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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell may
begin the permanent shutdown of its 211,146 bpd Convent, Louisiana, refinery
early next week, people familiar with plant operations said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Shell announced on Nov. 5 the refinery, located 57 miles (92 km) west of New
Orleans, was to close after the company failed to find a buyer amid the COVID-19
pandemic. A Shell spokesman did not reply to a request for comment.
The
Convent refinery is the first U.S. Gulf Coast refinery to permanently close
because of the pandemic-related decline in demand for refined products. Eight
other North American plants have been idled or targeted for
shutdowns.
The coronavirus pandemic cut fuel demand by up to 30% earlier
this year, and even as economies recover, the outbreak will likely reduce global
demand by 4.7 MMbpd over the next five years, analysts have said. Three U.S. oil
refineries have shut already this year because of weak demand for jet fuel,
diesel and gasoline amid a slowing economy.
In August, Calcasieu Refining
idled its 135,500-bpd Lake Charles, Louisiana, facility, citing weak margins
from falling demand. Marathon Petroleum Corp has said it will not restart
production at its refineries in Martinez, California, and Gallup, New Mexico.
Shell this month halved its crude processing capacity at its 500,000 bpd Pulau
Bukom plant in Singapore. Plants in the U.S. and Europe are considering
converting some facilities to produce biofuels.
U.S. refineries in August
ran at 78.8% of their 18.6 MMbpd capacity, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration, down from 83.1% in March.
As MRC informed
before, Royal Dutch Shell plc. said earlier this month that its
petrochemical complex of several billion dollars in Western Pennsylvania is
about 70% complete and in the process to enter service in the early 2020s. The
plant's costs are estimated to be USD6-USD10 billion, where ethane will be
transformed into plastic feedstock. The facility is equipped to produce 1.5
million metric tons per year (mmty) of ethylene and 1.6 mmty of polyethylene
(PE), two important constituents of plastics.
Ethylene and propylene are
feedstocks for producing 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, exluding producers" inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random
copolymer.
Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and
gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered
office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in
terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is
vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry,
including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing,
petrochemicals, power generation and trading. |
