German MiRO oil refinery plans FCC restart in two weeks

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany's 320,000 barrel per day (bpd) MiRO oil refinery, the country's largest, plans to restart a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker in around 2 weeks following an unplanned shutdown, reported The Economic Times with reference to a spokeswoman's statement.

The unit, which has a capacity of 91,100 bpd, was shut on August 7, traders said.

The refinery is owned by a consortium of Phillips 66 Continental Holding GmbH, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, and Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH.

According to ICIS-MRC price report, the August contract price of propylene was agreed at the level of July in Europe. Therefore, all European producers announced a roll-over of July export polypropylene (PP) prices for August shipments to the CIS markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A big surplus of U.S. biofuel blending credits would likely blunt potential price increases in the market if the Trump administration follows through on its proposal to boost blending volumes mandates, four industry sources said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Prices for the credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, tanked this month after the Environmental Protection Agency decided to grant 31 biofuel waivers to oil refiners, exempting them from their obligation to blend ethanol into their gasoline.

The administration has since sought to quell anger over the waivers in the agricultural industry and is considering boosting next year's blending volumes mandates to compensate for the impact of the waivers, Reuters reported last week here

While that move could help bolster demand for corn-based ethanol, its impact - especially on the RIN market - could be muted by a buildup in the so-called “RIN bank” over the past few years: There were 2.19 billion carryover RINS from 2018 for use for compliance in 2019, according to EPA estimates, compared to 2.59 billion for 2018, 2.22 billion for 2017 and 1.54 billion for 2016.

“Even if the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) moves forward with some of the ideas being talked about, we wouldn’t expect it to have significant impacts on RIN prices,” said one industry source familiar with the matter, citing the size of the RIN bank.

Renewable fuel credits for 2019 RIN-D6-US traded at 15.75 cents apiece on Friday, far below 88.75 cents each two years ago. RIN prices have fallen due to the Trump administration’s expansive use of the Small Refinery Exemption program, which allows refineries of less than 75,000 barrels per day to seek waivers from their blending obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Under the RFS, refiners must blend certain volumes of biofuels or buy RINs from those that do.

Facilities can also carry over a percentage of RINs from previous years, which has led to the accumulation in the RIN bank.

After the decision to grant the 31 waivers caused an uproar in farm states, the president and his administration discussed ways to boost biofuel demand. One proposal is to lift the 2020 annual corn-based ethanol mandate by 500 million gallons and the biodiesel mandate by 250 million gallons.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sri Lanka has enlisted French major Total and Norway’s Equinor to study the hydrocarbon potential of two blocks, saying it aims to start oil production in the island nation in 2023, as per Reuters.

Sri Lanka does not produce oil and importing the fuel costs it USD4.15 billion in 2018.

The country has received three bids for the exploration and development of a block, shunned by Cairn India in late 2015 due to low hydrocarbon prospects, Vajira Dissanayake, the top government official in the petroleum ministry said. He declined to name the companies.

Cairn India, a subsidiary of London-listed Cairn Energy , confirmed the first discovery of the natural gas and the Sri Lankan government has said seismic data shows the potential for more than 1 billion barrels of oil under the sea in a 30,000 sq km (18,640 sq mile) area of the Mannar Basin, off the island’s northwestern coast.

The block in the Mannar Basin off the country’s northwest coast is expected to be awarded by November, Dissanayake said.

“Definitely by 2020 they will start operation and (we) expect the first hydrocarbon production by 2023,” he said.

To boost its oil and gas production, Sri Lanka has enlisted Total and Equinor to explore the JS-5 and JS-6 blocks in the eastern offshore region.

Data from a previous seismic survey revealed the JS-5 and JS-6 blocks to have “significant hydrocarbon potential” following which Total decided to move ahead with the next phase of exploration with Equinor, the petroleum ministry said in a statement.

Equinor will bear 30% of the project cost, its Vice President for exploration Janne Rui said, without specifying details.

Similar projects typically cost anywhere between USD2 million and USD10 million, said Jean-Marc Rodriguez, Total’s Vice President, Exploration for Asia Pacific.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Libya’s Ras Lanuf Oil and Gas Processing Company (RASCO), has received the first shipment of ethylene gas at its port as part of in efforts to restart its ethylene production, as reported by Liibya Herald.

RASCO reported that the tanker Stella Kosan had docked with the first shipment of about 4,000 metric tons of ethylene gas, which it said would be the first of numerous planned shipments needed to fill the ethylene tank at the cryogenic (freezing) area. These feedstock shipments will supply the polyethylene (PE) plant in preparation to re-start the plant "‘within next few days’", RASCO said.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), the parent company of RASCO, had announced in April last year that ethylene and PE production was to start ‘‘soon’’ at the Ras Lanuf Oil and Gas Manufacturing Company. No exact date had been given at the time of the announcement. In March this year RASCO had announced that it had successfully replaced a flaring incinerator and in the same month it announced that its port was now ready to operate after maintenance was completed.

The Ras Lanuf ethylene plant has been inactive since 2011, and the PE plant has been suspended since 2013. The plants are awaiting necessary maintenance and the re-commissioning of the refinery to provide the necessary feedstock raw material.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwanese investor CPC Corporation isn't finding land for setting up its Rs 45,300 crore petrochemicals project in Paradip eight months after Odisha wooed the company at a much-publicised investor summit, as reported by Plastemart with reference to Business Standard.

A delegation drawn from the Taiwan Petrochemical Alliance led by Lee Shun-Chin, president of CPC Corporation, had surveyed the proposed site of the petrochemicals project at Paradip in August 2018. The corporation's officials also held talks with the authorities of the Paradip Port Trust (PPT). Before visiting the site, the delegation had negotiations with Dharmendra Pradhan, minister for petroleum and natural gas. The successful operations of the projects proposed by CPC Corporation were contingent on a consistent supply of feedstock by Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) refinery unit at Paradip.

Later, CPC followed up with an investment intent at the second edition of Make in Odisha conclave held in November 2018. CPC was the second biggest investor at the biennial conclave after West Bengal-based Haldia Petrochemicals which pledged Rs 70,000 crore. But nearly eight months into the showpiece investment summit, CPC's planned project is in disarray. Land, the key component for installing the petrochemicals plant is unavailable, at Paradip.

"There is hardly any land available for CPC or other prospective investors in and around Paradip. Land acquired for the mega Posco project is to be transferred to JSW Steel. Besides, IOC has come up with a fresh proposal, seeking a land parcel of 4000 acres of land adjacent to its crude oil refinery at Paradip", said a government official in the know. Another source familiar with the development said, "CPC has not evinced interest since their initial interest. We are ready to provide them land at an alternative location if they are still keen on investment".

As MRC informed earlier, CPC Corporation's all crackers in Linyuan have a combined capacity of 1.08 million mt/year of ethylene as well as 500,000 mt/year of propylene.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
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