COVID-19 - News digest as of 10.09.2021

1. Binh Son refinery cuts output, faces suspension on weak demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam's Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical has cut output at its refinery for the second time in a month and could see operations suspended due to weak domestic fuel demand, as per Reuters. The 130,000-barrel-per-day refinery in central Vietnam has cut output to 80% of capacity, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported, after a reduction last month to 90% of capacity as a worsening coronavirus outbreak hurt demand. A new wave of infections since late April saw Vietnam impose movement restrictions in a third of its cities and provinces and forced many companies to suspend operations.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher in midmorning Asia trade Sept. 10 with the outlook tightened by supply disruptions in the US Gulf Coast following Hurricane Ida, reported S&P Global.

At 11:15 am Singapore time (0315 GMT), ICE November Brent futures was 29 cents/b (0.41%) higher at USD71.74/b while the NYMEX October WTI contract was up 22 cents/b (0.32%) at USD68.36/b.

"The impact from Hurricane Ida will continue to linger for some time," ING research analysts said Sept 10, adding that total crude oil production losses as a result of the storm now amount to slightly more than 22 million barrels, and with output still struggling to recover, this would grow.

Loading disruptions and supply issues due to Hurricane Ida have likely contributed to the week-on-week decrease in supply, with a few terminals, including Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port, shut following the storm.

As of Sept. 9, 1.392 million b/d, or 76.5%, of US Gulf of Mexico crude oil production remained offline, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement

Despite the uptick in prices, uncertainties loomed as the market came under renewed pressure. China announcement Sept. 9 that it will release a part of its state oil reserves through public auction to offer domestic refiners relief from high feedstock costs.

Throughputs at China's independent refineries in eastern Shandong province have continued to fall in August due to maintenance works and cuts earlier in the month amid weak margins, according to S&P Global calculations based on data from JLC. The combined throughput comprising crude, bitumen blend and fuel oil fell to a 17-month low of 9.45 million mt in August, according to JLC data Sept. 9.

In inventory news, the total US commercial crude stocks declined 1.53 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 3 to 423.87 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration on Sept. 9, leaving them around 6% behind normal for this time of the year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased 7.2 million barrels last week and are about 4% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

The EIA in its September Short-Term Energy Outlook released Sept. 8 have also said that growing concerns about the spread of the delta variant have fostered continued declines in oil prices. Sharing a similar sentiment, ANZ analysts said demand in the aviation sector looked bearish with US airlines warning of slowing growth. United, Southwest and other airlines have said that a surge in COVID-19 cases is likely to hamper their recovery, with customer bookings slowing recently.

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) -- An investigation has begun into the cause of a fire that killed one person and left another with life-threatening injuries at a Toronto chemical plant on Wednesday morning, reported CBC News.

Emergency crews were called to the plant near Beth Nealson Drive and Wicksteed Avenue in the Thorncliffe Park area just after 9:50 a.m. Toronto police originally said they were called to attend to an explosion, but Toronto Fire later clarified that the incident was a chemical fire.

"Toronto Fire Service has extinguished the fire," said Acting Fire Chief Jim Jessop at a news conference on Wednesday. "As of right now there is no risk to the public ... we are now just making sure the chemicals involved in this process have been stabilized."

Officials said the incident was caused by a chemical spill, but Jessop would not confirm which specific chemicals were involved.

"Without question our crews were met with a significant chemical fire that took us a while to extinguish," he said.

Fire officials said the incident occurred at a site of specialty chemicals firm Siltech Corp in eastern Toronto. The plant has been evacuated and the roads and railway are closed in the area.

Police also said the fire has been classified as an industrial accident, which will be investigated by the Ministry of Labour.

As MRC wrote previously, a major incident occurred at Irving Oil’s Saint John refinery in New Brunswick in early October, 2018. Residents in the area reported an explosion and fire at the refinery. Irving Oil Corp shut its Saint John refinery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick after an explosion and a major fire that followed. The company operates the 320,000 barrel-per-day refinery at this 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 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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Datang Duolun Coal Chemical Corporation has shut its coal-based polypropylene (PP) plant in Inner Mongolia on 6 September, 2021, following an order from the regional government as part of the “Dual Control” of energy consumption and energy intensity, according to CommoPlast.

The 460,000 tons/year PP plant is expected to remain offline until 30 September 2021.

In a statement on its official gazette, the Inner Mongolia regional government said that for the first seven months of 2021, the region’s coal consumption hit 6.7 million tons, representing a 2% growth rate year-on-year, which exceeded the target of 1.5% growth rate. High energy consumption companies within the region are ordered to temporarily shut down as not to affect the year-end target.

Coal supply in local China has been persistently tight over the past months due to high demand and transportation bottlenecks. The central government has been rallied top miners to ramp up supplies. According to a report from Reuters citing local media, in August 2021, coal inventories held by miners fell 26% year-on-year to historic lows.

As MRC reported earlier, Datang Duolun took off-stream its two PP units on July 28, 2020, for a turnaround, which laste until September 10, 2020. Located at Duolun in Inner Mongolia, the two PP units have a production capacity of 230,000 mt/year each.

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.

Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. is a power generation company. The principal activities of the Company are power generation and power plant development in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is also engaged in activities, including the sale of electricity and thermal power, repair and testing of power equipment, power related technical services, coal trading, chemical products manufacturing and selling, coal chemistry, transportation and recycling.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The joint venture Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, established by the National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz and the investment consortium of Korean companies - Kogaz, Lotte Group and STX Energy, shut its production of polymers for the turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report, with reference to the plant's customers.

The plant's clients said Uz-Kor Gas Chemical began the scheduled maintenance at its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities on 6 September. The outage will be quite long and will last for about three weeks.

As MRC reported earlier, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical was built on the basis of Ustyurt Gas Chemical Comples (Surgil deposit).

The total cost of the project is over USD4 billion. The complex provides processing of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and includes HDPE and PP production facilities with the annual capacity of 386,000 and 80,000 tonnes, respectively.
MRC