MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Versalis petrochemical plant in Priolo, Sicily, has restarted its aromatics units after being taken offline in recent months for maintenance and upgrade works, a source close to the company told S&P Global Platts Thursday.
Versalis' C1 CR14 and C2 CR14 aromatics units were among the first to be restarted, followed by the C2 CR11 and then the C1 CR11 unit, which produces hydrogen, the source said. One of the last to be restarted was the CR23 aromatics unit, the source said.
The Versalis petrochemical plant is owned by Eni.
The plant's ethylene unit is currently undergoing maintenance and upgrade works, and is scheduled to restart in about a week, the source said. The plant was originally scheduled to restart around March 14.
Company officials were not immediately available for comment, and the reason for the rescheduling could not be ascertained.
Eni is investing about Eur70 million in the turnaround project at Priolo, of which Eur48 million was earmarked for the ethylene unit, Eur15 million for the aromatics units and the balance for other units. The Priolo complex produces benzene, mixed xylenes, crude C4s, ethylene, propylene and pyrolysis gas.
Versalis is a wholly owned chemical subsidiary of Eni and owns three large petrochemical complexes in the country - Priolo in Sicily, Porto Torres on the island of Sardinia and in Porto Marghera near Venice.
As MRC informed earlier, operations at Italian petrochemical producer Versalis (part of Eni) have not affected by emergency quarantine measures in the country. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte extended its emergency coronavirus measures Wednesday evening and announced the closure of "non-essential" commercial businesses. This follows the announcement of a nationwide lockdown on Monday, limiting movement for around 60 million people. Under these measures people will only be allowed to leave their homes for work or health reasons. Versalis has three steam crackers in Italy, capable of producing 1.675 million mt of ethylene, 750,000 of propylene and 285,000 mt of butadiene a year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC