Alpek reported higher sales in Q1

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alpek swung to a Q1 net income because of higher sales, and it raised its guidance for 2021, said the company.

The following shows the company's financial performance. Figures are in millions of pesos. During the quarter, Alpek's plants operated without interruption, allowing them to capitalise on the disruption caused by winter storm Uri.

In addition, Alpek was able to sell natural gas. The following shows the financial performance of the company's Polyester segment.

During the first quarter, Asian integrated reference margins for polyester rose to an average of USD330/tonne, up 36% from the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase exceeded Alpek's forecast of USD245/tonne.

The polyester segment produces purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyester fibres.

As per MRC, Nova Chemicals (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) has agreed to sell its expandable styrenics business to a subsidiary of Alpek (Monterrey, Mexico) for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, it says. The sale encompasses Nova’s expandable polystyrene (EPS) and Arcel-brand resin product lines, with manufacturing facilities in Monaca, Pennsylvania, and Painesville, Ohio, as well as commercial operations in Asia, it says. The plant at Monaca has an EPS production capacity of 123,000 metric tons/year, with 36,000 metric tons/year of capacity for Arcel, as well as an R&D pilot plant. The facility at Painesville has an EPS capacity of 45,000 metric tons/year, according to Alpek subsidiary Styropek, which is acquiring Nova’s business.

According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, Russian HIPS and GPPS producers traditionally did not adjust their prices of material in the middle of the month. A shortage of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's material remained in the domestic market. The situation with the shortage of Russian polystyrene (PS) is also expected to remain in November.

Alpek operates two main business segments, focused on polyester, and plastics and chemicals, and is a leading producer of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). It is also the largest EPS manufacturer in the Americas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports fell to their lowest in eight months in February, the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) said on Monday, as the world's biggest oil exporter voluntarily capped output to support oil prices, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude exports fell to 5.625 million barrels per day (bpd), their lowest since June 2020 in February, from 6.582 million bpd in the prior month. Exports had risen for a seventh straight month, to their highest since April 2020, in January.

Crude output for February also dropped to its lowest since June last year at 8.147 million bpd, from 9.103 million bpd in January. Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, voluntarily cut output by 1 million bpd in February, March and April as part of a deal with OPEC+ producers after new virus variants cast doubts over fuel demand.

Total crude and oil products exports fell to 6.86 million bpd in February from 7.75 million bpd a month earlier. The country's domestic refinery crude throughput fell to 2.281 million bpd, while crude stocks fell to 134.575 million barrels in February.

Exports of oil products rose to 1.23 million bpd in February and demand for oil products edged higher to 1.885 million bpd in the same period. Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other OPEC members to JODI, which publishes them on its website.

As per MRC, China’s daily refinery throughput surged 19.7% in March from a year earlier, as refiners ramped up operations to meet robust fuel demand and to build up inventory before shutting down for overhaul. China processed 59.79 million tons of crude oil last month, data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday. That is equivalent to 14.08 million barrels per day (bpd), easing off 14.13 million bpd averaged in the first two months. The strong year-on-year growth was in part due to a low base a year earlier when Chinese fuel demand was badly hit by coronavirus that forced refineries to slash production.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- There is more uncertainty over Versalis’ plans for its Porto Marghera, Italy cracker closure following local media reports that the company has taken the earlier declaration for a Spring 2022 stoppage, off the table, said the company.

The Venice bio-refinery is preparing to eliminate the use of palm oil in its production of biofuels. Recently, it submitted documentation to qualify for an environmental impact assessment to build new units that will upgrade the feedstock pretreatment system installed in June 2018, which allow for the treatment of crude vegetable oils, used plant-based cooking oils and used animal fats.

Currently, the systems in Porto Marghera are able to process about 7.5 tonnes of used cooking oil and animal fats per hour; with the construction of the new biomass treatment lines, the entire production capacity of the EcofiningTM plant will be fulfilled with biological materials from the waste and residue chains, expanding feedstock options beyond those incentivised by European and national standards, thus definitively eliminating palm oil from the production of biofuels.

Since 2014 Eni's Venice biorefinery has produced hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO), which is added to diesel fuel to meet European and national regulatory requirements which state that an increasing proportion of fuels must be made from raw materials from renewable sources. In 2020, with an authorised capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year, it processed around 220,000 tonnes of raw materials, of which more than 25% consisted of used cooking oils, animal fats and other waste vegetable oils. From 2023 Eni will no longer use palm oil in its production processes.

As per MRC, Versalis S.p.A. (San Donato Milanese), the chemical company of Italian energy major Eni, has licensed to Enter Engineering Pte. Ltd. a Low-Density Polyethylene/Ethyl Vinyl Acetate (LDPE/EVA) swing unit to be built as part of a new Gas-to-Chemical Complex based on MTO-Methanol to Olefins technology to be located in the Karakul area in the Bukhara region of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).

Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China boosted the flow of crude oil into storage tanks in March as strong imports and domestic output exceeded an increase in the volume of fuel being processed by refiner, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

About 1.63 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude was directed into commercial and strategic inventories last month, up from about 920,000 bpd in the first two months of 2021, according to calculations based on official data. The increase in storage was mainly a reflection of rising crude imports in March, which reached 11.69 million bpd, above the 11.08 million bpd reported by customs for the first two months of the year.

Domestic crude output was also higher in March at 4.02 million bpd, up 3.3% from the same month last year, and also above the 3.89 million bpd in the first two months of 2021. China doesn't disclose the volumes of crude flowing into strategic and commercial stockpiles. But an estimate can be made by deducting the amount of crude processed from the total amount of crude available from imports and domestic output.

China's refineries processed 59.79 million tonnes of crude in March, equivalent to about 14.08 million bpd, according to data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 16. This was slightly below the 14.13 million bpd from January and February, but 19.7% above what was processed in March last year.

However, caution is warranted with year-on-year comparisons given that China's economy was largely locked down in March last year as the authorities moved to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Putting crude imports together with domestic production results in about 15.71 million bpd of oil being available to refiners, leaving a gap of 1.63 million bpd once the throughput is subtracted.

The volume of crude being stored in March was above the recent trend, given that inventory flows for the whole of 2020 were about 1.29 million bpd. Last year was notable for storage inflows as China snapped up large volumes of crude when prices plunged during the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with a brief price war between top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia.

China imported so much crude in the middle part of last year that it resulted in long vessel queues outside ports, as the world's biggest crude buyers struggled to offload cargoes. By the end of last year Chinese refiners tapered imports as they exhausted permits, resulting in rare inventory draws in October and December.

As per MRC, China’s daily refinery throughput surged 19.7% in March from a year earlier, as refiners ramped up operations to meet robust fuel demand and to build up inventory before shutting down for overhaul. China processed 59.79 million tons of crude oil last month, data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday. That is equivalent to 14.08 million barrels per day (bpd), easing off 14.13 million bpd averaged in the first two months.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd., or CNOOC, targeted to produce 545 million-555 million barrels of oil equivalent, or 1.49 million-1.52 million boe/d, of oil and gas in 2021, up about 4.5% from its estimated production of 528 million boe in 2020, on the back of contribution from its 19 new projects, including Buzzard oil field phase II, reported S&P Global with reference to CFO Xie Weizhi's statement in the company's 2021 business strategy briefing call.

The estimated output in 2020 outpaced its target of 505 million-515 million boe set early last year.

The 19 new projects to start up in 2021 are expected to contribute 221,232 b/d toward the company's peak production. In comparison, CNOOC commenced production at eight new projects last year, which contributed a total of 174,652 boe/d to its peak output.

To meet its development target, CNOOC lifted its budget in development to account for 61% of it total capital expenditure of Yuan 90-100 billion (USD13.92 billion-USD15.47 billion), Xie said, adding that the 2021 budget was set on the Brent price assumption of USD50/b.

Looking forward, CNOOC targeted to produce 590 million-600 million boe of oil and gas in 2022 and 640 million-650 million boe in 2023, representing above 8% annual growth, according to Xie.

Meanwhile, the proportion of domestic production was set to fall to 66% in its global output from 68% in 2021, suggesting more overseas projects would start up or resume production as oil price recovers. CNOOC has cut its oil sand and shale production in North America in 2020 due to low oil price.

CNOOC's CEO Xu Keqiang continued to emphasize the future target to significantly lift gas output to account for 30% of the company's production mix from the current 21%.

Lifting of gas output was also a part of the state-owned CNOOC's effort to promote low-carbon transformation to meet China's net zero carbon emissions plan by 2060.

The company planned to invest above 5% of its annual budgets in the coming years in new energy sector from the current 3%-5%, especially offshore wind power.

As MRC informed before, CNOOC Dongfang, a subsidiary of CNOOC, halted production at its propylene plant in Hainan province on March 2 for a schedule turnaround. It was expected that the maintenance at this plant with a capacity of 150,000 mt/year of propylene to continue until mid-April 2021.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

CNOOC is China's third largest national oil company after CNPC and Sinopec. The company was founded in 1982. The headquarters is located in Beijing. The company is engaged in the production, processing and marketing of oil and natural gas offshore China. The Chinese government owns 70% of the company's shares.
MRC