MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polish refineries increased crude oil imports by 2.2% to almost 6.5 million tons in the first quarter, mostly due to bigger purchases from Russia and Saudi Arabia, a report by the central bank said, said Reuters.
Most of the crude refined by Polish refineries owned by state-run PKN Orlen and Lotos comes from Russia via pipelines, but Warsaw has reduced its reliance in recent years and buys more oil from other sources, including the United States and Nigeria.
However, the report showed that oil supplies from Russia rose after six consecutive quarters of falls and accounted for more than 70% of total oil imports, compared with 61.5% in 2019 and 68% in 2018.
The central bank also said that the average price of oil imported to Poland rose to 229 zlotys (46.62 pounds) per barrel in the first quarter from 223 zlotys a year ago, mostly due to zloty weakening against the dollar.
The price was not yet affected by the slump in oil prices globally amid the coronavirus pandemic as the market oil price is reflected in imports with a monthly delay, the report said.
As MRC informed earlier, The European Commission has approved PKN Orlen’s acquisition of Grupa Lotos. The approval is conditional on full compliance with a commitments package offered by PKN Orlen.
As MRC informed earlier, in H1 September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN ORLEN had licensed the UOP MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN Orlen facility in Plock, Poland, currently is in the basic engineering stage. Honeywell UOP, a leading provider of technologies for the oil and gas industry, first commercialized the UOP MaxEne process in 2013. The process enables refiners and petrochemical producers to direct molecules within the naphtha feed to the processes that deliver the greatest value and improve yields of fuels and petrochemicals.
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.
MRC