MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Holdings Inc, Japan’s biggest oil refiner, said it will spend 1.5 trillion yen (USD14 billion) for the next three years to drive its transformation into a supplier of low-carbon energy and materials, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The planned spending, mapped out under a new medium-term business plan through end-March 2023, is a 44% jump from the 1.04 trillion yen spent in the past 3 years. The fund will be used to strengthen its business in renewable energy, electronic materials and petrochemicals, JXTG Holdings President Tsutomu Sugimori said.
The new plan is based on an assumption that a decline in demand for petroleum products and others due to the pandemic will continue in the April-September half of the current financial year, he said. “We don’t know how long an impact from the pandemic will continue, but we don’t think the current trend toward a low-carbon society will change,” Sugimori told a news conference.
“We will stick to our long-term vision,” he said. Last year, the oil and metals group unveiled a long-term vision through 2040, reinforcing growth areas such as renewable energy, chemical products, power generation and electronic materials, based on an estimate that domestic oil demand will halve by 2040.
On Wednesday, the company added a new goal to become “carbon neutral” in 2040, by reducing emissions from refineries and boosting carbon-free assets such as renewable energy, hydrogen generation, and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
"The growing trend of boosting renewable energy won’t change despite a slump in oil prices," Sugimori said. The company also announced that Katsuyuki Ota, president of JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy, an energy unit of the group, will become JXTG Holdings’ president in June. Sugimori will become chairman.
As MRC informed earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy brought on-stream its cracker following a turnaround. The company resumed operations at the cracker on April 28, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on February 27, 2020.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC