Hurricane Laura shuts two sites at US emergency oil reserve

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Energy Department announced the shutting of two of four sites of the national emergency oil reserve temporarily to remove workers ahead of Hurricane Laura, but that the remaining sites could deliver oil if the facility gets any requests for deliveries, reported Reuters.

The department last Wednesday shut the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s Big Hill site in Texas and the West Hackberry site in Louisiana due to Laura, Steve Winberg, an assistant secretary at the department, told reporters in a call.

He said the department had a reentry team on its way to Big Hill and it should know the condition of the facility in a few hours.

West Hackberry was “more in the eye of the storm,” Winberg said. The department has reentry teams ready to go to that site but roads in the area are not yet passable. “As soon as we can get through the roads and get across the bridges then we’ll be assessing that facility.”

The two sites were shut because the department needed to evacuate the operations teams, a department official told Reuters. “This was a planned evacuation that took place yesterday prior to the storm reaching the site.”

The other two SPR sites, Bryan Mound, in Texas, and Bayou Choctaw, in Louisiana, are open and can deliver oil should the department receive requests from refiners, Winberg said.

There have been no requests so far for oil from the reserve and fuel supplies are high in the region due to the hit in demand from the coronavirus pandemic.

Laura has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. US oil prices eased nearly 1% to USD43.04 a barrel last Thursday as the market expected a quick recovery for crude production platforms shuttered ahead of the storm.

As MRC wrote previously, most chemical production facilities in the region between Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, have shut down in preparation for Hurricane Laura, which was forecast to make landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border last Wednesday night or early Thursday. Several olefin crackers and associated derivative polymer units have been shut down, as has about 2.5 million b/d of refining capacity.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and 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) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Company, part of Sinopec Group, has brought on-stream its No.3 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit in Nanjing, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company resumed operations at the unit on August 21, 2020. The unit was shut for maintenance on August 6, 2020.

Located at Nanjing in China, the No.3 PTA unit has a production capacity of 650,000 mt/year.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes in June.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) announced that Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company LLC (DRPIC) has selected LyondellBasell’s world-leading polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) technologies for a new facility, as per Chemical Engineering.

The new plants will comprise of a polypropylene (PP) plant that will utilize LyondellBasell’s Spheripol PP process technology to produce 280,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of PP and a 480-m.t./yr high-density polyethylene plant which will utilize LyondellBasell’s Hostalen ACP process technology and will be built in Al Duqm, Oman.

“LyondellBasell’s market leadership in polymer process technologies is once again confirmed with this significant award by DRPIC,” said Neil Nadalin, Director of Licensing at LyondellBasell. Nadalin added: “The selection by DRPIC of the Spheripol technology as the benchmark manufacturing platform for polypropylene resins and the Hostalen ACP technology as the leading low-pressure slurry process for the production of HDPE resins shows once again the confidence operators have in products produced with our technologies.”

“The Spheripol and Hostalen technology licenses forms part of 12 technology license packages awarded by DRPIC to international technology providers, advancing the FrontEnd Engineering and Design progress toward achieving shareholders’ Final Investment Decision in 2021. Due to the increasing global demand for petrochemical products, the DRPIC Petrochemical Project will become a significant player in the region, benefiting from its strategic location on the Oman eastern sea board with direct access to international markets. Working with long established technology licensors enables us to develop a world class project empowering the future development of downstream petrochemical industries in the Special Economic Zone of Duqm,” said Dr. Salim Al Huthaili, CEO of DRPIC .

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2020, LyondellBasell, the world’s largest licensor of polyolefin technologies, said that Sinopec Hainan Refining & Chemical would use its Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process technology for a new 300 kilotonnes/year HDPE facility to be built in Yangpu, Hainan Province, China.

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.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

1. Coronavirus pandemic shakes up supply fundamentals for US plastic recycling

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US plastics recycling industry is struggling to regain its footing as the coronavirus pandemic upended its business model, potentially leaving many recyclers at risk of shutting down, reported S&P Global. When the pandemic prompted widespread shutdowns in late March and April, millions of workers left office buildings to work from home, cutting off sources of bulk supply of plastic bottles - made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) - from businesses.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Angarsk Polymers Plant has resumed its low density polyethylene (LDPE) production after an unscheduled shutdown because of a technical issues at the ethylene unit, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Angarsk Polymers Plant had brought on-stream its LDPE production by 28 August after the forced shutdown due to technical problems at its ethylene production. And the first shipments of polyethylene (PE) to customers began on 31 August. The outage lasted slightly over two weeks and began on 10 August The plant's annual production capacity is about 75,000 tonnes.

As reported earlier, Ufaorgsintez has begun a gradual shutdown for maintenance, which will last until 11 October, at its LDPE production capacities since 25 August. Tomskneftekhim (for two weeks from 2 September) and Kazanorgsintez (shutdown in two phases from 17 September to 13 October) will also shut down their production capacities for turnarounds.

Angarsk Polymer Plant (controlled by Rosneft through OOO Neft-Aktiv) is the only petrochemical full-cycle plant in Eastern Siberia. The bulk of the produced ethylene is used by the plant for the production of LDPE, styrene monomer (SM) and polystyrene (PS). Straight-run gasoline and hydrocarbon gases, mainly produced by OAO Angarskaya NHK, are the feedstocks for the plant.
MRC