|
MOSCOW (MRC)
-- Eni's Sannazzaro de Burgondi refinery in northern Italy started another cycle
of maintenance and upgrade works, even as a decision on when to reactivate its
Eni slurry technology (EST) unit, which has been offline since a 2016 fire, is
still outstanding and not expected to be taken before demand for refined
products picks up, according to a source close to the refinery, said S&P
Global.
"The planned maintenance activity is ongoing according to the
scheduled programs, and will be completed by the end of May," a spokeswoman for
Eni said. No information was provided on which plants were involved in the
maintenance and upgrade works, nor when the EST plant would be restarted.
The works being carried out are not the series of works planned for the
EST unit that had previously been suspended, the source said. The refinery
underwent maintenance in early March involving "units internal to the refinery,"
an Eni spokesperson said at the time. The work has been completed, the source
said.
As it was informed
earlier, in the late May, Versalis’ cracker is still offline a week after it
was expected to be back in operation because, according to local media reports,
the authorities failed to sign off on the restart because of environmental
concerns. ENI have filed an appeal. In a press release dated 12 May, the
company announced a five day outage starting from 13 May.
Ethylene and
propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and 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. |
