MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil and gas major Total said on Monday that it has postponed the restart of its 102,000 barrels per day (bpd) Grandpuits refinery near Paris indefinitely because of a drop in fuel demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters.
The refinery halted production at the start of the month for scheduled maintenance at some units. It was expected to resume production at the end of the month, Total said in a statement.
"Due to the fall in fuel demand caused by the Covid-19 epidemic... management has decided to postpone the restart of the refinery," the company said, adding that only partial activities would be maintained.
As MRC wrote before, Total said Tuesday it had a suspected case of coronavirus on a rig at its Culzean gas field in the UK North Sea, but production was unaffected.
We also remind that Total has recently disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
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.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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