TC Energy shuts oil line as flooding disrupts US Gulf terminals

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TC Energy Corp’s Marketlink oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Nederland, Texas, was shut as flooding disrupted operations at US Gulf Coast terminals, reported Reuters with reference to traders familiar with the matter.

Dangerous flash floods inundated parts of southeastern Texas on Thursday as Tropical Depression Imelda dumped the last of its rains, with the National Hurricane Center predicting rain totals up to 35 inches (89 cm) in some coastal areas.

Energy Transfer LP’s Nederland terminal, located between Beaumont and Port Arthur, was also shut briefly on Thursday.

The terminal had a power outage earlier in the day but it had since been restored and operations have returned to normal, Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer said in an email.

The 750,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Marketlink pipeline connects to the Nederland terminal, market sources said, forcing the line to be shut. The restart of the terminal would likely speed up the restart of the pipeline, traders said.

TC Energy did not respond to a request for comment.

The closure of the pipeline weakened prices at Cushing, with front-month U.S. crude futures widening to as much as 10 cents a barrel discount to the second month, on expectations that barrels will be backed up at the storage hub.

Cushing is the delivery point for benchmark US crude futures and inventories there have dropped for 11 weeks in a row through Sept. 13.

Phillips 66 also shut operations at its Beaumont Terminal in Nederland, Texas, as a safety precaution due to flooding.

The outages are likely to disrupt loadings out of the Gulf Coast and weigh on crude exports, which have surged to weekly records above 3 million bpd this year, traders said.

Exxon Mobil Corp shut its 369,024 bpd Beaumont, Texas, crude oil refinery on Thursday because of flooding from Imelda, sources familiar with plant operations said.

Other refineries in southeast Texas cut back production as heavy rain continued to fall for a second day from Houston to western Louisiana.

As MRC wrote previously, a week earlier, 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. The Baytown refinery is the fourth largest in the United States and Exxon’s largest US refinery.

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) - The validity period of the zero rate of import customs duty on terephthalic acid (PTA) to the territory of the Russian Federation has been extended until the end of 2022, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development reports.

The ministry said that in order to develop the production of petrochemicals, it was decided to maintain the duty-free regime for importing terephthalic acid until 2022. The rate was reduced from 5% to 0% for the period from 1, January, 2016 to 31 December, 2017 inclusive, then the duty-free import was extended until the end of 2019.

The only producer of PTA in the Eurasian Economic Union is Polief, which capacity was increased in 2019 from 272,000 to 350,000 tonnes of PTA per year. The company reported that part of the additional volumes of raw materials will be shipped to the market, part will be spent on new SIBUR production facilities, primarily the production of DOTP plasticizer.

At the same time, the total consumption of the Union amounted to 500,000 tonnes in 2016.

The main consumers of PTA are OJSC "POLIEF", OJSC "SIBUR-PET", CJSC Senege New Polymers Plant , CJSC Alco-Naphtha, OJSC Mogilevkhimvolokno.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate, which is used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC DataScope survey, over the course of eight months, Chinese bottle PET deliveries to Russia increased 34% to 95,600 tonnes. The share of imports from China amounted to 90% compared to 85% for the same period last year.

August imports of material from China decreased by 41% to 7,600 tonnes against 12,800 tonnes in July.
The leading Chinese suppliers to the Russian market are producers Jiangsu Sanfangxiang, Yisheng, Wankai and Sinopec.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A little more than two years after announcing it had selected San Patricio County as the site for its new ethylene cracker plant, ExxonMobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. celebrated the groundbreaking for the new facility, reported Plastemart.

This marks the symbolic start of construction on the USD7 bln Gulf Coast Growth Ventures facility near Gregory.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality granted GCGV permits in June that allowed construction to move forward, following a contested case hearing held after concerns were raised by environmental groups and local residents.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company's multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil's broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant's polyethylene capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

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.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering (MHIENG), together with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA), both group companies of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), has completed construction of a large-scale polyethylene production train for ExxonMobil in Beaumont, Texas, said Hydrocarbonengineering.

MHIENG received the order for the plant in 2016. It is located adjacent to ExxonMobil's existing polyethylene plant, currently in operation, and will produce 650 000 tpy of polyethylene.

MHIENG handled the detailed engineering for the project, as well as the supply and procurement of equipment, and construction support.

ExxonMobil and MHIENG have partnered on similar polyethylene plants, including in Singapore in 2011 and Mont Belvieu, Texas in 2017. Beaumont marks the third consecutive polyethylene plant project for ExxonMobil with a fourth currently under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas, jointly owned with SABIC. In addition to polyethylene plants, MHI Group has a solid track record of providing ExxonMobil with large-scale compressors and turbines for ethylene and LNG plants.

Demand for chemical plants is strong in the US with increased production of shale gas. MHIENG, in cooperation with MHIA, which is headquartered in Houston, Texas (where major chemical plant customers are concentrated), aims to continue to build relationships with ExxonMobil and other clients, and actively pursue business in the US chemical plant market.

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) -- Rising demand for the polyolefin materials such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) from end user industries such as automotive, construction and packaging are driving the global polyolefin market. Global polyolefin market is expected to reach USD367.36 bln by 2025, from USD214.83 bln in 2017 at a CAGR of 6.94%, as per Plastemart with reference to Fior Markets.

Even though factors such as rapid industrialization in the Asia Pacific region, growth in packaging industry coupled with growing demand for the flexible packaging materials are driving the global polyolefin market, volatility in the raw material prices and the implementation of the stringent environmental norms is predicted to hamper the growth of the global polyolefin market market. The growing demand for the flexible packaging materials and concerns related to the improper disposal of the polyolefin plastic materials are expected to restrain the growth of the market over the forecast period.

In order to enhance their market position in the global polyolefin market, key players are now focusing on adopting the strategies such as product innovations, mergers & acquisitions, recent developments, joint venture, collaborations, and partnership. For instance, in March 2019, Borealis and ADNOC signed Memorandum of Understanding to explore strategic opportunities in the polyolefin industry. Under the terms of the agreement, Borealis and ADNOC will jointly explore potential growth opportunities within the integrated polyolefin industry in key geographical markets.

Major players are focusing on tapping the unexplored markets in order to increase their market share. For instance, SOCAR polymers in 2019, announced the launch of 120,000tpa high-density polyethylene (HDPE) production facility in Azerbaijan. With this new manufacturing capacity, Azerbaijan will be self-sufficient in the polyolefin. To better serve the ever increasing demand for the polyolefins, major firms are increasingly launching new and improved products. For instance Borealis AG in 2016, announced the extension of its Queo polyolefin plastomers portfolio with the launch of three new polyolefin elastomers. The three new polyolefin elastomer grades to be launched are Queo 6800LA, Queo 7001LA and Queo 7007LA.

Polyethylene (PE) segment had a market value of USВ84.79 bln in 2017. Due to their light weight, high durability, non-toxicity and chemical and corrosion resistance properties, the ЗУ materials are extensively used in the manufacturing of the packaging films and household containers, as well as automobile accessories.
Application segment is divided into packaging, automotive, electronics, construction materials and others. Automotive application segment held a robust share of the global polyolefin market in 2017, due to growth in the replacement of the metal with polyolefin materials and growing demand for the lightweight, fuel efficient cars. Growing consumer preference for the ecofriendly packaging materials, increasing demand for the recyclable containers as well as focus on reducing the carbon emission are factors that are expected to propel packaging materials segment to grow at an accelerated CAGR of 8.83% over the forecast period.

Asia Pacific region emerged as the largest market for the olefin with a 43.56% share of market revenue in 2017. Factors such as rapid industrialization, the growth of end user industries as well as increasing demand for the fuel-efficient automobiles in the region are projected to propel Asia Pacific region to grow at an accelerated CAGR of 9.02% over the forecast period. North America region is also anticipated to grow at a robust pace in global polyolefin market due to wide utilization of the polyolefins in the end-use industries such as automotive and transportation, construction, and electronics.

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