PVC imports to Belarus up by 39% in Q1 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Belarus totalled 14,300 tonnes in the first three months of 2021, up by 39% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

According to the statistics committee of the Republic of Belarus, local converters raised their purchasing of PVC in March 2021 on the back of a seasonal growth in demand for finished products, total imports were 5,300 tonnes, whereas this figure was 4,900 tonnes a month earlier. Russian resin accounted for the main increase in procurement.

Thus, imports of unmixed PVC reached 14,300 tonnes in January-March 2021, compared to 10,300 tonnes a year earlier.
Russian producers with the share of about 92% of the Belarusian market were the key suppliers of resin to Belarus over the stated period. Germain producers were the second largest suppliers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp.'s Mumbai refinery will start full scale operation at a higher capacity of 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) by end-June or in July, reported Reuters with reference to the company's chairman M. K. Surana's statement.

HPCL had fully shut the 150,000 bpd Mumbai refinery in western Maharashtra from April 1 for maintenance and capacity expansion, Surana said at a press conference to announce March quarter earnings.

"One crude unit of 3.5 million tonnes (70,000 bpd) is under commissioning and we are revamping the second unit to add capacity," he said. The state-run refiner aims to add 40,000 bpd capacity to the second crude unit.

He also said the company is operating its 166,000 bpd Vizag refinery in southern India at full capacity. Meanwhile, HPCL is in process of raising the capacity of the Vizag refinery to 300,000 bpd. Surana said the expansion will be completed in this fiscal year to March 2022 while the residue upgradation facility at the Vizag plant is also likely to be completed in 2022.

In addition, HPCL is building a 180,000 bpd refinery and petrochemical plant in desert state of Rajasthan.

As MRC informed previously, India's HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, or HMEL, will start a new 500,000 mt/year polypropylene (PP) plant in Bhatinda in 2021. The company has an existing 440,000 mt/year PP unit at the same site.

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) -- Four US Gulf Coast refineries slowed production on Tuesday as heavy rains fell, flooding areas across East Texas and Louisiana this week, reported Reuters.

Heavy rainstorms and tremendous lightning are forecast this week to continue to strike the US Gulf Coast, which is home to about half of the United States' oil refining capacity.

Total SE's 225,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery was restarting on Tuesday after the entire plant was knocked out of production by a brief power loss on Monday, sources familiar with plant operations said.

A Total spokeswoman declined to comment.

At Motiva Enterprises' (MOTIV.UL) 607,000-bpd Port Arthur refinery, the nation’s largest, a coker was restarting on Tuesday after being knocked out by a transformer blowout on Monday.

Motiva declined to comment.

A catalytic reformer shut down at Valero Energy Corp’s (VLO.N) 335,000-bpd Port Arthur refinery on Monday, according to energy industry intelligence service Genscape. More than eight inches (20 cm) of rain fell on Monday in Port Arthur, according to forecaster Weather Underground.

Valero did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters.

On Tuesday, a small crude distillation unit was shut at ExxonMobil Corp’s (XOM.N) 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, for 30 days of planned work, according to two sources familiar with plant operations. Rainfall totals this week in Baton Rouge have been about 6 inches with up to 10 inches falling in areas outside the city, according to Weather Underground.

“Weather is not impacting operations at Baton Rouge,” said Exxon spokeswoman Julie King.

As MRC wrote before, in April, 2021, ExxonMobil, the largest private US company, floated a proposal for a public-private carbon storage project that would collect planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from US petrochemical plants and bury them in deep under the Gulf of Mexico. The plan would require "USD100 billion or more" from companies and government agencies to store 50 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030, with capacity potentially doubling by 2040, Joe Blommaert, president of Exxon's Low Carbon Solutions business, said in an interview.

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) -- South Africa's oldest crude oil refinery, the 120,000 barrel per day plant operated by Engen (Enref), will be converted into a new storage facility because the refinery is no longer sustainable in the long term, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The refinery, situated on the eastern coast in the city of Durban, has been shut down since a fire in December damaged the plant that supplies around 17% of the country's fuel production and is South Africa's second largest crude refinery. "The conclusion of the strategic assessment is that the Engen refinery is unsustainable in the longer-term," Engen's CEO Yusa Hassan said in a statement.

Engen is majority-owned by Malaysia's oil and gas firm, Petronas. Hassan said a globally challenging refining environment with supply surplus, depressed demand and low refining margins had placed Engen in "financial distress".

Hassan added that unaffordable costs to meet the government's cleaner fuel drive by upgrading refineries was another reason to convert the refinery operating since 1954.

The South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA), which represents operators such as BP (BP.L) and Shell (RDSa.L), said in January that local refinery operators were less likely to invest 40 billion rand (USD2.8 billion) for these upgrades after the coronavirus pandemic.

Africa's most industrialised economy has five other refineries. It is a net importer of petroleum products.Hassan said the new import and storage terminal was expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2023. He did not provide any cost estimates for converting the refinery.

As per MRC, crude oil futures were rangebound during mid-morning Asian trade May 20, following an overnight slide, on increasing prospects of the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the strengthening US dollar and bearish Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. At 10:49 am Singapore time (0249 GMT), the ICE Brent July contract rose 5 cents/b (0.08%) from the May 19 settle at USD66.71/b, while the June NYMEX light sweet crude contract was up 6 cents/b (0.09%) at USD63.41/b.

As MRC wrote earlier, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world's third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.

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) - The Belarusian OJSC Naftan, which is part of the Belneftekhim concern, continues to produce products in a regular mode, the load of its production also remains at a normal level, Vestnik Naftan reports.

It is noted that construction and installation work at the main delayed coking unit with a deadline for implementation in May is in the final stage. By the end of this year, the delayed coking complex will be fully commissioned, which will increase the efficiency of the plant for the production of light oil products and significantly reduce the negative impact of production on the environment, according to the corporate publication of the enterprise.

Also, work continues on the reconstruction of the units of the "Hydrocracking" complex and the overhaul of shops No. 101, 105, 106 of the Polymir plant. For two weeks of May, about 300,000 tonnes of oil were processed. The supply of raw materials is carried out in accordance with the approved schedule.

Earlier it was reported that large Russian oil companies have not supplied oil to the Novopolotsk refinery since the beginning of May. So, for 16 days in May, non-main suppliers supplied 54,800 tonnes of oil to Naftan from Russia, which is 20,700 tonnes per day less than in the previous month.

The Polymir plant, which is part of Naftan OJSC, produces a wide range of chemical products, such as high-pressure polyethylene, acrylic fibers, organic synthesis products, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. In the process of creating a production and technical base, technologies were used by the largest foreign firms in England, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the development of research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The annual design capacity of LDPE production is 130,000 tonnes.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, the idle part of Polymir's capacities for scheduled repairs has not yet affected the balance of the local LDPE market. Despite the restrictions on supplies from the domestic producer, local processors are in no hurry to increase the volume of PE purchases in Russia. A week earlier, Polymir fixed LDPE prices for May deliveries to the domestic market in the range of Brb3,441-3,584/tonne FCA, excluding VAT.

OJSC "Naftan" is one of the largest oil refineries in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It was put into operation in 1963, the enterprise was corporatized in 2002. The state share in OJSC "Naftan" is 99.83%, the rest of the shares belong to the individual employees of the enterprise. In 2008, a large petrochemical enterprise Polymir was included in Naftan. Naftan produces more than 70 types of products, including various types of fuel, lubricating oils and bitumen, aromatic hydrocarbons and petrochemical products. The company exports 70% of its products, mainly to the CIS countries and the European Union.
MRC