Ufaorgsintez shuts PP production for scheduled turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ufaorgsintez (UOS, Bashneft’s petrochemical asset) has shut its polypropylene (PP) production for a scheduled maintenance, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's clients said Ufaorgsintez began a scheduled turnaround at its PP production on 3 September. The outage will be short and will last for about 10 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

It is also worth noting that Poliom will take off-stream its production with the capacity of 230,000 tonnes per year for a two-week maintenance on 28 September. And Stavrolen will shut its PP production with the annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes per year for 26 days on 13 October.

PJSC Ufaorgsintez produces phenol, acetone, synthetic ethylene-propylene rubber, high and low pressure polyethylene, polypropylene, more than 30 types of petrochemical products and over 25 consumer products.
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1. Sinopec intends to spend USD4.6 bln on hydrogen energy by 2025 as part of becoming a carbon-neutral energy provider

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, the world's petrochemical major, plans to spend 30 billion yuan (USD4.6 billion) on hydrogen energy by 2025 as the state oil and gas major pivots to producing natural gas and hydrogen as part of becoming a carbon-neutral energy provider by 2050, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing. Asia's biggest oil refiner plans to become China's largest company to produce hydrogen for use as a transportation fuel, targeting annual capacity of 200,000 tons of hydrogen refuelling by 2025.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures extended a decline in mid-morning trade in Asia Sept. 6 after a weaker-than-expected US employment report heightened near-term demand concerns, reported S&P Global.

At 10:49 am Singapore time (0249 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was down 99 cents (1.36%) from the previous close at USD71.62/b, while the NYMEX October light sweet crude contract was down 91 cents (1.31%) at USD68.38/b.

Both markers fell after US Department of Labor data released late Sept. 3 showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 235,000 jobs in August, down sharply from the 1.05 million increase reported in July and well below market expectations of a rise of more than 700,000.

"I think sentiments are largely following through from the US August jobs report, which underperformed expectations by a wide margin," IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong told S&P Global Platts Sept. 6. "This highlights that COVID-19 is having a larger near-term impact on recovery than many expected."

ANZ Research analysts in a note said the deceleration in US hiring raised concerns that the delta variant was having an impact on the US economy that would ultimately impact demand.

Meanwhile, producers in the Gulf of Mexico were continuing to aim to bring production capacities back online in the wake of Hurricane Ida. While operations mostly escaped major damage from the storm, there has been minimal recovery in Gulf of Mexico oil output to date, analysts said Sept. 6.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reported 82.72% of Gulf of Mexico crude output remained offline Sept. 3, down from 85.89% reported Sept. 5.

With 1.7 million b/d of offshore production yet to come back onstream and most of Louisiana's refining industry debilitated by flooding, US crude and product stockpiles were expected to fall, they added.

As reported earlier, Shell said it observed damage from Hurricane Ida to its transfer station West Delta-143 offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. West Delta-143 serves as the transfer station for all production from its assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals. Shell said it is not yet safe to send personnel offshore to learn the full extent of the damage and estimate the effect on production.

As MRC wrote previously, in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia's PT Pertamina is in plans to take off-stream its sole polypropylene (PP) plant in Plaju, South Sumatera for a scheduled maintenance in mid-September, 2021, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The outage at the company's 47,000 mt/year of PP plant is expected to begin on 16 September and to last for about 17 days. Thus, this plant is scheduled to resume operations on 3 October, 2021.

Indonesian buyers informed that the producer will not be able to fulfill the contractual obligations during the third and fourth week of September as a result of the overhaul, which is expected to tighten local supply. Yet, buyers are in no rush to secure additional quantities from the spot market due to the persistently soft end-product businesses.

As MRC informed before, Pertamina was forced to take its PP unit in West Java off-line on 26 June, 2020, following an unspecified technical glitch at the upstream RFCC unit that cause a disruption of the propylene feeds. The PP plant was brought back on-line on 7-8 July, 2020. The RFCC unit produces 45,000 tons of propylene annually, while the PP plant has a capacity of 45,000 tons/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) is conducting maintenance works at its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam, reported CommoPlast with reference to a source close to the producer.

Thus, the 400,000 mtyear of PP plant was shut on 24 August 2021, instead of the initially scheduled date of 17 August, for approximately three weeks. The company decided to postpone the maintenance shutdown at this plant by one week from the previous schedule due to the COVID-19 related lockdown.

Demand in the local Vietnam market has been sluggish due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced many manufacturing plants to shut down. The condition is not expected to improve in the next couple of weeks, leaving suppliers here under tremendous pressure.

“Due to the delay in the maintenance schedule, we are having extra allocations. The export market is better than the local ground, but shipping is the main issue,” the source added.

As MRC reported earlier, in the third week of September 2020, NSRP restarted its PP unit in Vietnam following a 10 days unscheduled shutdown starting 7 September 2020 due to a persistent technical issue. And this year, NSRP also shut its PP plant in central Vietnam from 30 March to 13 April 2021 for a two-week turnaround due to a technical issue.

We also remind that Vietnam’s Nghi Son oil refinery officially began commercial production from 14 November 2018, following months of tests. The USD9 billion refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% - by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% - by PetroVietnam and 4.7% - by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
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