US refiners tap Iraq, West Africa and Brazil for scarce crude supplies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiners have turned to several lesser-used oil suppliers in the wake of US sanctions that restricted usual providers of widely-used grades as they gear up for peak driving season, reported Reuters.

Iraq, Nigeria, Brazil and Angola combined last month are set to deliver their most crude oil to the United States in more than 18 months, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and trade sources, helping deliver needed heavy and sour crudes.

All told, May imports from those countries were expected to come in at about 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd), more than double April’s haul. Those cargoes include 11 tankers carrying about 600,000 bpd of Iraqi crude, the most from that country in a year, Refinitiv data showed.

The bump in imports from those nations versus the prior month reflects reduced supply from Venezuela and Iran due to US sanctions, and declining OPEC production that has cut availability of heavy and medium sour grades. US refiners also were finishing spring maintenance and gearing up for vacation-season gasoline demand.

Cargoes from these four countries are designed to “offset a majority of the loss” of Venezuelan heavy crude from sanctions, trade sources said. The move to bar the flow of dollars to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this year has halted US purchases from about 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year.

West African producers Nigeria and Angola are set to deliver 420,000 bpd combined this month, the highest in 13 months. Another 206,000 bpd of Brazilian crude were due to land in May, the most since August.

Receivers include the once-top US buyers of Venezuelan crude. Four tankers will deliver a combined 95,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Iraq, Nigeria and Brazil to Chevron Corp’s Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery, the most from those three countries in more than a year, the Refinitiv data showed.

Two tankers, the Leontios H, with about 500,000 barrels of heavy crude from Brazil, and the Richmond Voyager, with 1 million barrels of Iraq’s medium sour Basrah Light, discharged at Pascagoula in early May. The Cap Felix, with 1 million barrels of medium crude from Nigeria, and Myrtos, with 500,000 barrels of Brazilian crude, were scheduled to arrive last month, the data showed.

Three tankers chartered by Valero Energy Corp, the New Courage, the New Energy and the Pantariste, arrive this month in Louisiana, Texas and California with 187,000 bpd of Iraq’s Basrah Light.

Chevron does not comment on supply matters, spokesman Braden Reddall said. A Valero spokesman pointed to an April 25 earnings call where executives said a third of the crude processed in the first quarter came from “opportunistic” purchases from suppliers including Brazil.

Valero and Chevron were the top US buyers of Venezuelan crude last year, behind Citgo Petroleum, with 2018 imports of 166,000 bpd and 83,000 bpd, respectively. The two remain “very active in finding replacements,” one trader said.
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PetroChina Lanzhou to restart PP unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina Lanzhou Petrochemical in in plans to brought on-stream its PP unit following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to resume operations at the unit in mid-June 2019. The unit was shut in end-April, 2019.

Located at Gansu province in China, the PP unit has a production capacity of 110,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, PetroChina DaQing Refining & Chemical, another subsidiary of PetroChna, shut its PP unit for an unplanned maintenance work on January 22, 2019. The unit resumed production in end-January, 2019. Located in Daqing, China, the plant PP unit with production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

We also remind that in April 2019, LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) announced that PetroChina will use the LyondellBasell Hostalen "Advanced Cascade Process" (Hostalen ACP) technology to produce 1,100,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) capacity.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
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Arkema selects Jurong Island as site for bio-sourced polyamides facility

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema said it has chosen a site in Jurong Island, Singapore, to build a new "world-scale" plant for the production of its Rilsan high-performance bio-sourced polyamides, according to Apic-online.

The plant will produce both the amino 11 monomer and its polymer, Rilsan polyamide 11, which is derived from castor oil. Completion is expected by late 2021. Cost of the project was not given.

"This major investment bolsters our global presence in bio-sourced materials, while bringing us significantly closer to our customers in Asia," noted Erwoan Pezron, global group president for Arkema's Technical Polymers business line.

"Singapore's industrial and innovation-friendly envi-ronment is, we believe, a key asset for our project," he added.

As MRC reported before, in late January 2017, Arkema announced a project for the sale to INEOS of its 50% stake in Oxochimie. Arkema produced oxo alcohols on the Lavera site (France) in a 50/50 manufacturing joint venture with INEOS. These products were used in part for the production of the group’s acrylic esters in Europe. And in early March 2017, Arkema completed the sale to INEOS of its 50% stake in Oxochimie, their oxo alcohols manufacturing joint venture, and of the associated business.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
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LyondellBasell announces increase to quarterly dividend and shareholder approval of share repurchase program

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of USD1.05 per share, representing a five percent increase over the company's first quarter 2019 dividend, as per the company's press release.

The dividend will be paid June 17, 2019 to shareholders of record June 10, 2019, with an ex-dividend date of June 7, 2019.

"LyondellBasell's commitment to providing a progressively growing dividend for our shareholders is the foundation of our capital deployment strategy," said Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell. "This represents the eleventh increase since we began paying quarterly dividends in 2011."

The company also announced at its Annual General Meeting on May 31, 2019, shareholders approved a share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to 10 percent of the company's shares over the next 18 months. The repurchases will be executed from time to time through open market or privately negotiated transactions. LyondellBasell had approximately 370 million shares outstanding as of May 29, 2019.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

Perstorp non-phthalate PVC plasticizer, Pevalen, obtains FDA approval for food contact applications

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As of May 28 2019, Perstorp has obtained FCN 001967 (Food Contact Notification) from the FDA for the use of Pevalen as a plasticizer in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymers for use in repeated?use food contact articles, as per.

"The food contact notification will further strengthen the offer to the North American market which we believe will be a major growth region for a product like Pevalen, as it helps flexible PVC producers design products that meet the highest national regulatory requirements, without sacrificing performance or quality", said Jenny Klevas, Product Manager, Perstorp.

Pevalen (pentaerythritol tetravalerate or PETV) is Perstorp’s high-performance, true non-phthalate plasticizer. It is the perfect choice for sensitive applications and products in direct human contact, e.g. apparel and accessories, sports & leisure products, automotive interiors or other indoor applications such as furniture, floors or wall coverings in both homes and public spaces. Pevalen has a unique performance not matched by any other general-purpose plasticizer with high plasticizing efficiency in combination with low migration and volatility.

"Global demand for non-phthalate plasticizers is predicted to continue to grow at about 100.000 tons per year", said Markus Jonsson, Vice President Plasticizers, Perstorp. Based on this forecast, Perstorp is substantially expanding the production capacity of Pevalen from 2019 onwards. Perstorp has entered into a long-term production agreement with the Italian company Alcoplast Srl. The new partnership more than doubles current production capacity, bringing it in total to 50.000 tons per year.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2017, Perstorp announced world’s first portfolio of renewable alternatives to the essential polyols Pentaerythritol (Penta), Trimethylolpropane (TMP), and Neopentyl glycol (Neo).

Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.
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