MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil major Total has decided to delay the restart of its Grandpuits refinery near Paris by eight days to April 1 due to the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters with reference to CGT union delegate Thierry Dufresne's statement.
Other sources said the maintenance work at the company’s Feyzin refinery was suspended following the lockdown put in place by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus.
As MRC wrote before, Total said Tuesday it had a suspected case of coronavirus on a rig at its Culzean gas field in the UK North Sea, but production was unaffected.
We also remind that Total has recently disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC