Formosa plans to operate refinery at lower rate after maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to operate its refinery at a reduced rate after completing maintenance at some units later this month amid weak margins, reported Reuters with reference to its company spokesman's statement.

Refineries globally are reducing utilisation rates to cope with a sudden plunge in domestic demand and negative gasoline margins as governments impose more stringent lockdown measures.

The company is expected to restart one of its three crude distillation units (CDUs), its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) and one of its two residue desulphurizers (RDS) around April 20 after more than a month’s shutdown for scheduled maintenance.

After the unit’s restart, Formosa plans to be processing 480,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, spokesman KY Lin told Reuters, about 10% below the refinery’s nameplate capacity of 540,000 bpd.

The company is also looking at adjusting output at its 84,000-bpd RFCC to maximize production of propylene, a petrochemical raw material, as prices are still supportive, while reducing gasoline output, he said.

He added that the refinery has previously reduced jet fuel output partly by blending the fuel into its diesel and naphtha pool.

"We won’t rule out further run cuts," he said, adding that oil supply remained excessive globally.

Formosa operates three CDUs with a capacity of 180,000 bpd each, while the capacity of each of its RDS units is 80,000 bpd.

As MRC wrote before, Formosa Plastics' new 1.5 million mt/year cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, came online in H1 2020 and was seen ramping up through January.

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).

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese producer Zhejiang Zhengkai's subsidiary Chongqing Wankai has started up its new 600,000 t/yr polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle chip plant on 25 March, 2020, reported Argus.

Feedstock purified terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol was fed into the Chongqing plant in southwest China today, with Wankai targeting on-specification production by the end of this month.

The project has a design capacity of 1.2mn t/yr of PET bottle chip, including two 600,000 t/yr production lines. Total investment is 3.6bn yuan (USD507mn).

The phase one 600,000 t/yr PET bottle chip plant started construction in January 2019 and finished this year. But the coronavirus outbreak in China delayed its start-up plan from mid-February to this month because of a lack of workers.

Zhejiang Zhengkai will be the second-largest PET bottle chip producer in China following the Chongqing start-up behind Jiangsu Sanfangxiang. Zhejiang Zhengkai currently operates three PET bottle chip units with a total capacity of 1.25mn t/yr in east China's Zhejiang province.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption decreased to about 53,890 tonnes in February 2020, down by 3% year on year. 100,830 tonnes of PET chips were processed in Russia in the first two months of 2020. February PET production in Russia dropped to 45,800 tonnes, down by 5% year on year. Russia's overall PET production fell in January-February 2020 by 13% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian state oil company Rosneft's decision to cease operations in Venezuela and sell its assets there to a Russian government-owned company was a "maneuver" made in reaction to collapsing oil prices, a US State Department official said Tuesday, reported S&P Global.

"Rosneft is now losing money, its joint ventures can't sell crude oil for a profit, its trading activities around the world, trying to sell Venezuela oil, are really in trouble," Elliott Abrams, the US State Department's special representative for Venezuela, told reporters during a briefing.

Abrams said that the US government was still trying to learn more about the sale, such as how the new company would be structured and whether it would control all of Rosneft's assets in Venezuela.

The sale, which Rosneft announced Saturday, follows the imposition of US sanctions on two Rosneft trading subsidiaries, Rosneft Trading and TNK Trading, over their activities in Venezuela earlier this year.

Abrams said State estimates that the decline in oil prices has caused Venezuelan oil output to fall to 500,000 b/d.

Venezuelan oil output averaged 820,000 b/d in February, according to the latest S&P Global Platts OPEC survey.

"I think it's very clear that the amount of money going to (Venezuela's Maduro) regime is in very steep decline," Abrams said. "They're not getting the cost of production so you can see the impact is enormous."

Earlier in the briefing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied that the Trump administration saw low oil prices as an opportunity to ratchet up oil sanctions, something analysts have said the administration is doing.

"Oil prices will go up, they'll go down, our mission set remains unchanged," Pompeo said.

On Tuesday, the State Department unveiled a proposal which would lift all sanctions on Venezuela, including US sanctions on petroleum exports, if it establishes a new, transitional government and holds internationally-sanctioned presidential elections within a year.

As MRC informed before, Russian oil giant Rosneft said its refinery plant in Ryazan stopped a primary crude processing unit to carry out planned maintenance on March 17, 2019. The plant remained closed until March 31, 2019, according to the energy ministry's statement.

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.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In response to urgent needs by medical professionals for protective equipment to combat COVID-19, Solvay is supplying high-performance, medical-grade transparent film to Boeing for its production of face shields, said the company.

Boeing approached Solvay due to its experience in the use of advanced composite and adhesive materials on multiple commercial and defense programs.

Manufactured by Solvay's Ajedium™ Films business, the thermoplastic film will be used by Boeing in the production of thousands of face shields critically needed by hospitals and medical workers in the U.S. to protect them from the COVID-19 virus. The film will be manufactured using Solvay’s medical-grade Radel® PPSU or Udel® PSU, two transparent specialty polymers widely used for medical devices because of their ability to be sterilized and withstand aggressive disinfectants.

"We are honored to bring our product expertise to our customers in this time of crisis," explains Jeff Hrivnak, healthcare global business development manager for Solvay Specialty Polymers. "Boeing is rising to the occasion by providing more durable, face shields now in critical demand for our heroic healthcare workers, and we are proud to help make that possible."

As MRC informed earlier, DOMO Chemicals has completed its acquisition of Solvay’s Performance Polyamides Business in Europe. This Business includes Engineering Plastics operations in France and Poland; High Performance Fibers in France; Polymer and Intermediates operations in France, Spain and Poland. The Business comprises Production, Sales, Technical Support, R&D and Innovation services in France, Spain, Poland, Germany and Italy that currently have a combined headcount of approximately 1,100 employees. The agreement also involves a joint venture between BASF and DOMO in France for the production of Adipic Acid.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, BASF has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes шт 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) -- Hangjin Technology Co, has undertaken an unplanned shutdown at its propylene oxide (PO) unit, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company halted operations at the unit on April 1, 2020. The exact duration of the outage could not be ascertained.

Located in Liaoning, China, the unit has a production capacity of 40,000 mt/year.

Propylene oxide is used for the production of refractory materials, modified carbohydrates, synthetic lubricants, chemicals for drilling oil fields and textile surfactants.

Propylene is the main feedstock component for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's February PP production decreased to 157,700 tonnes from 168,600 tonnes in January, several producers reduced their capacity utilisation. Russia's overall PP production reached 326,300 tonnes in January-February 2020, compared to 212,700 tonnes a year earlier. Six out of eight producers increased their capacity utilisation, while the two largest producers from Tobolsk provided the largest increase in the output.
MRC