MOSCOW (MRC) -- Three dozen refinery workers represented by Toledo, Ohio’s local building trades union protested in front of their workplace in the city early Monday over BP’s hiring of non-union contractors from Texas to perform their work, reported Reuters.
BP is also considering using a mix of union and non-union labor for a multi-unit turnaround at the 155,000 barrel per day refinery in 2022, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The company plans to cut 15% of its workforce worldwide as part of chief executive Bernard Looney’s proposed shift to greater production of renewables away from oil and gas.
For the past two weeks non-union contractors have been working on an alkylation unit at the refinery, jointly owned by BP and Husky Energy, according to a source familiar with the matter. The work is expected to last two more weeks, the source said.
“BP is acting recklessly by bringing in out of state workers from Texas while we have high unemployment in the area,” said United Association Local 50 business manager Scott Lopez.
BP has traditionally employed local building trades laborers to perform refinery work in the region, Lopez said.
“The refinery is planning to invite qualified non-union contractors with proven safety and performance records to participate in sourcing activities for select refinery work,” according to BP spokeswoman Sarah Howell.
“We have a long history of providing thousands of good paying jobs to local workers and can only continue to do this if we have a competitive business,” Howell added.
As MRC wrote before, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels.
Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40 per cent in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.
And in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, 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.
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