Unilever aims for 50 per cent recycled content in N. American products

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Consumer packaged goods provider Unilever North America has pledging that its plastic packaging in North America will contain 50 per cent recycled content by the end of this year, as per Canplastics.

The Netherlands-based company’s new three-part plan – unveiled as part of retail giant Walmart Inc.’s sustainability meeting in Bentonville, Ark. – is designed to provide better choices for plastic packaging, add clear recycling instructions on packages, and launch a shopper education program in partnership with Walmart.

"We know that the response from the consumer goods industry is critical in determining the speed that positive change takes place around plastic packaging, and using less, better or no plastics is a priority at Unilever,” Amanda Sourry, president of Unilever North America, said in a statement. “Today, we are significantly accelerating our plastic packaging commitments in North America and are thrilled to be working alongside other industry leaders like Walmart to push these initiatives forward."

In addition to reaching 50 per cent recycled content in plastic packaging this year, the Unilever North America announcements include adding “How2Recycle” labels on all packaging by 2021 as a way to reduce confusion about complex recycling systems; and partnering with Walmart on the “Bring it to the Bin” shopper education program, which incentivizes and educates customers about recycling all packaging, including products used in the bathroom, when it launches later this year.

"These Unilever initiatives are important steps, but we can’t create a circular economy for plastic packing in isolation,” Sourry said. “We need collective action to take the problem at the source."

Unilever is one of the world’s largest suppliers of beauty & personal care, home care, and foods & refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries. In Canada and the U.S., Unilever’s portfolio includes Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Degree, Dollar Shave Club, Dove, Hellmann’s, Klondike, Knorr, Lever 2000, Lipton, Love Beauty and Planet, Magnum, Nexxus, Noxzema, Pond’s, Popsicle, Pure Leaf, Q-tips, Seventh Generation, Simple, Sir Kensington’s, St. Ives, Suave, Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto, TAZO, TIGI, TRESemme, and Vaseline.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Roaya Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its stake in the Caesar Tonga field in the Gulf of Mexico for USD965 million in cash to a subsidiary of Israel's energy conglomerate Delek Group, reported The Business Times.

Company unit Shell Offshore will sell its 22.45 per cent non-operated interest in a deal, which is likely to close by the end of the third quarter of 2019, Shell said in a statement.

The oil and gas company has been selling its assets as part of a three-year, USD30 billon divestment plan that began in 2015 after the takeover of BG Group Plc.

Last year, it sold its Danish upstream business to Norwegian Energy in a deal valued at USD1.9 billion.

The Caesar Tonga field has 30 more years of life and assuming no change in the rate of production, Delek's interest reflects 78 million barrels of oil equivalent reserves, Israel's first government-owned gas retailer said.

Chief executive officer of Delek Asaf Bartfeld said the deal, along with the exploration activity in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, would beef up its position in the international energy market. The deal is subject to the right of refusal by Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Equinor ASA and Chevron Corp who own the rest of the field.

As MRC wrote previously, in late 2018, oil major Shell left the upstream sector in Ireland following the sale of its interest in the Corrib gas project. The Corrib natural gas field lies some 83km off the northwest coast of Ireland, approximately 3,000 meters under the seabed and in waters 350 meters deep. The field development started production on December 30, 2015.

Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014, in terms of revenue, and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian consumers faced a tight supply of low density polyethylene (LDPE) last week, with several producers simultaneously reducing their shipments. There has been no great rush in the market yet, but some sellers raised their prices, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Restrictions on shipments of some LDPE grades by a number of Russian producers began a week earlier, but this trend intensified last week. Negativity was added by the fact that restrictions were imposed on road freight transportation for movement on regional roads in a number of regions, which led to certain delivery problems and higher delivery costs. At the same time, there has been no big excitement in the LDPE market so far because of temporary tight supply. Sellers were trying to raise prices, but buyers resisted any growth.

Angarsk Polymers Plant restricted its LDPE shipments to the domestic market a week earlier. The plant's customers said supply restrictions were caused by export contracts, and an increase in supply of polyethylene (PE) for shipments to the domestic market can be expected not earlier than in the middle of this week.

Ufaorgsintez had problems at its ethylene unit last week, leading to lower capacity utilisation and reduction in shipments of 108 grade LDPE. The plant also shipped material for export. But the main problem was the fact that trucks had been loaded by no more than 10 tonnes per truck since 1 April. And this factor significantly reduced the rate of PE shipments to customers.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat also had issues at its LDPE production this week, which caused a temporary decrease in supply of PE in the domestic market.

Kazanorgsintez, Russia's second largest LDPE producer, shut down some of its production capacities for a long turnaround on 10 April. 108 grade LDPE was also shipped to the domestic market, partially due to the fulfilment of export contracts.

Consumer activity has been low in the LDPE market since early April, but tight supply still affected prices. The price rise has been insignificant so far and in some cases, it did not exceed Rb1,000-1,500tonne in comparison with the level as of the second half of March. Even amid the shortage, buyers continued to resist any price increase.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polypropylene (PP) imports into Russia slumped in the first three months of 2019 by 19% year on year to 37,100 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the greatest decrease, as per MRC's DataScope report.

Russian companies decreased volumes PP imports in March, which reached 13,900 tonnes against 15,200 tonnes in February; shipments of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and other copolymers of propylene decreased.
In general, total PP imports into the country decreased to about 37,100 tonnes in January - March compared with 45,000 tonnes year on year. The volume of external purchases for all grades of polymers of propylene decreased, while the most noticeably reduced imports of homopolymer PP.

Overall, the structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

March imports of homopolymer PP decreased to 4,700 tonnes against 5,000 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of homopolymer PP from Azerbaijan decreased slightly. Thus, overall imports of homopolymer PP to Russia totalled about 11,700 tonnes in the first three months of 2019, compared to 15,500 tonnes a year earlier.


March imports of PP block copolymers in Russia were about 3,500 tonnes against 4,300 tonnes in February on decreased demand for pipe PP. Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia reached 9,900 tonnes in January-March 2019, compared to 11,200 tonnes a year earlier.

March imports of PP random copolymers were about 3,100 tonnes versus 2,800 tonnes a month earlier, on increased volumes of injection moulding PP purchases. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Russia were 7,400 tonnes in January - March 2019, compared with 7,700 tonnes year on year.

Imports of other propylene polymers for the reported period increased to about 8,100 tonnes compared with 10,600 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- European refiners are paying the price for US oil sanctions on Venezuela and Iran as they scramble to replace sour crude Washington has blocked from the global market with increasingly expensive Russian oil, reported Rueters with reference to trading sources.

Compounding the impact of sanctions, OPEC members have mainly cut sour crude output as part of their deal with allied producers to boost oil prices while a large, new refinery, designed to run on sour oil, has just started up in Turkey.

US output is soaring and exports are set to jump later this year as new infrastructure comes online but it is not an alternative, being mainly light and sweet.

As a result, European refiners have been left competing to secure as much medium, sour Russian Urals as they can, pushing the differential of that oil to levels not seen since 2013.

"Urals is anchored in a positive zone versus dated Brent and there is no indication it will fall to a discount any time soon," a trading source at a European oil major said.

In the Mediterranean, the differential for Urals typically trades at a discount of at least a dollar to benchmark dated Brent but since early November, the level has spiked and now stands at a premium of 70 cents a barrel.

For a 600,000-barrel cargo of Urals, that rise translates to an extra USD1.35 million cost.

Thanks to the higher premiums, Russia made an additional USD140 million in March from seaborne and pipeline deliveries versus October prior to the sanctions coming into effect.

Initially, Europeans gravitated to heavy, sour Venezuelan oil when sanctions on Iran hit in early November but then Washington also placed sanctions on the Latin American country in late January in a bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Even though sanctions on Venezuelan crude will not come into effect until the end of April, the oil is effectively already untouchable as the US State Department has exerted direct pressure on foreign companies to stop all dealings.

The two sets of sanctions combined have taken at least 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) out of the market, which is as much as what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut.

The United States granted waivers on Iranian oil to six jurisdictions including three countries in the region - Italy, Greece and Turkey - but only Turkey was able to continue purchases. It remains unclear whether the current waivers will be extended in May.

The situation is set to worsen as European refiners emerge from their springtime maintenance just as Middle Eastern Gulf sour crude producers increasingly favor Asia, where refining capacity in the near term is set to jump.

Saudi Arabia, a major sour crude producer, is shouldering the bulk of the OPEC and non-OPEC cuts. Between October 2018 and March this year, the kingdom slashed its exports to Europe by nearly half, Refinitiv Eikon data shows.

Iraq reduced its contracted volumes for European refiners in 2019 and increasingly sells its oil to the highest bidder via tender.

Iraqi supplies to Europe fell by over 40 percent to 355,000 bpd in March compared with 615,000 bpd in October 2018, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s 200,000-bpd STAR refinery in Turkey is slowly ramping up and will be a new competitor for dwindling sour oil.

Designed to run on sour grades such as Russian Urals and Iraqi Basra and Kirkuk, the refinery took 184,000 bpd of Urals in March, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

"One expected STAR’s launch to be a serious jolt for the market, but little did we know it would make the sour shortage this bad ... refiners are rushing for sours," a European trader said.

As the supply-side structure has changed, the spread between sour and the historically far more expensive light, sweet crude has thinned and even flipped in some instances.

In the Mediterranean, the light grade Kazakh CPC Blend trades at a discount to Urals and Kurdish crude, which used to be one of the region’s cheapest oils.

The Urals price out of the Black Sea has also increasingly traded at a premium to Urals out of Baltic ports - previously a rare occurrence. The trend has prompted commodity price-reporting agency S&P Global Platts to start an industry consultation on changing how the Urals market is assessed.

"All refiners are looking for Urals or a Urals replacement," said a third trader in an international trading firm.

"And we see that it won’t be enough for everyone."

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in October 2018, 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.
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