Polish refiner Lotos receives first crude oil cargo from Canada

MOSCOW (MRC) — Lotos, Poland’s second biggest oil refiner, said on Monday that it had received its first crude oil cargo from Canada, said Reuters.

The cargo of 100,000 t, equivalent to almost 700,000 bbl of Canadian Hibernia oil, arrived in Poland on Saturday aboard the Minerva Lisa tanker, Lotos said.

"This is the first delivery from Canada in Lotos refinery’s 40-yr history. The group is in talks with American partners to obtain a mixture of oil types that would best suit the needs of Lotos refinery in Gdansk," Lotos said in a statement.

State-run Lotos, like bigger rival PKN Orlen, refines mostly Russian oil but is aiming to diversify its supplies. Currently around 25% of the oil it refines comes from sources other than Russia, the company said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — China will relocate all chemical plants out of urban areas by 2020, the country’s cabinet said in statement on its website, following a blast from a major refinery in Dalian, said Reuters.

Small and medium scale chemical plants will be relocated by 2020, while large plants will be relocated by 2025, the state planner said.

A fire at PetroChina’s Dalian refinery, one of its largest, has raised worries about safety and pollution from the refining sector.

Chemical companies that are not able to relocate will be shut, the cabinet said.

In addition, the cabinet will give a tax rebate and subsidy to companies that need to be moved.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical has restarted its low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit following a brief maintenance, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on September 2, 2017. The unit was shut for a maintenance on September 1, 2017.

Located at Guangdong in China, the unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in the second half of March 2017, Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical took off-stream its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Guangdong, China, for a maintenance turnaround. Located at Guangdong in China, the plant has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company (Maoming Company) - a subsidiary of Sinopec- is located in Maoming, Guangdong and was founded in May 1955. The company now has a crude oil processing capacity of 13.5 million t/a and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million t/a. Maoming Company has turned out to be a large-scale integrated refining and chemical enterprise with refining as the leading business and petrochemical sector as the mainstay.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea’s Korea Petroleum Industries Co (KPIC) on Tuesday shut down its naphtha cracker due to an unplanned flaring incident, reported Reuters with reference to an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The flaring occurred around midday due to a technical glitch. The cause remains under investigation, the source said, adding that KPIC plans to resume operations as soon as possible.

KPIC runs an 800,000 tpy naphtha cracker in Onsan, southeast of Seoul.

As MRC informed before, in the end of H1 2017, KPIC expanded its ethylene production capacity. KPIC’s ethylene capacity expansion for its Ulsan-based Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) started commercial operation from Jun 23, 2017. Earlier, KPIC produced about 470,000 mt/year of ethylene from its Ulsan-based NCC. With the launch of the expanded capacities, the company added 330,000 mt/year of ethylene, and its combined ethylene capacity reached 800,000 mt/year.

KPIC is one of the key producers of ethylene in South Korea. Before the expansion, the company’s ethylene capacity accounted for about 6% of total ethylene production in South Korea. Now, the company’s market share will be increased to nearly 10%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Following the approval of local government authorities, BASF has completed the acquisition of GRUPO THERMOTEK, a leading waterproofing systems supplier based in Monterrey, Mexico, said the company on its website.

The companies had announced the transaction on April 24, 2017. Through this acquisition, BASF’s Construction Chemicals division strengthens its channels to market and builds on its portfolio of brands for construction professionals.

THERMOTEK, founded as a privately held company in 1992, is well- positioned in the waterproofing systems market in Mexico. Its products are designed to offer maximum quality on virtually every type of substrate and include resinous and dispersion-based materials as well as modified asphalt sheet membranes. The company has more than 200 distributors in the region and employs approximately 500 people.

The transaction includes the well-known THERMOTEK and CHOVATEK brands, and others, which will continue to be sold through retail channels, material houses and local hardware stores.

"The acquisition of THERMOTEK enables us to continue on our growth path by bringing a robust portfolio of construction solutions to a broader customer base," said Michael Stumpp, Managing Director BASF Mexicana S.A. de C.V. and Central America. “This is an exciting time for our business and we welcome the THERMOTEK employees to the BASF family."

As MRC informed earlier, in August 2017, BASF and Engineering signed an exclusive joint development agreement for BASF to provide custom made catalysts for a new chemical energy storage process.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of more than EUR70 billion in 2015.
MRC