BASF to reorganize its global research and development operations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major, is reorganizing its global research activities, as per the company's press release.

In the course of the second quarter of 2022, they will be bundled in a central research unit based in Ludwigshafen. Detlef Kratz (59), President, will lead the new central division, which will have around 3,500 employees. Kratz currently heads BASF’s Process Research & Chemical Engineering division in Ludwigshafen.

At the same time, around 1,800 researchers will move to operating divisions – and thus work even more closely with the business units. This will further strengthen the customer focus of research and development. Details on the future global structure of BASF’s research will be announced by the company at a later date.

Jianfeng Jeffrey Lou (53), President, Advanced Materials & Systems Research, BASF Advanced Chemicals Co., Ltd., Shanghai, will take over as Head of Greater China, BASF (China) Company Ltd., Shanghai, on January 1, 2022.

Stephan Kothrade (54), President, Greater China, BASF (China) Company Ltd, Shanghai, will take over as Head of the Intermediates division, Ludwigshafen, Germany, on the same date. The current head of the division, Andrea Frenzel (51), President, will take a sabbatical at her own request.

As MRC reported earlier, BASF is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site. The new Catalyst Development and Solids Processing Center will serve as a global hub for pilot-scale production and process innovations of chemical catalysts. The new building is scheduled for completion by mid-2024.

We remind that BASF aims is to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

We also remind that in mid-February, BASF said it was restarting one of its steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen complex in Germany after operations were halted earlier that month due to a technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces ethylene and propylene, and is one of two crackers on the site. One has a production capacity of 420,000 metric tons/year, with the other"s capacity at 240,000 metric tons/year.

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 the first nine months of 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 PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC)--The export trades for Turkmenbashi refinery’s polypropylene (PP) were held on Monday.
Demand for PP was strong, all volumes of PP put up for the trades were sold out during one trading day, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Market participants said 1,400 tonnes of Turkmenbashi refinery’s injection moulding PP and PP for films to be sold for export were put up for the trades at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Stock Exchange of Turkmenistan.
The starting prices were set at USD950/tonne and USD1,610/tonne, respectively. All polypropylene was sold out in one day of trades.

After an almost three-month break, 1,000 tonnes of injection moulding and 400 tonnes of film polypropylene were put up for export. The increased demand has led to deals being made above the starting level. Injection moulding PP was sold at USD1,613/tonne FOB / FCA, film PP was sold at USD1,661/tonne, FOB / FCA.
Deals were done with shipment within six months.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukraine's largest petrochemical plant, has raised its high density polyethylene (HDPE) prices for November shipments to the domestic market under the pressure from higher feedstocks prices, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said on 1 November, the Ukrainian producer increased its HDPE prices for shipments to the domestic market by USD50/tonne from October. Polyethylene (PE) prices for small-sized consumers rose to USD1,720/tonne FCA, excluding VAT.

At the same time, November polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices are planned to be settled by the end of the week.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.
MRC

1. Marathon warns that rally in natural gas prices may hurt profits

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Marathon Petroleum Corp signaled on Tuesday that a sustained rally in natural gas prices could take a toll on earnings, sending the largest US refiner's shares down 4%, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing. The warning comes after US natural gas prices soared more than 60% in the third quarter - translating into higher costs since natgas is used to power refining operations - as sky-rocketing global rates keep demand for US liquefied natural gas exports elevated. "For every USD1 change in natural gas prices, we anticipate there is an approximate USD360 MM impact to annual EBITDA to our R&M (Refining and Marketing) segment," Chief Financial Officer Maryann Mannen said.



MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures drifted lower during mid-morning trade in Asia Nov. 3 amid reports of a large build in US oil inventories last week, while investors remained cautious ahead of the Nov. 4 OPEC+ meeting, reported S&P Global.

At 10:20 am Singapore time (0220 GMT), the ICE January Brent futures contract was down USD1.33/b (1.56%) from the previous close at USD83.39/b, while the NYMEX December light sweet crude contract fell USD1.54/b (1.84%) at USD82.37/b.

"The rally in oil prices took a pause overnight," IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong said in a note.

"It seems that as the OPEC+ meeting nears, more pressure from countries, such as the US and Japan, to boost production are putting some risk sentiments for oil prices on hold, alongside the much higher-than-expected rise in API crude inventories overnight," Yeap added.

The American Petroleum Institute data out late Nov. 2 showed a 3.6 million barrel build in US crude oil stocks in the week ended Oct. 29.

If confirmed by data from the US Energy Information Administration out later Nov. 3, crude oil inventories would have risen for five of the last six weeks, indicating that demand is not recovering as quickly as expected, industry sources said.

Gasoline inventories, meanwhile, fell 552,000 barrels, while distillate stocks climbed 573,000 barrels, the API data showed.

Nonetheless, calls have been growing for the OPEC+ group to raise production beyond the scheduled 400,000 b/d per month when they convene on Nov. 4. Key oil-consuming countries including the US, Japan and India have pressured the group to temper oil prices that have surged amid a global gas crisis, outages and a lack of oil investments due to climate change pledges.

Recent public comments from OPEC members, however, showed they are unlikely to budge. Kuwait's oil minister said Nov. 1 he supports the OPEC+ group's planned 400,000 b/d monthly crude output hike, while Saudi Arabia's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Oct. 20 he saw no evidence of a crude shortage.

Most analysts expect the group to stand pat on their scheduled increases when the meeting concludes.

As MRC informed before, US commercial crude stocks fell 3.48 million barrels to 413.96 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 17, to more than 8% below the five-year average, Energy Information Administration data showed. Stocks were last lower Oct. 5, 2018.

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