Enterprise restarts Mont Belvieu PDH unit in early December

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enterprise Products Partners' Mont Belvieu propane dehydrogenation unit in Texas restarted from planned maintenance in the first week of December, reported S&P Global with reference to a source familiar with company operations.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

The PDH unit went offline for maintenance on November 13. That day, the company said in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the RAC "B" turbine shut down, which resulted in flaring. The flaring was estimated to last 72 hours.

The unit has a capacity of 750,000 mt/year, according to Platts data.

Propylene is the main feedstock for producing polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is an American midstream natural gas and crude oil pipeline company with headquarters in Houston, Texas. It acquired GulfTerra in September 2004. The company ranked No. 105 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toray Industries has opened its new R&D Innovation Center for the Future on the site of its Shiga plant in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, as per Apic-online.

The facility will lead Toray's global research as its functional materials headquarters. It will pursue research and developing technologies through collaboration between its domestic and overseas production and sales units.

It will combine fine polymers and fabrication from its proprietary polymer technology with materials and artificial intelligence.

The center "will play a vital role in helping resolve such global issues as climate change, water shortages, and resources depletion," noted Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku.

"I also look for the facility to serve as a vehicle for joint research and development collaborations with universities and public research institutions around the world, innovating world-class technologies."

As MRC reported before, in December 2018, Toray Industries, Inc., announced its decision to enhance production capacity of ABS resin TOYOLAC, manufactured at and distributed by Toray Plastics (Malaysia) Sdn. Berhad. The company will add a facility with production capacity of 75,000 tons annually to expand the sales of high performance varieties such as transparent grade, which has the No. 1 global market share, and start its operation in November 2020. The move will increase TPM’s production capacity to 425,000 tons a year and Toray Group’s capacity with the existing facility at Toray’s Chiba Plant to 497,000 tons a year.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, November ABS imports to Russia were 3,300 tonnes versus 3,500 tonnes a month earlier and 4,100 tonnes in November 2018. Overall ABS imports into the country slightly decreased year on year in the first eleven months of 2019 to 31,300 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican national oil company Pemex produced nearly 3% less crude in October compared with the previous month, as the heavily indebted firm struggles to reverse a prolonged production slump, reported Reuters.

Output averaged 1.66 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, or about 50,000 barrels less than in September.

Compared the same month last year, Pemex’s October oil output was down 5.5%.

The company produced 3.4 million bpd in 2004, but production has steadily declined every year since then. Pemex debt has grown dramatically to just under USD100 billion as of the end the third quarter.

Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero has at times this year announced that the company’s oil output has stabilized, while predicting that it should be producing around 1.8 million bpd by the end of this year.

Pemex’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who appoints the Pemex chief and has made the company’s revival a top priority, has said the firm’s oil output will reach some 2.7 million bpd when his six-year term ends in 2024.

Lopez Obrador, a leftist resource nationalist, has suspended competitive oil auctions open to private and foreign oil companies. He has also canceled auctions to pick joint venture partners for Pemex, a common industry practice designed to share the rewards and risks of complex oil and gas developments.

Both decisions have been sharply criticized by industry analysts as well as credit ratings agencies.

Meanwhile, Pemex’s crude exports in October averaged 963,000, the lowest monthly figure this year and down more than 6% compared with shipments during the same month last year.

The company’s taxes contribute about a fifth of federal government revenue.

As MRC informed earlier, the blast, which took lives of twenty-four people, occurred at a vinyl petrochemical plant that is a joint venture between Pemex's petrochemical unit and majority owner Mexican plastic pipe maker Mexichem in late April 2016. Pemex operates the larger petrochemical complex where the plant was located, known as Pajaritos. The plant produces some 900 tpd of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), also known as chloroethene, an industrial chemical used to produce plastic piping. The joint venture had forecast sales of USD260 million this year.

VCM is the main feedstock for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's DataScope report, exports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) from Russia totalled 175,600 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 22% year on year. Imports increased more significantly - by 230% year on year to 48,500 tonnes.

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, polypropylene, polystyrene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Last month's demand for EPS boards subsided in the Ukrainian market by 40% from October 2019, according to ICIS-MRC Price report, citing a major converter's statement.

This figure showed a decrease of 4% year on year.

At the same time, a major converter said demand for finished products fell in the country in January-November 2019 by 10% year on year.

A season of weak demand began in the EPS boards market in early December. Thus, lower consumption of EPS by large- and medium-sized converters is expected this month.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen, Russia's major polyolefins producer, has shut down its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities for an unscheduled short turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

A plant's representative said Stavrolen took off-stream its HDPE and PP production on 11 December because of the necessity to conduct technical works. The outage will be short and will last for about 5 days.

At the same time, it is worth noting that maintenance works at the ethylene production will not affect supply of polyethylene (PE) and PP to consumers. The plant has sufficient stocks to meet customers' needs during the forced shutdown.

Stavrolen's (part of Lukoil) annual capacity of PP and HDPE production is 120,000 and 300,000 tonnes, respectively. The plant's output of propylene polymers and HDPE exceeded 86,700 tonnes and 221,300 tonnes, respectively, in the first ten months of 2019.
MRC