MRPL naphtha sales premium drops to over 1-year low

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd’s naphtha sales premium has slumped to the lowest in over a year as the market was awash with supplies, repported Reuters with reference to a trader who tracks the fuel.

The Indian refiner sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for Nov 10-12 loading from New Mangalore late on Wednesday to oil major BP at premiums of about USD6 to USD7 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

This was down by about half versus the average of USD12.75-a-tonne premium the state-owned refiner had garnered for two cargoes sold last month.

The fresh premium was also the lowest that MRPL has received for its naphtha since September 2017.

MRPL and BP do not typically comment on their deals.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2015, MRPL successfully commenced commercial production of PP from its polypropylene plant as part of its phase-III refinery expansion and upgradation project in Mangaluru. The plant has a capacity to produce 4,40,000 tonnes of PP per annum. Feedstock for the PP plant - polymer grade propylene - is being produced from upstream petrochemical fluidised catalytic cracking unit of the refinery. Technology provider for the PP plant is Novolen of Germany. The plant has been engineered and constructed by Engineers India Ltd.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), is an oil refinery at Mangalore and is a subsidiary of ONGC, set up in 1993. The refinery is located at Katipalla, north from centre of Mangalore city. The refinery was established after displacing five villages of Bala, Kalavar, Kuthetoor, Katipalla, and Adyapadi.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The powerful blast that rocked Bosnia’s Brod oil refinery late on Tuesday has left one worker dead, officials said as they raised the figure for the number injured to nine, as per Hydrocarbonprocesing.

Firefighters put down the blaze at the plant’s oil and gas processing unit shortly after midnight and rescuers later discovered one body inside the facility, said Brod’s mayor, Ilija Jovicic on Wednesday. Of the nine people injured, four were in serious condition.

Previous reports said eight people were injured in the blast. Jovicic said the refinery has continued to operate since the explosion, adding that an investigation which was still underway should establish the cause of the explosion.

The Brod refinery, which processes 1.2 million tonnes of crude a year, is majority owned by Russia’s Neftegazinkor, a unit of state-owned oil company Zarubezhneft.

Auditors have previously warned that it may face liquidity problems after it piled up losses and its liabilities exceeded assets. The company, however, has dismissed those claims.

Residents of nearby Slavonski Brod, just across the border in Croatia, have complained about rising pollution levels from the refinery for years and Bosnian and Croatian authorities have been working to combat this issue.

Air quality measures showed no major spike in pollution levels on Wednesday, Jovicic said.

Officials from Croatia and Russia, including the head of Zarubezhneft, met on Wednesday in Slavonski Brod to talk about providing gas from Croatia to the Brod refinery, in an effort to reduce air pollution.

“I believe that by the end of 2019 we could have the Brod refinery operating on gas supply from Croatia. At the moment we’re working on defining commercial terms of the arrangement,” Croatia’s Energy Minister Tomislav Coric said after the meeting.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Varo Energy’s Vohburg plant at the Bayernoil refining complex in Germany will likely remain shut for several more months for repairs after a major fire in early September, a source familiar with the matter said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Following the outage, Varo declared force majeure on fuel supplies. The complex’s other plant at Neustadt has been operating normally. The fire hit Vohburg’s fluid catalytic cracking unit that produces gasoline. Vohburg has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day.

A Vohburg spokeswoman said she could not comment at this stage on when the refinery might restart. A Varo spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bayernoil is 45 percent owned by Varo Energy, with Rosneft Deutschland holding 25 percent, Eni Deutschland 20 percent and BP Europe 10 percent.

Varo is a European downstream company with refineries and storage assets in Western Europe and is owned by oil trading giant Vitol, U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group (CG.O) and Dutch firm Reggeborgh Invest.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics has restarted a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a planned shutdown, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the company has resumed operartions at the plant on October 5, 2018. The plant has halted production on September 17, 2018.

Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 264,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 19 March, 2018, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) undertook an emergency shutdown at its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao owing to technical issues. The plant remained off-line for around one day. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 700,000 mt/year, propylene production capacity of 350,000 mt/year and butadiene production capacity of 109,000 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) -- Firefighters put down a fire early Tuesday morning at a Westlake Chemical production plant in Plaquemine, LA, reported PowderBulkSolids with reference to several local news organizations.

The company issued a statement saying the blaze started in a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit at the facility at about 4:15 a.m. Fire crews contained the flames to the area of the unit and brought the scene under control by 6:30 a.m., CBS News affiliate WAFB reported. A subsidiary of Westlake, Axiall Corporation, appears to be the operator of the Plaquemine plant, according to information on the company's website.

No injuries were logged during the incident, but a road near to the plant was briefly closed as a precaution.

Officials told news broadcaster WBRZ that fence line monitoring devices indicate no harmful substances were released during the fire.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

In February 2018, as MRC informed before, Westlake Chemical announced plans to expand its capacities for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and VCM at three of its chemical facilities. Two of the plants are located in Germany (Burghausen, Gendorf) and one is located in Geismar, Louisiana. The expansions in Burghausen and Geismar are expected to be completed in 2019. The Gendorf expansions are expected to be completed in 2020 and 2021.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
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