MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) has signed a 20-year contract to purchase 4m tonnes/year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from US LNG producer and exporter Venture Global LNG, said Reuters.
The deal is the largest LNG long-term contract signed between Chinese and U.S. companies, Venture Global said in a statement. The LNG will be supplied from its plant in Plaquemines, Louisiana.
Ma Yongsheng, president of Sinopec, said the LNG purchase contract reflects a "high consensus on supporting the global energy transformation and realising the ‘dual carbon’ goals of reaching peak carbon and achieving carbon neutrality." "Sinopec has been vigorously promoting the high-quality development of the natural gas business and improving clean energy supply guarantee capabilities to continuously build a better life," Ma said.
In addition to the Plaquemines deal, a Sinopec subsidiary, China International United Petroleum & Chemicals (UNIPEC), “will purchase LNG resources totaling 3.8m tonnes” from Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass project in Louisiana, Sinopec added. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As MRC informed before, in August, 2021, Sinopec, the world's petrochemical major, launched the first phase of the Gulei refining complex in Zhangzhou city in China’s southeastern Fujian province. The refining complex, a 50:50 joint venture between Sinopec’s Fujian Petrochemical Company Ltd and Taiwan Xuteng Investment Company Ltd, invested 27.8 billion yuan (USD4.28 billion) in the first phase. That will result in an 800,000 tonnes per annum ethylene plant, a 600,000 tonnes per annum styrene unit and seven other downstream petrochemical units, Sinopec said.
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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC