Citgo refinery restarts coker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Citgo Petroleum Corp restarted the coker at its 157,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

The 44,000 bpd coker was taken out of production on Oct. 4 to repair a compressor, the sources said.

As informed before, in May 2019, Citgo restarted larger reformer at its US Corpus Christi 52,000 bbl/day refinery with capacity 225,000 benzene; 180,000 toluene tonnes/year.

Benzene is a feedstock for the production of styrene monomer (SM), which, in its turn, is a feedstock for manufacturing polystyrene (PS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russian plants reduced their output of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) in August 2019 by 19% year on year to 27,280 tonnes. This figure was at 33,5400 tonnes in August 2018. Russia's August GPPS and HIPS production decreased by 15% from July 2019. PS production slightly increased in the Russian market in January-August 2019. Thus, the increase was 1% year on year: 251,690 tonnes versus 248,150 tonnes a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SOCAR Energoresource LLC has sold to Vitol up to 1.880 million tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel through a tender, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to industry sources.

The deal is for diesel originating from the Antipinsky refinery for delivery between Oct. 1, 2019 and Sept. 30, 2020 via the Baltic ports.

SOCAR Energoresource does not comment on its trading activity.

As MRC informed before, SOCAR Turkey Energy, which is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), plans to lay the foundation of the Mercury petrochemical complex in Turkey in H1-2020. The plant will be located in Aliaga district, next to the Petkim petrochemical complex and the STAR refinery. With the commissioning of this plant, Turkey will settle the matter with the import of purified terephthalic acid (PTA).

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Chinese bottle grade PET deliveries to Russia increased 34% in the first eight months of 2019 to 95,600 tonnes. China accounted for 90% of the total imports, compared to 85% a year earlier.
August imports of material from China decreased by 41% to 7,600 tonnes from 12,800 tonnes in July. Jiangsu Sanfangxiang, Yisheng, Wankai and Sinopec were the leading Chinese suppliersof material to the Russian market.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Neo Group's import of injection moulding PET chips from Lithuania grew by 40% last month and reached a record monthly volume of 7,000 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope.

Deliveries of Lithuanian PET accounted for 61% in September from total imports against a share of 45% in August and 26% in September last year. The volume of external supplies from Lithuania increased by 20% in three quarters compared to the same period last year and amounted to 31,400 tonnes against 26,200 tonnes. The main buyers of Lithuanian bottled PET were Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine Limited and Retal.

The Neo Group company continues to increase the supply of material to Ukraine for the second month in a row, despite the force majeure announced in July of this year.
It was earlier reported that the Lithuanian Neo Group, one of the largest European producers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), announced force majeure circumstances on 10 July on the supply of PET from a plant in the city of Klaipeda (Lithuania) due to technical problems on the back of the shortage of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) - to a new PET line at this site.

Force majeure at this plant with a total capacity of three lines of 480,000 tonnes/year (160,000 tonnes/year each) is still in force. The lines operate at reduced loading.


Closed Joint Stock Company (CJSC) "Neo Group" is one of the largest producers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chips in Europe. The company's enterprises are located in Lithuania, not far from Klaipeda seaport. The total production capacity of the plants is 320,000 tonnes/year, which is 12% of the quantity of PET produced in Europe. Neo Group CJSC is a part of Retal Industries Group, the leader in the production of PET preforms.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of Chinese bottle grade PET chips to Ukraine in September almost halved to the lowest level since the beginning of the year, according to MRC's DataScope.

Imports of Chinese bottle grade PET to the Ukrainian market in September amounted to 3,800 tonnes against 6,300 tonnes in September last year and 5,700 tonnes in August this year.
The share of imports from China in the total volume amounted to 33% in September against 52% a month earlier and 63% in September 2018.
The key suppliers of injection moulded Chinese PET chips to the Ukrainian market were producers Dragon, Wankai, Yisheng Petrochemical.

Despite the decrease in consumption of Chinese material, the total import supplies of injection moulding PET chips in September increased by 14% compared to the same period last year and by 5% compared to August of the current year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine's polypropylene (PP) imports totalled about 101,500 tonnes in the first nine months of the year, up 4% year on year. The greatest increase in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, according to MRC DataScope.

September PP imports into Ukraine increased to 11,400 tonnes from 11,100 tonnes a month earlier, local companies raised their purchasing of of homopolymer PP grades in Middle West. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 101,500 tonnes in January-September 2019, compared to 97,700 tonnes a year earlier. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main growth in imports, while the demand for propylene copolymers declined with a few exceptions.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.
September imports of propylene homopolymers to the Ukrainian market grew due to growth in supplies from Middle East and amounted to about 8,600 tonnes against 7,800 tonnes a month earlier. Overall shipments of homopolymer PP reached 77,900 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019 versus 73,800 tonnes a year earlier.

September imports of PP block copolymers was about 1,500 tonnes, which actually equal to the level in August. Imports of PP block copolymers into the country were about 10,500 tonnes in January-September, compared with 9,800 tonnes year on year.

September imports of PP random copolymers fell to 1,100 tonnes compared to 1,600 tonnes a month due to lower demand for pipe polypropylene. Overall imports of PP random copolymers exceeded 11,700 tonnes in January-September 2019, whereas this figure was about 12,400 tonnes a year earlier.

Total imports of other propylene copolymers over the reporting period were about 1,300 tonnes, compared with 1,700 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

MRC