Pucheng Clean Energy completes turnaround at PP plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pucheng Clean Energy has restarted a polypropylene (PP) plant following an unplanned maintenance, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on November 12, 2018. The plant was shut on October 21, 2018.

Located at Shaanxi province in China, the plant has a PP production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, on May 28, 2018, Pucheng Clean Energy restarted its PP plant following an unplanned shutdown. The plant remaind off-line for around one week owing to technical issues. Located at Shaanxi province in China, the plant has a PP production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - China's private chemical group Hengli Petrochemical said it has entered an annual crude purchase deal with Saudi Aramco for 2019 supplies of 130,000 barrels per day, which marks the top OPEC producer's second major marketing alliance with a private Chinese refiner, said Reuters.

The deal was signed this week at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai and is worth USD3.6 billion based on current market price, according to a Hengli release seen by Reuters on Saturday and confirmed by a Hengli spokesman.

This is Aramco's second major crude supply pact with a private Chinese refiner. Aramco earlier agreed to supply Zhejiang Rongsheng Group 170,000 bpd of crude oil under a term agreement with an intent also to take a stake in the Rongsheng refinery in east China.

Hengli Petrochemical is expected to test run its greenfield 400,000 bpd refinery in northeastern port city Dalian around end of November.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not back down from a hike in fuel tax, despite plans for nationwide protests this month and his personal popularity reaching a new low, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Drivers are planning blockades and go-slows across France on Nov. 17 to protest against higher fuel prices, which have increased by up to a third in the past year, making Macron's claim to help hard-working people harder to defend.

In a bid to fight climate change, his government has voted increases in a carbon tax and decided in particular to ramp up the price of diesel, the most commonly used car fuel in France.

But the increases, decided in late 2017 at a time crude oil prices were hovering under USD50 per barrel, have become more painful for consumers after oil surged to over USD85 last month. The issue has helped drive Macron's popularity to as low as 21 percent in a poll published last week.

The president, who has launched a seven-day tour of northeastern France, said he has no plan to back down.

"I prefer taxing fuel to taxing labour. People complaining about rising fuel prices are the same ones who complain about pollution and how their children suffer," he told regional newspapers in the area, in an interview published on Monday.

Macron's political rivals have seized on the anger to paint the former investment banker as a member of the metropolitan elite who does not relate to those outside Paris.

"You have to be completely out of touch with reality not to understand that taxing fuel is taxing those French who work," conservative opposition leader Laurent Wauquiez said on Twitter.

The protests, which according to an Odoxa poll are supported by 78 percent of the French, come at a time Macron is seeking to regain the initiative after a political scandal over the summer and a series of cabinet resignations.

His tour of the northeast, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, gives the 40-year-old leader a chance to reconnect with de-industrialising areas that are among the poorest and most isolated in France.

Sensing a business opportunity from the political tumult over fuel taxes, France's top two hypermarket chains Leclerc and Carrefour announced promotions to sell petrol at cost.

Carrefour said on Monday that its special offer on petrol prices would run until Nov. 17, the date of the planned blockades. Leclerc's will run until the end of the month.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said the initial public offering of the state-oil producer will "certainly" happen when the conditions are righ, said Reuters.

Saudi Aramco said it is still in discussions to buy a stake in petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) from the kingdom's sovereigh wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, he said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally. The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading, according to details released by the Zhoushan government after a signing ceremony in the city south of Shanghai.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tabriz Petrochemical Company in East Azarbaijan Province will be connected to the West Ethylene Pipeline, a 1,200km pipeline that runs from Asalouyeh in the south to West Azarbaijan Province in the northwest, within five months, the TPC managing director said, as per Fiinancialtribune.

The pipeline will help the company increase annual output capacity to 1.5 million tons by 2022, the Association of Petrochemical Employers' Union reported Siavash Derafshi as saying.

Tabriz Petrochemical Company (TPC) is located next to Tabriz refinery. TPC is a producer of raw polymers, polyethylene, polystyrene and A.B.S., and each product in several common grades.

Main feed and Consumed raw materials are NAPHTA, LPG, ACRYLONITRILE, AMS, Mineral Oil, PBR and other chemicals provided by TABRIZ & TEHRAN refineries and national petrochemical affiliated companies in south of Iran.
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