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.
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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.
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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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises has signed an agreement to buy the Flint Hills Resources' cracker and chemical plant adjacent to its Port Arthur, Texas, oil refinery, kicking off a push into petrochemicals, reported Reuters.

Motiva, the US refining arm of Saudi Aramco, plans to operate the cracker while it builds three giant petrochemical units within its Port Arthur complex as part of an USD18 billion expansion of operations along the US Gulf Coast, said three sources familiar with the agreement.

Motiva said it expects to deal to close by late 2019.

The purchase price was not disclosed. Flint Hills acquired the plant from Huntsman Corp in 2007 for USD770 million.

The Flint Hills plant operates a 1.57 billion-pound-per-year ethylene cracker, a unit producing nylon component cyclohexane, and a network of pipelines and storage caverns, the sources said. Ethylene is a building block for plastics.

Motiva has been investing heavily in the Port Arthur area since becoming the sole owner of the 607,000 bpd refinery, after the 2017 break-up of a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell Plc that created Motiva.

In April, Houston-based Motiva announced it would refurbish two empty, historic buildings in downtown Port Arthur for use as offices. It also has filed documents with the state to build a USD5 billion steam cracker that would produce ethylene.

The sources said the Flint Hills chemical plant buys petrochemical feedstock from Motiva’s refinery, the largest in the United States.

The acquisition comes as the market for chemicals is growing faster than for gasoline and other refined products.

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.

Motiva Enterprises, LLC, is a fully owned affiliate of Saudi Refining Inc. and headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States with revenue of USD24 billion. Previously, it was a 50–50 joint venture between Shell Oil Company (the wholly owned American subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. (controlled by Saudi Aramco).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Switzerland-headquartered global food packaging company Tetra Pak and Saudi paper manufacturer Obeikan Paper Industries have entered into a joint venture to recycle used beverage cartons, said Recyclingtodayglobal.

Tetra Pak's Sustainability Director for Greater Middle East & Africa Rodney Reynders told a media round table in Cairo that the company will invest about USD1 million in the recycling unit, which will convert beverage cartons into value-added products.

The recycling plant, he continued, would be the first of its kind in the region with an annual capacity of 8,000 tonnes, adding that commercial operations will start by end-2019 and the plant is expected to achieve 50 percent capacity utilisation by end-2020.

"Tetra Pak is investing €80 million in development of paper straws, tethered caps, and other solutions that replace fossil-fuel based plastics straws during the period from 2019 to 2021," he disclosed.

He said in the Middle East and Africa region, 60,000 tonnes of used beverage cartons were recycled in 2018, and the company intends to expand its work even more in the future

He also pointed out that Tetra Pak's approach to sustainability reporting has evolved significantly over the past two decades from a focus on environmental commitments and actions in its first report in 1999 to evaluating every part of the business and its impact, including societal and supplier governance.

In 2010, Tetra Pak had set a goal to double its recycling rate to 40 percent by 2020, according to the company website.
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