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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s crude oil imports rose 6.5 percent in August from a month earlier to their highest since May, boosted by a rebound in demand from smaller, independent refiners, customs data showed, as per Reuters.
Arrivals last month were 38.38 million tonnes, or 9.04 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs. This was up from 8.0 million bpd a year ago and 8.48 million in July and just slightly lower than the forecast of 9.12 million bpd from Thomson Reuters Oil Research.
For the first eight months of the year, crude purchases stood at 299 million tonnes, up 6.5 percent, the data showed.
Independent refiners, known as teapots, wound back their crude buying earlier this year, shutting or suspending operations due to a combination of sinking diesel demand, higher crude prices and new tax rules.
However, a recent rise in fuel prices and improved margins have led to an in increase in crude processing, with many now returning from summer maintenance to gear up for rising winter demand.
Teapot buying in August rose to 6 million tonnes, or 1.4 million bpd, up 40 percent from July, and September arrivals are expected to breach 7 million tonnes, data from Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodities Research showed.
Total gas imports in August were at 7.77 million tonnes, up 5.4 percent from 7.38 million in July, according to the data. In the year to date, imports were 57.18 million tonnes, an increase of 34.8 percent.
The increase comes after state-owned oil companies pledged to take measures in advance this year to prepare for potential shortages during the winter heating season.
Sinopec vowed to increase LNG spot cargo purchases, while CNOOC said this week it would give third-party users access to its major LNG import terminals.
MRC
Chinas August oil imports rise 6.5 pct as teapots return to market
The first deals on PP exports from new polymer plant took place in Turkmenistan
The first lots of PP and HDPE with a total volume of about 14,100 tonnes were put at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan from the new gas chemical complex in the village of Kiyanly (Balkan region, Turkmenistan) on 3 September. But the trader set a fairly high price on the very first day of the trades.
Only a week later due to a noticeable decline in prices, the first deals took place. Potential buyers said the trader set a fairly high level of starting prices a week earlier, polyethylene (PE) and PP were offered at USD1,250-1,300 per tonne, FCA.
Such starting prices were unacceptable for most buyers given the novelty of the material and the unproven logistics.
The starting prices in the export trades were reduced to USD1,100/tonne FCA on 10 September, after which several deals were done for PP shipment with a volume of about 500 tonnes. Buyers were companies from the CIS countries.
Part of the potential buyers still refrained from purchases and waited for the prices at the level of USD1,050-1,060/tonne FCA, because they did not fully understand the real terms of shipments and the final cost of delivery.
Earlier it was reported that the gas chemical complex for production of HDPE and polypropylene with the capacity of 386,000 tonnes/year and 81,000 tonnes/year respectively was built by the consortium TOYO Engineering (Japan) and LG and Hyundai (South Korea). The total cost of the project was about USD3.4 billion.
MRC
September prices of European PP grew for CIS countries, but not all sellers raised them
Negotiations over September prices of European PP began last week. All market participants reported a number of producers' desire to achieve an increase in export prices of propylene polymers, which is proportional to the amount of the rise in monomer prices for this month's shipments. Some companies said that in a number of cases, they managed to roll over August prices.
Deals for September shipments of homopolymer propylene (homopolymer PP) were negotiated in the range of EUR1,165-1,230/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,165-1,240/tonne FCA.
Deals for block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were done in the range of EUR1,240-1,310/tonne FCA.
Some companies said some producers still had restrictions on exports from August due to shutdowns for maintenance.
MRC
PE production in Belarus rose by 10% in Jan-Aug 2018
According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, the local LDPE producer - Polymir reduceded its capacity utilisation in August and produced slightly over 5,500 tonnes of polyethylene (PE) versus 6,200 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, Polymir's total LDPE output was slightly over 42,800 tonnes in January-August 2018, compared to 38,900 tonnes a year earlier.
As reported earlier, the Belarusian producer plans to reach full capacity utilisation at its PE production by late November. Because of the fire at the ethylene unit in June 2016, Polymir was forced to reduce its capacity utilisation at LDPE production by almost two-fold.
Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968.
The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.
MRC
Petronas ups dividend payment to the govt to RM24b
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin has pointed on that the higher dividend payment was on the back of an increase in profits and higher global crude oil prices, as per The Star.
Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin pointed on that the higher dividend payment was on the back of an increase in profits and higher global crude oil prices.
Its group chief executive officer Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin pointed on that the higher dividend payment was on the back of an increase in profits and higher global crude oil prices.
"We raised our dividend payment to the government to RM24bil, which is 50% higher than the RM16bil we paid last year," he told reporters after Petronas’ mid-year 2018 review.
For the second quarter ended June 30, Petronas saw its profit after tax almost double to RM13.63bil from RM7.06bil last year, driven by its cost-cutting measure and higher oil prices.
Its revenue for the quarter increased by 14.7% to RM59.3bil from RM51.6bil previously.
Cumulatively, for the first half of 2018, Petronas posted a 54% surge in profit after tax to RM.26.65bil from RM17.35bil a year ago.
Petronas executive vice-president Datuk Manharlal Ratilal said during the first half, the average crude oil price was at USD70.56 per barrel, compared to USD51.8 per barrel a year earlier.
Petronas saw its revenue in the first half rise by 8% to RM117.16bil from RM108.15bil.
Wan Zulkiflee said that the capital investment for the first half was RM19.8bil, which was mainly for its investment in the downstream at the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Johor.
He said that the PIC project was progressing as plan, which was about 93% completed.
He said Petronas planned its capital expenditure based on the average oil price of "slightly below" USD73 per barrel for this year and US$66 per barrel in 2019.
"We like to remain conservative," Wan Zulkiflee said.
He also said that Petronas was targeting to finalise its final investment decision for its LNG asset in Canada in the next few months.
As MRC reported earlier, in January 2019, Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad said its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019.
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.
MRC