Phillips 66 refinery workers agree to extend contract ahead of vote

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations workers at Phillips 66’s 285,000 barrel-per-day Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey have agreed to a short contract extension ahead of a vote on a tentative three-year agreement set for Thursday and Friday, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

The previous contract for the workers, members of the Teamsters Union, expired on Sept. 30.

"The Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery can confirm that we have reached a tentative contract agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 877, which covers represented, hourly employees at the refinery and the Linden Terminal. A full ratification vote is to be scheduled," a Phillips 66 spokeswoman said.

Key provisions of the new contract include expanding operators’ responsibilities to include several different operating refinery units, a provision some union members say is a safety concern.

Two sources familiar with the negotiations said that the proposed contract includes an across-the-board 11% raise for refinery workers.

If an agreement is not reached, the unionized refinery workers could be subject to a lockout.

Bayway is the largest petrochemical complex on the east coast of the United States.

As MRC wrote before, US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

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.
MRC

Worker dies from injuries at BP Whiting, Indiana, refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A contract worker died from injuries received while working at BP Plc’s 430,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana refinery, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokesman's statement.

"BP confirms that a contract worker was injured today at the Whiting refinery," said company spokesman Michael Abendhoff. "BP’s local medical staff provided immediate assistance, but sadly the worker was later pronounced dead."

BP is in the midst of overhauling a 65,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at the refinery. Work on the unit in mid-September and was expected to take about a month to complete.

It was unclear if the person who was killed was working on that project.

"Our thoughts go out to his family and co-workers during this difficult time," Abendhoff said.

BP plans an internal investigation, he said. Workplace fatalities are also investigated by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As MRC informed before, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) have announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies have agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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.
MRC

Oman refineries output increases 2% in August

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The total production of refineries and petroleum companies in the Sultanate rose 2 percent at the end of August 2019, in comparison to figures for the same period of last year, while cars fuel production decreased 9.4 percent, according to Hellenic Shipping News with reference to the National Centre for Statistics and Information.

The production of regular gasoline (M91) declined 1 percent, to 9,645,98 barrels and sales decreased 3 percent, to 7,079,5 barrels, as its exports stood at 3,336,2 barrels. The statistics revealed that premium gasoline (M95) rose at the end of August by 14 percent, to 8,968,2 barrels, where sales rose by 24 percent to 8,448,3 barrels and its exports stood at 683 barrels.

Diesel production decreased by 6 percent, to 18,579,9 barrels, while the sales inclined by 5 percent, to 10,185,4 barrels and its exports fell by 13 percent to 8,251,8 barrels.

The Sultanate’s production of jet fuel rose by 10 percent, amounting to 10,076,6 barrels, where sales rose by 2 percent, to 3,247,3 barrels to increase its exports by 11 percent to 6,679,5 barrels.

Liquefied petroleum gas production rose 11 percent, to 5,217,8 barrels and sales increased by 2 percent, to 1,742,3 barrels. Its exports also rose 13 percent to 3,398,4 barrels.

Gasoline production dropped by 21 percent, to 125.000 metric tonnes, Paraxylene production also declined by 1 percent, to 452.000 metric tonnes, while its exports stood at 445 metric tonnes. Polypropylene production rose 6 percent, to 192.000 metric tonnes. Its sales fell by 24 percent to 27 metric tonnes, while its exports increased by 10 percent to 166.000 metric tonnes.

Propylene is a feedstock for the production of polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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

Rongsheng says Saudi crude supply to return to normal in October

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi crude oil supplies for China’s privately-run Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp will return to normal in October after a slight disruption last month following the attacks on Saudi Aramco’s facilities, two company officials said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“There was an adjustment in September but operations are back to normal in October,” Meng Fanqiu who heads Rongsheng International Trading Co in Singapore told Reuters. The trading unit procures crude for the refinery.

In September, the company swapped 1 million barrels of Arab Light crude for Arab Heavy and experienced a delay of 2-3 days when loading oil onto one of its supertankers, a second official who declined to be named said.

However, in October, Saudi Aramco has met Rongsheng’s request in terms of volume, crude grades and the loading dates, the officials said.

Drones and missiles hit Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on Sept. 14 and reduced output at the world’s top exporter by half. The head of Saudi Aramco’s trading arm said on Monday the company had restored full oil production and capacity to the levels they were before the attacks.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51% owned by Rongsheng Holdings, operates a 400,000 barrels per day refinery, built on an island off the archipelago city of Zhoushan in east China. The refinery is integrated with a petrochemical complex led by a 1.2 million-tonne per year ethylene facility.

The company has a contract for up to 170,000 bpd of Saudi crude with Saudi Aramco.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco has restored full oil production and capacity to the levels they were at before attacks on its facilities on Sept. 14, the chief executive officer of its trading arm.

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

Haldia Petrochemicals plant reopens after fire

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd’s plant restarted operations on Monday after a nearly 10-day closure caused by a September 20 fire that has claimed the lives of two employees, said Telegraphindia.

Parijat Bhattacharya, 40, a senior manager who was among the 15 injured staffers, died in hospital on Monday. An engineer, Bhattacharya was a resident of Agarpara on the northern fringes of Calcutta. Last week, Saurav Samanta, an operator, died. The condition of at least one more employee is said to be critical.

"We are extremely saddened. We have lost two valuable colleagues," general manager (human resources) Debasis Sen said. On Friday, a section of the employees agitated against the top management, blaming it for not taking adequate safety measures.

Sen said the grievances of the employees have been conveyed to the top management and the matter was being looked into.

According to Das, production at the naphtha cracker unit, where the blaze started following a suspected leak, would start shortly.

The company resumed production at cracker in Haldia in the West Bengal state, which can produce 700,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 350,000 tonnes/year of propylene.

As it was written earlier, on 20 September, a major fire broke out at Haldia Petrochemicals’ cracker in India on Friday, injuring at least 10 to 12 people.

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.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are PE and PP.
MRC