MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to operate its refinery at a reduced rate after completing maintenance at some units later this month amid weak margins, reported Reuters with reference to its company spokesman's statement.
Refineries globally are reducing utilisation rates to cope with a sudden plunge in domestic demand and negative gasoline margins as governments impose more stringent lockdown measures.
The company is expected to restart one of its three crude distillation units (CDUs), its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) and one of its two residue desulphurizers (RDS) around April 20 after more than a month’s shutdown for scheduled maintenance.
After the unit’s restart, Formosa plans to be processing 480,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, spokesman KY Lin told Reuters, about 10% below the refinery’s nameplate capacity of 540,000 bpd.
The company is also looking at adjusting output at its 84,000-bpd RFCC to maximize production of propylene, a petrochemical raw material, as prices are still supportive, while reducing gasoline output, he said.
He added that the refinery has previously reduced jet fuel output partly by blending the fuel into its diesel and naphtha pool.
"We won’t rule out further run cuts," he said, adding that oil supply remained excessive globally.
Formosa operates three CDUs with a capacity of 180,000 bpd each, while the capacity of each of its RDS units is 80,000 bpd.
As MRC wrote before, Formosa Plastics' new 1.5 million mt/year cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, came online in H1 2020 and was seen ramping up through January.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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