Rare low-sulfur fuel oil delivered to UAE before IMO 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equinor offloaded a rare cargo of very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) from Norway last week at UAE’s Fujairah bunkering hub to meet expected demand from stricter ship fuel emission rules, according to trade sources and shipping data, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 130,000-tonne cargo has been sold to Saudi Arabia’s Aramco Trading Corp (ATC), said five fuel oil trade sources who declined to be identified due to company policies. Equinor said it did not comment on specific cargoes. ATC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

New rules from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) take effect from Jan. 1, capping the sulfur content of shipping fuel at 0.5% from 3.5% now, unless vessels use exhaust-cleaning scrubbers.

The rare shipment is one of the new trade flows for the residue fuel as traders stock up on VLSFO supplies at major bunkering hubs to meet an expected surge in demand next year.

"This is the first VLSFO parcel we’ve seen from Mongstad (to Fujairah)," said Ranjith Raja, head of oil research at Refinitiv for Middle East and North Africa.

Suezmax tanker Cap Diamant loaded on Oct. 10 the VLSFO cargo at Mongstad port where Equinor’s refinery is located and the ship discharged its cargo at Fujairah last week, shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon showed.

The tanker was chartered by Equinor, according to a shipping report.

The cargo consisted of VLSFO with 0.472% sulfur and the oil has a viscosity of 160-centistoke and 0.933 density, the sources said.

As MRC informed earlier, Repsol has agreed to buy Equinor's equity position in US Eagle Ford shale basin for USD325 million in a deal giving it 100% control and operatorship of the shale assets. Under the deal, Repsol said it will acquire 69,000 net acres and 34,000 b/d of oil equivalent production taking its total output at Eagle Ford to 54,000 boe/d.

We remind that Repsol will shut down its cracker in Tarragona (Spain) for maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2019. The turnaround at this steam cracker, which produces 702,000 mt/year of ethylene and 372,000 mt/year of propylene, was pushed back from Q3 2019. The exact dates of maintenance works are not disclosed.

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.
MRC

US oil refiners trim runs amid weak domestic and export demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil refineries have cut their crude processing by almost 100 million barrels so far this year, mostly in response to slack demand at home and overseas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude processing in the year-to-date has fallen for the first time since the recession of 2008/09, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

US refineries have processed 16.61 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude so far in 2019, down from 16.91 million bpd at the same point in 2018.

Some of the reduction can be attributed to the closure of the 335,000 bpd Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery on the East Coast following an explosion and fire on June 21.

East Coast processing has fallen 138,000 bpd (13%) this year, but processing is also down by 147,000 bpd (1.6%) on the Gulf Coast and by 54,000 bpd (2.2%) on the West Coast.

Nationwide processing has fallen by 1.8% compared with 2018, with refineries on the East Coast accounting for less than half the total reduction.

Instead, refiners have trimmed crude throughput in line with reduced demand for petroleum products to avoid a build up of unwanted stocks crushing their margins.

Nationwide consumption of finished products was down 1.0% in the eight months from January through August, including an 0.5% decline in gasoline and a 1.2% decline in distillates.

Total consumption of finished products, including imports, fell by 44 million barrels in January-August compared with the same period a year ago, the first decline since 2012.

US exports of finished products were also down 30 million barrels in the first eight months, the largest decline for more than 20 years, reflecting weak foreign demand for gasoline, residual fuel oil and petroleum coke.

By throttling back crude processing, US refineries have averted a surplus of gasoline and diesel, but created an even bigger surplus in the crude market, in the process supporting refining margins.

As MRC wrote before, US and local officials are opposing the sale procedure for the bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery, arguing the plan discourages bidders and keeps the city locked out of the process, reported Reuters with reference to federal court filings. The proposed PES sale plan does not give potential buyers of the fire-damaged refinery enough time or information to outbid a stalking-horse bid chosen by PES, US Trustee Andrew Vara argued in a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
MRC

Ellen Kullman, formerly of DuPont to head 3-D printing firm Carbon

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ellen Kullman, the former CEO of DuPont, was named the head of Carbon, a 3D-printing company that can use a host of thermoset resins in additive manufacturing, said Forbes.

Joseph DeSimone was named executive chairman of the board, the company said. He is a co-founder of the company and was the CEO for the past six years.

DeSimone will focus on promoting further mainstream adoption of the technology and spreading the company's vision to existing and new customers, partners and the public.

Kullman will lead the development and execution of short- and long-term strategies, Carbon said. She had been on the company's board. Both appointments are immediate.

Carbon's additive-manufacturing technology uses a process similar to stereolithography as well as heat curing. The company won this year's Polyurethane Innovation Award.

3D-printing unicorn Carbon is bringing in a new high-powered CEO as it goes beyond the startup stage. Ellen Kullman, former CEO of DuPont, replaces cofounder Joe DeSimone, effective immediately, the company announced today. DeSimone, who had been in the CEO role since launching Carbon in 2013, becomes executive chairman of the board with the change.

DeSimone, 55, a former professor at the University of North Carolina, told Forbes that as he built out the Redwood City, California, company’s leadership team over the past 18 months, he’d begun to think about his own role at the expanding business—and who might take on the top operating spot. “[Investor] Bobby Long is the people person on the board. He and I talk seven times a week, and it was through that conversation that the idea emerged,” DeSimone said. “Bobby has a lot of ideas, often harebrained and not possible. And we pulled it off."

As MRC informed earlier, DuPont Teijin Films has launched a new depolymerisation process which upcycles post-consumer PET waste into technically-advanced BOPET films suitable for use in various applications.

As per MRC's DataScope, imports of injection moulding PET chips in Russia increased by 14% in the first ten months of the year compared with the same period a year ago and reached 106,000 tonnes. The same indicator in January-October 2019 amounted to 92,700 tonnes. The share of bottle grade PET imports from China amounted to 90% compared to 86% for the same period last year.

DuPont Teijin Films is a joint venture between DuPont and Teijin Ltd and supplies polyester films and related services to a wide range of industries, including healthcare, alternative energy, electronics and packaging.

DuPont makes a broad array of industrial chemicals, synthetic fibres, petroleum-based fuels and lubricants, pharmaceuticals, building materials, sterile and specialty packaging materials, cosmetics ingredients, and agricultural chemicals. It has plants, subsidiaries, and affiliates worldwide.

MRC

Shell says oil spill contained at Puget Sound, Washington, refinery dock

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A crude oil spill onto a barge docked at Royal Dutch Shell’s oil refinery at Puget Sound, Washington, was contained on Saturday, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Twenty gallons of oil leaked onto the barge, out of which 5 gallons reached the waters of Fidalgo Bay, Shell said in another statement on Sunday. Clean-up operations were completed and all recoverable product was removed from the water, the company said.

The source of the crude spill was identified as a pressure relief valve on the barge and the source was secured, the company said earlier.

The crews were transferring nearly 5 million gallons of oil from the barge to the refinery when the spill occurred, local media reports said.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-October 2019, Royal Dutch Shell Plc restarted the hydrocracker at its 225,300 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery. 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.

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.

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

Evonik expands production capacity for Rohacell foams in the US

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik is to expand production for performance rigid foams at its Mobile, Alabama, production facility, said the producer.

The expansion for high-temperature resistant polymethacrylimide (PMI) is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter 2020, the company added. The extent of the expansion and investment level were not disclosed.

The expansion of the light-weight construction material will see the building of a new production hall and the combination of all shipping logistics in the facility.

Evonik has expanded its production capacity of the material in Germany by 20% in the last two years, it added.

"The investment in Mobile strengthens our global position as a reliable partner and solutions provider of high-performance, lightweight PMI-based rigid foams and enables us to meet increasing demand in North America over the long term," says Christina Walkosak, head of the High Performance Polymers business line, Americas, for Evonik.

Last year Linde and Evonik entered into strategic partnership for membrane-based natural gas processing.

As MRC informed earlier, PSC TAIF-NK, a wholly owned subsidiary of TAIF Group of Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, has let a construction-related contract to Linde Group, Munich, for two hydrogen plants at its 7 million tonnes/year Nizhnekamsk refinery. The contract is valued at about ?120 million, according to Linde.

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.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world with more than 36,000 employees.

MRC