Australian Ampol may shut oil refinery despite national security push

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ampol Ltd is considering closing its Lytton oil refinery, one of Australia's four refineries, as it has racked up big losses because of a coronavirus-driven slump in fuel demand and competition from huge Asian plants, reported Reuters.

Ampol, formerly known as Caltex Australia, may close Lytton despite a recent offer from the Australian government of incentives worth AD2.3 billion (USD1.6 billion) to the industry to keep the country’s refineries open for the sake of national security.

Ampol's shares rose as much as 2.3% after flagging the refinery review, outpacing gains in the broader market.

“We really appreciate the government recognizing with its proposed package the challenges that the refining sector is facing,...but we need to be realistic about the extreme structural pressures that Lytton is facing,” Ampol chief executive Matt Halliday said in an interview.

Ampol on Thursday reported a AD141 million loss at the plant so far this year, worse than analysts’ expectations.

“That demand destruction and the oversupply that we’ve seen ... presents a very challenging outlook for margins,” Halliday told Reuters.

“That’s on top of the pressures that we face in the international context. The (Australian) refineries are relatively small and relatively old.”

Ampol said it would review the future of the Lytton plant, located in Queensland state, by the second quarter of 2021, weighing up whether to close it, turn it into a fuel import terminal as it did with its Kurnell refinery in 2014, continue existing operations or try other models of operation.

“Lytton’s larger than expected loss for Q3 reflects a combination of weak refining margins and the structural aspect of its relatively high fixed cost base,” RBC analysts said in a note.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said in emailed comments the government was working closely with Ampol and the industry on its fuel security package.

Analysts have expected Ampol, which fended off a takeover offer earlier this year, to shut Lytton to boost returns.

Rival Viva Energy Group Ltd last month also warned it might shut its refinery in Geelong, near Melbourne.

As MRC wrote before, Ampol brought forward the refinery turnaround to May, 2020, as refining margins crashed and extended the outage from two months to four months to the end of August to allow for social distancing of workers at the site.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Court of Auditors (ECA), which audits the EU's finances, says in a recent review there is a significant risk that the EU will not meet its plastic packaging recycling targets for 2025 and 2030, said Chemweek.

ECA notes that the EU's 2018 update of its legal framework for plastic recycling reflects the EU’s increased ambitions and could help boost recycling capacity, but says the scale of the challenge facing the EU member states should not be underestimated. The auditors call for new and more accurate recycling reporting rules and a tightening of plastic waste export rules. Concerted action is needed to get the EU to where it wants to be in 5–10 years’ time, ECA says.

According to the review, packaging alone, such as yogurt pots or water bottles, accounts for about 40% of plastic use and more than 60% of plastic waste generated in the EU. However, packaging has the lowest recycling rate in the EU at slightly more than 40%, ECA says.

The European Commission’s plastics strategy, adopted in 2018, included an update of its 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and doubled the EU's recycling target to 50% by 2025 with a goal of 55% by 2030. Reaching these targets would be a significant step toward achieving the EU’s circular economy goals, the auditors say.

"To meet its new recycling targets for plastic packaging, the EU must reverse the current situation, whereby we incinerate more than we recycle. This is a daunting challenge,” says Samo Jereb, the ECA member responsible for the review. “By resuscitating single-use habits amid sanitary concerns, the [COVID-19] pandemic shows that plastics will continue to be a mainstay of our economies, but also an ever-growing environmental threat."

As mRC informed earlier, European petrochemical industry faces short-term and longer-term challenges caused by or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Speakers on Monday at the European Petrochemical Association’s (EPCA) 54th annual meeting, being held in a virtual format, said the crisis had been a learning experience for the industry.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Russian companies significantly raised their purchasing of PP in foreign markets in August partially because of a major increase in demand, imports were 21,200 tonnes versus 17,200 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall PP imports into Russia reached 143,200 tonnes in January-August 2020, compared to 120,100 tonnes a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay says it aims to reduce emissions further from its own production plants and related to the energy it purchases, and include in its 2030 sustainability targets emissions in the value chains connected to Solvay’s activities, said Chemweek.

These emissions are principally embedded in goods and services purchased and emissions during the processing, use, and end of life of products sold, the company says.

Solvay adopted earlier this year, with its Solvay One Planet program, a 2030 target to reduce its emissions twice as fast as under its previous goal. “Now we will take this commitment a step further by joining with customers, suppliers, and all other companies that are setting emissions-reduction targets in line with what climate science says is necessary. We have to reinvent progress and act decisively in this decade to minimize the climate risk,” says Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay.

The company’s new sustainability targets are in line with the Science Based Targets initiative, a collaboration between CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project; the United Nations Global Compact; World Resources Institute; and the World Wide Fund for Nature, it says.

As MRC reported earlier, in August, 2020, through the acquisition of the Solvay polyamide (PA) business, BASF enhanced its R&D capabilities in Asia Pacific with new technologies, technical expertise, and upgraded material and part testing services. BASF is planning to integrate the R&D centers from Solvay into its R&D existing facilities in Shanghai, China, and Seoul, Korea. The enhanced capabilities will boost BASF’s position as a solution provider to develop advanced material solutions for key industries.

We remind that BASF-YPC, a 50-50 joint venture of BASF and Sinopec, undertook a planned shutdown at its naphtha cracker on 30 April 2020. The company initially planned to start turnaround at the cracker on April 5, 2020. The plant remained under maintenance unitl 18 June, 2020. Located in Jiangsu, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 750,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US combined propane and propylene stocks slid 100,000 bbl during the week ended 2 October to 101.8 million bbl, the Energy Information Administration says, said Chemweek.

Product supplied for propane and propylene, an indicator of implied demand, climbed 584,000 b/d on the week to 1.199 million b/d. Exports fell 143,000 b/d to 1.17 million b/d. The four-week average for exports advanced 35,000 b/d, year on year, to 1.11 million b/d. Propane/propylene imports for the week retreated 65,000 b/d to 96,000 b/d while the four-week average edged up 6,000 b/d to 114,000 b/d from the four-week average a year ago.

The Gulf Coast (PADD 3) region inventories moved up 200,000 bbl to 59.7 million bbl in the latest week. The Midwest (PADD 2) region stocks fell 800,000 bbl to 27 million bbl. PADD 1 inventories added 400,000 bbl to 9.6 million bbl, and PADDs 4 and 5 stocks rose 200,000 bbl to 5.6 million bbl.

Immediately after the report's release, Mont Belvieu TET propane was higher at 50.875 cts/gal from 49.750 cts/gal before the report. Non-TET propane was unchanged at 49.25 cts/gal. Conway propane showed no reaction and stayed at 51.50 cts/gal.

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.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s oil refineries in Convent, Geismar and Norco, Louisiana, are monitoring and preparing responses to the threat from Hurricane Delta, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Delta struck the Yucatan peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane earlier Wednesday and is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico and strengthen. It will approach the US Gulf Coast on the weekend as a Category 3 storm with winds of up to 130 miles per hour (209 kmh), the National Hurricane Center said.

As MRC informed earlier, hurricane Delta is on track to reach the US Gulf Coast (USGC) between High Island, Texas, northeast of Houston, and Grand Isle, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, Friday. Located north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday afternoon, the storm is forecast to strengthen as it heads north toward the heart of the US petrochemical industry.

We remind that strengthening hurricane Delta forced the closure of 29.2% of offshore crude oil production in the US-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico by midday Tuesday, regulator US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing 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.
MRC