Stavrolen to increase its PE and PP output during the production upgrade

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen (Budennovsk, part of Lukoil), a major polyolefins producer in the Russian Federation, plans to upgrade its technical equipment and to increase its production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) as part of modernization, according to "Expert South " with reference to the statement of the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Communications of the region.

Prospects for the plant's development were discussed during the working visit of the Governor of the Stavropol Territory Vladimir Vladimirov and the executive vice president of Lukoil Vadim Vorobyov to Budennovsk.

Stavrolen's General Director Anatoly Afonin said that the modernization of the plant's production will go in accordance with four investment reconstruction projects worth Rb18.8 billion. According to V. Vorobyov, it is planned to expand the plant's PE production up to 420,000-450,000 tonnes and PP production - up to 120,000-130,000 tonnes per year.

"Today, the company is one of the largest industrial taxpayers in the region: from 2018 to 2020 alone, the company's activities brought almost Rb3 billion in tax payments to the budget of the Stavropol Territory," commented Vitaly Shulzhenko, Minister of Energy, Industry and Communications of the Stavropol Territory.

Lukoil intends to complete the implementation of an investment project in the Budennovsky District of the Stavropol Territory by 2027.

As reported earlier, in the first week of September 2020, Stavrolen resumed PP production after a forced and long outage due to technical problems. In fact, the plant did not produce PP since 16 July.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Stavrolen produced slightly over 11,000 tonnes of PP in April versus 10,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Budenovsk plant's overall output of propylene polymers reached 42,900 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 4% year on year.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include operations for exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest private oil company worldwide by the proven hydrocarbon reserves. Lukoil's structure includes one of the largest Russian petrochemical plant - Stavrolen.

Stavrolen, Lukoil's subsidiary, is Russia's second largest high density polyethylene (HDPE) producer after Kazanorgsintez and the fifth largest PP manufacturer. Stavrolen's HDPE and PP production capacities are 300,000 tonnes and 120,000 tonnes per year, respectively, the plant also produces 80,000 tonnes of benzene and 50,000 tonnes of vinyl acetate per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Borealis has signed an exclusive agreement with Renasci Oostende Recycling NV to acquire the entire chemically recycled feedstock output from its high-tech recycling centre in Oostende, Belgium, as per the company's press release.

With the projected 20kT output/year delivered to Borealis, this agreement will enable Borealis to become one of the leading global suppliers of chemically recycled base chemicals and polyolefins. The portfolio of products enable the transformation of plastic waste into circular high-performance products and applications.

The waste feedstock processed at Renasci’s ISCC PLUS-certified recycling centre is derived from mainly dried household waste and some industrial waste. In a first step, the waste is sorted multiple times to extract the best value plastic material for mechanical recycling. The waste feedstock which cannot be mechanically recycled is then chemically recycled; this chemically-recycled feedstock will be subsequently processed in the Borealis steam crackers, initially at its production location in Porvoo, Finland. The Borealis Porvoo location’s - the global standard for certified recycled and bio-based materials - enables mass balance production of renewable and chemically recycled products.

“Our agreement with Renasci is a welcome complement to the OMV ReOil chemical recycling project,” explains Martijn van Koten, Borealis Executive Vice President Base Chemicals and Operations. “Life demands progress. We notice a strong increase in demand for chemically recycled products. Borealis and OMV aim to increase supply of these more circular base chemicals and polyolefins in order to help our customers deliver on their own sustainability targets.”

“In the true spirit of we accelerate action to plastics circularity through collaboration,” says Lucrece Foufopoulos, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins, Innovation & Technology and Circular Economy Solutions. “The cooperation with Renasci allows us to offer our customers and partners virgin-like polyolefins from chemically recycled post-consumer waste in material quantities effective this quarter. This is how we re-invent for more sustainable living, and expand our portfolio with a Borcycle C offering.”

As MRC reported earlier, in April 2021, Borealis commenced a new project to secure an increased supply of chemically recycled feedstock for the production of more circular base chemicals and polyolefin-based products. A feasibility study for a chemical recycling unit to be established at the Borealis production location in Stenungsund, Sweden, is now underway.

We remind that Borealis began to restart of its 625,000-metric tons/year steam cracker at Stenungsund, Sweden, in early January, 2021, but the declaration of force majeure remained in place then. The process of restarted lasted for several weeks. Force majeure at Stenungsund was declared after a fire started at the cracker on 10 May last year. A restart of the cracker was initially planned for the fourth quarter of 2020. The force majeure was lifted on 29 January, 2021.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Borealis currently employs around 6,500 and operates in over 120 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's easing of COVID-19 emergency restrictions will boost the gasoline demand in July, when the country kickstarts the summer driving season, but the expected transport restriction for the Tokyo Olympics sent mixed signals for the fuel demand, reported S&P Global.

