Pemex restarts its largest refinery in Mexico after quake that killed worker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A worker at Mexico’s largest refinery died after a fall during a powerful earthquake on Tuesday, the country’s civil protection agency said, with the tremors also causing a fire that led to the brief shuttering of the installation, reported Reuters.

The fire, which ignited where power generators and a boiler are located, was quickly extinguished, a company spokesperson said. The facility on the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca near the epicenter of the earthquake reopened after a short period of time, the civil protection agency said.

"A small fire broke out and was immediately controlled," the Pemex spokesperson told Reuters.

The worker died in hospital after he fell from one of the plant’s structures during the quake, the protection agency said.

As MRC wrote before, Pemex is advancing a refinery rehabilitation program that will enable it to process 1.2 million b/d of crude oil by the end of 2020 and evaluating a reconfiguration of its petrochemical facility at Cangrejera, Mexico, into what would be its eighth refinery.

We also remind that in 2016, Pemex shut its steam cracker at its Cangrejera complex for maintenance on February 15. The cracker was idle for about 14 days. The conducted repairs at the cracker were a part of planned maintenance.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 24.06.2020

1. US chemical production down 2.0% in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical production in the US fell by 2.0% in May on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, the third consecutive month of declines as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to put a dent into demand, reported Chemweek. The decline softened a bit from April, which saw a 2.7% drop in production. “The lower level of activity is directly related to supply chain disruptions and continued restrictions across much of the country during May,” the American Chemistry Council (ACC) says.


MRC

S-Oil likely conducts maintenance at RFCC unit in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- S-Oil, South Korean petrochemical major has taken off-stream its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit for a turnaround earlier this month, reported S&P Global.

The company is likely to undertake a planned shutdown at the unit by early-July, 2020. The unit is slated to remain off-line for about two weeks.

Located at Onsan, South Korea, the RFCC unit has a propylene capacity of 705,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, S-Oil's new residue upgrading complex (RUC) and olefin downstream complex (ODC) was inaugurated at the company's Onsan Refinery in Ulsan, South Korea, in July, 2019. The project, which cost around USD4-billion, involved construction of a plant to upgrade low-value residue oil to high-value gasoline and propylene. The propylene is to be used for the production of 405,000 t/y of polypropylene (PP) and 300,000 t/y of propylene oxide.

Separately, S-Oil and Saudi Aramco, a majority shareholder in S-Oil, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a USD6-billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project. Completion is expected by 2024. PCN earlier reported that the project would include a 1.5-million-t/y steam cracker, which would produce ethylene and other basic petrochemicals from naphtha and refinery off-gas. The downstream units would include the production of polyethylene and PP.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of PP.

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

Petronas president and CEO Wan Zulkiflee to step down end of the month

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) today said the recent resignation of Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin as chief executive officer of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) should have happened a long time ago, said Chemweek.

Its president Lina Soo said he was a reason for Petronas not willing to pay the 5 per cent state sales (SST) imposed on the import of petroleum products in Sarawak.

"He had said in public that Sarawak had no legal competence to demand the sales tax and had also opposed demands from Sarawak and neighbouring Sabah for bigger royalty payments," Soo said when asked by Malay Mail to comment on the resignation of Wan Zulkiflee as Petronas chief executive officer recently.

It was reported that Wan Zulkiflee resigned after a disagreement with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over a plan to pay USD470 million (RM2 billion) in sales tax to Sarawak.

Petronas had been fighting Sarawak’s demand for the sales tax in court before the two parties announced a settlement last month — although Sarawak later said it would continue its legal action until an agreement is final.

Soo said it is ludicrous that Petronas had no qualms paying a royalty, dividends, corporate tax and extending cash bailouts to the federal government during its 44 years’ of existence, but refused to pay higher oil royalty and SST to Sarawak.

As MRC wrote before, in early May, 2020, Petronas Chemicals (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia’s leading petrochemicals player, reported a drop in first-quarter sales and earnings citing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The sharp decline in petrochemical product prices following the outbreak of COVID-19, the deepening industry downcycle as crude oil prices collapsed due to the OPEC+ fallout, and the recessionary global economic outlook have hurt results, the company says.

We remind that PRefChem, owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco (50:50), received commercial ethylene and propylene at its new cracker in Pengerang (Malaysia,) on 13 September, 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 721,290 tonnes in the firs four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

Hengli Petrochemical to start up its new No. 5 PTA line in Dalian in late June-early July

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hengli Petrochemical's new No. 5 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line located on Changxing Island, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, is expected to come online in end-June or early-July, reported S&P Global.

The new line's production capacity will be 2.5 million tonnes per year.

As MRC reported earlier, Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co. reached full rate at its No. 4 PTA line in Dalian City in mid-March, 2020. The 2.5-million-t/y PTA line, which came online in January 2020, utilizes Invista's P8 PTA technology. The line also produces benzoic acid, using Invista's RP2PR technology.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

As per MRC's ScanPlast report, April total estimated PET consumption in Russia virtually did not change year on year, totalling 60,840 tonnes (in April 2019 - 60,980 tonnes). 235,160 tonnes of PET chips were processed in Russia in January-April 2020.

Hengli Petrochemical Co., Ltd. manufactures chemical fibers. The Company researches, produces, and sells polyester filament and chips for consumer and industry products. Hengli Petrochemical markets it products worldwide.
MRC