Eni has made no decision on potential Milazzo refinery closure

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italian energy group Eni has made no decision or announcement about a potential closure of the Milazzo refinery in Sicily, reported Reuters with reference to an Eni spokeswoman's statement on Thursday.

A media report earlier on Thursday, citing Eni officials, said Milazzo would close as a result of air quality requirements that the plant was unable to meet in time. The report said closure was planned by Jan. 1, 2022.

"Milazzo Refinery itself, together with the other Sicilian refining operators, has formally appealed against the new environmental limits," Eni said.

In 2018, the Sicilian regional government approved an air quality plan which laid down, among other things, emission targets for refiners operating in the area.

Some operators called the targets technically unachievable and trade unions expressed concern over possible job losses.

"As of today, the discussion with the (regional) authorities is in progress about both future limits and implications," Eni said.

Milazzo refinery, which has an output of around 10 million tons per year, is operated through a joint-venture of Eni and Kuwait Petroleum Italy.

As MRC informed earlier, Versalis, the petrochemical division of Italy's Eni SpA, shut is cracker in Priolo, Sicily, for repairs in the last days of December, 2019. The capacity of the cracking unit at this complex is 490,000 tonnes of ethylene and 130,000 tonnes of propylene per year. The maintenance works lasted until February 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).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS has broadened its portfolio of upstream assets with an agreement to purchase stakes in two Denmark oilfield assets from Spirit Energy, said the company.

The divestment is through a sale of Spirit’s two companies with licenses in Denmark. The two companies jointly own 40% in the Hejre discovery and 27.7% in the Solsort discovery.

The transaction is subject to approval from the relevant authorities and is expected to close later this year.

Dag Omre, Executive Vice President of Spirit Energy Norway & Denmark, said: "In line with our strategy of managing our portfolio, we evaluated these opportunities and concluded that they are no longer core to Spirit Energy.

"We look forward to working closely with INEOS in the coming months to conclude the transaction, as well as focusing on our portfolio of assets, developments and exploration opportunities across North-West Europe."

As MRC informed before, the restart of the ACN plant of INEOS Nitriles in Seal Sands, UK with the capacity of 280,000 mt/year from the planned maintenance, which began on 27 July 2019, was delayed in late September for a second time because of technical issues. The plant was initially expected to restart at the end of August.

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

According to MRC's DataScopr report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market decreased in 2019 by 4% year on year to 33,700 tonnes.

Spirit Energy was created in 2017 following the combination of Centrica’s Exploration & Production business and Bayerngas Norge AS. The business is 69%-owned by Centrica plc, with the remaining 31% owned by Bayerngas Norge’s former shareholders, led by Stadtwerke Munchen and Bayerngas GmbH.

INEOS is a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products. It has 34 businesses, with a production network spanning 171 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries. From paints to plastics, textiles to technology, medicines to mobile phones - chemicals manufactured by INEOS enhance almost every aspect of modern life. INEOS had sales in 2018 of around $60bn and EBITDA close to €6bn. Its products make a significant contribution to saving life, improving health and enhancing standards of living for people around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- After being lobbied by a non-profit organization, quick service restaurant company Yum Brands will eliminate the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging – better known as Styrofoam – worldwide by 2022, said Canplastics.

The company has also committed to making all of its packaging fully compostable or reusable by 2025. A shareholder proposal filed by non-profit As You Sow urging the company to phase out EPS foam among other actions to improve packaging sustainability was supported by 33 per cent of shares voted with a share value of USD7 billion in 2019.

Yum Brands owns the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken global restaurant chains. Collectively across its brands, it has over 49,000 locations, making it the largest quick-service restaurant company in the world.

EPS foam is used mostly for side dish take-out containers in about 40 of Yum’s global markets, including 4,000 U.S. locations and 2,700 non-U.S. locations.

As You Sow previously lobbied for change at McDonald’s. In 2017, similar As You Sow proposals received support from 32 per cent of McDonald’s shareholders, causing McDonald’s to agree to eliminate foam packaging by the end of 2018.

As per MRC's ScanPlast, overall imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) to Ukraine dropped in the first month of 2020 by 8% year on year to 1,440 tonnes. This figure was at 1,570 tonnes in January 2019. GPPS and HIPS imports were 1,940 tonnes in December 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's top refiner SK Energy will reduce its crude distillation units' run rates by 10-15% in March as exports and domestic demand have been hit by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokesman's statement.

SK Energy, owned by SK Innovation, runs five crude distillation units with a total refining capacity of 840,000 barrels-per-day in the southeastern city of Ulsan.

As MRC wrote previously, SK Global Chemical restarted its naphtha cracker in late January 2018 after a brief but unplanned shutdown earlier in the day. The 660,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker began to operate normally the following day. Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the No. 2 cracker has a production capacity of 690,000 mt/year.

SK Global Chemical also operates a smaller 200,000 tpy cracker at the site.

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) - Lukoil’s board of directors has compiled a list of candidates to vote on the company's board of directors at the annual general meeting of shareholders, the company said.

The current chairman of the board, Valery Graifer, is not included in the list of candidates for the new composition of the board of directors of Lukoil.

Graefer has been in charge of the board since 2000. November 20, 2019 he turned 90 years old. Graifer owns a 0.012% stake in Lukoil.

Instead of Graifer, the vice-president of Lukoil Nikolai Nikolaev was nominated to the board of directors.

The following members are recommended for election to the company’s board of directors: former Deputy Minister of Finance Sergey Shatalov, ex-Federal Chancellor of Austria, member of the Supervisory Board of RWE AG, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Wolfgang Schussel, former manager of Troika Dialog, former head of Deutsche Bank in Russia, now the independent director of Rusnano and president of Matrix Advisors LLC Pavel Teplukhin, head of LUKOIL Vagit Alekperov, top managers of the company Ravil Maganov and Leonid Fedun, former chief accountant of Lyubov NK Khoba, Rector of Moscow State Law University. O.E. Kutafina Victor Blazheev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian-British Chamber of Commerce Roger Mannings and member of the American-Russian Business Council (ARDS), expert of the Valdai International Discussion Club, president of TTG Global LLC Toby Gati.

Also, the Director General of Russian Innovative Fuel and Energy Company LLC (RITEK LLC) Nikolay Nikolaev was nominated for election.

Earlier it was reported that Lukoil took the second place in market capitalization in Russia after the company's shares updated their historic highs against corporate news.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest privately owned oil company in the world in terms of proven hydrocarbon reserves. The structure of Lukoil includes one of the largest petrochemical enterprises in Russia - Stavrolen. Previously, the company also included Karpatneftekhim, the largest polymer producer in Ukraine, but in February 2017, Lukoil completed a sale of this asset.
MRC