Belarus Naftan refinery starts loading clean Russian oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus’s Naftan refinery has started loading clean Russian oil after a major oil contamination earlier this year, reported Reuters with reference to the Polotsktransneft Druzhba pipeline operator.

The operator said in a statement it had started cleaning part of the Druzhba pipeline between Unecha and Polotsk and that it had pumped dirty oil back to Russia from the Unecha-Polotsk-1 section of the pipeline.

As MRC informed previously, in mid-May 2019, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko said that Minsk was able to raise the volume of oil it processes and had proposed to Russia to increase its deliveries to the Naftan oil refinery. Belarus plans to seek compensation from Russia for export and transit revenues that it did not receive due to the contamination of oil via the Druzhba pipeline.
MRC

S-Oil Inaugurates RUC & ODC at Onsan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- S-Oil's new residue upgrading complex (RUC) and olefin downstream complex (ODC) has been inaugurated at the company's Onsan Refinery in Ulsan, South Korea, according to Apic-online.

The project, which cost around USD4-billion, involved construction of a plant to upgrade low-value residue oil to high-value gasoline and propylene. The propylene is to be used for the production of 405,000 t/y of polypropylene (PP) and 300,000 t/y of propylene oxide.

Separately, S-Oil and Saudi Aramco, a majority shareholder in S-Oil, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a USD6-billion steam cracker and olefin downstream project. Completion is expected by 2024.

PCN earlier reported that the project would include a 1.5-million-t/y steam cracker, which would produce ethylene and other basic petrochemicals from naphtha and refinery off-gas.

The downstream units would include the production of polyethylene and PP.

As part of the MoU, Aramco will provide its Thermal Crude-to-Chemicals technology, "shifting S-Oil's focus from 'oil to chemicals' to better position the company in the future energy market," Aramco noted.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, in January 2019, S-Oil Corp, South Korea’s third-biggest refiner by capacity, said that refining margins are expected to improve in 2019, boosted by growing diesel demand.
MRC

Philadelphia refinery closing reverses two years of US capacity gains

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The planned closing of an oil refinery in Philadelphia damaged by a massive fire last month will reverse nearly two years of capacity gains at US refineries, according to a Reuters analysis of government data.

Philadelphia Energy Solutions has said it will shut its 335,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery this summer after a June 21 fire tore through a portion of the plant, destroying an alkylation unit.

The shutdown, which began last week and will continue through late August, will reduce overall US refining capacity by about 2%, to 18.46 million bpd.

US refining capacity was 18.8 million bpd as of Jan. 1, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data released last month, up from 18.6 million bpd at the start of 2017.

US refiners have been increasing capacity mostly through debottlenecking and other efficiency gains, even as some smaller plants were idled. The number of US operating refineries last year fell by three to 132 while peak capacity increased by almost 204,000 bpd, the EIA’s 2019 refinery capacity report said.

PES agreed to delay job cuts for some union workers until Aug. 25 after dismissing 150 salaried workers. It plans to secure the fire-damaged plant to allow a sale and possible restart under a new owner.

One of the plants idled last year was Husky Energy’s 38,000 bpd Superior, Wisconsin, refinery, which is projected to reopen in late 2020 following USD400 million in repairs from an April 2018 explosion and fire.

About 55% of the US capacity growth last year came at plants along the US Gulf Coast. Refineries in the state of Texas alone accounted for 42% of the increase in national capacity, according to the report.

The nation's largest refinery, Motiva Enterprises' Port Arthur, Texas, plant was one of the refineries posting gains, increasing potential output by 4,000 bpd to 607,000 bpd.

The next large expansion in plant capacity is due in 2022 when Exxon Mobil Corp starts up a 250,000 bpd crude distillation unit at its 369,024 bpd Beaumont, Texas, refinery.

Marathon Petroleum Corp is the nation’s leading refiner by capacity with 16 percent of the national total, which it achieved with its October 2018 purchase of rival Andeavor.
MRC

PVC production in Russia up by 4% in H1 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) totalled 502,600 tonnes in the first six months of 2019, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, not all Russian producers raised their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

June production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 79,600 tonnes, which practically the same as in May. Overall PVC production reached 502,600 tonnes in January-June 2019, compared to 484,600 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their output, except for Kaustik Volgograd.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 26,100 tonnes of PVC in June, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,300 tonnes, compared to 24,600 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production at RusVinyl was 166,800 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 7% year on year. Such a significant increase in production was a result of the absence of long maintenance works.

SayanskKhimPlast produced 26,800 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) last month, whereas this figure was 27,600 tonnes in May. The Sayansk plant managed to produce about 162,500 tonnes of resin in January-June, compared to 149,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 22,400 tonnes of SPVC in June versus 23,800 tonnes a month earlier. Total SPVC production at Baskhir Soda Company increased to 137,300 tonnes in the first six months of this year, compared to 132,600 tonnes in the same period in 2018.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced about 4,300 tonnes of SPVC in June, compared with 3,500 tonnes in May. It is worth noting that in the current year from mid-May to mid-June, the Volgograd producer shut its capacities for scheduled maintenance works, whereas there was no turnaround a year earlier. Kaustik's overall production of PVC reached 36,000 tonnes in the first six months of 2019 versus 46,400 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

Milacron considering selling its Cimcool division

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastics machinery maker Milacron Holdings Corp. is considering selling its Cimcool division, which produces coolants and lubricants for industrial machinery, said Canplastics.

Quoting what it calls “people with knowledge of the matter,” Bloomberg said the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company is working with an adviser to solicit offers for the business, which could go for as much as USD300 million.

A final decision hasn’t been made and Milacron could decide to keep the company, the people said.

Cimcool’s complete line of metalworking products includes precision metal removal fluids, rust preventatives, HVAC specialty fluids, and productive process and maintenance cleaners.

In May, Milacron announced that it was selling its Uniloy blow molding business to U.S.-based investment firms Osgood Capital Group LLC and Cyprium Investment Partners LLC for an undisclosed amount.
MRC