SOCAR giant investment project - STAR Refinery launched

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SOCAR, the largest direct foreign investor in Turkey, launched its USD6.3-billion SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery - STAR Refinery, which will provide a large portion of oil products demand in the local market with 10 million tons of annual oil processing capacity, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In the coming years, SOCAR's new refinery will be a solid contribution to the economies of Azerbaijan and Turkey.SOCAR’s USD6.3-billion STAR Refinery, one of the largest investment projects in Turkey, was inaugurated on October 19, 2018 in a ceremony held in Aliaga, Izmir. Alongside the refinery SOCAR has also launched its other projects - Petlim Container Terminal, Petkim Wind Power Plant and its regional head office. President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey, government officials of the two countries and numerous guests have attended the inauguration ceremony.

Addressing the event, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev spoke about the STAR project: ''Today is a historic day for us. Because we are launching the STAR Refinery, foundation of which was laid by the leaders of the two countries on October 25, 2011. The STAR Refinery, built and equipped with the world's latest technologies, helps the integration of our petrochemical business and therefore has a strategic importance for our company. The refinery, with annual processing capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil, will make a significant contribution to the economy of Azerbaijan and Turkey''.

STAR Refinery will strengthen Petkim's and SOCAR’s market power in the Mediterranean region. It will produce naphtha, the main crude material for Petkim, and considerably reduce Turkey's dependence on imports. STAR Refinery will process various types of oil, which is an indication of the refinery’s competitive edge.

R. Abdullayev said SOCAR would continue investments in Turkey after the inauguration of the Refinery. He expressed gratitude to Turkish and Azerbaijani leaders, as well as other state and government officials, to TSGI alliance, the major contractor of the project, international financial institutions involved in financing the project, and everyone who contributed to the construction process of the refinery.

STAR Refinery will meet a quarter of Turkey's oil products demand.

STAR Refinery will help to reduce the current trade deficit in Turkish petrochemical sector, one of the largest oil consumers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It will produce oil products such as naphtha, xylene, diesel, aircraft fuel and LPG. The refinery, which has Turkey's first Strategic Investment Promotion Certificate, employed 19,500 workers from 14 countries, including 3,000 engineers at the peak stage of the construction. 1100 professionals will permanently work at the refinery after its launching. Shareholders of the project are SOCAR (60%) and the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan (40%).

The Petlim Container Terminal, with a capacity of 1.5 million TEU, is one of the 3 largest ports in Turkey. Around $400 million has been invested in the terminal.

SOCAR's renewable energy project PETKIM Wind Power Plant has a capacity of 51 MWT. The investment in this project totaled 55 million euros. The energy plant connected to Turkey's energy network will significantly contribute to meeting the energy needs of SOCAR in Aliaga.

As MRC wrote before, in the first half of March 2018, Petkim shut its cracher in Turkey owing to a technical glitch. Located at Aliaga in Turkey, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 585,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 240,000 mt/year.

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.

Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil is likely to brought on-stream its No. 1 cracker following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Singapore informed that the company has planned to restart the cracker this week. The cracker was shut for maintenance on September 3, 2018.

Located on Jurong Island in Singapore, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 900,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in December 2016, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) received an order for supply of systems to support a large-scale polyethylene production train for ExxonMobil's Beaumont Polyethylene plant. The new production train is slated to be completed in 2019, and will produce 650,000 tons of polyethylene per year.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s refinery throughput hit a record daily high in September as some independent plants restarted operations after prolonged shutdowns over summer to shore up inventories amid better fuel demand and robust margins, reported Reuters with reference to data.

China’s crude oil throughout rose to 12.49 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up from 11.85 million bpd in August, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data.

The higher processing rate came as China raised its crude oil imports to a four-month high.

Year-to-date processing volumes rose 8.1 percent on a year earlier to 452.54 million tonnes, or 12.1 million bpd, the data showed.

China’s September domestic crude oil production fell 2.4 percent on a year earlier to 15.18 million tonnes, or 3.69 million bpd, according to the data.

Output in the first nine months came in at 141.13 million tonnes, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier. That equates to 3.77 million bpd.

