Ref. Ares(2023)813653 - 03/02/2023
Ref. Ares(2023)766948 - 02/02/2023
Meeting between Mr Richard Roudeix, Senior Vice President of
Lyondel Basel and Director General, Dominique Ristori, 30 April
2019, 15:00-16:00
Scene Setter/Context Of The Meeting
LyondellBasell is one of the major global players in the chemistry sector, especially in
plastics, polypropylene and polyethylene, with many sites in several MS and a refinery
in the US.
Mr Richard Roudeix is senior vice president of Olefins and Polyolefins, Europe, Asia
and International. Mr Roudeix is also an executive board member of CEFIC in charge of
the climate change and energy program.
Points for discussion
• We are happy to see the commitment of the Chemical industry towards the common
target of decarbonising the European economy.
• We believe decarbonisation is an opportunity to modernise the European industry
creating new business models and new markets for new products.
• In preparing our long-term vision, we took careful note of the work done by industry
and by CEFIC in particular. Our analysis reaches similar conclusions.
• In particular, it is possible to decarbonise industry using technologies that are proven
to work today: increased energy efficiency; electrification; fuel switch to biomass and
hydrogen; innovative low carbon processes and Carbon Capture and Sequestration
or Use.
• Digitalisation and automation are seen in the short term as some of the more
promising options to increase competitiveness, leading both to efficiency gains and
to greenhouse gas reductions.
• A combination of electrification, the increased use of hydrogen, biomass and
renewable synthetic gas can reduce energy related emissions in the production of
industrial goods.
• Oil and petroleum wil mainly be used as feedstock for non-energy uses by 2050, in
contrast to the current situation, where liquid fossil fuel consumption is
predominantly related to energy use. This wil have an impact on refining and
petrochemical industries.
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• Sustainable biomass has an important role to play in a net-zero greenhouse gas
emissions economy. It can be transformed into biofuels and biogas and when
cleaned can be transported through the gas grid substituting natural gas.
• Deployment of renewable electricity also provides a major opportunity for the
decarbonisation also through the production of e-fuels through electrolysis (e.g. e-
hydrogen).
• The potential advantage of power-to-X is that synthetic fuels can be stored and used
in industrial processes that are otherwise hard to decarbonise.
• Producing hydrogen from electrolysis wil require large amounts of emissions-free
electricity. In our analysis, we reach similar results as in the study carried out by
CEFIC, but hydrogen is not the only technology available.
• The deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) wil be necessary – especially
in the transitional phase – to decarbonise certain processes and CCS could also be
used with biomass fuel to create negative emissions.
• It could also be possible to sequester CO2 in petrochemical materials.
• The Commission estimates that additional investments in the range of € 175-290
bil ion a year wil be needed between 2030 and 2050 in order to achieve a carbon-
neutral economy in the EU. However, the distribution between sectors also depends
on the pathway chosen.
• In industry, additional investments vary between €11 and €17 bil ion per year for
complete decarbonisation by 2050.
• EU industry has a strong track record in competing internationally and reducing its
energy costs in the face of exposure to volatile international fossil fuel prices.
• Our task wil be to promote economic growth and safeguard the competiveness of
European industry. However, the challenge of growth and competitiveness goes
beyond energy policy and beyond the energy sector, as it necessitates the
development of free and fair international trade environment.
• The Commission is working to expand the size and scope of the financial
instruments needed to stimulate investments. Together with a stable policy and
regulatory environment, this can facilitate the investment needed.
We are looking forward to cooperate with the chemical industry and with the High Level
Group on energy intensive industries to prepare the Industrial Transformation Master
Plan for climate-neutral industry by 2050.
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Background information
Profile of Lyondel Basell
LyondellBasell is one of the major global players in the chemistry sector, in particular for
plastics production. LyondellBasell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and
the second largest in the world - but first in Europe - of polyethylene, particularly thanks
to four crackers located on our three major European sites in Berre-l'Étang (Bouches-
du-Rhône), Wesseling (near Cologne) and Münchsmünster (Bavaria), and various
polymer production units in France, Germany, Italy, the Benelux, UK and Poland (the
latter in a joint venture with PKN Orlén). In the United States, LyondellBasell also
operate a refinery of 268,000 barrels / day in Houston, which just celebrated its
centenary last year.
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. is a public multinational chemical company with
American and European roots, incorporated in the Netherlands, with U.S. operations
headquarters in Houston, Texas, and global operations in London, UK. The company is
the largest licensor of polyethylene and polypropylene technologies. It also produces
ethylene, propylene, polyolefins, and oxyfuels. LyondellBasell was formed in December
2007 by the acquisition of Lyondell Chemical Company by Basell Polyolefins. As of
2016, Lyondell was the third largest independent chemical manufacturer in the United
States. Lyondell was established in 1985 out of previous industrial operation in the
United States and grew through acquisition and stock swaps.
