Rosneft third-quarter profit jumps 16%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's Rosneft energy giant announced a large jump in third quarter year-on-year net income due to sales growth and clean-up of contamination of a strategic pipeline, said the company.

Between July and September, Russia's largest oil producer posted net income of 225 billion rubles (around USD3.5 billion), up 58.5 percent on the same period last year and up 16 percent on the previous quarter.

In the third quarter, the state-controlled group "was able to increase liquids production" quarter on quarter and "partially compensate" for production decline in the second quarter as a result of restriction of oil intake into trunk pipelines, said Rosneft chief Igor Sechin.

He added in a statement the increase in income was also due to sales growth amid falling crude prices.

In April, a key pipeline to Europe named Druzhba, or Friendship, was shut down due to contamination with chlorine compounds. The pipeline takes oil to a number of countries including Poland, Germany and Slovakia.

Rosneft reported that its liquid production rose 2.1 percent from the second to the third quarter due to the contamination being cleared up. "We restored crude oil refining throughput and strengthened our positions in the traditional markets," Sechin was quoted as saying.

The group's liquid production figure was nevertheless down 1.4 percent year-on-year, which the company attributed to Russia's agreement with OPEC to reduce production.

Rosneft announced in late October it will price its oil exports in euros, not dollars, to reduce the impact of US sanctions. Russia is seeking to wean its economy off the dollar and has cut the currency's share in its international reserves.

Rosneft holds a 49.13 per cent stake in India’s Nayara Energy, which owns the Wadinar refinery, the country’s second-largest with a 20mn tonnes per year in processing capacity. W.R. Grace & Co. licensed its Unipol PP process technology to Nayara Energy for a new world-scale polypropylene (PP) plant to be built at the site of Nayara's 20-million-t/y Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, India. The 450,000-t/y PP unit is part of Nayara's USD850-million investment at the refinery to expand into petro-chemicals. A start-up date was not available.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nizhnekamskneftekhim (part of the TAIF group) has reduced its November selling prices of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) by Rb2,000/tonne for Russian buyers, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

There was a shortage of GPPS in the Russian polystyrene (PS) market in late October, whereas the shortage was even more acute in the HIPS market. On the back of this, some market participants expected October prices of Russian PS to roll over for November, despite the price pressure from foreign markets.

However, prices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's material dropped by Rb2,000/tonne in November. Thus, prices of its GPPS for injection moulding and extrusion will be in the range of Rb90,500-95,500/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and for foaming - at Rb88,500-93,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in November, whereas HIPS prices will be at Rb95,500-100,500/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

As reported earlier, Nizhnekamskneftekhim raised its October PS prices for the Russian market by Rb2,000/tonne. The on-going shortage of PS in the Russian market was the main reason for the increase.

PJSC "Nizhnekamskneftekhim" (NKNK) - one of the largest Russian manufacturers of petrochemical products. The industrial complex of the company includes ten major production plants and ten departments (Railway Transport, Ethylene trunk, etc..). NKNKh produces more than 120 types of chemical products, including synthetic rubber, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, surfactants. Nizhnekamskneftekhim is a member of TAIF Group of Companies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow says the Glycol 2 plant at its Plaquemine, Louisiana, facility is in "recovery mode" after a vessel ruptured the morning of 3 November, reported Chemweek.

The company says there were no injuries, nor have any offsite emissions been detected, and other production units at the site continue to run normally.

The Glycol 2 plant includes an ethylene oxide production unit and downstream production of isopropanolamines and alkyl alkanolamines, according to a permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

According to local news reports quoting a Dow spokesperson, the vessel is a tank that contained water and small levels of sulfuric acid, ethylene oxide, and nitrogen. No more than about 28 pounds of ethylene oxide could have been released from the tank, according to the Dow representative.

The Louisiana Operations has 23 production units manufacturing more than 50 different intermediate and specialty chemical products, such as chlorine and PE, that are used to produce cosmetics, detergents, solvents, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, plastics for a variety of packaging, automotive parts, and electronics components.

As MRC wrote earlier, Dow Chemical shut its ethylene cracker No. 3 at its Plaquemine, Louisiana site with the annual production of 758,000 mt for expansion from mid-September to end-November 2016. After the restart this cracker can produce by 250,000 mt of ethylene more than before.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced a price decrease for all polystyrene (PS) in Europe, according to the company's press release.

Effective November 1, 2019, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below went down as follows:

-- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR45 per metric ton;
-- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR45 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo raised its prices for all PS grades on 1 October 2019, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR20 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR20 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, there was a shortage of GPPS in the Russian PS market in late October, whereas the shortage was even more acute in the HIPS market. The shortage of HIPS is expected to remain until the end of the month. On the back of this, some market participants expected October prices of Russian PS to roll over for November, despite the price pressure from foreign markets. Nevertheless, prices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's material dropped by Rb2,000/tonne in November.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Hengyi Petrochemical Co Ltd, a joint petrochemical venture between China and Brunei, exported its first cargo of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from its newly commissioned refinery in Brunei, a company executive told Reuters.

A shipment of "standard cargo size" was loaded for export on Sunday from the 160,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Pulau Muara Besar, the executive said.

The company announced on Sunday its refinery and petrochemical complex in Brunei entered commercial operations after trial productions started two-and-half months ago.

As MRC wrote previously, in September Hengyi Industries produced qualified petrochemical (PC) products at its new refinery and petrochemical complex at Pulau Muara Besar in Brunei. The project includes a 160,000 barrels/d crude oil refinery, a 1 M tonnes/y aromatics facility and a 500,000 tonnes/y benzene unit.

Hengyi Petrochemicals is targeting to start up its new 1.5m tonne/year PX unit in November.

Paraxylene is a raw material for the synthesis of terephthalic acid (TFA) - an intermediate for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, plant of New Polymers Senege, one of the Russian PET chips producers, shut production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for scheduled maintenance on 1 October 2019. According to a source in the company, the shutdown will take about a month. The exact date of the completion of the turnaround was not reported.

Hengyi Industries is a joint venture between China's Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Damai Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary under the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund. They own 70% and 30% of the shares respectively.
MRC