JV between China and Oman to build first polyethylene pipe factory in Oman

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JV between China and Oman aims to build first polyethylene (PE) pipe factory in Oman, reported Plastemart.

The factory is expected to be completed in about 10 to 12 months, with actual production expected to start in Q3-2020.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Special Economic Zone of Duqm ( 550 km south of the capital Muscat)for building Oman's first factory to produce reinforced PE pipes in August 2019.

The project is a Chinese-Omani partnership owned by Hongtong Duqm Pipes Company, which holds 51% stake, Blue Ocean International holds 44% and Daoud Alfarsi holds 5% stake.

As MRC wrote previously, the state-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) is conducting a planned maintenance at its polypropylene (PP) unit in Sohar, Oman during October. Maintenance work at 340,000 tons/year PP unit is scheduled to start on 6 October and it will last until the end of November.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Inner Mongolia Jiutai Energy Co Ltd has restarted its polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) plants, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The company shut down its PP on 8 October, 2019, due to plant issue.

Based in Inner Mongolia, China, its coal-based 320,000 tons/year PP plant restarted by 15 October 2019, meanwhile its coal-based 280,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE)/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing plant had a brief turnaround on 12-14 October 2019.

As MRC informed before, Jiutai Energy started commercial production at its new coal-to-polyethylene in September 2015. The plant began to operate at normal rates from December 2015. Located at Erdos, Inner Mongolia region in China, the new PE plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Due to an unspecified technical issue at the upstream propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, Ningbo Fortune Petrochemical Co Ltd (Fuji) was forced to take both the PDH and the downstream polypropylene (PP) plants offline on 5 October 2019, reported CommoPlast.

Repair works are taking place, however, sources said that both plants might need to remain shut for at least 30 days.

Ningbo Fortune Petrochemical Co Ltd (Fuji) is a subsidiary of Oriental Energy Co Ltd (Dong Hua). Its plant in Ningbo houses a PDH unit with an annual capacity of 660,000 tons of propylene/year. Meanwhile, the PP unit produces 400,000 tons/year.

As MRC wrote before, in 2018, Oriental Energy Ningbo restarted its PDH unit following an unplanned outage, in end-September. The unit was shut owing to technical glitch in mid-September, 2018. Located in Zhejiang, China, the PDH unit has a propylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year.

Besides, Oriental Energy Co., China's largest liquefied petroleum gas importer, plans to invest about CNY2.5 billion (USD398 million) to enlarge its PP plant in Ningbo in southeastern China’s Zhejiang province to supply rising demand for industrial plastics. The Ningbo unit of Nanjing-based Oriental Energy, Oriental Energy New Materials Co., will set up the project in the Ningbo Daxie Development Zone to produce homopolymer and random copolymers. The project will include two production lines, which will apply US-based W. R. Grace & Co.’s gas-phase, fluidized bed reactor technology, and targets an annual output of 400,000 tons each. The construction period is two years. The company's storage capacity and Ningbo's port will feed the plant’s raw material needs.

Oriental Energy will set up another PP plant in Lianyungang in east-central China’s Jiangsu province, as well two other petrochemical facilities in port cities in Jiangsu - one in Lianyungang and the other in Zhangjiagang - with an annual output of 400,000 tons of the thermoplastic polymer resin.

Propylene is a feedstock for the production of PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PRefChem) abruptly shut down its cracker in Pengerang, Malaysia last Friday, 25 October 2019, due to an unspecified technical issue, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The naphtha cracker produces 1.2 million tons/year of ethylene and 600,000 tons/year of propylene.

Sources with knowledge of the matter said that it might take roughly ten days for the cracker to come back online.

As MRC informed before, the company received commerical ethylene and propylene at its new cracker in Pengerang on 13 September, 2019.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

PrefChem a joint venture between Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and Saudi Aramco. The Pengerang Refining development, part of Petronas’ USD27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex, consists of a 300,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 million tonnes per year in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The U.S. oil and corn industries will continue a long-running public battle over America’s biofuels policy during a Congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s use of “secret waivers” for refineries, said Reuters.

The hearing set by the Energy and Commerce Committee will air out the grievances of two key political constituencies heading into next year’s election at a time President Donald Trump has been working hard to win them over.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency this month announced a change to the nation’s biofuel policy, intended to please farmers, that would increase the amount of corn-based ethanol some oil refineries must to blend next year to make up for volumes it has waived.

Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, the refining industry must blend 15 billion gallons of ethanol every year, but small individual facilities can secure exemptions if they prove compliance would cause them disproportionate economic harm.

Trump’s EPA has vastly expanded its use of the waivers, which are issued confidentially, triggering a backlash among representatives of the corn industry who claim the exemptions are lucrative handouts to Big Oil and hurt farmers by cutting ethanol blending volumes.

The move to adjust the program to make up for the waivers starting next year was intended to appease the Farm Belt, but biofuels companies have instead reacted angrily – saying the proposal failed to make up for the impact of the waiver program so far and fell short of the administration’s promises.

"It falls short of delivering on President Trump’s pledge to restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard and leaves farmers, ethanol producers, and consumers with more questions than answers," Geoff Cooper, the head of the Renewable Fuels Association, said shortly after the proposal was issued.

The oil industry, meanwhile, also dislikes the proposal. Refiners see ethanol as competition for petroleum-based fuels and argue the EPA’s proposal unfairly forces big refineries to bear the burdens of their smaller competitors.

The refining industry also refutes accusations that the waivers have impacted overall demand for ethanol, arguing that the U.S. trade war with China has been a much bigger factor behind falling agricultural commodity markets.

The hearing will include testimony from the RFA, the heads of two biofuel companies, and the president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers refining lobby group.
MRC