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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Operations at
Italian petrochemical producer Versalis have not affected by emergency
quarantine measures in the country, reported S&P Global with reference to a company
spokesperson's statement Thursday.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe
Conte extended its emergency coronavirus measures Wednesday evening and
announced the closure of "non-essential" commercial businesses. This follows the
announcement of a nationwide lockdown on Monday, limiting movement for around 60
million people. Under these measures people will only be allowed to leave their
homes for work or health reasons.
Factories can operate as long as safety
protocols are in place, Conte told a press conference.
"Versalis (Eni)
confirms that operations are being carried on regularly. Since the emergency
outbreak, the company has promptly put in place all necessary measures to
protect its personnel's health," the company told S&P Global Platts in a
statement.
"The progress of the epidemic is being monitored in order to
continue to guarantee maximum health and safety protection of all employees,"
the statement continued.
Versalis has three steam crackers in Italy,
capable of producing 1.675 million mt of ethylene, 750,000 of propylene and
285,000 mt of butadiene a year.
As MRC informed earlier,
Versalis shut its cracking unit 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. Loading at this cracker was reduced in
November and December 2019.
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.
Versalis is a petrochemical company, a 100% subsidiary of the
Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA. The company produces a wide range of
petrochemical products, and is also one of the world's leading elastomer
companies.
Eni spa (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) is an Italian oil and gas
company headquartered in Rome. Eni operates in 70 countries. |
