Saudi Aramco says full oil production will be back by end of September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco will bring full oil production capacity at Abqaiq by the end of September, Khalid Buraik, the company’s vice-president for southern area oil operations said, as per Reuters.

Abqaiq, one of the world’s largest petroleum processing facilities, sustained heavy damage from an attack by drones and missiles on Sept. 14.

Aramco is shipping equipment from the United States and Europe to rebuild the damaged facilities, Fahad Abdulkarim, Aramco's general manager for the southern area oil operation, told reporters on a tour organized by the company to the two sites east of the capital Riyadh.

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) -- Tomskneftekhim (TNKhK), a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (LDPE), has resumed its production after shutdown for a scheduled maintenance, according to ICS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Tomskneftekhim had resumed operations at its LDPE and PP production capacities by 20 September after a short scheduled turnaround. The outage lasted for less than two weeks.

It is also worth noting that Poliom plans to restart its PP production by the end of this week after a two-week scheduled maintenance.

According to MRC's data, Tomskneftekhim's overall output of polyethylene (PE) and PP was 177,600 tonnes and 99,300 tonnes, respectively, in the first eight months of 2019, compared to 153,500 tonnes and 91,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Tomskneftekhim, LLC, was established in July 2003 on the basis of Tomsk enterprises - CJSC "Metanol", OJSC "Plant Benzol", OJSC "Tomsk Petrochemical Plant", OJSC "Tomsk Petrochemical Enterprise". Tomskneftekhim is a subsidiary of SIBUR and one of the largest Russian producers of polymers - PP and LDPE. The capacity for Tomskneftekhim's production of LDPE is 240,000 tonnes/year and production of PP - 140,000 tonnes/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's output of products from polymers rose in August by only 0.5% year on year. And this figure increased by 1.2% year on year in the first eight months of 2019, reported MRC analysts.

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, August production of unreinforced and non-combined films was slightly over 110,000 tonnes, compared to 112,000 tonnes a month earlier. Output of films products grew in January-August 2019 by 8.5% year on year to 718,900 tonnes.

Last month's production of non-porous boards, sheets and films rose to 33,100 tonnes from 32,400 tonnes in July. Thus, overall output of these products reached 250,700 tonnes over the stated period, up by 11.2% year on year.

August production of porous polymer boards, sheets and films was 25,700 tonnes, compared to 25,100 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of these products reached 174,800 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, compared to 195,500 tonnes a year earlier.

August production of plastic bottles and flasks decreased to 1,643,000 items from 2,536,000 items a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 14,064,000 units in January-August 2019, compared to 14,101,000 units a year earlier.

Last month's production of polymer pipes, hoses and fittings was 64,100 tonnes versus 63,900 tonnes in July. Overall output of these products was 396,800 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 3.1% year on year.

August production of sacks and bags from ethylene polymers reached 2,300,000,000 units, compared to 2,400,000,000 units a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 16,643,000,000 units over the stated period, compared to 17,808,000,000 units a year earlier.

Last month's production of linoleum and floor coverings was 14,880,000 square metres, compared to 15,470,000 square metres in July. Overall output of these products totalled 98,000,000 square metres in January-August 2019 versus 88,600,000 square metres a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine introduced a bill of banning plastic bags in stores since January 2022, reports Business Capital.

Bill No. 2051-1 is sponsored by eight people's deputies from the party "Servant of the People". Members of parliament offered to completely ban plastic bags with a thickness of less than 50 microns (it is believed that denser can be reused) in all trading enterprises.

It will be free to use biodegradable plastic bags with the appropriate labeling and bags of a certain type, designed to transport fresh meat and fish. This very “biodegradability” should correspond to the state standards that entered into force at the beginning of 2019.

It is noted that those packages that retailers are now selling under the pretence of environmentally friendly, in fact, are not. And stores actually mislead consumers, which even indirectly motivates them to purchase packaging.

Earlier it was reported that according to the UN, about 80 countries have already introduced a ban on disposable packages.

European Parliament, in the fight against pollution of the oceans, voted to ban disposable plastic products - disposable tableware, drinking straws, thin plastic bags and others in October last year. Republic of Belarus also began to consider the prohibition of free plastic bags in stores and the restriction of the use of disposable polymer glassware in catering establishments in July of this year.
MRC

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