Advanced Petrochemical resumed operations after completion of periodic scheduled maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Advanced Petrochemical resumed operations after completion of periodic scheduled maintenance, said the company in its press release.

Reference to previous announcement of Advanced Petrochemical Company (Advanced) dated February 22, 2018 regarding periodic scheduled maintenance of its Propylene & Polypropylene plants from February 26, 2018 and February 28, 2018 respectively, Advanced announces that as of March 22, 2018, our Propylene & Polypropylene plants commence operations after the successful completion of all required routine and preventive maintenance ahead of the schedule and both plants are expected to reach to their full operational capacity in next 8 to 10 days.

Advanced anticipate positive impact of this periodic maintenance activity on both plants reliability and efficiency in the coming months.

The financial impact of above shut down depending on the prevailing prices of Polypropylene and feedstock will be reflected in the financial results for the first quarter of 2018.
MRC

India shows crude battle is much more than OPEC vs US shale

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The market narrative consuming crude oil markets currently is the interplay between supply cuts by OPEC and its allies and rising US shale output, with a side helping of Chinese imports driving demand, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

While there are solid reasons for industry participants to focus on these dynamics, there is also the risk of missing out on other factors that help shape the market.

Such a factor is India, which has long flown below the radar of the crude oil market, despite becoming the second-biggest importer in the fast-growing Asian market behind China, and the third-biggest in the world after the United States.

India is also a market where there is virtually no direct influence being exerted by U.S. shale oil as the South Asian nation hardly imports any crude from the United States. It also imports a relatively small amount from Russia, the main ally in the agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Countries and other producers to limit output in order to drain excess global inventories, thereby boosting crude prices.

But what makes India important is that it's a major importer of Middle Eastern crudes, and one of the fastest-growing demand centers in the world.

And there are currently some worrying trends for Middle Eastern exporters to India, especially for the region's top shipper, Saudi Arabia.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) put India's crude oil demand at 4.68 MMbpd in 2017 in its report released last month, and estimated that this year will see demand rise to 4.98 MMbpd, an increase of 6.4 percent.

The IEA expects total world oil demand to increase by 1.4 MMbpd, which makes India's expected growth of some 300,000 bpd the most significant source of growth for crude producers outside of China's expected lift in demand of about 380,000 bpd.
MRC

Blast at Czech refiner Unipetrol plant kills six, injures others

MOSCOW (MRC) - Six people were killed in an explosion at a plant of Czech refinery and chemicals group Unipetrol on Thursday, and others were seriously injured, a Czech Fire Rescue Service spokeswoman said, as per Reuters.

An Unipetrol spokesman confirmed a blast occurred at its plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou, 31 km (19 miles) north of the centre of Prague, but provided no further details.

"I can confirm that there has been an incident at our refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou .... A crisis management meeting is under way," spokesman Pavel Kaidl said by telephone.

He had no other details on operations at the plant, whose refinery has annual capacity of 3.2 million tonnes of oil. The company operates another plant in Litvinov, in the north of the country.

Police said emergency services were responding to the explosion. A fire department spokesperson told Czech Television it was a blast at a storage tank and there was no risk of additional explosions.

Two people have been taken to hospital, the spokesperson added.
MRC

PP imports to Russia increased by a third in January-February

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's imports of polypropylene (PP) grew to about 28,600 tonne in first two months of this year, up 33% year on year, compared to the same period of 2017. Supply of all grades of PP increased, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

Russian companies have kept high level of imports in February; it reached 14,200 tonnes compared with 14,400 tonnes year on year. In general, PP imports into Russia totalled 28,600 tonnes in January-February 2018, compared with 21,600 tonnes year on year. The import for all grades of propylene polymers increased, the greatest increase in supplies accounted on homopolymer PP.

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

February imports of homopolymer PP decreased to 4,600 tonnes against 4,900 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of homopolymer PP raffia from Uzbekistan decreased. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 9,500 tonnes in the first two months of 2018, compared to 6,400 a year earlier.

February imports of PP block copolymers in Russia decreased to about 3,200 tonnes against 3,800 tonnes in January. Local companies reduced their purchasing of PP block copolymer for extrusion injection moulding in Europe. Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia rose to 6,900 tonnes in January-February 2018, compared to 6,400 tonnes a year earlier.

Imports of stat-propylene copolymers (PP-random) in February slightly decreased 2,500 tonnes against 2,700 tonnes in January. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Russia were 5,200 tonnes in January - February 2018, compared with 4,400 tonnes year on year.

Imports of other propylene polymers for the reported period increased to about 7,000 tonnes compared with 4,400 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.


MRC

Malaysia says concludes talks with Saudi Aramco over Rapid investment

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia has completed talks with Saudi Aramco over the oil giant's planned USD7 billion investment in Petronas' Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project, said the minister in the prime minister's department, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, as per The Business Times.

Aramco's investment will come in by the end of the month, minister Abdul Rahman said on Tuesday at the OTC Asia conference.

Saudi Aramco agreed last February to buy a USD7 billion stake in the Rapid project of Malaysian state energy firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

Minister Abdul Rahman had said in November the companies will finalise the joint venture after resolving "technical issues".

As MRC informed previously, in early 2017, Petronas said its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019. Thus, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.


MRC