NSRP restarts its new PP plant in Vietnam after turnaround

NSRP restarts its new PP plant in Vietnam after turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) has completed maintenance works at its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam this week, reported CommoPlast.

The 400,000 mt year 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.

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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Crude oil prices continue rising in Asia after sharp overnight increase on bullish supply-demand outlook

Crude oil prices continue rising in Asia after sharp overnight increase on bullish supply-demand outlook

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures continued their uptrend in midmorning Asia trade Sept. 16 after sharp overnight gains on a bullish supply-demand outlook, reported S&P Global.

At 11 am Singapore time (0300 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was up 28 cents/b (0.37%) from the previous close at USD75.74/b while the NYMEX October light sweet crude contract rose 26 cents/b (0.36%) at USD72.87/b.

"Crude oil rallied to a six-week high following another large drawdown in inventories. US stockpiles fell 6,422kbbl last week, according to EIA data. The data follow warnings from the International Energy Agency that supply lost from storms in the Gulf of Mexico would offset gains from OPEC," ANZ analysts said Sept. 16.

Market watchers remain bullish on the outlook for the oil market amid the demand growth estimates for 2022.

The International Energy Agency has raised its 2022 oil demand growth estimate by 100,000 b/d to 3.2 million b/d, a day after OPEC hiked its own forecast of 2022 global demand growth by 900,000 b/d to 4.15 million b/d.

"Sentiment was boosted by the release of OPEC's latest outlook on the oil market, raising its 2022 oil demand forecast by 860kb/d, and now sees demand increasing by 4.15mb/d next year," ANZ analysts said, adding that the stronger outlook was being driven by an optimistic view on Chinese demand, along with positive economic developments supporting stronger demand in Europe.

On the supply side, all eyes were on the US Gulf Coast where recovery efforts continued post Hurricane Ida. Less than 30% of US Gulf of Mexico crude production remained offline Sept. 15 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and Tropical Storm Nicholas, although the delayed restoration of onshore facilities continued to slow the return to normalcy in offshore operations.

WTI crude closed up USD2.15/b to settle at USD72.61/b while Brent closed above USD75/b on Sept. 15 for the first time since late July, marking the highest level in six weeks after a US government report showed a bigger-than-expected drop in crude inventories, UOB analysts said.

In inventory news, EIA data showed Sept. 15 that total US commercial crude stocks fell 6.42 million barrels to 417.45 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 10, putting stockpiles 7% behind the five-year average for this time of the year. Total gasoline inventories decreased 1.9 million barrels and were about 4% below the five-year average for this time of the year while distillate fuel inventories decreased 1.7 million barrels in the same period - about 13% below the five-year average.

The draw was largely the result of lingering US Gulf production outages following Hurricane Ida, which made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm.

Total US crude output averaged 10.1 million b/d in the week ended Sept. 10, the EIA said, up 100,000 b/d from the week prior but still down 1.4 million b/d from prestorm levels.

As informed earlier, Shell said earlier this month 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 then it was 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.
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SABIC Europe lifts force majeure on PE shipments from Gelen and Gelsenkirchen plants

SABIC Europe lifts force majeure on PE shipments from Gelen and Gelsenkirchen plants

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC Europe, part of Saudi chemical manufacturing company - SABIC, has lifted the force majeure (FM) on polyethylene (PE) products from Geleen and Gelsenkirchen plants, according to NCT with reference to a letter sent to its customers.

The FM was lifted as of August 30, 2021, after the feedstock pipeline has been successfully restored, which was damaged by the flooding of the river Maas back in late July.

According to the letter, the repair of the feedstock pipeline allowed the company to ramp up its operations, while the company is still in the process of recovering its stock position.

SABIC Europe has a total PE capacity of 1.48 million tons/year in Geleen, the Netherlands and Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2021, SABIC signed a joint agreement with BASF and Linde to develop and demonstrate solutions for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. The partners had already jointly worked on concepts to use renewable electricity instead of the fossil fuel gas typically used for the heating process. With this innovative approach focusing on one of the petrochemical industries’ core processes, the parties strive to offer a promising solution to significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions within the chemical industry.

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.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
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Chevron and Enterprise to partner on carbon capture, utilization and storage study

Chevron and Enterprise to partner on carbon capture, utilization and storage study

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron U.S.A. Inc., through its Chevron New Energies division, and a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. announced a framework to study and evaluate opportunities for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) from their respective business operations in the US Midcontinent and Gulf Coast, according to BusinessWire.

The companies expect the initial phase of the study in which they will evaluate specific business opportunities to last about six months.

“This joint effort has the potential to advance our ongoing work to grow our lower carbon businesses with commercial scale using the industry expertise both companies bring to the project”

“This joint effort has the potential to advance our ongoing work to grow our lower carbon businesses with commercial scale using the industry expertise both companies bring to the project,” said Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies. “International climate change scientists working with the United Nations have identified carbon capture as a critical technology needed to help the global energy system transition to a lower carbon future.”

The companies have successfully worked together on prior business opportunities and believe they bring complementary capabilities to successfully pursue CCUS. Projects resulting from the evaluation would seek to combine Enterprise’s extensive midstream pipeline and storage network with Chevron’s sub-surface expertise to create opportunities to capture, aggregate, transport and sequester carbon dioxide in support of the evolving energy landscape.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2021, Chevron and other partners said they are investing in a startup to build modular waste-to-green hydrogen and renewable synthetic fuel facilities in northern California with tentative plans to eventually grow worldwide. The USD20 million investment in Wyoming-based Raven SR is focused on technology to develop combustion-free, green hydrogen for transportation that is cleaner than so-called blue hydrogen derived from natural gas.

We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.

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.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is an American midstream natural gas and crude oil pipeline company with headquarters in Houston, Texas. It acquired GulfTerra in September 2004. The company ranked No. 105 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue
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Berry to expand polypropylene capacity in North America

Berry to expand polypropylene capacity in North America

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Packaging supplier Berry Global Group Inc. has announced plans to spend more than USD110 million to expand its polypropylene thermoforming capacity in North America, said Canplastics.

The investment is designed to allow the Evansville, Ind.-based company to increase the manufacture of clear drink cups and lids for quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores, and other foodservice markets.

“Foodservice brand owners are steadily increasing their forecasted volumes with our production for access to our 30-plus active patents across clear cups and lids,” Berry officials said in a Sept. 14 news release. “In addition, customized plastic cup and lid brand owner solutions are a rapidly increasing market trend, pulling volume from alternative substrates since 2017."

The news release also noted that polypropylene is viewed as one of the most sustainable and environmentally responsible transparent substrates available in the market today. "Our increased capacity will produce clear cups and clear lids made of polypropylene ( PP), which can be recycled into new packaging or one of the many other end markets for PP,” the company said.

Berry did not announce exactly where all of the expansions will take place, but did say they are expected to be operational in 2022, and to create a total of 200 new jobs.

As MRC informed earlier, Berry Global Group, Inc. (Evansville, Indiana) says it will break ground in September on a new polypropylene (PP) recycling facility in Leamington, United Kingdom, that it says will produce food-grade materials with a target purity standard of 99.9%. The new facility will be housed in a purpose-built, net-zero carbon, centrally located 13,000-square-meter, or 139,931-square-foot facility, offsetting CO2 emissions with local tree planting.

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.

Berry Global Group, Inc. create innovative packaging and engineered products. Harnessing the strength in its diversity and industry leading talent of 47,000 global employees across more than 295 locations, the company partners with customers to develop, design, and manufacture innovative products with an eye toward the circular economy.
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