Alberta crude inventories rise despite production curtailments

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The amount of oil in storage in Alberta rose in February, monthly data shows, despite moves by the government of Canada’s largest crude-producing province to reduce inventories by imposing curtailments on production, reported Reuters.

The reason is a sharp decline in crude by rail shipments, analysts say. A significantly narrower discount on Canadian crude compared with US barrels as a result of the curtailments has made rail shipments uneconomic.

Alberta had 72 million barrels of oil in inventories at the end of February, according to data from the Alberta Energy Regulator, an increase of 3.9 million barrels from the end of January. That means during the first two months of the year storage inventories only dropped by 2.3 million barrels.

"The balancing act for the government is a very steep task because they have to manage all these variables," said Mike Walls, senior crude oil analyst with Genscape. "The government did not expect rail would drop off as steeply as it did and that’s had a dampening effect" on inventory draws.

The AER reports all the crude stored in infrastructure in Alberta, including pipelines and refineries, as well as the main tank farms, which means its inventory totals are often much higher than that of other information providers like Genscape.

Alberta is in the midst of a general election campaign, and Cheryl Oates, spokeswoman for the ruling New Democratic Party’s campaign, said the government used data from a third-party energy data firm to track crude storage levels.

"That data shows that storage is down since the curtailment policy took effect in January and has been more or less stable since February," Oates said. "We are watching storage data closely to ensure it remains below capacity."

The province last year imposed mandatory production cuts, effective Jan. 1, 2019, after the congestion on export pipelines pushed the discount on Canadian heavy crude versus US barrels to record levels. Premier Rachel Notley said at the time the province had 16 million barrels too many in storage.

Canadian crude by rail volumes hit a record high of 354,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, according to Canadian regulator the National Energy Board, before declining.

Canadian producer Imperial Oil blasted the government for making rail uneconomic and cut shipments from nearly 170,000 bpd to near zero in February. Imperial said last week it has restarted shipping a small amount.

Genscape’s Walls said that from a price perspective curtailments are working, but fundamental data suggested the discount on Canadian barrels should be wider.

Canadian heavy crude was last trading around $8.20 per barrel below West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude, according to Net Energy Exchange. Traders in Calgary say a price differential of around USD15 a barrel between Canadian and US barrels is needed to make rail economic.

“At around USD10 a barrel off WTI for April delivery and around USD9 a barrel off WTI for May delivery, pricing incentives generally aren’t on board to draw barrels from storage on rail,” they wrote,” analysts at TPH Energy Research said in a recent note.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Reliance Industries , operator of the world's largest oil refining complex, has issued a statement that it was not breaching US sanctions against Venezuela, reported Reuters.

The company said that its recent fuel exports to Venezuela were agreed before Washington imposed sanctions in January, and that they were meant to settle Reliance's crude oil imports from Venezuela. The company added that, it has been in "continuous communication with the US Department of State regarding its activities in Venezuela" since the imposition of sanctions.

The Reliance statement came a day after Reuters reported that the conglomerate is selling fuels to Venezuela from India and Europe to sidestep sanctions that bar US-based companies from dealing with state-run PDVSA, according to trading sources and Refinitiv Eikon data.

"Reliance's few transportation fuel shipments to Venezuela, treated as offsets for crude oil receipts, were committed and in-transit when there were no specific restrictions to such transactions. They were all fuels refined in India," it said in a statement.

Reliance had been supplying alkylate, diluent naphtha and other fuel to Venezuela through its US-based subsidiary before Washington imposed the sanctions aimed at curbing the OPEC member's oil exports and ousting Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Reliance, the Indian conglomerate controlled by billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani, has significant exposure to the financial system of the United States, where it operates subsidiaries linked to its oil and telecom businesses, among others.

Additional sanctions against Venezuela are possible in the future, as US President Donald Trump's administration has not yet tried to prevent companies based outside the United States from buying Venezuelan oil.

Reliance said it had been transparent with U.S. authorities and provided detailed feedback to Washington as they were formulating and adjusting policy regarding product shipments to Venezuela.

"Reliance not only has complied with US sanctions laws, but also has done its best to adjust its dealings with Venezuela on a voluntary basis to reflect the ongoing changes in US policy," the statement added.

Reliance reiterated that it has stopped shipments of diluent naphtha to Venezuela, and has reduced its purchases of Venezuelan crude oil to well below its contracted levels.

In 2012, Reliance signed a 15-year deal to buy between 300,000 to 400,000 bpd of heavy crude from PDVSA. Ship tracking data show that Reliance's average purchases from Venezuela were less than 300,000 bpd in 2018 and in the first two months of this year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in late February 2019, Saudi Aramco’s Chief Executive Officer Amin Nassar said that the company is in talks with India’s Reliance Industries Ltd for possible investments and is seeking other opportunities in the country.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced the expansion of its Pibiflex and Riteflex TPC (thermoplastic co-polyester) production unit at the Donegani facility in Ferrara, Italy to support the continued growth of its global engineered materials business, as per the company's press release.

Celanese continues to exhibit its leadership position in the manufacture and compounding of highly engineered materials, such as thermoplastic co-polyesters, by adding this capacity to support growth in sophisticated, functionalized polymers. The company will continue to partner with its customers to deliver innovative solutions to meet ever-increasing consumer and industrial needs and respond to the changing complexity in high-performance polymers.

Celanese recently added one more solid-state polymerization unit at the Donegani facility, which started up successfully in September 2018. Celanese expects to expand the production capacity of the unit further by adding another polymerization line to be completed in the next 15 to 18 months.

The expansion of this thermoplastic co-polyester unit further demonstrates the company's ability to respond to global customer demand using the knowledge and expertise of world-class engineering capabilities which enable these types of projects and expansions.

Thermoplastic co-polyester (TPCs) are block co-polymers that combine favorable characteristics of vulcanized rubber with the easy processability of thermoplastics for toughness, tear and flex fatigue resistance over a wide temperature range. Besides thermoplastic co-polyesters, Celanese also offers a broad range of other thermoplastic elastomers like thermoplastic vulcanizate (Forprene TPV), thermoplastic olefines (Forflex TPO), thermoplastic elastomers based on SBC (Laprene and Sofprene TPS), and thermoplastic elastomer solutions for special markets like artificial turf infill (Holo, Forgrin, Terra XPS granules) and footwear (Sofprene TPR, Sofpur TPU) for a broad range of customer-oriented solutions, including functionalization and color.

As MRC reported before, Celanese Corporation has increased April list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after 20 March, 2018, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases. Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:

- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD110/mt - for Mexico & South America;
- by USD100/mt - for Asia outside China (AOC):
- by CNY800/mt - for China.

Besides, Celanese increased its prices of emulsion polymers 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 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2018 net sales of USD7.2 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell introduced the next-generation Kromschroder® BCU 4 Series, an all-in-one control solution for multi-burner applications, said the company.

Replacing an earlier product line, the BCU 4 Series 460, 465 and 480 models incorporate a range of refinements and new features designed for simplified engineering, installation and start-up. They also provide various options to increase utility and effectiveness of the control solution – including a space-efficient design that allows the unit to be mounted close to a burner versus in a separate cabinet, enabling better system integration.

The BCU 4 Series offers industrial designers, engineers, operators and service technicians a multi-functional, modular control solution. It is designed for directly ignited or pilot/main burners of unlimited capacity in intermittent or continuous operation, and for modulated or step-controlled gas burners. The BCU 4 Series was developed for furnace builder original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), burner manufacturers and end users in sectors such as metals, ceramics, food and automotive.

"The next-generation BCU 4 Series’ intelligent design helps industrial designers and engineers better maximize limited space,” said Tim Lee, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Thermal Solutions. “The new features provide broader functionality that delivers greater value to our customers."

The three models in the series provide different functions:

The BCU 460 model controls, ignites and monitors modulating or stage-controlled gas burners for intermittent or continuous operation, making it ideal for frequent cycling operations
The BCU 465 incorporates airflow monitoring and pre- and post-ventilation for use with recuperative burners
The BCU 480 can monitor pilot and main burners independently.
The BCU 4 Series comes equipped with an ignition transformer, burner control and an embedded human machine interface (HMI) – all arranged within compact housing. The four-digit display shows vital information such as program status, unit parameters and flame signals. All models possess a manual mode to adjust the burner and its diagnostics.

The control solution fulfills the requirements of the most important industry standards and has Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-ready PROFIBUS, PROFINET and EtherNet/IP™ network connections. These connections enable faster connectivity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp will raise the throughput at its crude oil refinery during the second-half of April after finishing maintenance at a crude unit, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokesman.

Formosa’s Mailiao refinery, which can process 540,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, will raise its throughput to over 82 percent from 70 percent currently, K.Y. Lin, a company spokesman said.

The plant has been operating at lower capacity because of planned maintenance on a 180,000 bpd crude distillation unit that has kept it shut since the start of March.

Formosa, one of Asia’s top ten largest refinery by capacity, also operates three naphtha crackers with a total capacity of about 2.93 million tonnes per year.

All the crackers are currently operating at full capacity, said Lin.

However, Formosa may need to reduce cracker runs after a fire at its sister company Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC) on Sunday caused by a gas leak, Lin said, though it is still too early to determine what is the next step.

Formosa Petrochemical supplies pyrolysis gasoline or pygas, a by-product from naphtha cracking, to FCFC.

FCFC’s No. 3 aromatics line was affected by the gas leak and fire and prolonged shutdown would mean a lack of a processing outlet for the pygas, which would have to be stored or sold to a third party.

FCFC also off takes naphtha from the Mailiao refinery.

As MRC informed earlier, 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