Hyundai Engineering to execute Polymers Police project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PDH Polska, owned by top Polish chemical group Azoty and Grupa Azoty Police, has signed a EUR 993 million turn-key contract with Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd for the execution of the Polymers Police investment project, reported TheFirstNews with reference to the companies' statements.

The "Polymers Police" project is a strategic undertaking of Grupa Azoty Capital Group implemented by PDH Polska S.A., a special purpose vehicle.

"Polymers Police" is one of the largest chemical investments in this part of Europe. The aim of the project is to build a completely new petrochemical complex, the scope of which will include: Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) Unit; Polypropylene (PP) Production Unit; Polypropylene (PP) Logistics Infrastructure; Handling and Storage Terminal (gas terminal) and Auxiliary Systems

The annual production capacity of the complex is to reach 437 thousand tonnes of polypropylene.

The project is to be completed in 2022.

As MRC informed earlier, in January 2018, W R Grace & Co (GRA) said that it had contracted to license its Unipol PP process technology to PDH Polska SA for a new facility in Police, Poland. With a capacity of 400 kilotons per year, the polypropylene PP line is expected to begin operations in 2022.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela’s 310,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Cardon oil refinery, operated by state-run oil company PDVSA, halted operations due to damage at some of its units, two workers at the Paraguana refining complex said, as per Reuters.

Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela’s oil ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.

The outage comes amid widespread fuel shortages in several states of the oil-rich but crisis-stricken country. Cardon is the country’s second-largest refinery, after 645,000-bpd Amuay.

In February, PetroChina Co planned to drop Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) as a partner in a planned USD10 billion oil refinery and petrochemical project in southern China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kazakh oil flowing via Russia to be loaded on tankers at the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga has been contaminated and Kazakhstan plans to seek compensation from Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft, reported Reuters with reference to a senior Kazakh energy official.

Russia’s oil export flows have been disrupted since April, when high levels of organic chloride were found in crude pumped via the Druzhba pipeline to Ust-Luga and other European countries.

Six tankers with 598,000 tonnes of tainted oil were loaded at Ust-Luga, Kazakh Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Aset Magaulov told Reuters.

"First, companies that sold the oil will talk to buyers about a discount, then ... (Kazakh pipeline operator) Kaztransoil will have separate talks with Transneft," Magaulov said.

Neither Transneft nor the Russian energy ministry replied to a Reuters request for comment.

Magaulov added that two separate tankers with 199,000 tonnes of clean Kazakh oil were loaded from Ust-Luga between May 10 and May 15. Russia’s energy ministry said earlier that clean oil had started to be loaded at Ust-Luga.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said on Thursday that Transneft would compensate all parties for losses incurred from contaminated oil if they could prove the damage, while the first European refinery declared force majeure.

"Based on the oil agreement with Transneft, given the fact that we supplied clean oil but it got contaminated ... there should be compensation from Transneft," Magaulov said.

Kazakhstan, which produces around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, is the second-biggest oil producer among former Soviet countries after Russia. Kazakhstan exports around 12 percent of its oil via Russia’s Ust-Luga.

Magaulov said a preliminary agreement had been reached with buyers under which they would take the contaminated oil at a discount. However, talks on such a discount are continuing and there is no estimate of potential compensation.

ExxonMobil, Chevron, Eni, CNPC and Lukoil are among the international companies producing oil in Kazakhstan.

The Druzhba pipeline splits in Belarus into a northern spur to Poland and Germany and a southern leg via Ukraine to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Only Hungary has resumed test flows to see whether its refinery equipment can withstand the contaminated oil.

Druzhba can pump 1 million bpd, or 1 percent of global oil demand. Ukraine and Belarus have said they will ask Transneft for compensation.

On Thursday, Russia’s Kozak said it would take 22 days to clean one branch of Druzhba and seven days for the other, without specifying which was which.

Meanwhile, Poland has increased seaborne oil imports and Czech refiner Unipetrol will start drawing the second batch of an emergency loan of crude from state reserves overnight.

France’s Total has suspended operations at some units of its 230,000-bpd Leuna refinery in Germany for technical checks following the Russian contamination.

Total said it was trying to manage any long-term supply complications and planned to resume operations on Saturday using crude sent via the Polish port of Gdansk.

Russian oil production remained under pressure due to the pipeline debacle. Output from May 1-16 fell to 11.156 million bpd, below the 11.18 million bpd level set in a supply-limiting deal with producer group OPEC, two industry sources said.

Before the contamination, sources indicated Moscow wanted to pump more from July along with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which was considering whether to raise output if Venezuelan and Iranian supply dropped further.

A panel of OPEC and non-OPEC ministers meets on Sunday in Saudi Arabia to discuss the market and make recommendations. The group, known as OPEC+, gathers in June to decide whether to renew the supply-cutting deal.

As MRC informed earlier, Belarus state oil firm Belneftekhim said in a statement on Saturday that not enough clean oil is available for the Novopolotsk refinery to work at its optimal capacity, after contaminated oil was received via the Russian Druzhba pipeline.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery does not plan to receive oil this month and has removed itself from the delivery schedule, Interfax news agency cited oil pipeline monopoly Transneft.

A London court has issued a worldwide order to freeze 225 million euros (USD252 million) in assets belonging to the oil refinery, owned by New Stream Group, Reuters reported last week.

In the late April, Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev was set to gain control over a debt-ridden Afipsky oil refinery. The refinery in southern Russia has a capacity of 6 million tons per year (120,000 barrels per day). Since last year, it has been under the management of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, its top lender.

JSC Antipinsky Refinery was founded in July 2004 on the territory of one of the major oil and gas producing constituents of the Russian Federation - Tyumen Region, where most of Russian oil (64%) and natural gas (91%) reserves are concentrated.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Argentina has requested that the United States accelerate its review of anti-dumping duties it currently slaps on biodiesel imports from the South American nation, one of the world’s top exporters of the fuel,sa id Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Argentina’s Minister of Production and Labor Dante Sica, during a trip to Washington, told reporters on Friday he had asked for the “greatest speed” from U.S. counterparts to find a “quick solution towards being able to enter the market.”

Argentina, South America’s second-largest economy, had requested a review last November of U.S. tariffs imposed at the end of 2017 due to allegations of subsidies and dumping, which in effect shut off access for Argentine exporters to the U.S. market.

Sica, who met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday, told reporters in a live press conference and by phone that the American official had “showed the greatest understanding of the importance of this issue for Argentina.”

He added, however, that Ross was nonetheless constrained by U.S. legal and technical processes.

Argentine exports of biodiesel to the United States before anti-dumping measures came into effect totaled some $1.5 billion per year, which in 2016 was a quarter of the total value of Argentine exports to the United States, official data show.

Argentina’s biodiesel sector in recent years has been hit by trade sanctions for allegations of unfair competition.

In February, the European Union, which had also imposed tariffs on the country’s biodiesel, authorized eight Argentine-based producers to export the fuel to the bloc without paying duties as long as they agreed to a minimum set price.
MRC