Shenhua Ningxia resumes No. 3 PP unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Ningxia Сoal Industry (SNCG), a subsidiary of Shenhua Group, one of the largest petrochemical producers in China, has restarted its (coal-to-propylene) No. 3 polypropylene (PP) unit, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on July 14, 2019 following a maintenance turnaround. The unit was shut on June 25, 2019.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the No. 3 PP unit has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, SNCG brought on-stream its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant on January 19, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The unit remained off-line for around one week owing to technical issues.Located at Ningxia province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil companies began restoring some of the more than nearly 74% production shut at US Gulf of Mexico platforms ahead of Hurricane Barry, reported Reuters with reference to the US offshore drilling regulator's statement.

There was 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production off line in the US-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, about 80,000 barrels less than on Sunday, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Workers also were returning to the more than 280 production platforms evacuated. It can take several days for full production to be resumed after a storm leaves the Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko Petroleum, BHP Group and Chevron on Monday said they had begun returning staff to evacuated platforms and were in the process of restoring operations.

Barry went ashore in central Louisiana as a category one hurricane with at least 74 miles per hour (119 km per hour) on Saturday after emerging into the Gulf from Florida earlier in the week. On Monday, it was a tropical depression and dropping up to four inches (10 cm) of rain on Arkansas on Monday.

In its wake, offshore natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was down 61%, or 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (cfd), on Monday, BSEE said.

The amount of gas flowing to Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass liquified natural gas (LNG) export facility in Louisiana, rose to a one-week high of 3.7 billion cfd.

Last week, the amount of gas flowing to Sabine fell to a 13-week low of 2.9 billion cfd on Thursday, according to Refinitiv.

Most refineries in southeast Louisiana kept running through the storm except for Phillips 66's 253,600 bpd Alliance, Louisiana, refinery, which the company began restarting on Monday.

The Alliance refinery was shut on Friday due to the threat of flooding and a mandatory evacuation order in Plaquemines Parish, where the refinery is located along the Mississippi River.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co., the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, has licensed its UNIPOL PP Process Technology to Nayara Energy, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Located at the Vadinar Refinery in Gujarat, India, the new, world-scale capacity UNIPOL PP facility will utilize 450 KTA of propylene feedstock. Nayara Energy intends to produce phthalate-free homopolymer products for the Indian market using the most advanced PP process and catalysts technology available.

Grace's all gas-phase UNIPOL PP Process Technology provides the broadest range of PP homopolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers in the industry. This process technology, without any moving parts inside of the reactor and requiring less equipment than any alternative, is a reliable, safe, and stable operation that leads to lower capital, operating, and maintenance costs.

Sergey Denisov, Nayara Energy’s Chief Development Officer said, “Investing in the UNIPOL® PP process technology gives us the ability to make a broad range of phthalate-free products for our customers. As the demand for these advanced PP products increases in the region, Nayara Energy wants to ensure that it is using the most up-to-date, reliable, and cost-effective technology to meet our customer’s needs."

Laura Schwinn, President, Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business, said, “Grace is excited to partner with Nayara Energy. We are confident that the wide range of homo-, random-, and impact copolymer products, combined with our non-phthalate CONSISTA® catalysts, will give Nayara Energy the edge it is seeking in the polypropylene resin marketplace."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico will reduce the tax burden of heavily indebted Pemex by some USD7 billion over the next two years and inject government capital to build a new refinery and raise output from onshore and shallow water fields, the company said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Presenting the outline of a business plan watched closely by investors, Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero said an onerous profit-sharing tax that hands much of the company’s income to the federal government made the company financially unsound.

He reiterated that the tax will be reduced 11 percentage points to 54% by 2021. The company has previously said that reduction would save the company USD7.1 billion in 2020 and 2021.

With few new details, the outline of the plan failed to excite markets, and Mexico’s peso weakened slightly against the dollar during the presentation. Pemex is the world’s most indebted company, and its credit was downgraded to junk by Fitch this year. Moody’s and S&P have the company, Mexico’s biggest, on negative outwatch.

High on ratings agencies’ list of concerns is the government’s plan to build a new USD8 billion refinery at Dos Bocas. Former Finance Minister Carlos Urzua cited his opposition to the refinery after he resigned last week, saying experts believed it would cost far more.

A more detailed, 200-page version of the plan would be unveiled later on Tuesday, Romero said. Focusing on easy to access on shore and shallow water fields, Romero vowed to raise Pemex production within three years, and to reach 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil by the end of the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2024, from a current 1.8 million barrels a day.

Sticking to the government’s position since it took office in December, Romero said it made more sense to invest in these fields to rapidly increase output, rather than the deepwater area of the Gulf of Mexico which the last government wanted to tap.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA is reorganizing its trading business, the company told Reuters, as the state-run oil firm seeks to best take advantage of an expected increase in oil and gas exports.

Petrobras, as the company is widely known, is dividing its marketing and trading division into a domestic unit and an international unit, the company said in a statement, after two sources told Reuters of the changes.

"Petrobras is splitting its Marketing and Trading area into Trading in Foreign Markets (CME) and Trading in Domestic Markets (CMI)," the company said. "The change aims to align Petrobras with movements in the sector and bring more synergies, innovation and agility to its trading unit."

Petrobras is ramping up oil and gas production in Brazil’s so-called pre-salt area, located off the nation’s southeastern coast, which in turn has led the firm to eye new export markets.

In May, Reuters reported that Petrobras would store crude in China to better respond to immediate demand by local refineries. In late June, Petrobras’ head of downstream operations said exports could increase by over a third "in the coming years."

While Petrobras’ trading area has been divided principally by product - such as crude and various fuels - the main division will now be between domestic and international markets, said the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not permitted to speak publicly.

The reorganization also comes as Petrobras’ trading operation confronts a major corruption scandal that has engulfed major commodities trading houses, including Glencore PLC , Trafigura, Mercuria Energy Group and Vitol SA.

In December, Brazilian prosecutors charged 14 people, including six former Petrobras employees, with taking part in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Petrobras.

In June, Reuters reported that Petrobras managers, at least one of whom is still at the company, ignored previous warnings from employees about a fuel broker who prosecutors now say was a key actor in the scheme.

As MRC wrote previously, in H2 June, 2019, Petroleo Brasileiro SA said it had signed a deal with local antitrust regulator CADE regarding the proposed sale of some of its refining installations. According to a securities filing, the company said the agreement will allow for increased competition in Brazil’s refining sector, by attracting new players to the business.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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