Sinochem to re-open U.S. trading desk as Americas oil output surges

MOSCOW (MRC) - China's Sinochem Corp plans to open a trading office in the United States, drawn by the opportunity to trade growing production in the Americas, five sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The state-run oil and chemical trader's plan to open an office in Houston would seek to exploit rising U.S. crude production, which could prompt crude exports to rise by 45 percent in 2018 from last year, analysts said last week. Sinochem could also use the office to meet growing opportunities to supply China's independent refineries. The proposed office is expected to start operating later in the first half of this year with three to five staff initially, they said. Sinochem had a U.S. oil trading office that closed about 20 years ago.

Sinochem crude oil trader Zhu Yibing, currently trading North and South American crude from London, will move to the new office in Houston, the sources said. "U.S. is where everyone is setting up offices...with growing supplies from the U.S., there will be plenty of barrels available for trading," said a company source.

Bigger domestic rivals Sinopec and PetroChina both have trading operations in Houston. Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's biggest refiner Sinopec, is the region's largest buyer of U.S. crude oil. Sinochem did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Major oil companies and trading houses are bulking up U.S. operations to market rising crude oil production from onshore U.S. shale resources and offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil.

Sinochem's new office is expected to market its equity production from South America, previously handled from London. The grades include Ecuadorean Napo, Colombian Vasconia and Brazilian Peregrino that are considered so-called heavy crudes.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea’s SK Global Chemical had restarted its naphtha cracker on Wednesday after a brief but unplanned shutdown earlier in the day, says spokesman of parent company SK Innovation, reported Reuters.

The 660,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker was expected to be operating normally on Thursday, he adds.

Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the No. 2 cracker has a production capacity of 690,000 mt/year.

SK Global Chemical also operates a smaller 200,000 tpy cracker.

As MRC informed before, in October 2017, SK Global Chemical, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, entered into an agreement with Dow Chemical to purchase Dow's polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) business for an undisclosed amount. Through the agreement, SK Global will acquire all of Dow's PVDC business, including its production facility in Michigan, related manufacturing technology and intellectual property, as well as the Saran trademark. According to local sources, the PVDC acquisition is expected to cost under USD86-million.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) shared the breakdown of development progress of its USD27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) here yesterday, which was 84% completed as at end-December 2017, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Petronas’ 300,000 bpd refinery complex, which forms part of the USD16 billion RAPID project within the 6,242-acre PIC, was at 94% development completion, said Datin Anita Azrina Abdul Aziz, Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corp Sdn Bhd’s head of stakeholder, communication and risk management.

She was speaking to the press today during a media familiarization visit to PIC. “The refinery will cater to more mid-sour crude from the Middle East,” she said. However, she said Petronas is “still ironing out the details” on the percentage of crude supply to be sourced from Saudi Aramco under a share purchase agreement inked in April 2017 between the two parties, as well as the pricing mechanism of the supply.

The associated steam cracker plant and petrochemical complex under RAPID — with respective annual production capacity of 3 million tonnes of feedstock and 2,640 kilotonnes of petrochemicals — were at 91% and 69% completion as at end last year.

The PIC sits in the larger, 22,000-acre Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) endorsed by the state government of Johor and the federal government. Alongside RAPID, PIC is also home to six other associated facilities, including the centralised and shared utilities and facilities for the project and its employees.

Its raw water supply project (PAMER), which channels 30 million liters per day to the Johor state water reservoir at Sungai Lebam and another 230 MLD to the PIC — started operations in July 2016. The project included the construction of an intake station, a dam and a booster pumping station, and 88km of raw water pipelines, Anita said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has started production of styrenic thermoplastic elastomer (TPS) at Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers (Thailand) Co., Ltd., its subsidiary in Thailand in January 2018, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"TEFABLOC" is a core brand of our thermoplastic elastomers. The company has an extensive lineup of olefinic, styrenic, and polyester elastomers, and produce and market these products globally. Its TPS is used in a wide range of fields such as automobiles, building materials, electronic devices, food packaging, and healthcare, and we currently manufacture TPS in Japan, China, the United States, Europe, and Brazil.

In Southeast Asia, the company so far supply TPS by exporting from those markets of manufacture. However, TPS demand in Southeast Asia has increased in recent years mainly in the automotive and food packaging fields. To meet this robust market demand, the company decided to start TPS production in Thailand, a rapidly growing country.

With this production launch, its lineup of thermoplastic elastomers in Thailand will expand to four brands, which will enable us to offer a wider range of solutions with shorter lead times.

The company will continue to expand our thermoplastic elastomer lineup to meet the diverse needs of its customers and further accelerate the growth of its performance polymers business.

As MRC wrote previously, in late December 2017, Ube Industries, JSR Corp. and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. received European Commission (EC) approval for the planned integration of their acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) subsidiaries.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA will join the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), becoming the 10th member of the group which aims to lead the industry's response to climate change, said Hydrocarboprocessing.

Petrobras' entry is subject to the approval oocessingf the OGCI and Petrobras' board, the OGCI said in a statement.

The OGCI currently comprises BP, CNPC, Eni, Pemex, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil and Total
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