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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian
petrochemicals producer Braskem reported in a document sent to the regulator
that its Mexican unit, Braskem Idesa, partially resumed polyethylene production
under the terms of an "experimental business model", reported CA Posts.
Braskem Idesa partially
halted production last month following an interruption in natural gas supplies,
after the federal government decided not to renew the ethane supply contract
with the company. The outage caused the total suspension of the processes of its
Ethylene XXI plant. The group said it will take legal action to defend its
rights but that it cannot predict when the Mexican unit will be fully
operational, given the uncertainty related to its gas supplies.
Since
taking office at the end of 2018, the administration headed by Lopez Obrador has
canceled or asked to review millionaire energy contracts , a policy that has
generated concern among the main investment partners in the country, such as the
United States, the European Union and Canada. In the case of Braskem Idesa, the
national oil company Pemex accumulated millionaire penalties for failing to
comply with the supply of natural gas to the Ethylene XXI petrochemical complex.
As MRC wrote before,
Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras is seeking 800 million reais (USD152
million) in compensation from engineering group Odebrecht in arbitration
proceedings over its alleged violation of the shareholders agreement in
petrochemical company Braskem. Odebrecht is seeking to sell its 38.3% stake in
Braskem SA, while Petrobras aims to offload its 36.1% stake.
We remind
that Braskem is no longer pursuing a
petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West
Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the
cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for
several years.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing
polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report,
PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and
reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the
greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia
increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months
of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase
in imports.
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated
energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and
production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as
refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas
and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related
activities. |