CV of Mr Richard Roudeix
Richard Roudeix is Senior Vice President of Olefins and Polyolefins, Europe, Asia and
International for LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemicals and
refining companies. The Olefins and Polyolefins segment produces and markets
ethylene and its co-products, polyethylene and polypropylene.
Roudeix assumed this position in February 2017, and was previously senior vice
president of Olefins and Polyolefins, Europe. Prior to this position, Roudeix served as
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director of Olefins and Aromatics, Europe. He has also held positions in Europe and the
U.S. for LyondellBasell predecessor companies, including serving as vice president of
business units for Basell in Germany and vice president of polyethylene in the U.S.
He served in a manufacturing and strategic development capacity for Royal Dutch Shell
in France, as polyethylene manager in Belgium for Montell and as product line manager
in Germany for Elenac.
Roudeix is an executive board member of CEFIC, Plastics Europe and the American
Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands. He graduated as a civil engineer from Ecole
des Mines and completed a post-graduate program at the French Petroleum Institute
(Ecole du Petrole et des Moteurs).
Emissions from manufacturing Industry
Most industrial greenhouse gas emissions stem from combustion of fossil fuels, be it for
steam and hot water or high temperature applications. These emissions can be reduced
through further efficiency improvements and by switching to low and zero carbon energy
sources such as renewables-based electrification, sustainable biomass, synthetic fuels
or hydrogen. Around a quarter of industrial emissions consists of process-related
emissions (i.e., emissions from chemical reactions other than combustion), which are
more difficult to reduce. Cutting these industrial emissions will require genuine process
innovation or the application of carbon capture and storage technology. Innovative
industries can also improve their resource efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by improving re-use and recycling through circular economy approaches and
sector coupling. In the next decade significant innovation efforts are required to deploy
economically competitive technologies necessary for a low-carbon and circular
industrial transformation.
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link to page 5
Figure 1: EU 28 Industrial direct emissions by end use and sub-sector in 2015.
Emissions from the Chemical sector
The European chemicals industry accounted in 2016 for around 4% of the verified
emissions of al stationary installations of the European Union and 14% of industrial
emissions excluding combustion.
The chemical sector is a very complex, wide and diverse sector, with even more diverse
subsectors. The petrochemical sub-sector in which LyondellBasell operates, produces
the building blocks for part of chemical industry.
The analysis in the long term strategy and other studies indicate that energy efficiency
improvements and fuel switching can reduce emissions by 55-60% in 2050 compared to
2010. The largest share of reductions is coming from fuel switching. Deeper emissions
reduction are also technically possible, but would require change of feedstock,
application of CCS and CCU technologies and increased recycling rates.
Overall, studies performed for the chemicals sector indicate strong GHG reduction
potential. The most recent study carried out by CEFIC
1 explored options for a carbon-
1 Dechema (2017), Low carbon energy and feedstock for the European Chemical Industry,
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neutral future for the industry, including synergies and opportunities of industrial
symbiosis with other process industries. Three scenarios assessed different ambition
levels, on top of a business-as-usual scenario. The theoretical maximum potential
identified by the industry would achieve negative emissions in the chemical sector. The
other two ambition levels considered correspond to 59% and 84% emissions reduction
in 2050. The focus in these scenarios is mainly on the utilisation of alternative carbon
feedstock (mainly electrolytic hydrogen, CO2 and bio
-based raw materials), together with further electrification of processes and energy
efficiency.
A particular issue noted in the CEFIC study is that the considered hydrogen based
technologies require high amounts of low carbon electricity, up to 4900 TWh for the
most ambitious scenario and 1900 TWh for the intermediate ambition. The electricity
demand is mainly driven the high electricity intensity of electrolysis to produce
hydrogen.
PRIMES projects emissions reduction similar to the CEFIC study. In the case of the
scenarios achieving 80% GHG reduction, CO2 emissions in chemicals are projected to
decrease between 64% (in the P2X scenario) up to 70% (in the CIRC scenario) in 2050
compared to 2015. The 1.5°C GHG scenarios deliver negative emissions. These
negative emissions are achieved by a combination of additional use of CCS and the
potential of CO2 storage in materials. In particular, the 1.5°C scenarios include the
possibility of sequestering in petrochemical materials, such as plastics.
https://dechema.de/dechema_media/Downloads/Positionspapiere/Technology_study_Low_carbon_energy_and_feed
stock_for_the_European_chemical_industry.pdf
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