MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total's NC3 naphtha cracker in Antwerp, Belgium, is currently offline for an indefinite period due to an unplanned shutdown, according to Plastemart with reference to market sources in Platts.
A propylene buyer said that the shutdown was "semi-planned" and that it had been decided in the last month. He added that Total had already covered its position on monomers prior to the shutdown.
Total declined to comment on the matter. The Antwerp site hosts three crackers -- NC1, NC2 and NC3 -- with a combined ethylene capacity of 1.38 mln mtpa. NC3 has a capacity of 580,000 mtpa. The shutdown comes in the context of a weak and oversupplied European naphtha market, currently suffering from a lack of spot demand from petrochemical end-users maximizing their LPG cracking.
As MRC reported earlier, Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France, and to restore its competitiveness.
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.
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