Seven French oil refineries hit by general strike

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Staff at seven of France's eight refineries joined a general strike Thursday, affecting oil product deliveries, reported S&P Global with reference to companies and media reports.

French labor unions including the CGT, FO and FSU had called on employees in all sectors to take part in industrial action against the government's pension reforms.

Total reported difficulties in accessing its terminals at the Gonfreville, Grandpuits, Donges and Feyzin refineries and La Mede biofuels plant Thursday morning, the company said. In addition, access had been difficult to the terminals at Portes-les-Valence and Puget-sur-Argens.

Total said, with 200 oil terminals in France, supply to its retail stations had not been affected, despite the blockades.

Employees at Petroineos' Lavera refinery in the south of the country also joined the strike Thursday morning, according to media reports. This was expected to severely disrupt operations at the major Mediterranean refined products hub that could cause up to 10 days' delay for loadings, traders said. The company declined to comment.

The refineries will continue to operate, albeit at reduced rates, a union source said.

ExxonMobil, which operates the Gravenchon refinery near Le Havre and the Fos-sur-Mer plant in the south, said Gravenchon had not been hit by the strike, but there had been a minor impact on road traffic due to external blockades around the site.

At Fos, "a limited number of employees" had joined the protest and as a consequence truck and rail loadings were disrupted, while the refinery continued to operate at normal throughput, the company said.

Rail transport in France was particularly affected, with a strike at national train company SNCF as well as at RATP, the operator of Paris' public transport system. Around 90% of high speed trains are affected, with many flightsalso cancelled.

Ports around France were also halting work for 24 hours Thursday, the Federation of Ports and Docks, part of the CGT union, said in a statement.

Shipping sources said operations at ports are not disrupted significantly because not too many vessels are loading, but concerns are mounting that the strike might be extended into Friday.

As MRC informed before, France's Feyzin refinery was in the process of halting units and the steam cracker was running at reduced rates on 9 October, 2019. Local media had reported earlier that the refinery had been halting operations since Monday, 7 October, due to a strike. The company said it regrets the decision by labor unions to call a strike while discussions were ongoing with refinery staff about a planned indefinite closure of a unit due to lower product demand.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco's initial public offering (IPO) values the company at USD1.7 trillion and is set to raise USD25.6 billion, reported Chemweek with reference to Financial Times and Reuters reports on Thursday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

Aramco shares have been priced at 32 Saudi riyals (USD8.53) per share, at the top end of the previously announced SR30–32/share indicative price range. The IPO was heavily oversubscribed.

The price makes Aramco's the world's largest stock market flotation, exceeding Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba's USD25-billion share sale in the US in 2014. Aramco's USD1.7-trillion valuation is more than the combined market capitalization of the five biggest international oil companies, the reports say.

A 1.5% share of Aramco was sold in the IPO, with 0.5% to retail and 1% to institutional investors. The retail subscription period ended on 28 November and the institutional subscription period ended on 4 December. Investment authorities in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait invested USD1.5 billion and USD1.0 billion in the IPO, respectively, reports say.

Aramco shares will trade on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul stock exchange.

As MRC wrote previously, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.

The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italy-based compounder Sirmax is planning to build a USD17 mln production facility for recycled compounds in Indiana, US, said Amiplastics.

The plant, to be located alongside the company's existing compounding site in Anderson, IN, will manufacture compounds using recycled resins for the appliances, automotive, consumer goods, power tools, and other markets.

The project will receive over USD2 M in tax increment financing (TIF) bonds from the Anderson city government. The new facility will utilize the expertise of Societa Europea di Regenerazione (SER), an Italian plastics recycling company that was recently acquired by Sirmax.

SER reprocesses approximately 20,000 tonnes/y of post consumer plastics. Sirmax, which claims to be the fourth
largest producer of technical PP compounds in the world and the biggest non-integrated compounder in Europe, recorded sales of EUR 300 M in 2018 and expects a turnover of roughly EUR 385 M in 2019.

As MRC informed earlier, Sirmax (Cittadella) is continuing to grow its footprint. In a deal the financial details of which were not disclosed, the company recently acquired all shares in thermoplastic compounds producer Nord Color (San Vito al Tagliamento / Italy). The purchase of the latter – which caters to the automotive, E&E, furniture, construction and sports & leisure industries – not only consolidates Sirmax’s growth strategy, it also complements and expands the company’s own PP compounds product range.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations on the last major regulatory hurdle to restarting an idled Caribbean oil refinery have dragged on, threatening further delay to a private-equity backed project that seeks to profit from a 2020 clean-air fuel mandate, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Limetree Bay Refining remains in talks with federal and local officials on modifications to a 2011 settlement with the previous owner of the refinery, Hovensa, a venture between Hess Corp and Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA.

"The parties are about 80%-85% through the document and appendices," said Jean-Pierre Oriol, commissioner of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources that is a party to the agreement.

Limetree Bay is undergoing a USD1.6 billion refurbishment aiming to meet an International Maritime Organization requirement that ocean-going vessels cut sulfur emissions to reduce air pollution on Jan. 1.

The project will restore a portion of the refinery to process about 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, down from 550,000 bpd before it filed for bankruptcy protection.

The 2011 agreement required more than USD700 million in new pollution controls to settle violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act. The changes are expected to require spending less than USD700 million, reflecting the smaller processing capacity.

Limetree Bay and other refiners aim to process cheap, high-sulfur crude into clean fuels and capture expected higher margins as terminals and shippers stock up. The plant restart already has been pushed back to early 2020 from late this year, a delay that means owners Arclight Capital Partners and trader Freepoint Commodities will miss initial demand for marine fuel with less than 0.5% sulfur.

An Arclight Capital spokesman did not reply to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not have immediate comment on the status of the talks. Oriol said there was no timetable for completion of the changes to the settlement.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. is collaborating with Kaisei Inc. on a project aimed at the development of bio-PP at commercial scale. The project has been adopted by Japan's Ministry of the Environment as part of its plans for a carbon-free society ambition, reported BioplasticsMagazine.

Mitsui Chemicals' bio-PP pilot project will aid in the country’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Ministry of the Environment is further supporting a carbon-free society by accelerating the construction of resource recycling systems for plastics and other materials. This project will run trials for switching to renewable resources as a substitute for petroleum-derived plastics as well as for building recycling processes for plastics and other materials.

Mitsui Chemicals will therefore be conducting the world's first bio-PP industrialization demonstration test. This will involve conducting numerous and varied evaluations of technologies, quality, economic efficiency, and environmental impact such as GHG reduction. After solving these issues, Mitsui Chemicals Group will consider commercializing the production of bio-PP. Production, said the company, will start in 2024 at the earliest. The project will be part of the expansion of the company’s so-called Blue Value products , or environmental contribution value products, based on its climate change policy and plastic strategies. In 2015, Mitsui developed the environmental contribution value, Blue Value, to achieve its goal of realizing a "cohesive society in harmony with the environment". Under the unique environmental impact assessment criteria Blue Value Index, the Mitsui Chemicals Group certifies products and services as having Blue Value that are deemed to reduce CO2, protect resources, and harmonize with nature, thereby contributing to the environment in three elements.

"We aim to commercialize bio-PP, which has yet to be produced from biomass unlike other major resins We will build a circular model throughout the manufacturing supply chain to significantly reduce CO2 emissions," the company announced in a statement released 26 September.

Polypropylene has a wide range of applications, spanning automobile-parts to medical care products, home appliances, housing and food products, and accounts for more than 20 percent of the plastic produced in Japan. However, due to technical difficulties, production of polypropylene from biomass has not been established at the industrial level.

Conventional plastics are produced from fossil resources that have been stored underground for mhundreds of millions of years, while bioplastics are primarily derived from plants. Since plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere to grow, they offer a more effective way to reduce CO2 emissions, thus helping to mitigate global warming. Bio-PP derived from plants is a product expected to contribute to a more sustainable society.

The new production route towards commercialization involves the fermentation of various type of biomass - mainly non-edible plants - to produce isopropanol (IPA), which is then dehydrated to obtain propylene in a first-of-its-kind IPA method. Compared to other biomass production approaches studied by other companies thus far, this could prove to be a more cost-effective way to manufacture bio-PP.

Kaisei Inc. will cultivate biomass raw materials used by Mitsui Chemicals, collect wastes generated from biomass raw materials, and supply electricity to manufacturing facilities and manufactures fertilizers through its effective use. By collaborating with Kaisei Inc., Mitsui Chemicals aims to contribute to society through environmentally friendly action with a circular model that leverages the supply chain.

As MRC informed before, Mitsui Chemicals restarted its naphtha cracker in Japan on 11-12 May, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The cracker was shut in end-April, 2019 owing to power failure. Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 331,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC