Stavrolen plans to stop the production of polyethylene and polypropylene in September

MOSCOW (MRC) - Stavrolen, a major producer of polyolefins in Russia, plans to shut production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) for a long turnaround from 1 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report with reference to the producer's customers.

According to the company's customers, Stavrolen has planned a long-term scheduled maintenance works of HDPE and PP production facilities this year. The start of maintenance work is scheduled for 1 September and will take 45 days.

The company operates on a two-years cycle, and last year there was no stop for prevention. This will not be the first shutdown of Russian producers of HDPE for scheduled repairs in the current year.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat plans to shut its production capacities for a one-week scheduled turnaround in the early June. The plant's annual capacity is 120,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that Kazanorgsintez traditionally shuts its capacities for the production of HDPE in mid-September. The shutdown usually takes a little less than 4 weeks, the annual capacity is 540,000 tonnes/year.

Stavrolen's (part of Lukoil) annual capacity of PP and HDPE production is 120,000 and 300,000 tonnes, respectively.
The plant's output of propylene polymers and HDPE exceeded 99,500 tonnes and 33,800 tonnes, respectively, in the first four months of 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish refinery Cepsa aims to produce 2.2 million-2.5 million tons per year of shipping fuel that will be compliant with new IMO rules capping sulfur emissions, the head of marine fuels for Cepsa Trading said, as per Reuters.

Cepsa has so far not secured any buyers for the new very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), Carlos Giner Monleon told the Platts European Bunker Fuel Conference in Amsterdam.

Monleon said some customers tried the new fuel in tests at the end of February and at the end of April, but did not specify which customers.

From Jan. 1, 2020, ships will be required to burn fuels with a maximum 0.5% sulfur, down from 3.5% currently, International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules dictate.

U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group has agreed to buy between 30 and 40% of Cepsa from Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala.

As MRC informed earlier, Cepsa and Cosmo have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study new business opportunities in the lubricants market, both in Spain and Japan and internationally.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Upstream Albania B.V. said initial tests showed “a flow potential of several thousand barrels of oil per day” from its Shpirag 4 well in central Albania, and it needed more work to determine its commercial volume, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We are pleased that these initial tests have confirmed the potential of this discovery and look forward to growing our business in Albania," Marc Gerrits, Shell’s Executive Vice-President of Exploration, said.

The Shpirag 4 well west of Berat had confirmed the flow potential of significant light oil discovery, it added.

More appraisal work was needed to assess commercial volumes in Shpirag, in an equivalent geological setting to the large Val D’Agri and Tempa Rossa fields in Italy, Shell Albania said.

It plans to go ahead with extended production tests on the Shpirag 4 well and more drills to appraise the Shpirag 3 well, while exploring others to test their potential.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2018. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) announced the official start-up of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The refinery operated by MOL’s unit Slovnaft in the Slovak capital Bratislava started receiving clean oil through the Druzhba pipeline at noon on Thursday, it said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Crude oil in quality which is required by its technical standards started flowing to the Bratislava refinery at noon,” a Slovnaft spokesman said in an email.

Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were suspended last month due to contaminated crude in the system.

As MRC informed earlier, McDermott International, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a sizeable* technology contract by MOL Petrochemicals for the basic engineering, technology license, catalyst and Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for an Olefins Conversion Technology (OCT) unit at MOL’s petrochemicals complex in Tiszaujvaros.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s largest lender Sberbank is in talks with potential investors to sell Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery, reported Reuters with reference to CEO German Gref.

The lender has also sold the debt-ridden Afipsky refinery to Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev, Gref said.

As MRC informed before, The Antipinsky oil refinery, which has a capacity of 9 million tonnes per year, said last Monday it had filed for bankruptcy, weeks after a London court ordered its assets be frozen in response to a lawsuit from a trading house.

Russia’s Antipinsky oil refinery does not plan to receive oil this month and has removed itself from the delivery schedule. 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.

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.
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