Sinopec, Cosco Shipping, and China Eastern to certify first carbon-neutral cargo of crude oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's refining giant Sinopec Corp said it has jointly certified the country's first carbon-neutral crude oil cargo with shipping giant Cosco Shipping and China Eastern, said Reuters.

The 30,000-tonne cargo was produced by Sinopec in Angola and shipped by Cosco Shipping to an east China-based Sinopec refinery for processing, Sinopec said.

To offset the carbon dioxide produced during the process from crude production to shipping to consumption by vehicles and airplanes, the three state firms bought Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions credits.

These credits that will go to investing in carbon-reducing projects such as tree planting, solar, wind and biomass power generation in China.

As per MRC, Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical, a major producer of petrochemicals in the country, shut production at its polypropylene (PP) plant in Tianjin province, China on 13 September for planned preventive measures. It is expected that maintenance at this plant with a capacity of 450,000 tonnes of PP per year will continue for seven days.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's 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.

Sabic is a diversified company manufacturing chemicals, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest state-owned company in Saudi Arabia. Sabic is currently the world's second largest producer of ethylene glycol, the third largest polyethylene producer, and the fourth largest polypropylene producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- MEGlobal Americas Inc. (MEGlobal) has entered into an agreement with Calpine Energy Solutions, LLC to purchase renewable energy to fulfill 100% of the expected power needs at MEGlobal's Oyster Creek, TX, site beginning in 2023, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The deal highlights the strong commitment made to sustainability by the EQUATE Petrochemical Group, of which MEGlobal is a part.

"Purchasing energy from renewable resources such as wind and solar makes good sense for our company and our environment," said EQUATE CEO Naser Aldousari. "This agreement exemplifies EQUATE's dedication to delivering responsible product growth that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

MEGlobal will purchase more than 1.5 million MWh of renewable electricity over the five-year term of the agreement, resulting in the displacement of more than 600,000 MT of carbon dioxide. That is the equivalent of taking more than 156,000 cars off the road for a year or diverting at least 28 million bags of trash from a landfill. When compared to common carbon offsets, the amount of displaced CO2e from this purchase is equal to the amount of carbon sequestered by more than 1.8 million acres of forest in a year.

The MEGlobal Oyster Creek Site began operations in 2019 and was designed with energy efficiency in mind, according to Site Leader Scott Daigle. Adding renewable electricity to the site's infrastructure is another progressive step.

"We pride ourselves on our cutting-edge technology and we are constantly seeking ways we can make a great facility even better," said Daigle. "Now, in addition to providing a valuable product that helps meet world demand, we are also working to optimize the way we integrate sustainability into our day-to-day operations."

Daigle said MEGlobal will begin transitioning to renewable electricity in 2022.

As MRC reported earlier, MEGlobal announced its October ACP for MEG at USD880/MT CFR Asian main ports, up by USD10/tonne from September.

MEG is one of the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, the deficit for PET remained in the Russian domestic and foreign markets. Spot PET prices have been increasing since the beginning of the month, and spot buyers of the material have to pay a much higher price for PET chips at the end of the third quarter than contractual ones.

MEGlobal is a fully integrated supplier of monoethylene glycol (MEG) and diethylene glycol (DEG), collectively known as ethylene glycol (EG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's domestic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) market hit a record-high Sept. 22 following the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, due to concerns over supply after the government ordered some provinces to cut power consumption, reported S&P Global with reference to market sources.

Several provinces including Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Shaanxi, where major carbide-based PVC producers are based, were asked to shut, or reduce industrial operations due to higher-than-planned energy consumption in the first half of 2021, according to sources.

China is the world's largest PVC producer, and about 80% of its total 25-26 million mt/year PVC capacity uses coal-based carbide as feedstock, with the rest using ethylene-based feedstock.

"Carbide-based PVC operations are particularly affected as major carbide-based PVC makers are based in these provinces," a market source said.

In Xinjiang, the two major carbide-based PVC producers - Xinjiang Zhongtai and Xinjiang Tianye - have a combined PVC capacity of around 3 million mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in September 2012, Chinese company Xinjiang Zhongtai began a trial run of the third plant for suspension PVC production with the capacity of 900,000 tonnes per year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 580,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, one producer reduced its output.
MRC

1. Chinese jet fuel exports to rise significantly in September amid domestic COVID-19 travel restrictions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese jet fuel exports are expected to exceed 1 million mt in September, a level not seen since April 2020 and well above the average monthly 663,000 mt exports over January-August, as the country's latest COVID-19 travel restrictions has severely impacted air travel to and from the southern province of Fujian, multiple industry sources told S&P Global Sept. 21. This is the latest setback to the sustained recovery in the Asian jet fuel market amid rising COVID-19 infections in many countries in the region. Given the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in Fujian, Chinese authorities have imposed tighter travel restrictions out of Putian, Quanzhou, and Xiamen as of Sept. 14 to contain the virus spread.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher during mid-morning trade in Asia trade Sept. 22 amid firming fundamentals and a draw in US crude stocks, reported S&P Global.

At 10:30 am Singapore time (0230 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was up 50 cents/b (0.67%) from the previous close at USD74.86/b, while the NYMEX November light sweet crude contract was 59 cents/b (0.84%) higher at USD71.08/b.

"Crude oil prices pared losses as the risk-off tone of the market subsided and the focus shifted back to strong fundamentals," ANZ research analysts said in a Sept. 22 note, adding sentiment had received a further boost from the US repealing a ban on foreign travelers, which could add more than 190,000 b/d of jet fuel demand in November.

Highlighting tight supply as demand improves, US oil producers were still working to bring back production stalled by Hurricane Ida three weeks ago.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reported Sept. 21 that around 320,909 b/d or 16.64% of the Gulf's oil production remains offline, while about 566.67 MMcf/d or 25.42% of gas production remains shut.

Despite the proportion of offline production easing, supply is still expected to remain tight after Shell reported that full recovery in the Gulf looks unlikely in the near term as damage to its facilities will push the resumption of full capacity in the region to the first quarter of 2022.

The dollar was also seen volatile as the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee began a two-day meeting that is widely expected to end in the US central bank pursuing a more hawkish monetary policy. The US Dollar Index edged down to 93.19 in mid-morning trading in Asia from the Sept. 21 close at 93.20.

The American Petroleum Institute reported late Sept. 21 that US crude stocks fell 6.11 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 17, after reporting a 5.4 million-barrel draw the week before, outpacing analyst expectations of a 2.4 million-barrel draw. US gasoline inventories fell 432,000 barrels in the week, while distillate stocks fell 2.72 million barrels, the API said.

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.
MRC