Sabic to invest in methanol plant in Russian Far East

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) has signed a preliminary agreement with the state-controlled Russian Direct Investment Fund and Moscow-based ESN Group for a potential investment in a methanol plant in the Russian Far East, as the Middle East’s biggest petrochemicals producer looks to expand its international footprint, reported Kemicalinfo.

The agreement, part of a broad range of pacts signed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Arabia on Monday, will explore the option to build and operate a methanol plant with a capacity of a 2 million tonnes per annum in Russia’s Amur region.

Yousef Al-Benyan, SABIC vice chairman and CEO, commented: "This is an important milestone in our global growth strategy. Russia is important to our global expansion plans, which have been formulated around competitive feedstock and our capacity to innovate and plan strategically. We plan to maintain our strategic partnership with the Russian market by continuing to focus on meeting customer needs, increasing our key customer base, and growing our commercial operation, in addition to enhancing our presence in the Russian market and maintain our leading position as a key methanol supplier."

In January, Sabic signed a preliminary agreement with South Louisiana Methanol to explore the possibility of developing a chemicals plant in the US to profit from the surging North American shale gas production.

It also increased its stake in Arrazi Methanol Company after purchasing Japan Saudi Arabia Methanol Company’s 50 per cent interest for USD150 million in December.

Investment in the downstream segment of the energy value chain has become a priority for Middle East oil producers, as they hope to earn revenues from the sale of higher value products.

As MRC wrote before, SABIC took off-stream its SABIC Olefins 4 cracker owing to technical issues on May 10, 2019. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in beek, the Netherlands, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 690,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 360,000 mt/year.

Besides, in the first week of September 2019, SABIC Europe, an affiliate of SABIC, started maintenance work at its cracker No.3 at Geleen site in the Netherlands. The planned maintenance is slated to last around 2 months. The company operates two steam crackers in Geleen which are capable of producing 1,250,000 tons/year of ethylene and 675,000 tons/year of propylene in total.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

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

Stavrolen resumed PP production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen, Russia's major polyolefins producer, has resumed its polypropylene (PP) production in Budennovsk after a long scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Stavrolen had fully resumed its PP production after the long scheduled maintenance by 15 October. The outage began on 6 September. The start-up of the plant's high density polyethylene (HDPE) production will take place with a week delay.

It is also worth noting that Kazanorgsintez intends to resume its HDPE production after a scheduled turnaround, which began on 14 September, by 20 October. The plant's overall annual capacity is 540,000 tonnes.

Stavrolen's (part of Lukoil) annual capacity of PP and HDPE production is 120,000 and 300,000 tonnes, respectively. The plant's output of propylene polymers and HDPE exceeded 78,600 tonnes and 210,800 tonnes, respectively, in the first eight months of 2019.
MRC

Shell restarts Norco, Louisiana, refinery hydrocracker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc restarted the hydrocracker at its 225,300 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

The 40,000 bpd hydrocracker was shut on Sept. 9 for a planned month-long overhaul. A longer than expected restart of the unit stretched the outage to six weeks, the sources said.

As MRC informed before, operations were stable on 13 September at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 340,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) joint-venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas, after the upper Houston Ship Channel was closed by protesters from Greenpeace USA. The Deer Park refinery is a 50-50 joint-venture between Shell and Mexico’s national oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Shell is the managing partner of the joint-venture. Shell has three crackers at Deer Park site with a combined ethylene capacity of 1,67 mln per year and petrochemical plants.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

Valero begins maintenance at Corpus Christi refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) said it began month-long maintenance work Friday at the East plant of its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, reported MorningStar.

"Valero will be conducting routine maintenance activities at its East Plant from 10/11 - 11/9," the refinery said in statement to the city's Community Alert line. "During this time, there will be increased vehicle traffic, lights and sounds in that area."

Valero's 293,000-barrel-a-day Corpus Christi refinery includes an East and West plant.

As MRC wrote previously, Valero Energy Corp restarted the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 335,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, refinery after repairing a valve on 25 September 2019.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

Japanese refiners restart shipments after Typhoon Hagibis

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan’s biggest refiner, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, said on Tuesday it had resumed land shipments at its Negishi refinery, near Tokyo, in the wake of Typhoon Hagibis, while other refineries said sea shipments have been renewed, reported Reuters.

The country’s refineries remained in operation during the typhoon, the worst to hit Japan in decades, and there was no damage to facilities, refiners said.

Typhoon Hagibis made landfall on Japan’s main island of Honshu on Saturday evening, leaving large areas of towns in central and eastern Japan under water. The death toll reached 66 on Tuesday and many homes remained without power or water.

JXTG Nippon, which is a unit of JXTG Holdings Inc (5020.T), temporarily halted land shipments at the Negishi refinery due to flooding, but shipments had been restarted on Tuesday, a company spokeswoman said.

Refiners including Idemitsu Kosan, Cosmo Oil, a unit of Cosmo Energy Holdings, and Fuji Oil said sea shipments had been temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure, but all shipments had been resumed by Tuesday.

As MRC informed before, in December 2018, JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy undertook an unplanned shutdown at its cracker in Kawasaki. The company halted operations at the cracker on December 10, 2018 for maintenance work. The cracker remained off-line for around 8-10 days. Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 448,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 273,000 mt/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 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC