Crude oil rise on reduced fears of Omicron-induced demand slump

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices bounced in a light-volume session on Thursday on signs that the worst effects of the Omicron variant might be more containable than previously feared, even as countries imposed travel restrictions on surging infection levels, reported Reuters.

The oil market has wavered in recent days over how seriously to take the threat of another slump in fuel demand. The Omicron variant is more transmissible than previous coronavirus variants, but early data suggests it causes a milder level of illness.

Brent crude futures settled up USD1.56, or 2.1%, at USD76.85 a barrel, the highest close since Nov. 26, and a gain of 4.5% on the week.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures ended up USD1.03, or 1.4%, at USD73.79 a barrel, to rise 4.1% on the week. Volume was light on Thursday, with just 244,000 front-month contracts trading, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, compared with a daily average of 381,000 contracts over the last 200 days.

"The demand destruction everybody thought was going to happen isn’t going to happen," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

However, some governments are imposing tighter travel restrictions to slow the spread of the variant, which could hit demand even if Omicron causes a lower level of hospitalization, particularly among the vaccinated.

The Chinese city of Xian on Wednesday ordered its 13 million residents to stay home, while Scotland imposed gathering limits from Dec. 26 for up to three weeks, and two Australian states reimposed mask mandates.

The United States authorized separate antiviral COVID-19 pills manufactured by both Pfizer and Merck, and officials from the US Food and Drug Administration said the medications are both effective against the Omicron variant.

AstraZeneca said a three-dose course of its COVID-19 vaccine was effective against Omicron, citing data from an Oxford University lab study.

Operating US oil and gas rigs rose to their highest levels since April 2020 in the most recent week, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes. Overall counts are now at 586, portending a boost in output in coming months.

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, EIA said in a monthly report earlier this year, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean refiner SK Energy plans to shut its 60,000 bpd crude unit in Ulsan between March and April for a month of routine maintenance, an official of SK Innovation Co Ltd told Reuters on Tuesday.

SK Innovation Co Ltd is the owner of South Korea's top refiner SK Energy.

Separately, Hyundai Oilbank, the refinery unit of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, also plans to shut its 160,000 bpd unit in Seosan between April and May, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Hyundai Oilbank did not comment.

SK Energy has five crude distillation units (CDUs) at its refinery in the southeastern city of Ulsan, with a total refining capacity of 840,000 bpd, while Hyundai Oilbank has an overall refining capacity of 690,000 bpd.

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2021, SK Innovation announced its intention to build a plant in Wojewodztwo Slaskie, Poland that will manufacture Lithium-Ion Battery Separators (LiBS) and Ceramic Coated Separators (CCS).

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 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Versalis, Eni's chemical company, and BTS Biogas, an Italian company in the building and managing sector of biogas plants, have agreed to develop and commercialise an innovative technology for the production of biogas and biomethane from residual lignocellulosic biomass, according to Eni's press release.

This technology will integrate Versalis' proprietary technology for the thermomechanical processing of biomass with BTS Biogas' technology for the fermentation production of biogas and biomethane.

BTS Biogas has expertise in the production of biogas and biomethane from various biomass sources and the research and development infrastructure to evaluate their processing capacity and yields on an experimental basis.

Versalis, as part of Eni's broader decarbonization strategy, has launched a transformation plan that aims to diversify its activities and products, and increase its contribution to technological development for increasingly sustainable industrial solutions.

The partnership will enable the production of biogas and advanced biomethane with high yields from residual lignocellulosic biomass, thereby contributing to the large-scale development of advanced biomethane production with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and no agronomic impact.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2021, the “Cracker of the Future” consortium announced two new members and accelerating the development of a game-changing technology for the electrification of the steam cracking process. This enables a revolutionary decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. The consortium announced two new member companies: Repsol and Versalis have recently joined the consortium.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and PP, respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lummus Technology's Green Circle and Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) have announced the integration of multiple technologies from their portfolios for application in the circular economy, said Hydrocarbonpocessing.

The partners will use a combination of the Lummus New Hope Energy plastic pyrolysis technology, CLG's ISOCONVERSION technology and Lummus' steam cracking technology to provide operators the ability to produce steam cracker products in large quantities from hydroprocessed mixed-waste plastic pyrolysis oil. The combined solution offers major owners and operators the ability to license the entire plastics recycling process.

The Lummus New Hope Energy plastic pyrolysis technology recycles end-of-life plastics into petrochemical feedstock. Through a robust thermal pyrolysis process, the technology produces high-quality pyrolysis oil that is proven, scalable and economic for operators that want to replace or supplement oil-derived feedstocks.

Lummus' steam ethylene cracking technology produces polymer grade ethylene, polymer grade propylene and butadiene. The process is recognized for its performance, including high product yield and energy efficiency, low investment cost and operating reliability.

CLG's ISOCONVERSION technology uses state-of-the-art hydroprocessing technologies to process biomass and waste plastic pyrolysis oils to renewable fuels or petrochemical feedstocks.

A subsidiary of Lummus, Green Circle is a leader in commercializing and developing breakthrough solutions to address the key pillars of the energy transition, including end-of-life waste plastics recycling, production of bio-derived sustainable chemicals and decarbonization strategies for existing and new assets.

As per MRC, Lummus Technology will supply 14 cracking furnaces for a Gas Chemical Complex that is part of the Ethane-rich Gas Processing Complex (GCC EGPC) located near Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia, on the Gulf of Finland.

Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract by Enter Engineering Pte. Ltd. for the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex in Uzbekistan. Lummus’ scope includes the design and supply of four proprietary Short Residence Time (SRT) VI and VII type cracking furnaces, which will more than double the production of ethylene at Shurtan’s facility.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teijin Limited announced that its board of directors has elected Akimoto Uchikawa, currently Executive Officer, Member of the Board, as its next President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said the company.

Uchikawa will assume his new role on April 1, 2022.

Jun Suzuki, the current President and CEO of the company, will assume the post of Chairman of Teijin Limited, on the same day.

Uchikawa has concurrently served as President, Material Business of Teijin Group.

The executive appointments were recommended by Teijin’s Advisory Board. The Advisory Board, which includes Independent Outside Directors and Advisors both from Japan and overseas, was established in July 1999 to strengthen group-wide corporate governance. The Nomination Committee, reporting to the Advisory Board and chaired by an Independent Outside Director, is responsible for evaluating business performance of CEO and selecting its best candidate to succeed. The decision of selecting the new President and CEO was also discussed and agreed by the Nomination Committee.

As per MRC, Teijin says that its subsidiary Teijin Carbon Europe (Heinsberg, Germany) has increased the production capacity of chopped carbon fiber by 40%. The company says that it is responding to the growing demand from European electronics manufacturers in recent years, as well as the current increase in demand for compounds for medical devices.

As MRC reported before, Teijin Ltd. is expanding its footprint in Europe with Teijin Automotive Center Europe GmbH, a new base in Wuppertal, Germany, that will house technical functions for the company’s automotive composites business.

Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, products converting and IT. The group has some 150 companies and around 17,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide.
MRC