MOSCOW (MRC) -- Australian fuel supplier Viva Energy Group on Monday said it will shut down a unit of its Geelong Refinery in Victoria as it seeks to reduce surplus production to cope with a collapse in fuel demand, reported Reuters.
The company said closure of the refinery’s Residual Catalytic Cracking Unit will not have a material financial impact or lead to a disruption in fuel supply.
We remind that, as MRC informed before, Italian energy group Eni said most of its oil refineries in Italy were working at around 60% of their capacity in April as the coronavirus emergency continues. The pandemic has shut down large parts of economies across the globe and prompted many governments to slap tough restrictions on travel, triggering a steep fall in the demand for refined oil products. In emailed comments, Eni said its biggest refinery Sannazzaro, in northern Italy, was running at around 50% of its capacity since it was also impacted by planned maintenance work.
We also remind that operations at Italian petrochemical producer Versalis (part of Eni) werenot affected by emergency quarantine measures in the country imposed in March 2020. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended its emergency coronavirus measures on 8 March and announced the closure of "non-essential" commercial businesses. This follows the announcement of a nationwide lockdown on 6 March, limiting movement for around 60 million people. Under these measures people are only allowed to leave their homes for work or health reasons. 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.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC