Eneos to shift joint venture with PetroChina to Chiba oil refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's biggest oil refiner Eneos Holdings Inc will shift its joint venture with PetroChina Co to Eneos' Chiba refinery after shutting the venture's Osaka refinery next month, reported Reuters with reference to Eneos' statement on Friday.

Eneos plans to close the 115,000 barrel per day (bpd) Osaka refinery that it jointly operated with Petrochina next month amid falling demand for fuel in Japan.

Eneos, formerly known as JXTG, said that the joint venture, which is 51% held by Eneos and the rest by PetroChina, will take over the 129,000-bpd Chiba refinery near Tokyo from December.

"We came to the conclusion that utilizing Chiba refinery's export capacity would contribute the most to a further development of our joint venture which is aimed at strengthening the foundation of stable energy supply in the Asia-Pacific region," Eneos said in a statement.

The Chiba refinery will process crude supplied by PetroChina and export refined products which will be marketed by PetroChina, an Eneos spokeswoman said. She declined to comment where the products will be sold.

The two companies formed the joint venture and started jointly operating the Osaka refinery in 2010, with a view that demand for oil products would grow in the Asia-Pacific region while that in Japan would decline.

The Osaka plant will be converted to an asphalt-fueled electric power station after ending refining operations.

As MRC wrote earlier, Eneos Corporation has taken off-stream its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit owing to technical issues. The company undertook an unplanned shutdown at the unit around September 7, 2020. The unit is likely to remain off-line for around 15 days. Located at Chiba in Japan, the FCC unit has a propylene capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.

Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy was renamed ENEOS Corporation on 25 June, 2020, as part of a wider re-organization of the parent company JXTG Holdings. The move, which also involved renaming the parent company to ENEOS Holdings upon approval at its annual shareholders meeting in June 2020, comes as it strives to be a more comprehensive energy and materials company under its 2040 vision announced in May, 2019. JXTG Holdings was formed as a result of a merger between JX Holdings and TonenGeneral in April 2017. This followed the establishment of JX Holdings as a result of the merger between Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining Holdings in April 2010.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, and a global leader in vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions, has announced an increase in its September low density polyethylene (LDPE) prices in the Americas, as per the company's press release.

The price increases below are effective for orders shipped on or after 15 September 2020, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, LDPE prices rose, as follows:

- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada;
- by USD100/mt - for Mexico & South America.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese also raised its September prices of ethylene-vynil-acetate (EVA) for the stated above regions, as follows:

- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada;
- by USD100/mt - for Mexico & South America.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, demand for LDPE has remained very weak in the spot market since the beginning of the month. Converters made purchases exclusively under the existing orders for finished products, they refused to put LDPE and finished products into their warehouses. Buyers were confident that in October, with the end of the shutdowns for maintenance at several production capacities, supply of PE would increase significantly and prices would substantially decrease.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
MRC

1. Crude prices recover even as bearish fundamentals persist

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil futures recovered slightly during the mid-morning trade in Asia Sept. 22, after the prospect of renewed lockdowns amid a potential resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic drove futures down Sept. 21, reported S&P Global. At 11:16 am Singapore time (0316 GMT), ICE Brent November crude futures were trading at USD41.54/b, up 10 cents/b (0.24%) from the Sept. 21 settle, while the NYMEX October light sweet crude contract was at USD39.57/b, up 26 cents/b (0.66%). This uptick in crude futures comes after the November Brent and the October WTI plummeted USD1.71/b and 1.80/b to close at USD41.44/b and USD39.31/b, respectively, on Sept. 21, following fears of renewed lockdown restrictions during the winter months, when the coronavirus is expected to spread faster.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has shut its low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Thailand informed that, the company halted operations at the unit on September 24, 2020. The unit is likely to remain under maintenance till mid-October, 2020.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the LDPE unit has a production capacity of 345,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, PTTGC unexpectedly shut its LDPE unit in the morning of 9 September due to minor plant issue. The unit was expected to restart by 10 September.

Besides, PTTGC undertook a planned shutdown at its LDPE plant for turnaround on July 7, 2019. The plant remained shut for around 3 weeks.

PTT has a total capacity of 800,000 mt/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE), 345,000 mt/year of LDPE and 800,000 mt/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) at the same site.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, July estimated LDPE consumption in Russia decreased to 43,380 tonnes from 55,380 tonnes a month earlier. Angarsk Polymers Plant and Gazprom neftekhim Salavat cut thei shipments to the domestic market because of shutdowns for maintenance. Russia's estimated LDPE consumption grew to 335,000 tonnes in January-July 2020, up by 6% year on year. Despite the long outages, LDPE production increased, and imports also rose.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, and a global leader in vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions, has announced an increase in its September low density polyethylene (LDPE) prices in China, as per the company's press release.

Thus, the company's LDPE prices rose by CNY700/mt for China, effective September 15, 2020, or as contracts otherwise allow.

The price increases above are for orders shipped on or after September 15, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced rises.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese has also raised its September prices of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) by the sam amount.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, demand for LDPE has remained very weak in the spot market since the beginning of the month. Converters made purchases exclusively under the existing orders for finished products, they refused to put LDPE and finished products into their warehouses. Buyers were confident that in October, with the end of the shutdowns for maintenance at several production capacities, supply of PE would increase significantly and prices would substantially decrease.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
MRC