Japan decided June 17 it will lift its state of emergency measures on nine out of 10 prefectures when it expires on June 20 but will place Hokkaido, Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto and Fukuoka under its COVID-19 priority measures, together with Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa until July 11.

The state of emergency measures on Okinawa will remain until July 11 but the state of emergency on Okayama and Hiroshima will be lifted on June 20. The priority measures on Gifu and Mie will also be lifted. This means 56% of Japan's population will be under the priority measure, with the state of emergency on Okinawa, accounting for 1% of the population.

"With the easing of state of emergency measures, we expect to see sequential improvement of gasoline demand over the next couple of months," said JY Lim, oil markets adviser at S&P Global Platts Analytics.

"The summer Olympics will also provide some support, but impact will likely not be significant due to the restriction on non-athlete attendees. Overall, we expect to see gasoline growing by 2.5% this year, but still down by 5.7% when compared to pre-COVID levels," Lim said.

Japan's gasoline demand is expected to recover in July on the back of gradual improvement in the pandemic situation and an increase in personal mobility due to the Olympics, among other factors, Petroleum Association of Japan President Tsutomu Sugimori said June 16.

Japan's gasoline demand is estimated to have fallen by 5% year on year in June and down 9% from June 2019 after marking a 14% year-on-year jump in May, when it was down 12% from the same month two years ago, according to Sugimori, who is also chairman of Eneos Holdings, the parent of largest Japanese refiner Eneos.

Japanese refiners and market sources surveyed by S&P Global Platts said June 17 that Japan's July gasoline demand will mark a month-on-month increase and is expected to be between flat year on year to rising 3% from a year ago, taking into account the coronavirus pandemic and the Olympics situation.

Although Japan's gasoline demand is expected to increase in July due to easing COVID-19 emergency measures and the start of the Olympics, regional industry sources expect the impact to be minimal amid bearish fundamentals.

Japan's refinery outage will also soon drop to 685,000 b/d, or 19.8% of the total installed capacity when ENEOS restarts its sole 141,000 b/d crude distillation unit at the Sakai refinery in western Japan in late June, according to Platts calculations.

As MRC wrote previously, ENEOS (formerly JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy) restarted its Sendai refinery in northeast Japanon 18 May, 2021. This refinery was hit by an earthquake on 1 May, 2021. Besides, on 18 May, the company shut down its Sakai refinery in western Japan for maintenance.

We remind that ENEOS Corporation restarted its naphtha cracker in Kawasaki on 1 February 2021. The company shut this cracker with an annual capacity of 515,000 tons/year of ethylene, 300,000 tons/year of propylene, and 105,000 tons/year of butadiene on 4 December, 2020, for repairment after a technical issue reported at the butadiene separation unit and initially planned to resume operations on 28 December, 2020.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Democratic U.S. congressional members sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, urging the administration to reject any action that would exempt oil refiners from mandates to blend biofuels into the nation's fuel mix, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The letter comes after a report from Reuters last week that said President Joe Biden's administration, under pressure from labor unions and U.S. senators including from his home state of Delaware, is considering ways to provide relief to U.S. oil refiners from the mandates.

The letter was signed by lawmakers from both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and states including Iowa and Illinois. It included Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota and Representative Cheri Bustos from Illinois.

The letter was also addressed to the National Economic Council. "We support your efforts to address climate change, but we are concerned that rolling back the RFS obligation for refiners directly contradicts this work," the letter said. "Following through on the actions reportedly under discussion would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard) and we urge you to reject them."

Under the RFS, refiners must blend biofuels into their fuel mix or buy credits, known as RINs, from those that do. Refiners can apply for exemptions to the obligations if they can prove the mandates harm them financially. In the letter, the lawmakers asked EPA instead to stabilize the RIN marketplace by issuing a proposed rule for renewable volume blending obligations for 2021 and 2022.

The lawmakers behind Wednesday's letter largely represent corn-producing states. The RFS policy has pitted some oil refiners and corn groups against each other, as oil refiners find the mandates expensive, while they help boost demand for corn-based ethanol.

As MRC wrote previously, POET, the largest biofuels producer in the United States, is in discussions with Flint Hills Resources to acquire the entirety of Flint Hills’ ethanol assets. Flint Hills, a refining, biofuels and petrochemical company, is based in Wichita, Kansas, and is currently the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the United States. Its biofuels division includes six ethanol plants with a combined capacity of about 800 million gallons per year, 1.5 million tons of distillers grains and about 200 million pounds of corn oil, Reint said.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC