HIPS and GPPS imports to Kazakhstan down by 5% in Jan-Nov 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) to Kazakhstan decreased in the first eleven months of 2019 by 5% year on year to 8,700 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

This figure was at 9,200 tonnes in January-November 2018.

Imports of material to the country remained in November 2019 at the level of October, whereas November imports of this polystyrene (PS) grade almost doubled year on year: from 700 tonnes to 1,200 tonnes.

HIPS and GPPS are mainly shipped to Kazakhstan from Russia.

The share of the Russian Federation dropped by 13% year on year in the total imports in January-November 2019 to 74% (6,500 tonnes a year earlier).

November import of Russian material into the country decreased by 3% from October 2019 to 1,000 tonnes. In November 2018, HIPS and GPPS imports from Russia to Kazakhstan were 600 tonnes.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italy's Eni said Monday it has signed a new long-term contract for the purchase of 1.5 million mt/year of LNG from the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) project, less than a week after France's Total also agreed a new 1.5 million mt/year deal, reported S&P Global.

The LNG under both deals will be produced from the existing Trains 1, 2 and 3 of the NLNG facility at Bonny Island.
NLNG last year began remarketing LNG volumes from the first three trains as initial sales contracts with key buyers including Turkey's Botas and Portugal's Energia expire this year and next.

Eni already signed up for 1.1 million mt/year last December, while global trader Vitol also agreed late last year a 10-year deal for 0.5 million mt/year.

NLNG - a joint venture between state-owned NNPC (49%), Shell (25.6%), Total (15%) and Eni (10.4%) - currently has a production capacity of some 22.5 million mt/year, but plans to increase it to 30 million mt/year with the addition of a seventh train.

The shareholders in NNPC made the final investment decision for Train 7 in December last year.

Eni said the two deals with NLNG would allow it, from 2021, to "increase its global LNG portfolio and to support further the development of its presence in the main destination markets worldwide."

As MRC informed earlier, Italy’s Versalis (part of Eni) took its cracker in Dunkirk, France offline in early September, 2019, due to a fire which broke out at the company’s petrochemical plant. Local media sources also reported that the fire was brought under control with no reported injuries and the company was assessing the required repairs. The cracker has a production capacity of 380,000 tons/year of ethylene and 95,000 tons/year of propylene.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

ENI is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of EUR68 billion (USD 90 billion), as of August 14, 2013. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co.’s (Petro Rabigh) board of directors accepted on Wednesday the resignation of chairman Abdulaziz Al Gudaimi, effective as of Feb. 1, according to Agraam.

Petro Rabigh, the 50:50 joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, clarified in a bourse filing that the resignation was submitted on Jan. 19 for personal reasons.

Ibrahim bin Qassim Al Buainain will be appointed as the new chairman. Al Buainain holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and 2 masters’ degrees in business administration and innovation and leadership.

In 1989, Al Buainain joined the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) as operation engineer in Ras Tanura Refinery, then held several positions at the same company. He has more than 26 years of experience in the oil and gas field.

The board’s decision will be submitted to the upcoming general assembly meeting for approval, the statement added.

As MRC wrote previously, Petro Rabigh completed all construction works for capacity expansion at its ethane cracker in late March 2016, after which the cracker's capacity rose to 1.6 million mt/year from 1.3 million mt/year. The expanded cracker began production in late April, 2016.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Thus, the complex currently has a cracker to produce 1.6-million t/y of ethylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA said its financial debt fell less than 0.1% in 2019 from the prior year to some USD34.5 billion, though it remained in default on its bonds as sanctions freeze it out of the global banking system, said Reuters.

PDVSA, which is short for Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., has stopped paying interest on most its bonds, and together with Venezuela’s government has accumulated billions of dollars in late interest payments.

The company’s announcement, in the form of an advisory in a local newspaper last week, said it owed almost USD25.2 billion to bondholders, up slightly from USD24.7 billion at the end of 2018.

PDVSA said its commercial debts with foreign joint venture partners, including Chevron Corp and China National Petroleum Corp, dipped to USD2.65 billion by the end of 2019, down from USD2.66 billion at the end of the prior year.

The company, which has not published a complete annual report since 2017, did not detail other obligations, such as pending debt to providers, an issue that has contributed to declining output in recent years.

PDVSA defaulted on some of its bonds in 2017 and on the rest of its bonds in 2019. It is in default on USD6 billion in interest and principle.

Venezuela reported to OPEC an average crude production of about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, its lowest level in almost 75 years amid sanctions imposed by the United States to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro, lack of investment capital and staff, and mismanagement.

As MRC informed before, in May 2019, Curacao’s state-owned Isla oil refinery received an exemption from US sanctions on PDVSA, the Caribbean island’s government said in a statement. The US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on PDVSA in late January in a bid to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen a collapse in the OPEC member nation’s economy. The license for the refinery, along with two other related companies, will allow the facility to continue to do business with US companies through Jan. 15, 2020.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has increased its estimated recoverable resource base in Guyana to more than 8 billion oil equivalent barrels and made a further oil discovery northeast of the producing Liza field at the Uaru exploration well, the 16th discovery on the Stabroek Block, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new recoverable resource estimate includes 15 discoveries offshore Guyana through year-end 2019. The Uaru discovery is the first of 2020 and will be added to the resource estimate at a later date.

"With recent high-quality finds at Tripletail and Mako contributing to our recoverable resources, our investments will continue to provide benefits for the people of Guyana,” said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil. “The Uaru discovery is another positive step as we begin a new decade with the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and our co-venturers."

Uaru encountered approximately 94 feet (29 meters) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. The well, drilled in 6,342 feet (1,933 meters) of water, is located approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of the Liza field, which began producing oil in December 2019.

Production from the Liza Phase 1 development is currently ramping up and will produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day in the coming months, utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).

The Liza Unity FPSO, which will be employed for the second phase of Liza development and will have a production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day, is under construction and expected to start production by mid-2022.

Pending government approvals and project sanctioning of a third development, production from the Payara field north of the Liza discoveries could start as early as 2023, reaching an estimated 220,000 barrels of oil per day.

Four drillships in Guyana continue to explore and appraise new resources as well as develop the resources within approved projects. A fifth drillship is expected to be deployed later this year.

The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45 percent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Limited, holds 30 percent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 percent interest.

As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil resumed PE production at its site in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France after a temporary shutdown due to commercial reasons. Thus, this plant wa taken off-stream at the end of the 2nd week of December 2019.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC