Dalian Petrochemical to take off-stream its refinery in late March

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina's Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will shut for an overall maintenance over March 25-May 25, for around two months, reported S&P Global.

As MRC informed before, Asia's largest oil and gas firm PetroChina resumed construction of its oil refinery and petrochemical project in southern Chinese province of Guangdong, as the number of new coronavirus cases fell for a second straight day.

We also remind that Sichuan Petrochemical (part of PetroChina) undertook an emergency shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Sichuan province of China on July 11, 2018 owing to a gas leak at its natural gas supply pipeline. Further details on duration of the outage could not be ascertained. Located at Sichuan province of China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 800,000 mt/year.

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.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Opponents of Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ bankruptcy plan have vowed a long legal fight if a federal court this week approves a sale that would keep the largest East Coast oil refinery permanently shut while paying out bonuses to company executives, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A June fire at the 335,000 barrel-per-day PES refinery led the company to file for bankruptcy and shut the plant over the summer, laying off more than 1,000 workers and ending long-standing ties with dozens of businesses. The refinery endured years of financial trouble, hurt by poor access to U.S. crude oil production and heavy costs of complying with federal laws on blending biofuels with gasoline.

The PES plan to exit bankruptcy includes a USD240 million sale of the refinery to a real estate developer, Hilco Redevelopment Partners. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware is scheduled to consider the plan on Wednesday.

Former contractors and worker unions, who are among the long list of unsecured creditors in the case, want the refinery to re-open. Even if the court approves the deal, they are asking the decision to be put on hold pending an appeal, court filings show.

If the court rejects the plan, the unsecured creditors said they would seek mediation or ask the court to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case into a liquidation bankruptcy, hoping they can gain some of the sale proceeds.

They also oppose the proposed bonuses to PES executives. The unsecured creditors “may never receive a penny and executives who oversaw the disaster walk away from the cases filthy rich,” the group said in filings.

The unions and other unsecured creditors are pushing for PES to sell to a company that would restart the refinery operation. Another real estate developer, Industrial Realty Group, may present a plan at Wednesday’s hearing to purchase the PES site and lease it for refinery operations, the filings said.

PES, in its response to the objection on Monday, said no credible bidder has emerged with the intention to resume plant operations. Market conditions and damage from the fire also worked against resurrecting the refinery, PES attorneys said.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies have objected to aspects of the proposal, though not to the sale itself. Sunoco Holdings, which once owned the refinery, is objecting to other aspects of the plan.

As MRC informed earlier, 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. 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.

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) -- The Swiss specialty chemicals firm Clariant says it will cut up to 600 jobs to save money after a drop in profit in 2019. The firm expects the slow economic situation this year to continue to affect demand, said Snbchf.

"For 2020, given the current sluggish economic environment and continued adverse foreign exchange conditions, growth will be more limited and additional efficiency measures have been defined for each of the businesses to support the margin increase," the Basel-based firm said in a statement on Thursday.

The move towards more cost efficiency will translate into a workforce reduction of approximately 500 to 600 positions over the next two years which is expected to save approximately CHF50 million (a little over USD51 million).

The Muttenz-based group currently employs around 17,200 people around the world. The announced job cuts correspond to 3-3.5% of the workforce. It is unclear exactly where Clariant plans to make the job cuts.

Last year, net profit fell to CHF38 million from CHF356 million in 2018, Clariant said. This was partly due to money being set aside in the second quarter linked to an ongoing competition law investigation by the European Commission into the ethylene purchasing market.

Sales fell slightly to CHF4.39 billion from CHF4.4 billion, the company said. "The Group has significantly reshaped its portfolio through the divestment of Healthcare Packaging in 2019, the announced sale of Masterbatches and the planned divestment of Pigments in 2020," it said, outlining ongoing structural changes.

Clariant replaced its chief financial officer on Tuesday and is still hunting for a new chief executive officer after the previous head left suddenly last year.

As MRC informed earlier, Clariant announced that it has been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The Dongguan plant will be one of the largest single-train dehydrogenation units in the world. Clariant's technology partner CB&I will base the plant's design on its Catofin® catalytic dehydrogenation technology, which uses Clariant's tailor-made Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM).

Propylene is the main feedstock for producing polyprolypele (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).

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Beihai Refining and Petrochemical, the subsidiary of one of the world's largest energy and chemical companies - Sinopec, will shut the entire refinery for maintenance over mid-March till mid-May, reported S&P Global.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical, another subsidiary of Sinopec, plans to shut the cracker unit in Tianjin in northeast China for scheduled repairs on 15 June, 2020. This cracking unit with a capacity of 900,000 tonnes of ethylene per year and 480,000 tonnes of propylene tons per year will be closed for scheduled repairs until 24 June, 2020.

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).

Sinopec corp. is one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemical companies. Business Sinopec Corp. includes oil and gas exploration, production and transportation of oil and gas, oil refining, petrochemical production, production of mineral fertilizers and other chemical products. In terms of refining capacity, Sinopec Corp. ranks second in the world, in terms of ethylene capacity - fourth.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil from the Wafra field in the Neutral Zone shared by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait could flow again as soon as this weekend after a nearly five-year hiatus, reported S&P Global with reference to joint operator Chevron's statement on Thursday saying it is preparing to restart operations.

Saudi Arabian Chevron, which operates the onshore field with Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, said it "has now embarked on a series of pre-start up activities, which includes efforts to ensure its workforce is ready to safely restart operations and then production."

Kuwaiti media reported Thursday that the two countries had authorized the resumption of joint operations at the field starting Sunday.

Chevron did not provide a timeline for when production would begin but said in its statement that while the field has been shut down, it has carried out "a robust maintenance and preservation program to maintain operational readiness."

The field, operated jointly by Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and Saudi Arabian Chevron, has been shut since 2015.

Wafra and the offshore Khafji field, which is jointly run by Aramco Gulf Operations Co. and KGOC but has been shuttered since October 2014, are at the center of a political dispute between the two countries that was resolved only in December after months of talks.

The fields are located in the Neutral Zone, an area straddling the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who agreed in 1970 to co-manage and share crude production equally.

Earlier Thursday, the International Energy Agency said output at Wafra could reach 80,000 b/d by the fourth quarter and then 145,000 b/d in a year, while Khafji production could hit 60,000 b/d by August and 175,000 b/d in a year.

Both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have said the resumption of oil production from the fields would not clash with their output quotas, under the supply cut accord agreed by OPEC, Russia and nine other allies.

Saudi Arabia pumped 9.74 million b/d, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey of OPEC production, well below its quota of 10.14 million b/d. Kuwait, meanwhile, produced 2.66 million b/d in January, in line with its cap, according to the survey.

We remind that in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year.

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).

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC