China again draws on crude oil inventories in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China drew on its stockpiles of crude oil for a second consecutive month in May, a further sign that the world's biggest oil importer is prepared to draw on its massive inventories when it deems prices to be too high, reported Reuters.

China's refiners processed about 589,000 barrels per day (bpd) more crude than what was available from imports and domestic output, according to calculations based on official data.

The country doesn't disclose the volumes of crude flowing into strategic and commercial stockpiles. But an estimate can be made by deducting the total amount of crude available from imports and domestic output from the amount of crude processed.

Refiners processed 60.5 million tonnes of oil in May, a record high, up 4.4% from the same month in 2020, according to data released last week by the National Bureau of Statistics. The volume of crude processed was equivalent to 14.25 million bpd.

Imports in May were 40.97 million tonnes, while domestic production was 17.03 million, giving a combined 58.0 million available to refiners, or about 13.66 million bpd.

Subtracting that from the crude available from the refinery runs leaves a gap of 589,000 bpd, up from a gap of 280,000 bpd in April. This means refiners in May again likely used some of their bulging inventories, largely built up during last year's price collapse.

China snapped up large volumes of crude when prices plunged to two-decade lows during the pandemic, which coincided with a brief price war between top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia. China imported so much crude in the middle part of last year that long vessel queues built up outside ports, and the country struggled to offload the cargoes.

By the end of last year, Chinese refiners tapered imports as they exhausted permits, resulting in rare inventory draws in October and December. Storage flows resumed in the first quarter of the year as independent refiners bought crude with their new 2021 import quotas. These cargoes would also have been arranged toward the end of 2020, when global oil prices were still recovering from their lowest point in two decades, with benchmark Brent futures trading between USD46 and USD52 a barrel in December.

However, crude rallied sharply from the start of 2021, and at USD73.73 a barrel in early Asian trade on Monday, they are up about 42% from the end of last year. Higher prices may have acted as a deterrent for Chinese buyers to continue adding to stockpiles, and they are most likely planning to only import as much as they aim to process, and to ensure sufficient working inventories at plants.

Until recently it was extremely rare for Chinese refiners to draw on stockpiles, but this has now happened in four of the last eight months. A relatively large draw on inventories in May suggests Chinese refiners are willing to dip into stockpiles rather than buy cargoes at prices they may deem to be inflated by speculative commodity flows, rather than reflecting underlying demand and supply fundamentals.

So far this year the experience of crude oil buyers in Asia has been different from those in Europe and North America, where demand is recovering as economies reopen after shutdowns to combat the pandemic. Many Asian nations are still under some form of restrictions, and travel around the region is still well below pre-pandemic levels, meaning that oil demand in the world's top-consuming region has yet to show any meaningful recovery.

Asia's imports for June are estimated at 24.89 million bpd by Refinitiv Oil Research, which is a recovery from May's 22.86 million bpd.

As MRC wrote previously, China's refinery throughput rose 4.4% in May from the same month a year ago to a record high, as margins improved on the back of easing supplies of blending stocks after Beijing announced new taxes.

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) -- Israel Oil Refineries (ORL, Israel's largest refining and petrochemicals group, said that Malachi Alper has been named as its chief executive as of Aug. 1 to replace Moshe Kaplinsky, said Reuters.

Kaplinsky will become chairman to replace Ovadia Eli who is retiring. ORL is based in the port city of Haifa. Alper had previously served as chief executive of the Paz Refinery (PZOL.TA) in the southern city of Ashdod between 2008 and 2020.

As MRC informed earlier, Kaplinsky took over as CEO in June 2020, while Eli was chairman since January 2015.

Also we remind that Israel’s Oil Refineries (ORL) swung to a loss in the fourth quarter, hit by the coronavirus pandemic, and said it had saw signs of recovery so far in 2021. ORL, Israel’s largest refining and petrochemicals group, said it lost USD68 million in the October-December period compared with zero profit a year earlier. Revenue dipped 39% to USD952 million. Its adjusted refining margin was USD4.3 a barrel in the fourth quarter, compared with USD5.2 a year earlier but above Reuters’ quoted Mediterranean Ural Cracking Margin of a negative USD0.1. ORL said that since the start of 2021, refining and polymer margins have risen sharply.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

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) -- Eni may consider spinning off its biorefinery business and coupling it with retail operations as it is doing with its renewable assets, the Italian energy group's Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi told Reuters.

"It's really premature but it is a possible interesting deal for the future," Descalzi said in an interview at the Reuters Events Global Energy Transition conference. Several European energy companies, such as Spanish multi-energy company Repsol, are looking to divest parts of their green businesses to raise money to reduce debt and pay for the shift away from oil and gas.

"Biorefineries with retail... that could be a very good business," Descalzi said. Eni has two biorefineries in Italy and has said it wants to build more at home and abroad. Eni, which in February unveiled some of the most ambitious climate targets in the industry, is looking to restructure its business and portfolio to help fund the energy transition.

In May it signed an agreement with BP to merge upstream operations in Angola to form one of Africa’s largest energy companies in a move that will allow the new group to borrow without increasing Eni's debt ratios. Descalzi said Eni was open to partnerships with other companies similar to the BP deal, adding discussions were ongoing but without providing further details.

"We want to segregate this kind of investment and make a single entity with some other company that has the same kind of model in mind," he said. Asked about natural gas as a transitional fuel, Descalzi said he was convinced it would have a key role to play going forward. "We have to replace coal first then oil... It's still a very, very important fuel," he said.

Eni, which is developing two bumper gas discoveries in Mozambique and Egypt, has said its oil production will peak in 2025 to be increasingly replaced, in its upstream portfolio, by gas. In May ,the International Energy Agency said investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century.