Refinery output is expected to rise further in the fourth quarter as several state refiners resume operations after scheduled major overhauls.

These include PetroChina’s 130,000-bpd Daqing refinery in the northeast and the newly upgraded 200,000-bpd Huabei plant.

Natural gas production rose 8.5 percent in September from a year earlier to 12.2 billion cubic meters (bcm). Output for the year to date was 116.2 bcm, up 6.2 percent.

PetroChina has stepped up drilling at top gas field Changqing, which makes up about a quarter of the national total, and is aiming for record output this year to help meet a winter demand spike.
MRC

MOSCOW (Market Report) - SIBUR Tobolsk, which is part of SIBUR, and is the largest polypropylene producer in the CIS, has resumed its production of PP after a scheduled maintenance works, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

As the plant's customers' said the outage began on 23 October. The scheduled maintenance works was the second this year for the Tobolsk producer. Maintenance works lasted three weeks. The plant's annual production capacity is 500,000 tonnes.

It is also worth noting that at the end of last week, Ufaorgsintez begun resumption of the production after a month long scheduled maintenances. The company's clients said, the resumption of the production to the full capacity utilisation at the Ufa producer was quite long, the first shipments of polypropylene are scheduled for Wednesday - Thursday. Thus, the resumption of PP production at SIBUR Tobolsk from maintenances was the last in the October series of the turnarounds.

Poliom and Stavrolen shut their capacities for scheduled maintenances for 10 days and 7 days, respectively.

SIBUR Tobolsk operates as a subsidiary of Public Joint-Stock Company SIBUR Holding. The production facilities of SIBUR Tobolsk include a central gas fractionation unit for processing a broad fraction of light hydrocarbons with a capacity of 8 mln tonnes per year, production of monomers for the production of liquefied hydrocarbon gases, butadiene, isobutylene, and methyl tert-butyl ether; production of polymers for the production of polypropylene with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of polypropylene (PP) fell in January-September 2018 by 2.2% year on year, totalling about 1.073 mln tonnes. At the same time, only three Russian producers from seven ones increased their PP output, according to MRC ScanPlast report.

September output of polypropylene by local producers decreased to 118,800 tonnes against 125,100 tonnes a month earlier, the most decrease accounted for Ufaorgsintez’s shutdown. Russia's overall PP production reached 1.073 mln tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, compared to 1.050,200 tonnes a year earlier. Only Neftekhimiya, Poliom and Ufaorgsintez managed to increase production figures.

The structure of PP production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Sibur Tobolsk kept capacity utilisation in September at the high level, total polypropylene production reached 45,600 tonnes, which virtually corresponded to the figure a month earlier. The Tobolsk plant's total PP production reached 365,200 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, down by 2% year on year. The decline in production was a result of an early shutdown in prevention this year.

Poliom (Titan Group) last month produced about 18,000 tonnes of polypropylene, compared with 19,400 tonnes in August. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 165,900 tonnes, up 3% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced 18,300 tonnes of propylene polymers in September versus 18,800 tonnes a month earlier. Total polymer output at Nizhnekamskneftekhim in January-September was practically at the level of last year - about 160,700 tonnes.

Tomskneftekhim produced about 11,900 tonnes of propylene polymers last month against 8,300 tonnes in August, the low indicator of in the last month of the summer was caused by the scheduled maintenance works. The Tomsk plant's PP output reached 103,700 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, compared to 105,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Ufaorgsintez's PP output fell to 6,200 tonnes in September from 11,300 tonnes a month earlier, the producer shut down its production capacities for a month long turnaround on 20 September. Overall output of polymer at the Ufa plant rose to 94,700 tonnes in January-September 2018, compared to 91,900 tonnes a year earlier.

Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) last month produced about 9,400 tonnes of PP, compared with 11,900 tonnes in August. The plant's overall PP output reached 99,100 tonnes over the stated period, up 30% year on year. A low indicator of the current year was a result of a long scheduled maintenance works in March-April.

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) produced 9,500 tonnes of propylene polymers in the country compared with 9,800 tonnes in August. Overall production of propylene polymers at the Budenovsk plant reached 83,600 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, which practically corresponded to the figure a year earlier.


MRC