JX Nippon mulls shutting down Muroran refinery

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. is considering shutting down oil refinery operations at its Muroran plant in Hokkaido by the end of March 2014.

JX Nippon will keep the Muroran refinery as a manufacturing plant for petrochemical products and keep its employees through job displacement, the report cited the sources as saying.

The company has already cut its daily output by 400,000 bbl from 2008 and has now decided to cut output by an additional 200,000 bbl by the end of March 2014.

By shutting down the Muroran plant, the company will cut 13% of its group refinery capacity, which is equivalent to a daily output of 180,000 bbl, the report said.

The government is requiring oil wholesalers scale down refinery capacities by the end of fiscal 2013 amid stagnant domestic demand for gasoline due to the increase in the number of electric cars and fuel efficient vehicles as well as declining automobile sales.

The Nippon Oil Corporation, or NOC or Shin-Nisseki is a Japanese petroleum company. Its businesses include the exploration, importation, and refining of crude oil; the manufacture and sale of petroleum products, including olefines(ethylene, propylene) and aromatics.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Two major ethylene crackers resumed operations in Europe after delayed restarts last week.

LyondellBasell’s cracker in Wesseling, Germany with a capacity of 735,000 tpa restarted after being shut in August for maintenance. The shutdown was scheduled for six weeks and the cracker was to restart in early October. Unexpected problems reportedly delayed the restart to last week, according to players in the region.

The joint venture cracker in Mossmorran, Scotland with a capacity of 800,000 tpa belonging to Shell Chemicals and ExxonMobil also reportedly restarted. It was shut at the end of August and was also set to restart earlier this month. A delay in the restart caused Shell to declare force majeure on ethylene supplies on October 18. Shell has not confirmed whether the force majeure has been lifted yet.

Cracker shutdowns in the region have led to tight prompt supplies in Northwest Europe earlier in the month.
MRC

(pressreleasefinder) -- DSM has recently introduced its new thermally conductive thermoplastic polyester for such components, as foglamp housings, lens holders and AFL (Adaptive Forward Lighting) frames. In addition, as future LED Lighting systems do get more efficient and consume less power, this material will offer weight and cost saving potential for these electronics driven systems as well by its unique combination of heat management, mechanics and high dimensional stability. It is also suitable for numerous types of automotive electronic components.

The new grade, available worldwide, is a further development of Arnite PET-XL, which DSM successfully introduced in 2009. Both products are based on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and are highly suitable for engineering applications. In developing Arnite PET XL-T, DSM has matched in extensive experience in thermoplastic polyesters for high performance, high precision applications, with detailed understanding of material properties as diverse as thermal conductivity and outgassing.

DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.
MRC

(Reuters) - Brazilian state-led oil company Petrobras announced its third-quarter profit had fallen as refining unit losses rose, an unexpected result after being granted its first wholesale fuel-price increase in six years in June.

Consolidated net income fell 12% to 5.57 billion reais (1.6 billion pounds) in the three months ending September 30 compared with 6.34 billion reais in the third quarter of 2011, Petrobras said in a statement.

Net sales, or total sales minus sales taxes, rose 15 percent to 71.8 billion reais, narrowly beating the average estimate of 71.1 billion reais. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell 13 percent to 14.36 billion.

Despite the company's losses in Q3, Petrobras plans to launch the first of its new refineries in November 2014. The second line will be put in operation in May 2015. The refinery will add 230,000 bpd of processing capacity, as MRC reported ealier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Petrochemical (FPCC) is going to increase capacity utilization at its 2.93m tpa naphtha cracking complex by 10% to 90% in three days, which might result in higher demand for naphtha. The comlex's run rate was lowered to 80% from 100% in late September following the fire at Nan Ya Plastics' 720,000 tpa MEG unit, as MRC informed earlier.

Formosa Petrochemical, a sister company of Nan Ya Plastics, postponed the planned spot purchases of naphthal for delivery to Mailiao for the first half of November in connection with a fire at the plant, accoring to the company's source. The fire at Nan Ya's MEG plant also resulted in reduction of demand for ethylene. Formosa supplies ethylene feedstock to Nan Ya Plastics.

According to a trader, since demand for petrochemicals is slow at present, FPCC has no plans yet to increase operating rates to the full nominal capacity, though the incident was resolved and Nan Ya Plastics' MEG plant resumed operations on October 22.
MRC