Kazakhstan suspends oil exports to China after fresh contamination

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kazakhstan has suspended its oil exports to China after contamination was found in crude supplied by a Kazakh producer less than a year after a "dirty oil" crisis broke in neighboring Russia, reported Reuters.

Oil exports to China have been suspended because of high content of organic chloride, the Kazakh energy ministry said on Wednesday.

CNPC Aktobemunaigas, a Kazakh subsidiary of Chinese energy group CNPC, has been cut off from the Central Asian nation’s oil pipelines since Jan. 16, pipeline operator Kaztransoil said on Wednesday.

Unlike the Druzhba pipeline problems in April last year, when 5 million tonnes of oil were contaminated with organic chlorides, the origin this time was Kazakh oilfields, though the volume affected remains unclear.

Kazakh oil exports to China will be resumed after the issue with CNPC Aktobemunaigas oil quality is fixed, the Kazakh energy ministry said.

CNPC Aktobemunaigas did not reply immediately to a request for a comment.

Kaztransoil has also reviewed shipment plans for the Shymkent and Pavlodar oil refineries, it said without providing any details on volumes.

The impact in terms of volume does not seem to be considerable, given that the Pavlodar refinery has been running close to 100,000 bpd, said Florian Thaler, strategist and chief executive at consultancy OilX.

Tests of crude oil in the Kazakh pipeline system carried out this week showed organic chloride content of 70-120 parts per million (ppm), which far exceeds a 6 ppm limit allowed in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Russian and Kazakh pipeline systems are linked, with Kazakhstan moving 15 million tonnes of oil a year via Russian ports.

Russia’s crude oil supplies to China via Kazakhstan remain unaffected.

Russian oil company Transneft (TRNF_p.MM) on Wednesday said that oil supplies to and from Kazakhstan are running as normal, the Interfax news agency reported.

CNPC Aktobemunaigas was Kazakhstan’s sixth-largest producer in 2018 with output of 4.9 million tonnes, about 4.3% of the country’s total production.

As MRC informed before, South Korea's LG Chem said in January 2016, it had decided to drop a plan to jointly build a USD4.2-billion petrochemical complex in Kazakhstan, citing a prolonged slump in oil prices and a sharp increase in facility investments. In 2011, the chemical company said it would construct the complex near the western Kazakh city of Atyrau as part of a 50-50 joint venture with two Kazakh companies. The plan involved building ethylene and polyethylene plants with annual capacities of 840,000 tonnes and 800,000 tonnes, respectively. The project was announced in 2013.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC

Imports of injection moulding PET chips to Russia increased by 13% in January-December 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of PET chips into Russia increased by 13% in 2019 compared to the same time a year ago and reached 144,800 tonnes compared to 128,500 tonnes (excluding supplies from Belarus over the past two months), according to MRC's ScanPlast.
Russia's PET imports increased by 10% in December to 13,600 tonnes against 12,300 tonnes in November; last December material imports amounted to 12,400 tonnes.

The share of Chinese material was 82% (11,200 tonnes) in December versus 78% (9,600 tonnes) a month earlier.

The share of Chinese material in total imports amounted to 91% (11,300 tonnes) in December last year.
MRC

Lukoil to shut ACN plant for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lukoil, Russian petrochemical major, is likely to take off-stream its acrylonitrile (ACN) plant in April 2020, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Russia informed that, the company has planned to shut the plant in early-April, 2020. The plant is expected to remain off-line for around 10-15 days.

Located in Saratov, Russia, the plant has a production capacity of 190,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Stavrolen (part of Lukoil), Russia's major polyolefins producer, has resumed its polypropylene (PP) production in Budennovsk after a long scheduled turnaround. The plant's customers said Stavrolen had fully resumed its PP production after the long scheduled maintenance by 15 October 2019. The outage began on 6 September. The start-up of the plant"s high density polyethylene (HDPE) production took place with a week delay.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

ACN is a feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Russia's November ABS imports were 3,300 tonnes versus 3,500 tonnes a month earlier and 4,100 tonnes in November 2018. Overall ABS imports to Russia slightly decreased year on year in the first eleven months of 2019 to 31,300 tonnes.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil company in Russia. The main activities of the company include operations for exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest private oil Company worldwide by proven hydrocarbon reserves. Lukoil's structure includes one of the largest Russian petrochemical plant - Stavrolen.
MRC

Imports of injection moulding PET chips to Russia from China increased by 13% in January-December 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of injection moulding PET chips in Russia increased by 13% in 2019 compared with the same period a year ago and reached 126,600 tonnes, as per MRC DataScope.

The same indicator in January-December 2018 amounted to 111,700 tonnes, according to MRC's ScanPlast. The share of imports from China of bottled PET remained at the level of the previous year and amounted to 87% in January - December 2019.

The share of Chinese material was 82% (11,200 tonnes) in December versus 78% (9,600 tonnes) a month earlier.
In December last year, the share of Chinese material in total imports amounted to 91% (11,300 tonnes). Last month, the producer Jiangsu Sanfangxiang and Sinopec had the largest volume of supplies to the Russian market - 4,400 tonnes and 4,200 tonnes of injection moulding PET chips, respectively.

The top 5 Chinese suppliers this year were as follows: Jiangsu Sanfangxiang supplied 46,800 tonnes of injection moulding PET chips, Yisheng - 22,500 tonnes, Wankai - 13,900 tonnes, Sinopec - 20,000 tonnes, Indorama - 10,900 tonnes.
MRC

Biesterfeld and DuPont intensify their strategic partnership in CIS countries

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Biesterfeld Plastic and DuPont are continuing the expansion of their strategic cooperation, said the company.

Thanks to an extended agreement, Biesterfeld Rus LLC will take over responsibility for selling the Zytel®, Minlon®, Crastin®, Rynite®, Hytrel®, Bexloy® and Delrin® thermoplastic plastics in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from 1 December 2019.

Hytrel® thermoplastic polyester-elastomers are ideal for components that demand excellent tensile strength and a large operating temperature range. The special features of this product are its ability to resist tearing and abrasion. The Crastin® polybutylene terephthalate resin not only has exceptional stiffness, but also has excellent hydrolytic stability and resistance to heat. Its primary uses include headlamp cover frames, plug connectors, relay connectors and water valves. Thanks to its exceptional rigidity and creep resistance, Delrin® is especially suitable for use in a variety of automobile systems and office machines, without the need for any reinforcement. Zytel® is a true low-friction all-rounder whose exceptional resistance to oils and fats is coupled with excellent resistance to fatigue. This product's outstanding processing properties make it ideally suited to a myriad of different applications.

"We expect to see strong growth in Russia and the other CIS countries in the future, especially in the packaging, wire & cable, oil and gas as well as transportation industries,” said Martin Rathke, Product Manager, Biesterfeld Plastic. “Thanks to this new agreement, we can now make even better use of the synergies between the Biesterfeld and DuPont plastic and performance rubber portfolios and so offer our customers improved customer service closer to their home markets,” said Svetlana Dikina, General Manager, Biesterfeld Rus LLC. "We are absolutely delighted at DuPont's confidence in us."

"Biesterfeld is the ideal partner for us and will help us position our products even more effectively in CIS countries," said Csaba Holop, Sales Director EMEA Transportation & Industrial at DuPont. "For this very reason, we decided to work even more closely together and have Biesterfeld take on responsibility for parts of our important business in the future."

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 ScanPlast report, imports of PET chips into Russia increased by 13% year on year in the first eleven months of 2019, reaching 130,800 tonnes, compared to 116,100 tonnes a year earlier (excluding shipments from Belarus). Russia's PET imports almost doubled in November 2019, totalling 12,300 tonnes, versus 6,300 tonnes in October; imports of material were 8,200 tonnes in November 2018. The share of Chinese material was 78% (9,600 tonnes) in November versus 92% (5,800 tonnes) a month earlier.
MRC