Marathon trying to find other logistics to ship fuels to customers if Colonial Pipeline outage extended

MOSCOW (MRC) -- 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, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokesman's statement.

"Marathon Petroleum is working with customers and other business partners to determine potential alternative logistics arrangements in the event of an extended shutdown of Colonial Pipeline," said Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry. "At this time, there is no impact to our ability to meet supply commitments."

Marathon operates the 585,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, and the 578,000-bpd Garyville, Louisiana, refinery.

As MRC informed earlier, a cyberattack last week on Colonial's software shut the company's pipeline system, which moves 2.5 million barrels per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to the eastern and southeastern United States.

We remind that most units were shut on Sunday night and Monday morning (15-16 February) at Marathon Petroleum Corp's 585,000 barrel-per-day Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, as temperatures plunged due to a Arctic cold front reaching the Gulf Coast. They resumed operations in the first half of March.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asia’s top oil refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, swung to a first-quarter (Q1) profit from a loss a year earlier, with net income reaching 18.54 billion yuan (USD2.86 billion), amid a recovery in global oil prices and robust demand for refined oil products, reported Reuters.

The company posted a 19.15 billion yuan loss during the same period last year under international accounting standards, as the coronavirus pandemic hammered fuel consumption.

Its crude oil throughput surged 16.3% from a low-base last year to 62.52 million tonnes, equivalent to 5.07 million barrels per day, as China’s fuel demand returned to pre-pandemic levels. Sales of refined products increased 6.8% year-on-year.

“The company has been dynamically adjusting refined oil product exports in accordance with market changes, and maintaining stable and high operational rates of refining facilities,” said Sinopec in a statement filed to Shanghai Stock Exchange.

It raised output of gasoline and low-sulphur marine oil by 25.7% and 187%, respectively, from the same period last year.

Sinopec churned out 68.41 million barrels of crude oil in the quarter, down 3.2% on the year, while natural gas output surged 16.8% to 291.6 billion cubic feet.

Capital expenditure came in at 23 billion yuan, compared with 13.2 billion yuan during the same period last year. The firm invested 9 billion yuan in upstream exploration sectors, including natural gas capacity construction at the Fuling and Rongwei fields, as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal expansion projects at Tianjin and Shandong.

Sinopec has said it expects to raise 2021 spending by 23.8% to 167.2 billion yuan.

In a separate statement, the company said it had approved a 29.95 billion yuan investment in an upgrade at its Maoming refinery.

As MRC wrote previously, Sinopec Engineering (Group) and ExxonMobil (Huizhou) Chemical (EMHCC) have recently entered into a BEPC (basic design, engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the proposed Huizhou Chemical Complex Project (Phase I). The main units of the project include a 1.6 million tonnes/year ethylene flexible feed steam cracker, downstream polymer and derivative units and utilities. The main product units include two performance polyethylene (PE) lines and two differentiated performance polypropylene (PP) lines.

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.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group"s key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) --Toyota Manufacturing Canada Inc has resumed production at all three of its lines in Ontario, said the company.

The Canadian automaker halted production after eight employees at a major supplier tested positive for COVID-19. The supplier, Toyotetsu, halted production the week of 26 April.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals which contribute more than a third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle, and production disruptions could severely weigh on demand. The auto industry has been dealing with supply issues amid the reopening of the economy following lockdown measures related to the pandemic.

The main issue has been a shortage of semiconductors, but winter storm knocked out many plants in the US Gulf region which also led to shortages of some chemicals and created other supply chain issues.

As it was written earlier, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to overhaul its Canadian plant to begin manufacturing an additional Lexus SUV model. The automaker will produce the Lexus NX crossover, in gasoline and hybrid versions, beginning in 2022 at the plant in Cambridge, Ontario, Fred Volf, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall estimated consumption of PC granules in the Russian market totalled 25,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2021 (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus), compared to 22,700 tonnes a year earlier. Demand increased by 10%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Limetree Bay said air quality testing near its US Virgin Islands refinery found zero concentrations of sulfur dioxide, hours after the National Guard said it found elevated levels of the chemical during its own testing, reported Reuters.

Schools in St. Croix shut for the second time in a month last week after residents smelled an odor, and many reported physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea and burning eyes. Three residents sought medical attention at the local hospital, according to a government health official.

"This air monitoring detected zero concentration of hydrogen sulfide, zero concentration of sulfur dioxide and zero concentration of hydrocarbons," Limetree said Sunday, adding that the results were shared with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Industrial hygiene specialists conducted air monitoring beginning Friday through Saturday evening at five locations to the west and northwest of the refinery, Limetree said on Sunday in a statement to Reuters.

The civil support team said Saturday that its preliminary readings from Friday afternoon into Saturday morning found elevated quantities of sulfur dioxide in the air near the refinery, but "readings conducted outside the other facilities Saturday did not provide any elevated readings of harmful chemical constituents."

Maintenance on one of the refinery's units, a coker unit that upgrades residue from refining, was causing "light hydrocarbon odors", a Limetree spokesperson said last week.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late March 2021, EPA said it had revoked an expansion permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands, citing concerns that the area around the facility is overburdened with pollution. The decision allowed the plant to keep operating but blocked ongoing expansion work pending an EPA review to assess measures the facility needs to take to protect nearby residents.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Restrictions on long-distance flights and the surge in COVID-19 in India will keep jet fuel demand below pre-pandemic levels over the coming months, even as an easing of lockdown in some parts of the world boosts jet fuel demand, said Reuters.

Vaccination success and reduced infection rates in Western countries are allowing travel to resume. It will, however, be dominated by short-haul flights, which account for almost two thirds of the total fuel used by the sector, but on average use around 35 times less fuel than long-haul flights, the International Energy Agency estimates.

The result will be jet fuel demand of around 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, almost 30% higher than 2020, but below the 8 million bpd of 2019 before the pandemic struck, energy consultancy FGE says.

Goldman Sachs expected jet fuel demand would rise to 3.9 million bpd in May, compared to the low of 2.2 million bpd in May 2020. It predicted demand of almost 5.5 million bpd by the end of the year, compared with 7 million bpd at the same time in 2019.

"You see the passenger numbers are recovering, but they are flying shorter distances, so the relationship between the passenger number and the jet fuel demand is distorted," Cuneyt Kazokoglu, head of oil demand analysis at FGE, said.

"For the full recovery, we need international travel to recover as well, and for that we have to reach a certain level of vaccination, not just in a couple of countries."

As per MRC, jet fuel demand is picking up, which could give refiners some hope after the global pandemic boosted distillate inventories and sank margins. Refiners have been mixing jet fuel into diesel inventories for the last several months, since they have been unable to sell the product due to the sharp decline in air travel.

Indian state refiners' local fuel sales in April declined due to state-level restrictions aimed at stemming a rampant second wave of coronavirus infections, preliminary data shows. The deadly second wave topped 400,000 new daily cases for the first time on Saturday. Authorities reported 401,993 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily count globally, after 10 consecutive days over 300,000. Deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,523, taking the total toll in India to 211,853.

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