MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy chartered an oil products' tanker for storage in the US Gulf Coast on Friday amid a cyber attack that shut the Colonial pipeline, the biggest US fuel pipeline, reported Reuters with reference to two sources familiar with the matter.
The tanker, called the Nave Titan, is currently in the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data. Nave Titan can hold up to 330,000 barrels of oil, according to the tanker data.
Other Gulf Coast refiners were looking to book tankers for storage this weekend as the outage affected shipments of refined products to the East Coast, according to the sources.
Valero did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As MRC informed earlier, Marathon Petroleum, the largest US refiner, can meet its supply commitments for now but is working to find alternative ways to ship motor fuels to the eastern United States if the Colonial Pipeline shutdown is extended.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC