Russia remains China top oil supplier for 5th month in a row in July

MOSCOW (MRC) — Russia held its spot as China's top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54% over a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Russian shipments last month came in at 4.97 MMt, or about 1.17 MMbpd, the General Administration of Customs said in a more a detailed breakdown of commodity trade data released on Aug. 8. For the first seven months of the year, Russia's volumes to China grew nearly 16% year-on-year to 34.22 MMt, or 1.18 MMbpd.

China bought a total of 34.74 MMt of crude oil in July, or about 8.18 MMbpd, down from June but still up about 12% from a year earlier. Imports in the first seven months grew 13.6% year-on-year to 247 MMt, or 8.51 MMbpd.

Saudi Arabia was China's second biggest supplier in July, with volumes at 3.99 MMt, or about 940,000 bpd, down 0.8% from a year earlier. Supplies from the Kingdom rose only 0.4% in January–July from the same period a year earlier to 30.59 MMt, or 1.05 MMbpd.

Shipments from Angola, China's third-largest supplier in July, fell 17.1% from a year earlier to 3.91 MMt, or 921,520 bpd. Year-to-date, Angola maintained its second-ranking for the third month in a row, with January-July supplies up 15%.

Chinese refineries have taken more Brent-related, sweet West African crudes in recent months, scaling back on sour Middle East grades because of the narrowing price differentials that make West African supplies more attractive.

Russian crude exports to China grew this year after independent refiners expanded their diet to include the Urals grade exported from the Mediterranean. China also snapped up almost all of the ESPO blend exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino.

Chinese imports of US crude, which started last year, were about 174,000 bpd in July and amounted to 3.8 MMt for the first seven months of the year, or 1.5% of the country's total imports. Chinese buyers have over the period also ramped up imports of Brazilian oil, with first-seven month shipments up 41% on year.

Imports from Iran inched up 0.45% on year in July at 568,720 bpd while supplies from Iraq shot up 16% at 857,020 bpd, customs data showed.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — China's gasoline exports in July rose 5.9% from a year ago to the third-highest monthly level since at least 2000 while diesel exports remained high, customs data showed on Wednesday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

China's July gasoline exports rose to 1.02 MMt, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. That is a third higher than exports in June and near to the 1.1 MMt exported in June 2016 that was the highest since at least 2000.

China's diesel exports in July fell 8.8 percent from a year ago to 1.4 MMt, the data showed, but they increased from 1.31 MMt in June.

Analysts have forecast China's diesel demand to increase slightly this year after a rare decline last year, thanks to the country's recovering foreign trade.

Kerosene exports last month fell 3.1% to 1.06 MMt, the data showed. Chinese refineries in July operated at their lowest daily rates since September 2016 to cope with brimming stocks and as state refiners faced off against independents in an unprecedented price war at retail fuel stations.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polyethylene (PE) into Belarus rose in the first six months of 2017 by 7.4% year on year, exceeding 61,900 tonnes. Local companies have increased the volume of purchases of all PE grades, as per MRC DataScope.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, June 2017 PE imports to Belarus grew to 11,700 tonnes from 8,800 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies have increased the volume of purchases of all PE grades on a seasonal factor. Overall PE imports reached 61,900 tonnes in January-June 2017, compared to 57,600 tonnes a year earlier. The greatest increase in external supplies accounted for low density polyethylene (LDPE).

The structure of PE imports to Belarus by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

June LDPE imports grew to 3,900 tonnes from 2,800 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies increased their PE purchasing in Russia because of scheduled maintenance works at Polymir. Overall imports of this PE grade into Belarus totalled about 18,000 tonnes in the first six months of 2017, compared to 15,100 tonnes a year earlier.

An accident at the local producer's ethylene unit and, as a result, a major fall in capacity utilisation at LDPE production in the second half of the year was the main reason for such a great increase in imports. June LLDPE imports were about 4,300 tonnes versus 2,900 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall LLDPE imports to Belarus exceeded 21,700 tonnes in January-June 2017, whereas this figure was 24,400 tonnes a year earlier.

June HDPE imports grew to 3,500 tonnes from 2,300 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies decreased significantly their purchasing of PE from Russian producers. Overall HDPE imports into the country were about 22,100 tonnes in January-June 2017, up by 7.1% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Tomskneftekhim (TNKhK), a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (LDPE), started the scheduled maintenance works of LDPE production, as per ICS-MRC Price Report.

Scheduled maintenance works at Tomskneftekhim's LDPE production started on Saturday, 19 August. The turnaround will be not long and last less than a week. Representatives of the company said the production of LDPE is expected to be resumed by the end of the current week.

As it was said earlier, Tomskneftekhim had expanded LDPE production capacities by 30,000 tonnes in July last year up to 270,000 tonne/year. The total volume of investments in modernisation amounted to almost 11 billion roubles.

According to MRC's ScanPlast Tomskneftekhim produced 24,700 tonnes of LDPE in July compared with 22,000 tonnes in June 2017. Total LDPE production at Tomskneftekhim reached 158,200 tonnes in the first seven months of the year, up 21% year on year.

OAO SIBUR Holding is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe with full coverage of the industry cycle from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to plastics processing.

OOO Tomskneftekhim is a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - polypropylene and high-pressure polyethylene (LDPE).Tomskneftekhim LLC is a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - polypropylene and low density polyethylene.

The capacity for Tomskneftekhim's production of LDPE is 240,000 tonnes/year and PP production is 140,000 tonnes/year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — MOGAS Industries, Inc. recently received contracts to supply severe service isolation valves to Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co., Ltd for a new heavy oils construction project on ChangXing Island in Dalian City Liaoning, China, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

MOGAS will provide Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co., Ltd, China, a subsidiary of Hengli Group, with over 950 valves that will be used in a variety of severe service applications in the ebullating bed unit including high pressure letdown isolation, catalyst isolation and many high cycle, thermal shock applications. Delivery of these valves is scheduled for early 2018 to meet a very demanding construction schedule.

MOGAS has a track record of over 8,200 installed valves in heavy oil applications over the last 30 yr in 24 active operations around the globe.
MRC