Total tenders to sell 1.3M barrels of tainted oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France’s Total has issued a tender to sell 1.3 million barrels of contaminated Russian Urals crude oil for loading from Rotterdam port, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to three trading sources.

Russia loaded some 11 million barrels of Urals crude oil with organic chloride content that exceeded allowed levels from Ust-Luga port during an oil contamination crisis earlier this year.

Organic chloride is a chemical compound used to boost oil extraction by cleaning wells and accelerating the flow of crude. It must be removed before oil is sent to costumers because it can destroy refining equipment.

Contaminated Urals is very difficult to sell as the only way to make it acceptable for a refinery is to mix it with clean oil in a proportion of one to ten, or even more depending on the organic chloride content in the crude, traders have said.

France’s Total, as a big buyer of Urals oil, suffered a major impact on its business as it received contaminated Russian crude both via the Druzhba pipeline to its Leuna refinery in Germany and via seaborne cargoes loading from Ust-Luga.

Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said in May his company would seek compensation for the losses caused by the contaminated oil.

Trading sources told Reuters that Total was looking to sell 1.3 million barrels of contaminated oil in three parcels, with organic chloride content ranging from 23 parts per million (ppm) to 143 ppm.

Bids will be accepted until Sept. 19, with the results announced on Sept. 25, the sources said.

Total declined to comment.

In early August, BP tried to sell around 1 million barrels of contaminated oil from a tanker, but failed to find a buyer, trading sources said.

“I honestly think that Total has as good a chance to sell its contaminated Urals as BP - no chance”, said one of the trading sources.

Several Urals buyers including trading companies like Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura are stuck with contaminated Urals, which is difficult to sell in the market.

As MRC informed earlier, Total’s Gonfreville refinery near Le Havre, France, started its scheduled maintenance September 4, 2019. The works will last around two months. The large-scale maintenance, which takes place once every seven years, follows the maintenance at the petrochemical site which took place last year. Preparations for the turnaround have been going on for the last three years.

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. Meanwhile, 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.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Selective hydrogenation is the best technology when it comes to purifying highly valuable olefinic and aromatic streams produced by steam crackers and FCC units, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Axens’ latest generation of high performance selective hydrogenation catalysts combines state-of-the-art alumina carriers and cutting edge metal impregnation technologies. High activity, easy regeneration highly competitive cost-to-fill, are among the key advantages of these catalysts. They include LD 485 (Pd-based), LD 465 (Pd-based), LD 541 (Ni-based), LD 551 (Ni-based), mainly for first stage Pygas hydrogenation, and HR 606 (CoMo) for second stage Pygas hydrogenation.

This 100th reference is the result of a close collaboration with Galp, an important actor in the European refining market. In the framework of a catalyst replacement in a Galp selective hydrogenation unit that historically used palladium-based catalysts, Axens recommended a new approach by loading LD 541, a nickel-based catalyst, due to specificities in feedstock and operation of this particular unit. “Thanks to this new approach, Galp has significantly improved the unit’s operation in terms of performance and cycle length, illustrating thus the efficiency of the relation between Axens and Galp”, stated Yoeugourthen Hamlaoui, Technologist Hydrogenation & Reforming at Axens.

With this latest generation of catalysts, the Galp Selective Hydrogenation unit performs successfully in terms of selectivity and conversion, as it also uses for the first time the multi-awarded in first stage Pygas hydrogenation LD 541.

As MRC informed earlier, Axens and SP3H have signed a strategic partnership to develop and commercialize an industrial application of the microanalyzer developed by SP3H for the refining, biofuel and petrochemical markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As part of the regular meeting between the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang, SIBUR Holding (SIBUR) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) production, according to SIBUR's press release.

The parties to the Memorandum have agreed to set up a joint venture (JV) for the production of nitrile butadiene rubber with a capacity of 50 ktpa in China. SIBUR’s share in the joint venture will be 40% and Sinopec’s 60%.

Pavel Lyakhovich, member of the Management Board and Managing Director at SIBUR, said: "This Memorandum comes as a result of the earlier negotiations between SIBUR and Sinopec around the NBR production project. We have resumed our efforts to set up a JV on the back of strong consumer demand for NBR in China, and we plan to leverage this opportunity to expand our business in the growing market. The combined expertise of SIBUR and Sinopec will help the JV gain a strong foothold in both Russia and China, as well as in other geographies."

Due to high resistance to aggressive agents, NBR is an essential material for various fuel and oil resistant industrial rubber products. It is indispensable for the manufacturing of seals, hoses and bag fuel tanks, and is also used in conveyor belts in food production. Yet another application of NBR is rubberised textile fabrics designed for aggressive environments.

As MRC wrote previously, in early September 2019, SIBUR, the largest petrochemical comples in Russia and Eastern Europe, and BASF, Geman petrochemical major, agreed to closely cooperate on sustainable development to share their best practices. SIBUR held a design session on sustainable development in the petrochemical industry. At the event, BASF shared details on its new sustainability strategy and its integration into the company's overall strategy. The participants were also presented with the company's methods of environmental impact assessment and approach to the circular economy, which embraces opportunities for chemical recycling of plastics, such as the ChemCycling project. With chemical recycling, fossil resources for chemical production can be replaced with recycled material from plastic waste.

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. Meanwhile, 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.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.

SIBUR is the largest integrated petrochemicals company in Russia. The Group sells its petrochemical products on the Russian and international markets in two business segments: Olefins & Polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene, BOPP films, etc.) Plastics, Elastomers & Intermediates (synthetic rubbers, EPS, PET, etc.). SIBUR’s petrochemicals business utilises mainly own feedstock, which is produced by the Midstream segment using by-products purchased from oil and gas companies. More than 26,000 employees working in SIBUR contribute to the success of customers engaged in the chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction, energy and other industries in 80 countries worldwide. In 2018, SIBUR reported revenue of USD 9.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA of USD 3.3 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's oil supply is fully back online after weekend attacks halved output and the kingdom will achieve 11 million barrels per day (bpd) capacity by the end of September and 12 million bpd by the end of November, reported Reuters with reference to the energy minister's statement.

Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman also told a press conference that oil production in October would be 9.89 million bpd and that the world's top oil exporter would keep full oil supplies to customers this month.

He said Saudi Arabia would keep its role as the secure supplier of global oil markets, adding that the kingdom needed to take strict measures to prevent further attacks.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total’s Gonfreville refinery near Le Havre, France, started its scheduled maintenance September 4, reported Hellenic Shipping News with reference to the company's statement.

The works will last around two months. The large-scale maintenance, which takes place once every seven years, follows the maintenance at the petrochemical site which took place last year. Preparations for the turnaround have been going on for the last three years.

As MRC informed before, in 2015, Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, closed its remaining steam cracker in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France. The cracker, which was shut down on 5 Oct., was the second steam cracker closed at the site. The company shut down its first cracker in 2009. Capacities were not available for either cracker. The closure was part of Total's plan to adapt its Carling petrochemical platform with the development of new activities in the growing polymers and hydrocarbon markets.

And in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months. This event marked the completion of the upgrade program launched in 2013 of one of the largest and most efficient integrated refining & petrochemicals platforms in Europe. Thus, the company invested more than EUR1 B to further improve the competitiveness of this major site located in the heart of Europe's main markets.

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. Meanwhile, 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.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC