PP imports to Ukraine up by 1% in January-August 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polypropylene (PP) into the Ukrainian market increased in the first eight months of 2017 by 1% year on year to 80,100 tonne, as per MRC's DataScope report.

August PP imports into Ukraine rose to about 12,400 tonnes, compared with 10,600 tonnes in July; the main increase accounted for the supply of moulding homopolymer PP raffia grade. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 80,100 tonnes in January-August 2017, compared to 79,300 tonnes a year earlier. The growth of external supplies accounted on PP block copolymers, while demand for other types of polypropylene either declined or remained at the level of the previous year.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's imports of homopolymer PP to the Ukrainian market grew to 9,900 tonnes from 7,800 tonnes in July. The main increase in deliveries fell on polypropylene from Saudi Arabia and Russia. Imports of homopolymer PP into the country over the eight months reached 61,500 tonnes, which corresponds to the same period in 2017.

August imports of PP block copolymers were about 1,100 tonnes, compared to 1,400 tonnes a month earlier, demand for pipe and injection moulding propylene copolymers subsided. Imports of PP block copolymers into the country were about 8,600 tonnes in January-August, compared with 7,500 tonnes year on year. Local pipes producers accounted for the greatest increase in demand.

Last month's imports of PP random copolymers virtually remained at the level of July and were 1,300 tonnes. Overall imports of PP random copolymers exceeded 8,600 tonnes in January-August 2017, whereas this figure was 9,100 tonnes a year earlier.

Total imports of other propylene copolymers over the reporting period were about 1,400 tonnes, compared with 1,500 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.


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MOSCOW (MRC) — A new commercial crude oil reserve base built by China’s Sinopec Corp in northern Chinese port of Tianjin received its first oil shipment, the state refiner said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new site consists of 12 tanks each sized 100,000 cm, totaling about 7.56 MMbbl.

This is the fourth commercial crude storage site Sinopec has started since 2012 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster region. The first three sites are in Caofeidian and Tianjin.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — New Zealand will partially ease fuel rationing on Thursday night, a spokesman for the country's oil industry said, a sign that the five-day long fuel shortage that has caused air travel disruptions is subsiding, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

More than 120 flights have been cancelled this week in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, disrupting thousands of travelers each day, after the single privately owned pipeline that carries jet fuel from a refinery to the city's airport was damaged.

National carrier Air New Zealand said it expected flights to run as usual on Friday, with no cancellations for the first time since Sunday. Airline fuel allocations will rise to 50%, from 30%, at midnight on Thursday, said Andrew McNaught, manager for Mobil New Zealand Ltd and a spokesman for the customers of the country's only oil refinery operator Refining NZ.

Travel restrictions for government officials have been lifted, said Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Spokeswoman Carolyn Tremain in a statement. New Zealand's government and oil industry have taken a series of measures to try to contain the crisis, from fuel rationing to calling on the military to help truck in supplies of fuel, and have set up an industry-government group to handle the fallout.

A New Zealand navy vessel will ferry diesel fuel around the country as the government rushes to alleviate the shortage in the run-up to Saturday's national election. The ship will transport up to 4.8 MM liters of diesel—equivalent to 150 tankers—to enable the oil industry to focus on providing jet fuel to Auckland airport, Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins said on Thursday.

"The government will continue to do everything it can to support industry efforts to address the disruption," Collins said in statement.

The measures are simply a stopgap until the pipe is repaired, which will take place by Sept. 26, McNaught said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — Lawyers expect a spate of force majeure contract lawsuits after Hurricane Harvey tore through Southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana last month, paralyzing a fifth of US fuel output and pushing some oil production offline, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Hurricanes and other natural disasters can affect the energy industry's ability to honor contracts related to oil and natural gas production, transport and oilfield services. Force majeure is a legal declaration that means the operator cannot fulfill a contract due to circumstances outside its control.

Damage in Texas wrought by Harvey is estimated at around USD180 B, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, with some of that in the oil-rich Eagle Ford shale region southwest of Houston.

While the full extent of Harvey's effect on the Gulf Coast energy industry is still being tabulated, damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 shut in more than 8 Bcf of gas production and 1.5 MMbpd of oil production. Hurricane Ike, which came less than a month after Hurricane Gustav in 2008, had a similar effect on oil and gas production and disrupted the chemical industry, leading some companies to declare force majeure of certain products and supplies.

Many chemical and refinery plants along the US Gulf Coast have already restarted operations or are beginning to ramp up after damage by Harvey. Once they do, customers may insist on reviewing contractual terms with their energy industry suppliers for the product they did not receive while plants were shuttered.

Force majeure issues typically arise in both contract lawsuits and tort suits, which allege negligence, said Jessica Crutcher, an attorney for Houston law firm Meyer Brown. "Every force majeure clause is different, especially when you're dealing with heavily negotiated contracts in the energy sector," she said on Tuesday during a force majeure webinar sponsored by the law firm.

In tort disputes, defendants can best defend themselves if they took every reasonable effort to protect their property from storm damage or other factors, according to Crutcher. Force majeure notices should clearly outline a connection between Harvey and the reason for making the notice.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — As the sun sets on Japan's solar energy boom, companies and investors are rushing into wood-burning biomass projects to lock in still-high government subsidies, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

More than 800 projects have already won government approval, offering 12.4 GW of capacity—equal to 12 nuclear power stations and nearly double Japan's 2030 target for biomass in its basic energy policy.

The sheer number of projects has raised questions about how they will all find sufficient fuel, mostly shipped in from countries like Canada and Vietnam, while some experts question the environmental credentials of such large-scale plants.

The projects approved to date that use general wood fuel would need the equivalent of up to 60 MMt of wood pellets, compared with global output of 24 MMt in 2014, said Takanobu Aikawa, a senior researcher at Japan's Renewable Energy Institute.

Other fuels such as local forest thinned woods or palm kernel shells from Indonesia and Malaysia would not make up the shortfall, he said. "There will be a scramble for fuels as countries like China and South Korea are looking to expand biomass power," he said.

Biomass plants generate energy by burning fuels, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They qualify as renewable because plants absorb CO2 as they grow, with a lifespan of years rather than the millions of years needed to make fossil fuels such as coal.
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