As per MRC, Versalis, the petrochemical arm of Italy's Eni SpA, closed a cracking unit in Brindisi (Brindisi, Italy) on 15 March for scheduled repairs. Maintenance work at this cracking unit with a capacity of 468,000 tonnes/year of ethylene, 225,000 tonnes/year of propylene and 147,000 tonnes/year of butadiene per year was carried out until 15 June.

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.

Versalis is a petrochemical company, a 100% subsidiary of the Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA. The company manufactures a wide range of petrochemical products and is also one of the world's leading elastomer companies.

Eni S.p.A. (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) is an Italian oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. Eni operates in 70 countries around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil and the United Steelworkers union (USW) hope to break an increasingly bitter dispute over a Texas refinery contract this week by taking a different approach of sending one negotiator each to contract talks instead of a whole team, reported Reuters with reference to company and union officials' statements.

Exxon seven weeks ago locked out 650 union workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery and lubricants plant after failing to reach agreement on a new contract. On Thursday, negotiators met for only the second time since the lockout but failed to make any headway and stopped talks after about two hours.

Talks have turned fractious. The union has accused Exxon of trying to dissolve seniority provisions, colluding to break the union and falsely claiming the union's seniority terms are unique.

After Exxon tweeted the job-seniority terms it wanted were no different than those at the company's Baytown, Texas, refinery, local 13-2001 union President Ricky Brooks called the tweet "factually untrue."

The USW has filed a complaint with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming Exxon violated labor laws by improperly monitoring employees and used company resources to launch an effort to dissolve the union.

An employee has circulated information to gain support for a petition to decertify the USW local that represents Beaumont workers, according to the NLRB complaint. Exxon told employees seeking information to contact its human resources department or the NLRB. A vote can be called if 30% of covered employees sign a petition and file it with the NLRB.

"We continue to meet and bargain in good faith with the union," said Exxon spokeswoman Julie King. "The company has at all times acted lawfully and will continue to do so."In another sign of tensions, the USW this month filed a federal lawsuit in Houston claiming Exxon refused to accept an arbitrator's decision involving two workers.

The lawsuit asked the US court to enforce a ruling calling for two union workers fired from its Baytown refinery to be reinstated and given back pay.

As MRC informed previously, Gov. John Bel Edwards and ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Manager David Oldreive have announced the company’s final investment decision for more than USD240 million in capital improvements at the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery.

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.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has announced the availability of mechanically recycled polystyrene in EMEA, said the company.

Production of the new "Styrolution PS ECO 440" is based on TOMRA's high-quality NIRsorting process delivering a polystyrene purity of more than 99.9%. The new material is available in white and light grey. This new polystyrene solution is suitable across a wide range of applications including food contact. It will enable customers to address their respective sustainability goals and contribute to the development of a circular economy. Styrolution® PS ECO is not only made from recycled material, it is also fully recyclable. This means the material offers true circularity with no need to downcycle.

The first available grade is Styrolution PS ECO 440 MR100 WHITE. The suffix "MR100" indicates that the material contains 100% post-consumer recycled content. Ineos Styrolution follows the concept of using Styrolution® PS ECO material behind a functional barrier making the material suitable for food contact applications such as XPS foam food packaging trays. The concept, which conforms with requirements under FC Regulation No 10/2011, is based on a layer of virgin polystyrene enclosing the recycled polystyrene.

Dr. Frank Eisentrager, Product Director PS EMEA, INEOS Styrolution says: "We will start production in EMEA with up to 1,000 tonnes in 2021, working very hard to grow volumes in line with our pledge to use on average 30% recycled content in products destined for polystyrene packaging in Europe by 2025." Jurgen Priesters, SVP, Circular Economy at TOMRA adds: "As the strategic partner in driving transformation, we are excited to contribute to a unique solution offering true circularity of polystyrene"

The new mechanically recycled polystyrene confirms once again that polystyrene is indeed made for recycling. The new solution complements Ineos Styrolution's ambitious efforts to commercialise recycled polystyrene based on advanced recycling technologies.

As Ineos Styrolution, a subsidiary of the major European petrochemical manufacturer Ineos, has resumed styrene production in Sarnia (Sarnia, Ontario, Canada), but has still not lifted the force majeure on its deliveries. The 445 thousand tonnes of styrene per year production facility was affected by a shortage of raw materials due to the shutdown of Nova Chemical's cracking unit in Corun (Corunna, Ontario, Canada). Force majeure was announced on 14, May.

According to MRC's ScanPlast, the estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics in Russia amounted to 187,320 tonnes in the first four months of this year, which is 20% more than last year's consumption for the same period. The estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics in April amounted to 49,370 tonnes, which is 35% higher than in the same month of 2020 (36,620 tonnes).

TOMRA was founded on an innovation in 1972 that began with the design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today TOMRA provides technology-led solutions that enable the circular economy with advanced collection and sorting systems that optimize resource recovery and minimize waste in the food, recycling and, mining industries and is committed to building a more sustainable future.

Ineos Styrolution is the leading global styrenics supplier, with a focus on styrene monomer, polystyrene, ABS Standard and styrenic specialties. With world-class production facilities and more than 90 years of experience, INEOS Styrolution helps its customers succeed by offering solutions, designed to give them a competitive edge in their markets. At the same time, these innovative and sustainable best-in-class solutions help make the circular economy for styrenics a reality. The company provides styrenic applications for many everyday products across a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, household, construction, healthcare, packaging and toys/sports/leisure. In 2020, sales were at 4 billion euros. Ineos Styrolution employs approximately 3,600 people and operates 20 production sites in ten countries.
MRC