China starts rebuilding oil stockpiles in early 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China resumed storing crude oil in the first two months of the year with almost 1MM bpd being added to inventories in January and February, rebuilding stockpiles after a rare drawdown toward the end of last year, reported Reuters.

About 920,000 bpd were directed to inventories in the first two months of the year, according to calculations based on official data.

The build in inventories comes as refineries make use of new import permits for 2021, after the coronavirus pandemic and a dispute between exporters caused widespread market ructions last year. China doesn't disclose the volumes of crude flowing into strategic and commercial stockpiles. But an estimate can be made by deducting the amount of crude processed from the total amount of crude available from imports and domestic output.

Refinery throughput was 114.24 million tons in the January-February period, equivalent to about 14.13 million bpd, according to data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. This was about the same level as in December, but was up from 12.07 million bpd in the first two months of 2020, reflecting the additional refining capacity China added last year.

Domestic crude oil output was 32.08 million tons in the first two months of 2021, equivalent to about 3.89 million bpd, a gain of 0.4% from the corresponding period a year earlier. Imports for the first two months were 89.57 million tons, about 11.08 million bpd, according to customs data.

Putting imports and domestic output together gives a total of about 15.05 million bpd available to refiners in the January-February period. Given that processing was 14.13 million bpd, this leaves a gap of about 920,000 bpd that flowed into commercial and strategic stockpiles.

As MRC write previously, Russia expects the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic on the global consumption of oil and oil products may last until 2023-2024, a draft government document, seen by Reuters, showed. The global oil and liquid fuels production dropped in 2020 to 94.25 million barrels per day (bpd) from 100.61 million bpd in 2019, amid the pandemic, which led to lockdowns, halting 80% of air traffic and a quarter of road traffic at its peak and denting fuel consumption.

We remind that in December 2020, Sibur, Gazprom Neft, and Uzbekneftegaz agreed to cooperate on potential investments in Uzbekistan including a major expansion of Uzbekneftegaz’s existing Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (SGCC) and the proposed construction of a new gas chemicals facility. The signed cooperation agreement for the projects includes “the creation of a gas chemical complex using methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology, and the expansion of the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex”.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced Wabash Valley Resources LLC has selected a range of Honeywell UOP technologies to capture and sequester up to 1.65 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually and to produce clean hydrogen energy from a repurposed gasification plant in West Terre Haute, Ind., according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project is expected to be one of the largest carbon sequestration initiatives in the United States to date.

“By implementing Honeywell UOP’s proven technologies for the capture of CO2 and hydrogen purification, we will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Dan Williams, Managing Director of Wabash Valley Resources. “This project will allow for market access to clean hydrogen, as well as support the domestic growth of the hydrogen economy.”

“Adding carbon capture and storage to hydrogen production is an economical solution for many companies looking to make significant progress on their sustainability goals,” said Laura Leonard, vice president and general manager, UOP Process Technologies.

UOP will provide technology licenses, basic engineering, and specialty equipment including a modular MOLSIV molecular sieve dehydration unit, modular Ortloff CO2 Fractionation unit, and Polybed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit to sequester carbon dioxide and process synthesis gas from the gasification unit.

The Ortloff CO2 Fractionation technology will produce a high-purity liquid CO2 stream while separating a hydrogen-rich stream that will be purified by the PSA unit. The CO2 stream will be sent for permanent geological storage, while the hydrogen stream can fuel a hydrogen turbine to generate electrical power.. The hydrogen stream can also be used in chemical synthesis, or marketed as a clean transportation fuel.

As MRC reported earlier, in Marhc 2021, Honeywell announced that Hengli Petrochemical Co. Ltd. successfully used Callidus burner technology from Honeywell UOP to minimize nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions in China, and reduce the impact of these emissions while ensuring safe and stable operations.

Besides, in November, 2020, Honeywell announced Zhenhua Petrochemical Co. Ltd will use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for propane dehydrogenation to process 1 million metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene for a proposed plant in Dongying City, Shandong Province, China.

Propylene is the main feedstock for production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- On April 8, GM Canada completed its order of 10 million masks for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Canplastics.

Since the start of production on May 26, 2020, the team at Oshawa Operations produced approximately one million masks a month to help protect front-line workers and other Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

GM Canada received its Medical Device Establishment License from Health Canada on April 22, 2020, and within about three weeks had sourced materials, built the clean room with enhanced safety protocols, installed the required equipment, and recalled and trained 60 workers for two shifts of production in Oshawa in partnership with Unifor. The first mask delivered to the government was produced on May 26, 2020.

“We want to thank the Government of Canada, our suppliers, and our Unifor partners for their support in making this project possible,” said Scott Bell, GM Canada president and managing director. “Although this milestone marks the end of our contract with Health Canada, GM will leverage the speed and agility of our pandemic response to continue supporting our customers and communities."

To commemorate the Canadian Mask Making (CMM) Room project, the official 10-millionth mask will be donated to the Ingenium, Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation in Ottawa.

As it was written earlier, GM Canada’s Oshawa Operations produced its one millionth mask out of the Canadian Mask Making (CMM) room for the federal government. Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and Anita Anand, minister of Public Services and Procurement, were on hand at the plant on July 10 to mark the milestone. The automaker has been contracted to produce 10 million masks by the feds, and is manufacturing them at cost at its Oshawa, Ont. plant for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical and Sekisui Chemical are moving forward with a project to convert plastic waste into polyolefin, targeting to start up a pilot plant to produce ethylene as a first step, according to Kemicalinfo.

Sumitomo Chemical has established a cooperative relationship with Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. for the social implementation of the technology to manufacture polyolefin using waste as raw material.

Toyo Engineering Corporation has been awarded a contract for the said project to construct an Ethylene Pilot Plant.
Toyo has worked with Sumitomo Chemical since the basic design of the plant and currently carries out the detail engineering, procurement, and construction under the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) lump-sum contract, aiming to start demonstration operation of the plant for a short period.

The pilot facility will be located at Sumitomo’s Chiba plant near Tokyo. The output capacity of the ethylene plant has not been disclosed. Sekisui will supply unspecified volumes of plastic waste-based ethanol to the pilot plant.

The commissioning is scheduled for some time during the April 2022-March 2023 fiscal year. The project partners plan to start trial production in 2022-23 and begin normal operations in 2025-26.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2020, Sumitomo Chemical and Axens signed a license agreement of ethanol-to-ethylene technology Atol for Sumitomo Chemical’s waste-to-polyolefins project in Japan. In the project, to promote circular economy, Axens’ Atol technology will transform ethanol produced from waste into polymer-grade ethylene that will be polymerized in Sumitomo Chemical’s assets into polyolefin, a key product in the petrochemical industry.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil, US largest private petrochemical company, has reached an agreement with US and Illinois regulators to reduce air pollution at its refinery near Chicago in Joliet, Illinois, reported Reuters with reference to the US Department of Justice's statement.

The consent decree, which will require ExxonMobil to make operational changes to its sulfur recovery plant to reduce emissions, marks yet another sign that the Biden administration will be flexing its muscles in an effort to crack down on big polluters.

It comes less than a month after the Environmental Protection Agency revoked an expansion permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery in the Virgin Islands, amid concerns about the facility’s impact on air pollution.

Under the settlement with ExxonMobil, the company has agreed to pay more than USD1.5 million in penalties, a little over USD1 million of which will go to the federal government. The remainder will be paid to Illinois. It will also undertake an estimated USD10 million of improvements to reduce air emissions, the Justice Department said.

As MRC wrote before, ExxonMobil is considering whether to close down its Slagen oil refinery in Norway, which has a capacity to process 120,000 barrels of crude per day, turning the site into an import terminal. The refinery at Slagentangen near Toensberg in south-east Norway was built in 1961 and process crude oil from the North Sea, exporting about 60% of the output, according to Exxon.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC