MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil group Total halted a distillation unit at its Donges refinery on France’s western coast due to lack of crude supply during the country’s current strikes, the company said.
Sailors could not get to their tugboats at Saint Nazaire port because a picket line by striking workers was blocking access, Total said in a statement.
“As a result, the Donges refinery cannot be supplied with crude oil. That has led to the distillation unit being halted at the refinery this Sunday,” the statement said.
As MRC wrote before, in early November 2019, Total disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
Total is also developing a USD1.4-billion propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene (PP) complex at Arzew, Algeria, in partnership with Algeria’s state-owned oil company Sonatrach. The facilities will be designed to produce 600,000 metric tons/year each of propylene and PP. The project is in FEED phase with FID due in 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and 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.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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