Phillips 66 takes NJ FCCU offline for unplanned work

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 took the gasoline-making FCCU at its Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, offline at midnight EST last Thursday due to a leak, reported S&P Global with reference to a source familiar to refinery operations.

There was no timeline for the restart.

As MRC wrote before, US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the start-up at the newly constructed polypopylene (PP) plant in Vietnam on 12 February 2020, it is reported that Hyosung has reached on-spec cargoes this week, reported CommoPlast.

The first prime grade parcels are homo-PP yarn grade F501N with a melt index of 3.7.

"We are targeting local buyers in Vietnam first before obtaining Form D from the government to export," a source close to the producer reported.

This is the No. 1 PP unit that has an annual capacity of 300,000 tons/year, operating using external sources of propylene. The company is constructing the Phase II project at the same location, which houses a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant and No. 2 PP unit that could produce another 300,000 tons/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Hyosung Corp. plans to invest USD1.2-billion in a two-phase project, which involves construction of PP plants and LPG warehouse at the Cai Mep Industrial Zone in Vietnam.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

Hyosung Corporation is a Korean industrial conglomerate, founded in 1957. It operates in various fields, including the chemical industry, industrial machinery, IT, trade, and construction.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- One of Texas’ oil and gas regulators defended the state’s high rate of natural gas flaring, but named companies that burn off the most gas and said he would hold public meetings on the controversial practice, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Flaring, or deliberately burning gas produced alongside oil, has surged with crude production in Texas, but can worsen climate change by releasing carbon dioxide. The report includes a set of flaring and venting data to be updated quarterly, the first set of such data the state has released.

Ryan Sitton, one of three elected oil and gas regulators, said Texas’ flaring intensity is lower than other oil-producing areas, including North Dakota, Iran, Iraq and Russia. Its flare volumes - around 650,000 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcf/d) in 2018 - are “high for recent history” but do not surpass some years in the 1950s, according to Sitton’s report. "The state as a whole is still well below historical levels and most of the rest of the world," Sitton said in the report.

EP Energy, Endeavor Energy Resources, Surge Operating and Jagged Peak Energy had the state’s highest rates of “flaring intensity," a measurement of flaring volume against oil production, according to the report. The companies could not be reached immediately for comment, but Jagged Peak was recently purchased by Parsley Energy, whose chief executive has criticized Jagged Peak’s high flaring rates.

Companies with the lowest flaring intensity in Texas included Pioneer Natural Resources, EOG Resources , ConocoPhillips and Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Oil drillers tend to flare or vent gas when they lack pipelines to move it to market, or prices are too low to make transporting it worthwhile. Venting releases unburned methane, which is many times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

Texas regularly allows companies to burn or vent gas in excess of regulations. It has issued more than 35,000 flaring permits since 2013 and has not denied any, according to the state commission.

"Neither companies nor regulators have kept up with this challenge," said Colin Leyden, a policy advocate for the Environmental Defense Fund, which tracks flaring, adding “pointing fingers at Iran and Iraq does nothing to fix the problem."

In the Permian Basin underlying Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. shale basin, flaring and venting totaled about 293.2 billion cubic feet last year, according to state regulatory data compiled by independent energy researcher Rystad – up about 7% from 2018.

As MRC informed earlier, U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips has seized products belonging to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA from the Isla refinery it runs on Curacao. Conoco has won court orders allowing it to seize PDVSA assets on Caribbean islands, including Curacao, in efforts to collect on a USD2 billion arbitral award linked to the 2007 nationalization of Conoco assets under late leader Hugo Chavez.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US gasoline prices on Tuesday continued a week-long climb as unplanned weekend refinery outages compounded earlier shutdowns at major US Gulf Coast and East Coast plants, reported Reuters with reference to gasoline traders.

Over the weekend, four refineries in Texas and Louisiana shut units directly making gasoline or portions of it, according to refinery sources and energy industry intelligence service Genscape.

Those new outages are expected to tighten US gasoline supply as refineries prepare for planned shutdowns that typically begin in spring and prepare the plants for summer driving-season production.

The average retail price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was USD2.45, up from USD2.33 a year ago, according to petroleum analytics firm Gas Buddy. Prices have been falling this year as inventories rose and crude oil prices slumped.

On Tuesday, unleaded gasoline futures rose 1.47%, or 2.30 cents, to USD1.6066 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures are up nearly 7% since Feb. 12, when a major fire shut most of Exxon Mobil Corp’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, the fifth-largest in the United States.

Exxon aims to restore production at three shut crude distillation units (CDUs) as quickly as possible and raise production on a fourth, which is operating at a minimal level, said sources familiar with operations. CDUs convert crude oil into feedstock for all other production units.

An Exxon spokesman said operations continue but declined to comment on the status of individual units.

That outage accounted for most of the increase in gasoline prices while adding to the market impact of the Feb. 7 shutdown of the gasoline-producing unit at Phillips 66’s Bayway Refinery in Linden, New Jersey, the largest on the East Coast. Repairs there are expected to last until early to mid-March, according to sources familiar with plant operations.

A company spokesman said planned maintenance was underway.

Over the three-day Presidents Day holiday weekend, the gasoline-producing units at Houston-area refineries operated by LyondellBasell Industries and Chevron Corp were shut, according to refinery sources and Genscape.

Restart timelines for those units were not available from sources or the companies. Neither Chevron nor Lyondell replied to requests for comment.

Reformers, which produce octane-boosting components mixed into gasoline, also were shut at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Convent, Louisiana, refinery and Marathon Petroleum Corp’s Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, over the weekend. Shell declined to comment on the unit’s status. Marathon was not immediately available to comment.

Restart timelines were also unavailable for those units.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in September 2019, ExxonMobil announced plans to spend GBP140 million over the next two years in an additional investment program at its Fife ethylene plant, which has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Xuzhou Haitian, has restarted its polypropylene (PP) plant, following an unplanned maintenance, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company has resumed operations at the plant on February 17, 2020. The plant was shut in early-February, 2020.

Located at Xuzhou, in Jiangsu province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Xuzhou Haitian last took off-stream its PP plant for a maintenance turnaround on August 5, 2018. The plant remained off-stream for around one week. Located at Xuzhou in Jiangsu province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC