MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Corp’s Maoming refinery exported low sulfur fuel oil in February for the first time, totaling 21,400 tons, reported Reuters with reference to a report on the state refiner’s website and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The supplies, of heavy grade and with low sulfur content, went into a bonded storage in south China’s Guangdong province where the 400,000 barrels per day Maoming refinery is based.
This new production, similar to pilot cargoes moved into bonded tanks along China’s coast by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp and PetroChina, will benefit from a tax waiver policy Beijing announced in late January, the source said.
Sinopec’s Zhenhai refinery, with annual crude oil refining capacity of 23 million tonnes, also exported 1,000 tonnes of cleaner shipping fuel for the first time to bonded tanks in the eastern port of Zhoushan, Sinopec said in a statement.
Zhenhai currently has low sulfur fuel oil production capacity of 200,000 tons per year, and will continue to expand capacity based on market demand, it said.
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 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
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.
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