Mitsubishi Chemical cracker in Kashima operates normally after turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical's naphtha cracker has being operating normally following a planned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the company resumed operations at the cracker on July 7, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on May 9, 2020.

Located at Kashima, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 540,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported previously, the company last started a two-month maintenance at this cracker in H1 May, 2018.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fujian Refining & Petrochemical (FREP) has brought on-stream its No. 1 polypropylene (PP) unit, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company resumed operations at the unit on August 20, 2020. The unit was shut for maintenance on July 1, 2020. Initially, the unit was to remain off-line for about one month. However, the company postponed its restart until further notice.

Located in Fujian province, China, the No.1 PP unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, FREP undertook an unplanned shutdown at its No. 3 PP unit on June 1, 2020. The unit was to remain shut for about one week. Located in Fujian province, China, the No. 3 PP unit has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year.

The company also operates No. 2 PP unit with the capacity of 360,000 mt/year at the same site.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

FREP is a joint venture between Fujian Petrochemical Co. (50%), ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Co. (25%) and Saudi Aramco Sino Co. (25%). Fujian Petrochemical is a 50:50 JV between Sinopec and the Fujian provincial government.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian state refiners have stopped buying crude oil from China-linked companies, three sources said, after New Delhi’s recent regulation aimed at restricting imports from countries that it shares a border with, reported Reuters.

The new regulation, put in place on July 23, comes after a border clash between India and China that killed 20 Indian soldiers and soured relations between the two neighbors.

Since the new order was issued, state refiners have been inserting a clause in their import tenders on new rules restricting dealings with companies from countries sharing a border with India, the sources said and the tender documents show.

Last week, Indian state refiners decided to stop sending crude import tenders to Chinese trading firm like CNOOC Ltd, Unipec and PetroChina, among others, one of the sources said.

To participate in Indian tenders, the July 23 order makes registration with a department in the federal commerce ministry ‘mandatory’ for any bidders from nations sharing a border with India.

India shares borders with China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan, but the government statement did not name any specific country.

State refiners, which control 60% of India’s 5 million barrel-per-day refining capacity, regularly tap spot markets for crude.

India is the world’s third biggest oil consumer and importer and imports nearly 84% of its oil needs.

China does not export crude to India but Chinese firms are major traders of the commodity globally.

Chinese companies also hold equity stakes in many oilfields across the globe ranging from the Middle East to Africa and the Americas and often submit competitive bids in crude import tenders by Indian state refiners.

Indian state refiners have also decided not to deal with China Aviation Oil (Singapore), PetroChina and subsidiaries of Unipec among others for fuel imports, and have stopped chartering Chinese tankers for imports, sources said.

“There is no impact from the tanker ban and refined fuel imports restrictions as we hardly hire Chinese vessels and our (state refiners’) refined fuel imports are also almost nil except for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG),” a second source said.

State refiners will, however, take delivery of crude in tankers linked to China if the import tender was awarded on a cost, insurance, freight (CIF) basis, where the seller arranges the ships, the sources said.

State refiners Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CNOOC, PetroChina and Unipec parent Sinopec also did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while China Aviation Oil declined comment.

India has surplus refining capacity. Most refiners are operating their plants at below capacity as COVID-19-related restrictions have dented fuel demand.

“Nowadays our own requirement is very less, so these new rules are not hurting much. But at some point in time we will definitely be impacted by the new conditions. But we need to think of the larger picture and the national interest, also,” a third source said.

As MRC informed previously, PetroChina’s Ningxia refinery was scheduled to resume operation of its 100,000 barrels per day oil refining units in mid-August after an overhaul. The plant in northwestern China began 45 days of maintenance on July 1.

Besides, PetroChina Ningxia PC, part of PetroChina, bought on-stream its polypropylene (PP) plant following a turnaround. The company resumed operations at the plant on August 18, 2020. The plant was shut for maintenance on July 1, 2020. Located at Yinchuan, China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 110,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices inched higher, clawing back narrow losses earlier in the session as a massive storm raced inland past the heart of the US oil industry in Louisiana and Texas without causing any widespread damage to refineries, reported Reuters.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures for October, set to expire on Friday, rose 5 cents to USD45.14 a barrel as of 0628 GMT, heading for a 1.8% weekly gain. The more active November contract LCOc2 climbed 7 cents to USD45.67.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures were up 1 cent to USD43.05 a barrel. The contract is on track to rise 1.7% rise this week, for a fourth straight week of gains.

“With the US Gulf hurricanes out of the way and preliminary assessment showing no damage to the upstream or downstream facilities, crude has surrendered most of the storm premium and could enter a holding pattern again,” said Vandana Hari, oil market analyst at Vanda Insights.

Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana early Thursday with winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km per hour), damaging buildings, knocking down trees and cutting power to more than 650,000 people in Louisiana and Texas, but refineries were spared from feared massive flooding.

But investors are shifting their concerns from production outages to demand destruction, analysts said.

“Crude prices have barely budged this week, but refining margins have been hammered as flash floods disrupt normal consumption patterns, likely for a longer period of time than (Gulf of Mexico) production remains offline,” said RBC Capital in a note.

US producers had shut 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude output, or 83% of the Gulf of Mexico’s production, while nine refineries had shut around 2.9 million bpd of capacity, or 15% of US processing capacity, ahead of the storm.

Late on Thursday, the Port of Houston, the top US crude oil export hub accounting for about 600,000 bpd of shipments, was in the process of reopening to commercial shipping late Thursday.

The earlier closures of Houston Port, Beaumont and Port Arthur were expected to reduce seaborne crude export capacity by nearly 1 million bpd, data intelligence firm Kpler estimated, based on average figures over the past four months.

In refining, as MRC wrote earlier, Motiva Enterprises is preparing to restart its 607,000 bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the largest in the US, on Friday and Exxon Mobil Corp was preparing to restart units at its 369,024 bpd Beaumont, Texas refinery.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. or Sinopec Corp. reported first-half 2020 net loss of RMB 22.9 billion compared to a profit of RMB 31.3 billion last year, according to Markets Insider.

On a per share basis, loss totaled RMB 0.189 versus a profit of RMB 0.259 in the prior year period.

Net loss attributable to equity shareholders of the company was RMB 24.4 billion or RMB 0.202 per share versus a profit of RMB 30.5 billion or RMB 0.252 per share earned a year ago.

Turnover and other operating revenues for the period amounted to RMB 1,034.2 billion, 31% lower than the previous year's RMB 1,498.9 billion.

As MRC reported earlier, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, a refining subsidiary of Asia's top refiner Sinopec, plans to raise daily crude oil throughput by 7.8% in the second half of 2020. The Chinese company aims to process 7.68 million tonnes of crude oil in July-December, equivalent to 304,700 barrels per day.

We remind that Sinopec Zhongyuan Petrochemical, also part of Sinopec Group, is in plans to bring on-stream its cracker following a maintenance turnaround. The company is likely to resume operations at the cracker by mid-September, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on August 1, 2020. Located at Henan in China, the cracker has a ethylene capacity of 220,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 95,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC"s DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group"s key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC