Pemex restarts crude exports from Salina Cruz terminal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican state oil company Pemex aims to finalize the first shipment of crude oil for export later on Monday since restarting operations at its Salina Cruz terminal in southwest Mexico, reported Reuters with reference to a company official's statement on Monday.

The first shipment from the Salina Cruz terminal would be Maya crude for export to the west coast of the United States, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The information from the official confirmed Reuters data tracking oil tanker movements around the Salina Cruz terminal, where operations were put on hold following a massive earthquake off the southwestern coast of Mexico on Sept. 7.

Salina Cruz is also the site of Mexico’s biggest refinery. Pemex has said it expects refining operations to begin again at Salina Cruz in the third week of October.

As MRC wrote previously, in early August 2017, Pemex was planning to begin restart of propylene production at two of its refineries the following week as it brought the key processing units back online. Pemex planned to restart a fluid catalytic cracker the following week at its Salina Cruz refinery in Oaxaca, which had been shut following a June 14 fire. Pemex's Minatitlan refinery in Veracruz saw the first of two FCC units come back online August 5, and the second unit restarted on August 12. The Minatitlan units had been offline for maintenance, the source previously said.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global chemical manufacturer Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) has completed its purchase of DuraFiber Technologies Mexico Operations, S. A. DE C. V. (Durafiber), said Rubberjournalasia.

Durafiber is a leading Mexican producer of durable technical textiles for industrial, tyre reinforcement, and specialty applications globally.

Durafiber is the sole domestic tyre cord fabric producer in Mexico, and has a broad customer base and long-established relationships with major global tyre companies. This strategic acquisition of Durafiber expands the breadth of IVL’s tyre cord fabric products, and provides the opportunity to leverage IVL’s global scale and assets to capture synergies and vast market opportunities. The automotive fiber market is growing at 6% CAGR in 2017-2021 and has an estimated value at around USD10 billion plus.

"We are pleased that Durafiber is now a part of the IVL family. It is an exciting opportunity to strengthen our presence in fast-growing markets in Mexico and Europe, and further enhance the Company’s leading position in Automotive Segment, where we see an enormous opportunity," Mr. Aloke Lohia, Group CEO of Indorama Ventures said.

"With the acquisition of Durafiber, we will be best positioned to address a wide range of applications in the automotive fiber market, and expand capabilities to deliver best-in-market services to our customers. Offering customers access to a strong portfolio of industry-leading brands, along with a well-integrated of R&D and production facilities across the world are a unique global service proposal to the automotive industry. This highly differentiated value proposition will deliver greater benefits for our customers and drive forward IVL’s next phase of strategic growth as the leading fiber partner for the automotive industry," he added.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) grew in the first nine months of 2017 by 15% year on year, totalling 652,500 tonnes. Only two producers have grown resin production: SayanskKhimPlast and Kaustik (Volgograd), according to MRC ScanPlast.

September production of unmixed PVC in Russia grew to 75,100 tonnes from 46,500 tonnes a month earlier, all producers, two producers increased production volumes: SayanskKhimPlast and Bashkir Soda Company. Overall PVC production reached 652,500 tonnes in January-September 2017, compared to 565,000 tonnes a year earlier. Only two plants out of four increased their output, and this year's high level of production growth was caused by the long forced outage at SayanskKhimPlast in February-July 2016.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV SIBUR and SolVin) last month further reduced the capacity utilisation, the enterprise produced about 20,700 tonnes of polyvinyl chloride in September, of which about 2,100 tonnes of emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC), against 23,400 tonnes a month earlier. The reduction of production volumes was a result of scheduled maintenance works. Thus, RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 224,600 tonnes in the first nine months of 2017, which almost the same as last year.

September PVC production at SayanskKhimPlast reached about 25,300 tonnes against 3,300 tonnes a month earlier. The low production in August was due to the prolonged preventive maintenances, which started on 24 July and ended on 25 August. SayanskKhimPlast managed to produce more than 184,600 tonnes of resin over the stated period versus 84,800 tonnes a year earlier (the low output in 2016 was caused by the forced long outage from mid-February to July).

Bashkir Soda Company last month produced about 22,700 tonnes of PVC versus 12,100 tonnes in August (a low production figure in August was a result of the forced shutdown of production for almost two weeks due to the lack of ethylene). The plant's output of resin totalled about 175,600 tonnes in the first nine months of 2017, compared to 190,700 tonnes a year earlier.

Kaustik Volgograd at the end of September shut its capacity for planned preventive repairs, for an incomplete month of work the enterprise managed to produce about 6,400 tonnes of PVC against 7,700 tonnes a month earlier. The plant's overall production of resin reached 67,700 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 64,800 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nan Ya Plastics (part of Formosa Petrochemical) has undertaken a planned shutdown at its No.3 monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit was taken off-stream on October 5, 2017 for a maintenance turnaround. The unit will remain under turnaround for about one month.

Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the No. 3 MEG unit has a production capacity of 360,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 25 May 2016, restarted MEG plant No. 4 in Thailand after a turnaround, which began on 17 April. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 720,000 mt/year.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd on Friday withdrew its request to install anti-fish-spawning mats in construction areas for its embattled Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, potentially delaying the USD5.91-B project, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) regulator last month barred Kinder Morgan from installing the mats, which are placed on the bottom of waterways to prevent fish from laying eggs, saying they had “not yet been authorized."

The company then sought relief, saying they were essential to stopping fish from being harmed during construction, and that a delay in installing them could push back the date for shipping oil on the expansion. But in a letter to the regulator on Friday, a Kinder Morgan lawyer said the mats were effective only if put in place before the spawning season, which has begun, and that the window to install them had now passed.

The lawyer also said the company would remove some mats that it had already installed. The letter did not address potential delays to the project’s timeline that were mentioned by the company in a separate letter last month.

The NEB and Kinder Morgan Canada, a unit of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company’s mention of potential delays to the project last month marked a departure from its longstanding public stance that the project remained on track despite mounting opposition and regulatory hurdles.

While the project has federal approval, it faces opposition from environmental and aboriginal groups and the provincial government of British Columbia, through which the pipeline passes.

The NEB has so far granted permission only for construction of a marine terminal associated with the project. The fish mats, which came to light in part due to a blog post by the company, constitute work along the pipeline route and were not authorized, the NEB has said.

Backed by the energy sector, the project aims to nearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline from Canada’s oil-rich Alberta to the west coast by late 2019.

A legal challenge being heard this and next week in Vancouver could overturn Trans Mountain’s approval.
MRC