SOCAR new oil refinery in Turkey to start up next week

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azeri state energy company SOCAR plans to start up its new oil refinery in Turkey next week, reported Reuters with reference to a spokeswoman at SOCAR’s Turkish division.

The USD6.3 billion Star refinery, the first in Turkey built in 30 years, will supply feedstock to Turkish petrochemicals firm Petkim to help to cut Turkey’s dependence on imported refined oil products. It will boost Turkish refining capacity by 30 percent.

The plant on Turkey’s Aegean coast would have capacity to process about 10 million tonnes per year (200,000 barrels per day) of crude.

The plant is expected to produce 1.6 million tonnes of naphtha and 420,000 tonnes of xylenes. It will also produce about 4.8 million tonnes of diesel, alongside jet fuel, petroleum coke, reformate, sulphur and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Turkey produces a surplus of gasoline but relies on imports of diesel, with consumption of the fuel growing by about 7 percent a year and expected to reach 25 million tonnes in 2019.

As MRC wrote before, in February 2018, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announced that its main subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT-Kinetics Technology S.p.A. - had signed with the Client SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refineryan EPC contract (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) as an important part of the execution of the Modernization and Reconstruction works for the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery, in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Russia totalled 13,800 tonnes in January-September 2018, down by more than three times year on year. At the same time, Russian producers were forced to increase their exports by 29%, according to MRC's DataScope report.

SPVC imports have reached a historical minimum for the past three months because of a number of factors. September SPVC imports fell to 344 tonnes from 794 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall imports of resin to Russia totalled 13,800 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, compared to 42,400 tonnes a year earlier. At the same time, weaker demand for PVC from the domestic market over the past few years and high capacity utilisation at the existing production capacities forced Russian producers to ship resin for export more actively this year, export sales rose by slightly less than a third.

Chinese producers were the key foreign suppliers of resin, overall imports of acetylene PVC were 11,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018 versus 39,500 tonnes a year earlier.

SayanskKhimPlast, Russia's second largest PVC producer, shut its production capacities for maintenance in July-August, and this factor led to lower exports. But already since September some producers have begun to dynamically increase their exports due to weaker demand in the domestic market.

9,600 tonnes were shipped to foreign markets in September (excluding deliveries to the countries of the Customs Union) versus 5,000 tonnes a month earlier. 87,800 tonnes of SPVC were shipped for export in January-September 2018, compared to 68,100 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Turkmenbashi complex of oil refineries (TKNPZ) resumed the production of polypropylene (PP) after the scheduled maintenance works. The outage was not long, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

According to the company's clients, the output of PP production facilities from scheduled preventive maintenance took place on 8 October. It is also important to note that the maintenance works started from 20 September, and started earlier than planned due to technical problems. The plant's annual production capacity is 100,000 tonnes.

The Turkmenbashi complex of oil refineries (TKNPZ) in 2017 produced 84,100 tonnes of polypropylene (PP), slightly exceeding the plan for the year (82,500 tonnes). As mentioned earlier, a new plant for the production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene with a total capacity of 382,000 tonnes and 86,000 tonnes, respectively, was recently launched in Turkmenistan.

As the potential customers of the enterprise reported, now there is a test run of polyolefins, and the official start-up of production is scheduled for 17 October. The first shipments from the new petrochemical complex have been already sold in early September, and recently there were deals for PP done at USD1,050/tonne, FCA.

TKNPZ produces automobile gasoline, aviation and technical kerosene, hydrotreated diesel fuel, petroleum coke, polypropylene, a wide range of technical lubricating oils, liquefied gas, road and construction bitumen. A significant part of the production of the complex is exported to Russia, Japan, Italy, Turkey, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has increased October list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene (EVA) emulsions sold in China and Asia Outside China (AOC), as per the company's press release.

The price increases below are for orders shipped and are effective as of 5 October, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, Celanese raised VAM list and off-list selling prices by RMB200/mt for China and by USD50/mt for AOC.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last increased its prices for VAM sold in Asia on 9 August, 2018, as follows:

- by RMB200/mt for China and by USD50/mt for AOC.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ilham Kadri has been appointed CEO of the Group, Chairman of the Executive Committee, member of the Board of Directors?, by Solvay’s Board of Directors, with effect from March 1st, 2019, said the company.

She will join Solvay on January 1st, 2019 and spend two months transitioning with Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, before taking the leadership role and continuing Solvay’s transformation.

March 1st will officially mark the commencement of Ilham Kadri at the top of Solvay's leadership succeeding to Jean-Pierre Clamadieu in the executive duties and mandate as CEO of Solvay.

The newly appointed CEO Ilham Kadri reflects Solvay's recent journey as leading company with advanced material and speciality chemicals innovative product portfolio and sustainable solutions to address next-generation mobility and improve resource efficiency.

A holder of Moroccan and French nationalities, Ilham Kadri has an engineering degree from the European School of Chemistry, Polymers and Materials Science in Strasbourg, France, and a PhD in macromolecular physico-chemistry from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg.

Solvay is headquartered in Brussels with around 26,800 employees in 61 countries. Net sales were EUR10.1 billion in 2017, with 90% from activities where Solvay ranks among the world’s top 3 leaders, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 22%.
MRC