Crude oil futures rise in Asia on bullish China data and tight supply due to Hurricane Ida

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher in midmorning Asia trade Sept. 8 on bullish Chinese trade data while US output outages due to Hurricane Ida continued supporting prices, reported S&P Global.

At 10:40 am Singapore time (0240 GMT), ICE November Brent futures were 2 cents/b (0.03%) higher at USD71.71/b while the NYMEX October WTI contract was up 14 cents/b (0.20%) at USD68.49/b.

"The US August jobs data is baked in, thus there is no reason for crude to remain under downward pressure. Furthermore, as attention shifts to the continuing and sizable outages in the US Gulf of Mexico and an expected slump in US oil inventories last week, crude should catch a bid," Vandana Hari, CEO of Vanda Insights, told S&P Global Sept. 8, adding that the return of crude oil appetite in China is also positive.

Several analysts have noted bullish signs of demand rising in the airline industry in China, along with the upcoming Golden Week holiday that could be a boost for domestic travel.

"Flight activity continues to improve, with the total number of worldwide flights rising 35% year on year to more than 18,000 flights," ANZ research analysts said in a note.

Chinese crude imports in August rose 8% on the month to 10.53 million b/d, or 44.53 million mt, according to General Administration of Customs data Sept. 7. It was the first time since April that inflows crossed the 10 million b/d mark, signaling a slowdown of destocking activity in China's state-owned oil sector.

Meanwhile, the damage on oil production facilities in the US Gulf following Hurricane Ida continued to keep output largely halted, limiting price declines. More than a week after Ida made landfall, 1.44 million b/d, or 79.33% of total US Gulf crude output, remained shut in, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Sept. 7.

As informed 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.

We remind that 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 also 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) -- PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical, part of the Chinese petrochemical major - PetroChina, in which CNPC owns 80% of shares, is in plans to start up new high density polyethylene (HDPE)/linear low desnity polyethylene (LLPE) plant in Liaoyang, China, in September, 2021, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The new plant will have a capacity of 400,000 mt/year of HDPE/LLDPE.

The company also intends to start up a new standalone HDPE plant with the same production capacity at the same site this month.

As MRC reported earlier, PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical successfully started up its new polypropylene (PP) plant in late August. Based in Liaoning City, Liaoyang Province, China, the new PP plant has a production capacity of 300,000 tons/year. Tthe construction of a new PP plant in Liaoning began in September, 2019, and was completed in early June, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Soft drinks giant Britvic (Hemel Hempstead / UK) has shifted UK production of plastic bottles for a number of its key brands from virgin polymer to recycled material, as part of its stated commitment to move all UK-made bottles to 100% rPET by 2022, said Plasteurope.

The group said such a move was possible thanks to its GBP 5m (EUR 5.8m) investment in UK packaging firm Esterform Packaging (Tenbury Wells) back in 2019 in order to support the domestic production of rPET in the UK. “Today we are seeing the benefits of that investment. Most recently, Robinsons’ “Ready to Drink”, “Lipton Ice Tea” and “drench” moved their 500 ml on-the-go bottles to 100% rPET from Esterform,” Britvic said in a statement. By switching these three brands to rPET, Britvic says it is set to save 1,354 t/y of virgin plastic, in addition to the 1,900 t already saved by “Ballygowan Mineral Water” and “Fruit Shoot Hydro” rPET bottles.

The investment in Esterform followed Britvic’s assessment that the UK’s existing recycling infrastructure was not sufficient enough to help it make its UK plastic bottles from 100% recycled PET by 2022, as had been hoped. The deal “provides [us] with a secure, long-term supply of UK-sourced rPET, allowing us to continue to reduce our use of virgin plastic and increase our rPET packaging”, the soft drinks producer said. Recently, Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL, London / UK) also thrashed UK government’s failure to commit to an “all-in” bottle deposit scheme.

Britvic is also a signatory to Wrap’s (Banbury / UK) UK Plastics Pact, an initiative by leading companies, NGOs and the UK government to reduce and ultimately eliminate single-use plastic packaging, and subsequently its waste.

As per MRC, Britvic announced its intent for all its plastic bottles in the UK to be produced entirely from 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) by the end of 2022, three years ahead of its original schedule. The company says the move covers its entire UK portfolio of Britvic-owned brands, and also those it produces under a newly signed 20-year franchise bottling agreement with PepsiCo for its carbonated brands in the UK. Britvic was a founding signatory of The UK Plastics Pact, and says it has already removed more than 1,500 metric tons of primary plastics from its supply chain since 2017, with all its primary packaging already fully recyclable.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 411,200 tonnes in the first six month of 2021, up by 12% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes in June, compared to 85,890 tonnes a month earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Neste has signed a renewable power purchase agreement with Statkraft, Europe's largest producer of renewable energy, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Statkraft will begin the wind power deliveries to Neste's Porvoo refinery in Finland in mid-2022.

Neste is committed to combat climate change and reduce climate emissions both globally and locally. To support this, the company has two climate commitments. The signed agreement supports Neste’s commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of its production and to reach carbon neutral production by 2035. Neste’s other climate commitment is to reduce customers' greenhouse gas emissions with its renewable and circular solutions by at least 20 million tons CO2eq annually by 2030.

"Our aim is to use 100% renewable electricity globally by 2023. We are increasing the use of renewable wind power at the Porvoo refinery, as it is one of the key measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of our production," says Sami Oja, acting Executive Vice President, Oil Products at Neste.

In addition to its agreement with Statkraft, Neste's wind power partners are Ilmatar and Fortum. Neste has been using wind power at the Porvoo refinery since the beginning of 2021. Currently, about 20% of the refinery’s electricity consumption is covered by renewable wind power.

As MRC reported earlier, Neste and LyondellBasell has recently announced a long-term commercial agreement under which LyondellBasell will source Neste RE, a feedstock from Neste that has been produced from 100% renewable feedstock from bio-based sources, such as waste and residue oils and fats. This feedstock will be processed through the cracker at LyondellBasell’s Wesseling, Germany, plant into polymers and sold under the CirculenRenew brand name.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, 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.

Neste (Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. The company refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. The company is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. In 2020, Neste's revenue stood at EUR11.8 billion, with 94% of the company’s comparable operating profit coming from renewable products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asia's cash premiums for 10 ppm gasoil rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday, soaring to their highest level in over a year, buoyed by active buying interests in the physical market and strong arbitrage demand from Europe, reported Reuters.

Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content surged to a premium of 31 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes, a level not seen since late-July 2020.

Asia's gasoil market has found a cushion, despite lacklustre regional demand on the back of rampaging Delta variant outbreaks, as Europe enters peak demand season and sucks up cargoes for restocking heating oil ahead of winter months. Traders and industry analysts expect a stronger pull for Asian barrels from Europe in the next few weeks due to lack of US supplies after Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf coast last weekend and shuttered or curtailed output at six refineries in Louisiana.

Refining profit margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil jumped 30 cents to USD9.81 per barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, their strongest since end-March last year. Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore have climbed 9% this week, in a second straight weekly rise, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Gaoil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub slipped 0.2% to 2.06 million tonnes in the week ended Sept. 2, according to Dutch consultancy Insights Global. - ARA jet fuel inventories rose 4.6% this week to 1.03 million tonnes. LNG - Liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers with long-term contracts are asking their suppliers for extra volumes of the super-chilled fuel pegged to oil prices which are currently much lower than spot prices, several trade and industry sources told Reuters. - Some have requested to load bigger cargoes bought under their long-term contracts instead of turning to the spot market to buy additional cargoes, or have asked for earlier delivery of the cargoes, the sources said.

As MRC wrote previously, oil prices rose as a rebound in global demand was widely expected and a slow recovery for the US Gulf Coast export and refining hub from the hurricane late last week looked set to deplete stocks further.
About 1.7 million barrels per day of oil production remains shut in the US Gulf of Mexico, with damage to heliports and fuel depots slowing the return of crews to offshore platforms.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, 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.
MRC