Iran oil production, exports not impacted by protests

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran's crude oil production and exports have not been impacted by the unrest spreading across the country, Iranian oil and shipping sources said, as a crackdown intensified against anti-government demonstrations that began in late 2017, reported Reuters.

Iran, OPEC's third-biggest oil producer, pumps around 3.8 MMbpd.

"I see no impact on the production and export," one Iranian oil industry source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Everything is going normally," another source said, adding that the protests had not spread into the energy sector and "remained in the streets."

Nine Iranians were killed in Isfahan province during anti-government protests on Monday night as security forces struggled to contain the boldest challenge to the clerical leadership since unrest in 2009.

Police have arrested more than 450 protesters in the capital Tehran over the past three days, the deputy provincial governor said.

Protesters also attacked police stations elsewhere in Iran late into the night on Monday, news agency and social media reports said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SP Chemicals has undertaken an emergency shutdown at its styrene monomer (SM) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has halted operations at the plant on January 10, 2018 owing to technical issues. The plant is likely to remain offline for around 7-8 days.

Located at Taixing in Jiangsu province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 320,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, SP Chemicals undertook a planned shutdown at its SM plant in Jiangsu on November 6, 2017. The plant was expected to remain under maintenance for about 4 weeks.

SP Chemicals, a Singapore-based company is one of the largest ion-membrane chlor-alkali producer and aniline producer in the PRC. SP Chemicals engages in the manufacture and sale of the chemical industry's basic building blocks - caustic soda, chlorine, hydrogen and its related downstream products. The company's products include: aniline, caustic soda, chlorine, chlorobenzene, nitrochlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). To further drive its growth, SP Chemicals plans to invest approximately RMB1.1 billion in facilities for the production of styrene monomer, an intermediate raw chemical used in making polystyrene plastics, protective coatings, polyesters and resins.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - January contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed up EUR20/tonne below the level of the December. Many European producers announced an increase in January export prices of polypropylene (PP) for the CIS countries, in some cases it was a question of an increase in prices for EUR40/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on January prices of European PP began at the end of last week, many market participants said many European producers announced an increase of EUR40/tonne in export PP prices. Some producers agreed to limit the growth of prices of EUR20/tonne.

Deals for January shipments of homopolymer propylene (homopolymer PP) were done in the range of EUR1,030-1,140/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,010-1,100/tonne FCA.

Deals for block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were agreed in the range of EUR1,180-1,240/tonne FCA, down on average by EUR20-40/tonne from December.

Negotiations over January shipments of statistical propylene copolymers (PP random copolymers) were held in the range of EUR1,240-1,300/tonne FCA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) said it has successfully commissioned and achieved design throughput at the "world's first ever and largest" refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC) complex in Jamnagar, India, as per Apic-online.

The 1.5-million-t/y cracker, which increases RIL's total ethylene capacity to almost 4-million t/y, uses off-gases from its two refineries at Jamnagar as feedstock.

Ethylene from the ROGC is used to produce monoethylene glycol, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and LDPE at RIL's new recently commissioned units, while propylene from the ROGC has enhanced polypropylene (PP) output of the existing PP plants at the complex.

"This innovative approach of integration with refineries provides a sustainable cost advantage, making ROGC competitive with respect to the crackers in (the) Middle East and North America, which have feedstock cost advantage," the company explained.

The ROGC and downstream plants "marks a paradigm shift in the profitability and sustainability of RIL's petrochemicals business," noted RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani.

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, RIL was awarded a contract worth Rs. 100 crore to Petron Engineering Construction Ltd for its LLDPE plant in Gujarat. The LLDPE plant is part of RIL's J-3 project in Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the local LDPE roducer - Polymir - increased slightly its capacity utilisation in December 2017. December polyethylene (PE) output was slightly over 5,900 tonnes, compared to 5,500 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, Polymir's overall LDPE production totalled a little bit more than 62,300 tonnes in 2017 versus 92,400 tonnes a year earlier.

The fire at one of the ethylene units in late June 2016, which led to a two-fold reduction in the olefin production, was the main reason for such a major fall in PE output.

As reported earlier, Polymir had completed maintenance works at some production capacities by early November, the outage lasted for about one month.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.

MRC