MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical producer LyondellBasell Industries said its Houston refinery would be a better fit with a larger oil processing company and that a sales effort continues, reported Reuters.
The company put its 263,776-bpd plant on the market for a second time last fall. The plant ran at 101% of capacity last quarter on the recovery of motor fuels demand, the company said in a statement accompanying its fourth-quarter earnings announcement.
Interim Chief Executive, Kenneth Lane said LyondellBasell hopes within a few months to reveal the outcome of its strategic review of the plant. The company took a USD264 MM impairment charge in the fourth quarter as part of the decision to exit refining.
"There's really not more that we can say at this time," Lane told Wall Street analysts on a conference call. "We're in the middle of that (strategic review) process as we speak. And with where we are right now, I hope to be able to provide more details of the outcome in the next few months."
When the process began in September, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the company hoped for a quick sale of the plant on the Houston Ship Channel. But hopes for a fast exit from refining appear to be dwindling, with a number of other refineries also hitting the market.
LyondellBasell plans to operate its Houston refinery above 90% of its capacity during the first quarter of 2022, said Chief Financial Officer Michael McMurray.
As MRC wrote earlier, in July, 2021, Neste and LyondellBasell announced a long-term commercial agreement under which LyondellBasell will source Neste RE, a feedstock from Neste that has been produced from 100% renewable feedstock from bio-based sources, such as waste and residue oils and fats. This feedstock will be processed through the cracker at LyondellBasell’s Wesseling, Germany, plant into polymers and sold under the CirculenRenew brand name.
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 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
Neste (Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. The company refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. The company is the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. In 2020, Neste's revenue stood at EUR11.8 billion, with 94% of the company’s comparable operating profit coming from renewable products.
MRC