OQ Chemicals invests in site at Oberhausen, Germany, as part of efficiency program

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OQ Chemicals (Monheim am Rhein, Germany) says it will invest a “double-digit million euro amount” up to 2023 at its site in Oberhausen, Germany, as part of an efficiency program to enhance the site’s competitiveness, reported Chemweek.

The efficiency program process has been underway since 2019 and will secure the competitiveness of the site in the long term through efficiency and structural measures, with the investment will increase delivery capability, digitalization, organizational efficiency, and automation, it says. Around 90 jobs in the production and services sectors at the site will be cut gradually, it adds.

“International competition is becoming increasingly fierce,” says OQ Chemicals managing director Oliver Borgmeier. The efficiency program “includes significant investments to increase productivity at the Oberhausen site. With these changes, we are taking necessary and important steps to position this site economically in the long term,” he says.

OQ Chemicals, formerly Oxea, manufactures oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives. In October the company announced it had increased its global production capacity for isononanoic acid by 30% after completing an expansion of its manufacturing facility in Oberhausen. Work is currently underway on a sixth carboxylic acid plant at the site, with the facility due online by the end of 2021.

As MRC wrote earlier, in September 2020, OQ Chemicals entered into an agreement to license its advanced proprietary technology for the production of ethylene and propylene derivatives to Duqm Refinery and Petrochemicals Industries Company (DRPIC) in Oman. DRPIC, a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Kuwait International Oil Company, is a planned grassroots petrochemical complex at Duqm, Oman. In all, DRPIC awarded twelve license packages to international licensors.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

OQ Chemicals, formerly Oxea, is a global manufacturer of oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavours and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. OQ Chemicals is part of OQ, an integrated energy company that delivers sustainability and business excellence. OQ operates in 16 countries and covers the entire value chain from exploration and production to the marketing and distribution of its products.
MRC

Asia distillates-gasoil cash differentials rise to strongest in 4-1/2 months

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asia's cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil firmed to their highest level in four-and-a-half months on Monday, while refining margins for the industrial fuel slipped despite weaker prices of raw material crude, reported Reuters.

Cash discounts for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content narrowed by a cent to 4 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, the smallest discount since differentials plunged into a negative territory on Aug. 11.

The gasoil market has firmed in recent weeks, thanks to reviving demand from India and China, but analysts have warned that increased refinery runs and reimposed lockdowns in several other key markets would pressurise refining margins and prices in the near term.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil were at USD6.25 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, down from a more than four-month high of USD6.54 per barrel on Friday. Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore have more than doubled in the last two months, but they are still currently about 57% lower than their historical average for this time of the year, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

As MRC informed before, slumping fuel consumption during the pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift of refining capacity from North America and Europe to Asia, and from older, smaller refineries to modern, higher-capacity mega-refineries. The result is a wave of closures, often centering on refineries that only narrowly survived the previous closure wave in the years after the recession in 2008/09.

We remind that PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company's biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement had come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, was expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude in 2018, up by about 85 to 90 percent from the previous year's level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia's top oil producer Rosneft was to supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would have represented an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

Toyo subsidiary forms pharma, fine chemical alliance with Japanese construction firm

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TEC Project Services Corporation (President and CEO Takayoshi Imanishi), a domestic subsidiary of Toyo Engineering Corporation and Taisei Corporation (President and CEO Yoshiro Aikawa) have concluded a business alliance agreement in the field of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, said the company.

This business alliance is intended to mutually utilize and complement resources such as technologies, know-how, and human resources, which are the strengths of both companies, in the advanced pharmaceutical and fine chemical markets, to be expandable.

Through the synergy of both companies, we will grasp a wide range of customer needs to meet their satisfaction by realizing effective proposals and project execution with high value in quality.

As MRC informed earlier, Toyo Engineering Corporation (TOYO) was awarded a project to construct a naphtha cracking furnace of Tosoh Corporation for producing ethylene at its Yokkaichi Complex in October. Toyo had participated in this construction project from an early stage. This naphtha cracking furnace employs advanced technology developed by CB&I Technology Inc. (Lummus Technology) with which TOYO maintains a mutually beneficial relationship for more than half a century. The cracking furnace is of the latest type with improved ethylene yield based on Lummus’ method, which is the first to be introduced in Japan.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

SIBUR climate change rating above the average for European companies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The international Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has published the results of an independent assessment of Russian companies in terms of their climate performance, and the climate ratings assigned to them, said the company.

In 2020, SIBUR’s score improved from C (awareness level) to B (management level). This result exceeds both Europe’s average rating (C) and the average score among global chemical companies (C). Over 9,600 companies across the world disclosed their environmental data to CDP this year.

CDP assesses companies on the comprehensiveness of their disclosure, their awareness and management of environmental risks and their demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership. Of all the categories assessed, CDP analysts assigned the highest score (leadership level) to SIBUR’s corporate governance processes and approaches to climate change risk management.

Every year, SIBUR discloses detailed information on its climate change performance and action. Precise targets for reducing GHG emissions are part of the Company’s sustainable development strategy, which is mandatory for the management under its performance assessment metrics. With the Management Board and Board of Directors now having their own Sustainable Development Committees, the climate change agenda has moved to the highest level at SIBUR Holding.

Verifying GHG emissions and measuring certain categories of emissions indirectly related to the Company’s operations (Scope 3) also contributed to the improved rating.

Alexey Kozlov, member of the Management Board and Managing Director at SIBUR, said: “Climate risk management has long since become a staple of responsible business practices. The leading companies are shifting focus towards carbon neutrality and circular economy. We can see how the petrochemical industry is coming up with effective solutions to fight global warming. SIBUR’s sustainable development strategy does not only include a set of climate impact mitigation targets, but also paves the way for the development of technologies for the recycling and reuse of advanced synthetic materials. Next year we will also focus on quantitative assessment of climate risks and building stronger climate change partnerships across the supply chain."

As per MRC, LyondellBasell, the world’s leading licensor of polyolefin technologies, announced that the Amur Gas Chemical Complex project, being implemented by SIBUR Holding PJSC, the largest integrated petrochemicals company in Russia, has selected LyondellBasell’s Spheripol technology for a new facility.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Russian companies increased external purchases of polypropylene in November, imports reached 20,400 tonnes against 17,900 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall PP imports into Russia reached 202,000 tonnes in January-November 2020, compared to 167,400 tonnes a year earlier. Purchasing of all grades of propylene polymers in foreign markets increased, with homopolymer PP imports accounting for the most noticeable rise.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 22.12.2020

1. Jet fuel prices take flight as vaccine roll-outs spur hopes of more air travel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global jet fuel markets are coming back to life, resuscitated by a rebound in air cargo demand, gradually recovering passenger traffic and hopes that COVID-19 vaccines will spur more international flights in 2021, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. The pandemic brought air travel to a virtual halt this year, and analysts say it may take years before global appetite for jet fuel returns to pre-pandemic levels. But refining profits for the fuel surged to multi-month highs in all key trading hubs in December on hopes of higher demand in 2021, with U.S. and European margins underpinned by a recovery in air cargo volumes and Asian margins also by a rebound in domestic travel and heating consumption.



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