Naphtha cracker to be shut for maintenance by IOCL

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s top refiner, has plans to take off-stream, its naphtha cracker for a planned turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India, informed that, the company has scheduled a turnaround at the cracker, in early-September, 2019. The cracker is slated to remain off-line, for a period of around one month.

Located in Panipat, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 857,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 425,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported before, Indian Oil witnessed a massive blast in its refinery at Panipat, Haryana. A domestic source informed then that the blast took place in the naphtha cracker of the refinery in the afternoon, on 22 January 2018. One contractual employee of IOCL was reportedly killed in the accident while 5 others were injured.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP and Glencore are struggling to sell around 600,000 tons of tainted Russian oil more than three months after the contamination was discovered, according to six trading sources, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Russia’s oil industry was plunged into a crisis in April after about 5 million tons of oil for export was found to be contaminated with organic chloride, a chemical used to help boost oil extraction but which can damage refining equipment.

Exports through the Druzhba pipeline that transports oil to Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Belarus were halted. The Baltic port of Ust Luga loaded some 15 cargoes or 1.5 million tons of the contaminated oil for Western buyers.

At least 6 cargoes that sailed from Ust Luga remain unsold, according the trading sources. Glencore is stuck with 500,000 tons in one very large crude carrier (VLCC) Amyntas and two smaller tankers - Searanger and Searuby, according to the sources and Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking system.

BP has tried to sell its cargo Fsl Shanghai at a tender earlier this month but failed, according to the same traders. BP and Glencore both bought the oil from Russian state oil major Rosneft.

BP and Glencore declined to comment. Rosneft did not respond to a Reuters request to comment. They cannot claim compensation until they sell the oil.

"You can’t file a claim against Russia until you have actually sold your oil and counted your losses," one of the trading sources said. President Vladimir Putin said in April oil contamination had damaged Russia’s image as a reliable supplier. Transneft and Rosneft have been at loggerheads over efforts to resolve the situation.

The oil was transported by pipeline monopoly Transneft, which said it was ready to pay compensation to Russian shippers which in turn would pay compensations to overseas buyers.

Transneft and the Russian Energy ministry did not respond to Reuters requests to comment. So far, Transneft has only agreed to pay USD15 per barrel in compensation, or roughly a quarter of the cost of the oil, to Kazakh oil producers, whose barrels got contaminated while en route to Western markets.

“Many buyers of Russian oil believe USD15 per barrel won’t be enough,” a trading source in a major said. Some consumers who received tainted oil consider USD30 per barrel as reasonable compensation, two traders involved in the discussions said.

Several refiners, including Total’s Leuna in Germany, had to temporarily suspend refining of Russian oil because of fears of damaging refining equipment.

Another source with a large Western buyer said consumers would most likely file claims in the autumn when they finally manage to refine the dirty oil. Oil firms have to blend one barrel of tainted oil with as much as 10 barrels of clean oil to reach required quality standards and avoid damaging equipment, sources said.

Total, for example, offloaded its two tankers with dirty oil in Rotterdam and Lithuania for storage and blending and further refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SOCAR Energoresource LLC is tendering to sell up to 165,000 tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel originating from the Antipinsky refinery for loading via the Baltic port of Primorsk in September-October, industry sources said, as per Reuters.

The tender closes on Aug. 22, and results are expected to be announced on Aug. 26, traders added.

A SOCAR Energoresource spokesman declined to comment.

Previously SOCAR Energoresource sold via a tender up to 90,000 tonnes of 10 ppm diesel originating from the Antipinsky refinery for loading via the Baltic port of Vysotsk in August and up to 150,000 tons for loading via Primorsk over August-September.

SOCAR Energoresource, a joint venture between Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, and a group of investors, acquired an 80% stake in the Antipinsky refinery in June.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Five producers of polypropylene (PP) intend to shut their capacities for the scheduled maintenance works in September. The longest turnaround will be at Stavrolen, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The upcoming September will be unusual for the Russian PP market, as five producers plan to shut their capacities at once. At the same time, in most cases, scheduled maintenance works will be short, the only exception is Stavrolen, which intends to stop production for more than 40 days.

So, in the early days of the calendar autumn, their capacities for carrying out repair work will be shut by Stavrolen (from 1 September) and Tomskneftekhim (from 5 September for two weeks), the annual PP production capacities at these producers are 120,000 tonnes and 140,000 tonnes/year respectively.

Ufaorgsintez plans to shut the production of polypropylene from 12 September, the shutdown is planned for 12 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

Poliom and Nizhnekamskneftekhim are expected to shut their PP plants for two weeks and one week respectively in the second half of September; their annual capacity are 230,000 and 210,000 tonnes/year, respectively. Producers have not yet announced the exact dates of the shutdowns.

It is worth noting that currently in Russia there are seven producers of polypropylene, the total annual capacity of which is 1.45 ml tonnes. ZapSibNeftekhim will start up new production with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes/year by the end of this year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polypropylene (PP) to Belarus rose in the first six months of 2019 by 12.7% year on year, totalling 55,800 tonnes. All grades of propylene polymers accounted for the increase in demand, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

June PP imports to Belarus were 10,200 tonnes, compared to 11,500 tonnes a month earlier, with local companies reducing their purchasing of polymer in Russia. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 55,800 tonnes in January-June 2019, compared to 49,500 tonnes a year earlier, demand increased for all PP grades, with propylene copolymers accounting for the greatest rise.

The structure of PP imports looked the following way over the stated period.

June imports of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) exceeded 5,800 tonnes, compared to 6,500 tonnes a month earlier. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 36,300 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 8.3% year on year. Russian producers with the share of about 86% of the total shipments were the key suppliers.

June imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus were 4,400 tonnes versus 5,000 tonnes a month earlier, local companies reduced their procurement of injection moulding block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) in Russia. Thus, overall imports of propylene copolymers reached 19,500 tonnes in January-June 2019, down by 22% year on year.

MRC