MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras SA is mulling construction of a new lubricant plant that could quadruple its production capacity by 2022, reported Reuters with reference to the company’s refining chief.
Anelise Lara, Petrobras’ refining and natural gas chief, told Reuters the company will invest about USD400 million to build the new plant in the Comperj refinery, raising its lubricant production capacity to 225,00 cubic meters.
The new Comperj plant will use raw materials from another refinery, Reduc, she added. Both refineries, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, will be linked by a pipeline.
When the Comperj plant is concluded, Petrobras plans to shut down its lubricant production unit at Reduc.
Lara said the new plant will produce more sustainable and high-quality lubricants, also reducing imports.
As MRC informed previously, the chief executive of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro said on Friday he wants to sell the company's stake in petrochemical company Braskem within 12 months, adding that he strongly disagreed with reported plans to delay the sale.
We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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