Chinese June crude oil imports climb as new refineries spur demand

MOSCOW (MRC0 -- China’s crude oil imports on a daily basis in June rose 15.2% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Friday, as the start up of new large-scale refiners spurred demand for feedstocks, reported Reuters.

A new plant owned by Hengli Petrochemical, capable of processing 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, reached full operations in late May, while a similar sized plant owned by Zhejiang Petrochemical has started trial runs.

June imports by the world’s largest crude oil importer came in at 39.58 million tonnes, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

That works out to 9.63 million bpd, up 1.7% from 9.47 million bpd level in May and up from 8.36 million bpd a year ago.

For the first six months of 2019, crude imports grew 8.8% from a year earlier to 244.6 million tons, or about 9.87 million bpd.

June imports rose despite poor margins limiting runs at some plants and amid shut downs for maintenance.

Last month, Sinopec’s 200,000-bpd Luoyang refinery, PetroChina’s 140,000-bpd Jinzhou refinery and a 200,000-bpd Liaoyang Petrochemical plant were shut for planned repairs.

Two coastal refineries under top state refiner Sinopec Corp suffered losses in June for the first time this year, plant sources have said, as they processed higher-priced crude while domestic fuel prices trended lower.

China’s crude oil purchases are expected to be subdued in July as fuel supply from mammoth new refineries stokes an already-sizeable glut.

Customs data also showed China exported 5.43 million tons of oil products in June, up 13.5% from a year earlier and rising from 4.49 million tons in May, reflecting the growing surplus.

Exports for the first half of 2019 totaled 32.52 million tons, up 7.3% from a year ago.

Natural gas imports, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports, were 7.52 million tons last month, the customs data showed, easing from 7.56 million tons in May.

Imports of the cleaner fuel have slowed since March from peaks in the winter months when heating demand surges.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Frames has designed and supplied an electrostatic colaescer for kerosene treatment to the Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (Cepsa) San Roque Refinery, located in the Bay of Gibraltar in Spain, said Hydrocarbonengineering.

Frames’ electrostatic coalescence technology is used as a prewash to reduce the acidity of a kerosene feed stream. During the processing of refinery-produced feedstocks various impurities are left in the petrochemical end-products. Some of these impurities can be removed by using Frames Electrostatic Coalescers. At the San Roque Refinery, the Frames Electrostatic Coalescer Prewash vessel has been installed to reduce the acidity of the kerosene feed stream by neutralizing naphthenic acids utilizing a weak caustic solution.

Cepsa selected Frames electrostatic coalescence technology for this project as it provides a high quality technical solution that reduces the use of chemicals and minimizing disposal requirements.

"We are encouraged to see that Frames’ Electrostatic Coalescers are selected by our clients in a growing number of refineries across the world,” says Geert Willemse, Product Specialist – Separators & Treaters at Frames. “It shows that our equipment is recognized as a cost-effective solution for reducing impurities for a wide range of feed streams."

The electrostatic process utilized in Frames Electrostatic Coalescers is a highly effective way to remove the impurities found in various distillate streams. It works by removing impurities from the distillate through the addition of an aqueous chemical reagent to the distillate stream, dispersing the reagent throughout the stream in extremely small droplets and exposing the mixture to the influence of an electric field. Once exposed to the electric field, the reagent is coalesced and separated from the distillate, taking along with it impurities that react with or dissolve in that reagent. The reagent is virtually insoluble in the oil this enables the separation of the reagent and the impurities from the oil.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has made its first purchase of US-produced Thunder Horse crude oil via a tender for mid-October delivery, reported Reuters with reference to its managing director M. Venkatesh.

"The price offered was very competitive, Venkatesh said. The state-run refiner placed an order to buy 1 million barrels of the sour oil, he said.

The deal comes as Indian refiners ramp up purchases of US oil to compensate for the loss of Iranian oil supplies as Washington tightens sanctions on Tehran. The widening spread between Brent and West Texas Crude WTCLc1-LCOc1 prices is also providing a boost to Asian refiners looking to buy US oil.

MRPL, which used to be Iran’s second-biggest Indian oil client, operates a 300,000 barrels per day coastal refinery in the southern Karnataka state. Venkatesh told Reuters the Thunder Horse deal is the firm’s second purchase of U.S. oil following a shipment of high-sulphur Southern Green Canyon oil received in February 2018.

An industry source said MRPL has placed its order with BP late on Thursday evening. The person declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

BP could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Meanwhile MRPL’s Venkatesh said all units are now operating normally at the Karnataka refinery, where crude processing was curtailed due to water shortages in early May.

"The refinery is operating at almost peak capacity," he said.

As MRC wrote before, MRPL, has brought on-stream its polypropylene (PP) plant in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. he company has recently resumed operations at the plant following a turnaround. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-April, 2019. Located in Mangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the plant has a PP production capacity of 440,000 mt/year.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), is an oil refinery at Mangalore and is a subsidiary of ONGC, set up in 1993. The refinery is located at Katipalla, north from centre of Mangalore city. The refinery was established after displacing five villages of Bala, Kalavar, Kuthetoor, Katipalla, and Adyapadi.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, cannot currently comply with a new rule requiring less sulfur content for motor diesel, according to a document showing its business plan and seen by Reuters.

The document said that while Pemex implements measures to produce more low-sulfur diesel at its refineries, the state-owned firm has introduced some relevant legal measures.

As MRC informed earlier, Mexico will reduce the tax burden of heavily indebted Pemex by some USD7 billion over the next two years and inject government capital to build a new refinery and raise output from onshore and shallow water fields.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine's polypropylene (PP) imports totalled about 66,800 tonnes in the first six months of the year, up 10% year on year. The greatest increase in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, according to MRC DataScope.

June PP imports into the country fell to 10,200 tonnes from 11,500 tonnes a month earlier, the main decrease in imports were seen in the shipments of PP random copolymers. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 66,800 tonnes in January-June 2019, compared to 60,800 tonnes a year earlier. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main growth in imports, whereas demand for propylene copolymers subsided.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

June imports of homopolymer PP practically remained steady, compared with the May figures - 8,100 tonnes. Overall shipments of homopolymer PP reached 52,200 tonnes in the first six months of 2019 versus 44,500 tonnes a year earlier.

Last month's imports of block propylene copolymers (PP block copolymers) were 1,000 tonnes, compared to 1,100 tonnes in May. Imports of PP block copolymers into the country were about 6,400 tonnes in January-June, compared with about 6,500 tonnes year on year.

June imports of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymer) were about 1,000 tonnes from 2,200 tonnes a month earlier, local companies significantly reduced their purchasing of pipe PP random copolymer. Overall imports of PP random copolymers exceeded 7,300 tonnes in January-June 2019, whereas this figure was about 8,700 tonnes a year earlier.

Overall imports of other propylene copolymers were about 867 tonnes over the stated period.


MRC