COVID-19 - News digest as of 17.11.2020

1. Chevron to lay off about 25% of Noble Energy employees after merger

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp will lay off about 25% of Noble Energy's employees who joined the oil major after its USD4.1 billion purchase of the smaller rival earlier this month, the company announced, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. A collapse in crude oil prices has forced most oil and gas producers to drastically cut costs by laying off thousands of employees and cutting down on drilling. For many companies, consolidation with larger players at low or no premiums is becoming the only option to survive. The job cuts, which are on top of Chevron’s plan to reduce 10%-15% of its own workforce, come after the company promised to lower its operating expenses by USD1 billion this year to cope with the downturn. Chevron’s 10%-15% cuts would imply a reduction of between 4,500 and 6,750 jobs, while job cuts at Noble will reduce the total workforce by roughly another 570 positions.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Russia totalled 38,500 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, down by 16% year on year. At the same time, exports decrease by 1%, according to MRC's DataScope report.
Last month's SPVC imports to Russia fell to 2,300 tonnes from 4,200 tonnes. The devaluation of the rouble against the dollar and high prices of resin in foreign markets forced Russian companies to significantly reduce their imports. Thus, overall imports were 38,500 tonnes in January-October 2020, compared to 45,900 tonnes a year earlier, with resin from China and the United States accounting for the main reduction in imports. PVC shipments from these countries decreased by almost a third over the stated period.
At the same time, strong demand for resin from the domestic market allowed Russian producers to reduce their export sales. October exports of suspension did not exceed 10,000 tonnes (excluding shipments to Belarus and Kazakhstan) versus 11,300 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall PVC exports totalled 165,700 tonnes in January-October 2020, compared to 167,800 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sasol has announced its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant reached beneficial operation on 15 November 2020, as per the company's press release.

The LDPE unit is the seventh and final Lake Charles Chemicals Complex unit to come online. The LCCP is now 100% complete with total capital expenditure forecast to be within the previously communicated guidance of USD12,8 billion.

“This milestone safely brings our Lake Charles Chemicals Project to a close and sets the stage for the next step in the evolution of our chemicals business,” said Sasol President and Chief Executive Officer Fleetwood Grobler. “The completion of this unit and its impending transition to our joint venture with LyondellBasell will accelerate our transformation to a more specialty chemicals-focused company with a strong presence of base chemicals in our portfolio.”

Sasol’s LDPE unit uses ExxonMobil technology and has a nameplate capacity of 420,000 tons per year (420 ktpa). LDPE is used to manufacture plastic bags, shrink wrap and stretch film, coatings for paper cups and cartons, container lids, squeezable bottles, and other applications. The beneficial operation of the final LCCP unit signals that 100% of total nameplate capacity of the LCCP is operational.

The LDPE unit is one of the three LCCP plants that will form part of the Sasol/LyondellBasell Louisiana Integrated Polyethylene joint venture.

To date, Sasol’s Lake Charles Chemicals Project has generated more than 800 full-time quality manufacturing jobs, with up to 6,500 people on site during construction, USD4 billion to Louisiana businesses and nearly USD200 million in local and state taxes.

As MRC reported earlier, Sasol said Sept. 21 the new LDPE plant, which had been slated to start up in early 2020 before it was damaged by fire during commissioning in January, did not sustain any significant storm impacts. And the company resumed commissioning the plant then.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, September estimated LDPE consumption in Russia fell to 23,930 tonnes from 47,610 tonnes a month earlier. Russian producers reduced their domestic LDPE shipments due to shutdowns for maintenance at production capacities in Ufa, Tomsk and Kazan. Russia's estimated LDPE consumption totalled about 406,500 tonnes in January-September 2020, which virtually corresponded to the last year's figure.

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages technologies and the expertise of our 31 270 people working in 32 countries. The company develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product stream, including liquid fuels, petrochemicals and low-carbon electricity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis has announced force majeure on its feedstocks and cracker supplies from its Porvoo, Finland cracker, which is expected to impact supply balance this week, reported S&P Global.

Thus, the force majeure was announced on 11 November at the company's 400,000 mt/year of ethylene and 223,000 mt/year of propylene cracker because of technical issue. The failure was outside of Borealis' scope of responsibility, a company spokesperson confirmed.

The cracker was shut down for repair works. Its restart is expected in early December.

As MRC informed earlier, Borealis announces that its new naphtha cavern in Porvoo, Finland has now been safely commissioned as of October 2020. Having invested around EUR25 million in the construction of this 80,000 m3 facility, Borealis can now source and store naphtha for its Porvoo operations from the global market in a more flexible, cost-efficient, and secure way. The cavern can also accommodate renewable naphtha, making it possible for Borealis customers in future to draw on certified renewable polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), as well as renewable base chemicals, ethylene, propylene and phenol.

We remind that the light-feed 625,000-metric tons/year Borealis steam cracker at Stenungsund, Sweden, is expected to restart operations in the fourth quarter this year after a fire broke out at the plant in May, 2020. The cracker has been under force majeure ever since after the blaze at the plant on 10 May, which was subsequently brought under control the following day.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Borealis currently employs around 6,500 and operates in over 120 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Xinjiang Mining Co (part of Shenhua Group) has unexpectedly shut down its polypropylene (PP) plant due to technical glitches on its pipeline, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

Thus , the company's PP plant, based in Xinjiang, China and with the capacity of 450,000 tons/year, was taken off-stream on 11 November, 2020, an is expected to remain off-line for seven days.

Shenhua Xinjiang also operates low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant with the capacity of 300,000 tons/year at the same site. This unit was also shut on 11 November for the same reason.

As MRC wrote before, last year, the company conducted scheduled maintenance works at LDPE plant from 16 August to 24 September.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

Shenhua Group Corporation Limited was a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company. Shenhua Group was founded in October 1995 under the auspices of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It was the largest coal-producing company in China.
MRC