MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sugimori, who chairs
Japan's biggest oil refiner Eneos Holdings Inc, said that Japan's gasoline
demand may fall deeper again in December and January due to the recent surge in
the COVID-19 infections, reported Reuters.
Japanese gasoline demand is
expected to decline only by 2% in November from a year earlier. But the drop may
expand to as much as 9% in December-January, he said, matching the fall seen in
August when the number of coronavirus cases spiked.
The head of the
Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said on Friday he expects a grouping of
OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, will likely delay a plan to boost output in
January and stick to existing curbs of 7.7 million barrels per day
(bpd).
"Given the weaker oil demand amid the resurgence of COVID-19
infections, OPEC+ is likely to keep the current curbs ... after January,"
Tsutomu Sugimori, president of PAJ, told a news conference.
OPEC+,
comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and
other producers, will discuss policy at a meeting on Nov. 30 and Dec.
1.
The 7.7 million bpd reduction was implemented earlier this year to try
to counter the impact of a drop in demand triggered by coronavirus lockdowns
around the world.
Sources say OPEC+ members are now leaning towards
delaying a previously agreed plan to raise output in January by 2 million
bpd.
Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level on Thursday
as its daily tally of new infections rose to a record 534 and its governor
called for maximum caution as the year-end holiday season approaches.
As
MRC informed
earlier, ENEOS Corporation (formerly known as JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy)
is planning to take its larger naphtha cracker in Kawasaki off-line on 1
December 2020 for repairment after a technical issue reported at the butadiene
separation unit last week. The cracker is currently operating at 95% capacity
and would slowly reduce the run rates to completely shut down by the beginning
of December. The cracker with an annual capacity of 515,000 tons/year of
ethylene, 300,000 tons/year of propylene, and 105,000 tons/year of butadiene
would be shut for a month. The company’s smaller cracker at the same location is
not affected by the issue.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for
producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (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.
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. |