly to the hydrocracker (VGO) and to a ROSE unit (vacuum residue). “The DAO produced by the ROSE unit would be sent to the hydrocracker for further

upgrading, while some of the asphaltenic residue product from the ROSE unit could be blended in the fuel oil and fuel the boiler that generates steam and power for the refi nery. A Cansolv SO2 Scrubbing System treats the boiler stack emissions; thus, the use of the residue as boiler fuel would be unlocked. It is a complete bottoms-management solution,” he says.

Cansolv Technologies Inc. is wholly owned by Shell Global Solutions International BV.

KEY TRUTH: Applying a regenerable fl ue gas SO2 absorption process to residue-fi red utility boilers provides an effective alternative for refi ners when residue volumes are not substantial enough to justify capital-intensive bottoms conversion units.

6. Be prepared to be adaptable Hydrocracker projects are long-term initiatives that could potentially be derailed by external events. But, says Robert Redelmeier, Hydroprocessing Adviser, Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc., operators should challenge the licensor to fi nd a new solution that is withintheir constraints.

“For instance, if it seems that the costs are skyrocketing owing to external factors, you might be able to change the process confi guration, phase the implementation or rescale the units. None of that is easy, and it may mean having to adapt previously designed equipment, but it could rescue the project.

“As an example, when a customer called to inform me that a project had been cancelled, we worked with the company and found a way to reduce the amount of hardware and the quantity of catalyst that were required – and the capital expenditure – and thereby saved the project,” he says.

KEY TRUTH: Adaptability is a key attribute of a successful project. When external factors change, the design can usually be adjusted, but it requires both fl exibility and top-tier operational expertise.




Polish refi ner Grupa LOTOS has taken a positive step towards its goal of becoming the most advanced oil corporation in the Baltic Sea region by implementing a major capital investment initiative, the “10+ Programme”. The key element of this was a residue-upgrading project that it undertook with Shell Global Solutions. As a result, Grupa LOTOS has not only enhanced its refi ning capacity from 6 to 10 Mt/y, but it has also enhanced its margin by $5 a barrel. In addition, the refi nery is now better equipped to meet all the forthcoming environmental standards, such as emissions limits and product specifi cations, and has optimised its oil product streams to meet market conditions.

Grupa LOTOS is feeding DAO, which has traditionally been used in refi neries as an FCC feed owing to its high metals content, to a newly installed 45,000-bbl/d hydrocracker (see Table 1). Indeed, the company is the fi rst refi ner in the world to make operational a new generation of DAO hydrocracking technology, although more units have been designed (see boxed text, Unlocking the potential of DAO hydrocracking).

Grupa LOTOS’s Gdańsk facility is a highly complex refi nery that now has two hydrocrackers. It is technologically advanced and Chief Executive Pawel Olechnowicz says it has become one of the two most modern refi neries in Europe and that it deserves the title: the greenest, most environmentally friendly refi nery in the Baltic Sea region.

The residue upgrading project is the key element of a larger initiative, the “10+ Programme”, which saw a massive $2 billion upgrade of the Gdańsk refi nery. In addition to the hydrocracker, the refi ner installed an integrated crude distillation–vacuum distillation unit (CDU–VDU), an HDS unit, a ROSE unit, an amine sulphur recovery unit (ASR), a hydrogen manufacturing unit (HMU), a refi nery–harbour product pipeline, product tanks and pumping stations, and revamped its hydrogen recovery unit.

The ROSE unit is licensed by the technology and engineering fi rm KBR, which is one of Shell Global

Table 1: DAO quality and hydrocracking unit feed qualities.

PROPERTY VGO1 DAOSpecifi c gravity 0.925 0.9497

Sulphur, wt% 1.9 2.3

Nitrogen, ppmv 1,573 2,664

Total Ni/V, ppmw <1/<1 6/11

Conradson carbon residue, wt% 0.8 3.8

>540°C, wt% 3 75

T95%, °C 535 6981Basis: 100% Urals crude

GRUPA LOTOS HITS THE RESIDUE CONVERSION SWEET SPOT

CASE STUDY: Deploying DAO hydrocracking helps the Gdańsk refi nery to raise refi ning capacity by 75% and focus production on higher-margin diesel fuels.


Courtesy Grupa LOTOS SA





Figure 4: Grupa LOTOS’s DAO hydrocracker runs on a feed of 50% VGO and 50% DAO, and produces a high-quality product slate that includes ULSD.

HMUNaphtha

Atmosphericresidue

Vacuumresidue

Hydrogen

VGO

DAO

HVU HCU

ROSE

High-sulphur fuel oil/bitumen/FCC

FCC/base oil

Diesel

Jet

Naphtha

C4 minus

Solutions’ alliance partners. The ROSE unit provides superior quality DAO that is suitable for hydrocracking because it has reduced levels of contaminants such as sulphur, nitrogen, metals and asphaltenes (Figure 4).

Grupa LOTOS’s original project plan also involved the construction of a Shell gasifi er for processing the residue. However, that project had to be scaled back in 2007, as project costs for steel, engineering services and labour increased signifi cantly. The plans were further affected by the 2008 economic crisis.

In response, Grupa LOTOS carefully reconsidered the project. The Shell gasifi er was put on hold; it may come with a later investment programme. In the mean time, the residue is being blended into bitumen (seasonally) and used as fuel oil.

KBR’s ROSE unit and Shell Global Solutions’ DAO hydrocracker are now fully operational and integrated into the refi nery operation. For the ROSE unit, the key specifi cations for DAO quality (asphaltenes, metals, Conradson carbon) have all been better than guarantee at the design DAO lift.

Breakthrough yearIn the fi nal quarter of 2010, Grupa LOTOS processed 2.2 Mt of crude oil, which was 42.7% more than in the

corresponding period of 2009. It also reached its planned processing target of over 8 Mt, which is the highest annual throughput ever recorded by the refi ner.

“What is equally important, apart from expanding the production capacity, is that we are also increasing our market share; in 2010, our share in the domestic fuel market grew to 30%,” says Olechnowicz. “2010 was a breakthrough year for Grupa LOTOS.”

The new generation of DAO hydrocracking has become possible through recent advances in catalyst technology that enable the catalyst system to remove the metals and manage other contaminants associated with DAO, writes John Baric, Licensing Technology Manager, Shell Global Solutions International BV.

“The combination of solvent deasphalting (SDA) and DAO hydrocracking is one of the lowest capital cost options for residue conversion, especially compared with other direct residue hydrocracking options. Traditionally, DAO had to be processed in an FCC unit because of its high metals content and high Conradson carbon (CCR) content. VGO has about a 1–2-ppm metals content and 0.5–1.0%wt CCR content, whereas DAO typically contains 15–30 ppm of metals and 6–10%wt CCR. But that is no longer a problem, as the state of the art has progressed and a well-designed catalyst system with demetallisation followed by pretreatment and cracking catalysts can easily handle this.

“The key is to understand the application of the catalysts specifi c to DAO. Metals removal is actually a very fast and easy reaction;

the trick is to design the reactor conditions so that they slow down the metals removal in order to maximise the metals uptake on the catalyst. The catalyst selection is also important, for both pretreatment and cracking, as you need to strike a balance between selectivity and activity to match the properties of the DAO.

“Of KBR’s 50 references for ROSE units, 48 of them are supplying an FCC unit. Only two feed a hydrocracker, but there is a clear trend towards this technology becoming more prominent. Indeed, at Shell Global Solutions we have designed four DAO hydrocracker units in recent years. One reason for this is market needs; hydrocracking is increasing in prominence at the expense of FCC as global demand for distillates rises and that for gasoline and naphtha diminishes.

“That is why, I believe, we are going to see DAO hydrocracking becoming an increasingly prominent technology,” he concludes.

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF DAO HYDROCRACKING



DESIGNING CHINA’S BIGGEST HYDROCRACKER

CASE STUDY:







▲

Designing and bringing online China’s largest capacity hydrocracker was a highly challenging project on an enormous scale. Not only was the hydrocracker at CNOOC’s grassroots Huizhou refi nery approaching the known technical boundaries, it also had to process an extremely diffi cult feedstock.

Nevertheless, Shell Global Solutions licensed hydrocracking technology and the specially developed Criterion catalysts met all the performance guarantees when the 80,000-bbl/d hydrocracker in Guangzhou Province started up in 2009.

The $3 billion refi nery uses leading-edge processing and environmental protection technology, and supplies more than 7 Mt of premium gasoline, kerosene and diesel, and over 4 Mt of other petrochemical products to the thriving local markets of Guangdong Province and South China.

The facility is the largest single-train refi nery in China and, to utilise the Peng Lai crude oil that CNOOC extracts from the Bohai Sea, it is the fi rst plant in the world specially designed to process 100% heavy, high-acid, naphthenic crude oil.

Processing such a distinctive crude places special demands on many aspects of the overall design of the refi nery. The high acidity of the Peng Lai crude could potentially lead to corrosion problems in the crude unit and also in the downstream hydroprocessing units if not carefully managed. In addition to the corrosion aspect, highly naphthenic crudes can be characterised by poor distillate properties such as low kerosene smoke points, low diesel cetane index and high diesel density, which places especially high demands on the catalysts used in all of the hydroprocessing units.

Selecting the optimal combination of catalysts and process conditions for the hydrocracker was, therefore, a critical factor for achieving the target distillate properties and managing corrosion in a cost-effective design.

CNOOC IS EXTREMELY SATISFIED WITH THE OPERATIONAL DATA AND CATALYST PERFORMANCE DURING THE FIRST CYCLE



CNOOC worked closely with Shell Global Solutions and Criterion. Together, they confi gured special catalysts for the hydrocracker, which is currently China’s largest in terms of single-unit capacity. The catalysts are optimised for the design feed of VGO and HCGO; the desired product slate; and the process technology.

The hydrocracking unit has two parallel reaction section trains, each with one reactor. Shell Global Solutions designed the reactors to the

exact specifi cations supplied by CNOOC, to help ensure that the reactors could be manufactured in China. Each reactor has six catalyst beds containing all of the required grading, demetallisation, pretreating and cracking catalysts.

Because the hydrocracking catalysts are fundamental to the refi nery’s performance and its ability to meet China’s increasingly stringent fuel specifi cations, the results of a 36-h test run, which was conducted after fi ve months of operation and was designed to assess the unit’s performance, were especially signifi cant. Key product quality data are shown in Table 2.

Following the test run, Wu Qing, Director of Planning & Investment Management, CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co., Ltd, Huizhou refi nery said, “The catalyst is performing excellently and the design indicators have been achieved. We are benefi ting from high yields of middle distillates with minimal light ends, and hydrowax production is meeting our target.”

According to Wu, the yield of middle distillates has exceeded the design value and the main product properties are meeting or exceeding the design values.

“CNOOC is extremely satisfi ed with the operational data and catalyst performance during the fi rst cycle,” added Wu. “Based on this proven performance, we have requested that Criterion supply the catalysts for the second cycle.”

Ed Daniels, Executive Vice President, Shell Projects & Technology, says, “The co-operation among the CNOOC management, operations and project teams, the local design institute and Shell Global Solutions formed the basis for a successful start-up and meeting the guarantees for the largest hydrocracker unit in China.”

Table 2: Performance test run product-quality results.

KEROSENE DIESEL

GUARANTEE ACTUAL GUARANTEE ACTUAL

Density, kg/m3 830 (max.) 806 840 (max.) 827

Sulphur, ppmw 10 (max.) 1 50 (max.) 2

Flash point, °C 38 (min.) 45 55 (min.) 77

Smoke point, °C 25 (min.) 26 – –

Cetane number – – 55 (min.) 65



DisclaimerThis document contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell plc. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements.

Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘objectives’’, ‘‘outlook’’, ‘‘probably’’, ‘‘project’’, ‘‘will’’, ‘‘seek’’, ‘‘target’’, ‘‘risks’’, ‘‘goals’’, ‘‘should’’ and similar terms and phrases.

There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell plc and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for the Shell Group’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserve estimates; (f) loss of market and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory effects arising from recategorisation of reserves; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, project delay or advancement, approvals and cost estimates; and (m) changes in trading conditions.

All statements regarding CNOOC and Grupa LOTOS and their products and services are based solely on information provided by CNOOC and Grupa LOTOS and have not been independently verified by Shell Global Solutions.

746841–CSL–09/2011


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