ExxonMobil Baytown refinery production unaffected by shut Houston channel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Production at Exxon Mobil Corp’s 560,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baytown, Texas refinery was unaffected by a closure of the upper Houston Ship Channel because of a protest by Greenpeace USA, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Baytown refinery is the fourth largest in the United States and Exxon’s largest US refinery.

As MRC wrote previously, Exxon Mobil Corp brought under control a fire that erupted on 31 July, 2019, at its Baytown, Texas, refining and chemical plant complex, injuring 37 workers, none seriously. The fire, which was put down by the company’s employees, sent black smoke into the air over the complex in Baytown, a city of 75,000 which is located about 30 miles (48 km) east of Houston.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. biodiesel industry leaders told an Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator in Houston, Texas that they want the Trump administration to boost the volume of biodiesel that oil refiners must blend into their fuel each year, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The request came days after President Donald Trump promised to deliver a "giant package" to U.S. farmers related to ethanol, in response to pressure from the corn lobby over the administration's expanded use of waivers freeing small refineries from their obligation to blend biofuels.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard regulation, refineries are required to blend biofuels into their fuel but small facilities under financial strain can be exempted. Trump authorized the EPA to grant 31 waivers to small refineries in August, far more than the Obama administration had typically granted.

The biodiesel leaders told Region 6 Administrator Ken McQueen that the biodiesel industry has also been hurt by the waivers, not just the ethanol industry, and an increase in blending mandates would help compensate for that, the sources said.

During the meeting, the group added that it does not benefit from the lifting of a summertime ban on E15, a higher-ethanol blend of gasoline, the sources said. The Trump administration earlier this year lifted the ban, hoping to give a boost to Midwest farmers struggling under his trade wars.

McQueen said he would relay comments from the meeting to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the sources said.

In July, EPA proposed requiring refiners to blend 20.04 billion gallons of biofuels into their fuel in 2020, up from 19.92 billion gallons in 2019. The proposed mandate, now under review by other government agencies before being finalized, includes 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels like ethanol, unchanged from 2019. It also includes 5.04 billion gallons of advanced biofuels, like those made from agricultural wastes, up from 4.92 billion in 2019, the sources said.

The mandate also proposed a biodiesel mandate of 2.43 billion gallons for 2021, unchanged from 2020, they said. The EPA sets biodiesel mandates a year in advance. PA has until the end of November to finalize the proposal.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations were stable last Thursday morning at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 340,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) joint-venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas, after the upper Houston Ship Channel was closed by protesters from Greenpeace USA, reported Reuters with reference to a Shell spokesman.

The Deer Park refinery is a 50-50 joint-venture between Shell and Mexico’s national oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Shell is the managing partner of the joint-venture.

Shell has three crackers at Deer Park site with a combined ethylene capacity of 1,67 mln per year and petrochemical plants.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Korea’s petrochemical exports to China are plummeting amid China’s economic slowdown and rising self-sufficiency in petrochemical products, said Businesskorea.

Exports of petrochemicals, one of Korea's main export items, fell 5.4 percent year on year in January. In December of last year, exports dropped 6.3 percent.

The sharp decline in exports of petrochemical products is blamed on sluggish exports to China. In January, Korea's exports to China fell 19.1 percent year on year. Exports of petrochemical and petroleum products fell 13.7 percent and 36.4 percent, respectively.

About half of Korea’s petrochemical exports go to China. Last year, China accounted of 47.5 percent of Korea’s petrochemical exports, down 3.5 percentage points from 2017. In monetary terms, the value of exports to China accounted for 43.6 percent of the total, down 2.4 percentage points from 2017.

Exports of major domestic petrochemical companies are lopsided toward China as well. In the case of SK Innovation, 90 percent of petrochemical exports go to China. The ratio is 60 percent for Hanwha Total. “Korean petrochemical companies have failed to diversify their export markets and continue to rely on China,” an industry official said. "China has been the biggest export market for Korean petrochemical companies."

The problem is that China's economy will not grow as fast as it did before and China’s self-sufficiency rate in petrochemical products is rising. The International Monetary Fund recently lowered its forecast on China's economic growth for this year to 6.2 percent from 6.4 percent. China's global exports growth also fell from 9.6 percent in August to 4.4 percent in December.

China’s self-sufficiency in petrochemical products is also on the rise. Its self-sufficiency rate has already exceeded 100 percent for high-purity terephthalic acid (PTA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and acrylates.
MRC

МОSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) has completed the acquisition of Shell Saudi Arabia (Refining) Limited’s (Shell) 50% interest in the SASREF joint venture in Jubail Industrial City, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for USD631 million, said the company.

Completion follows receipt of all necessary regulatory consents. The acquisition supports Saudi Aramco’s plan to increase the complexity and capacity of its refineries, as part of its long-term downstream growth strategy.

For Shell, the sale is part of an ongoing effort integrating its refining portfolio with Shell Trading hubs and chemicals operations.

SASREF’s crude processing capacity is 305,000 bbl/day, according to its website. The refinery’s products include liquefied petroleum gas(LPG), naphtha, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and sulphur.

As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
mrcplastr.com