US fossil fuel consumption down by 9% in 2020 - EIA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In 2020, total consumption of fossil fuels in the United States, including petroleum, natural gas, and coal, fell to 72.9 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), down 9% from 2019 and the lowest level since 1991, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Monthly Energy Review.

Last year marked the largest annual decrease in US fossil fuel consumption in both absolute and percentage terms since at least 1949, the earliest year in our annual data series. Economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, including a 15% decrease in energy consumption in the US transportation sector, drove much of the decline. The United States also had relatively warmer weather in 2020, which reduced demand for heating fuels.

Petroleum products, including motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil (diesel), and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs), accounted for 44% of US fossil fuel consumption in 2020. Every sector consumes petroleum, but the transportation sector accounted for about 68% of total petroleum consumption in 2020. Overall, US petroleum consumption fell 13% in 2020 from 2019.

Natural gas accounted for 43% of US fossil fuel consumption in 2020, the largest annual share on record. Every sector consumes natural gas, but the electric power sector accounted for a record-high 38% of total natural gas consumption to generate electricity and heat in 2020. Over 80% of the fossil fuel energy directly consumed in the residential and commercial sectors is natural gas, and it is mostly used for space heating. Overall, US natural gas consumption decreased 2% in 2020 from 2019.

As MRC wrote earlier, Indian state refiners' gasoline and gasoil sales rose in June compared with a month earlier, preliminary industry data showed on Thursday, as states across the country eased coronavirus-related restrictions as cases fell.

Meanwhile, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The worldэs third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.

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) -- ExxonMobil and United Steelworkers said little progress was made in talks on Tuesday between company and union negotiators to end a nine-week lockout of 650 workers at a Beaumont, Texas refinery and lube oil plant, reported Reuters.

Exxon made counter offers to proposals offered by USW Local 12-243, which represents workers at the 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and adjoining lube oil plant, said Hoot Landry, USW International representative.

"They made five counters, one was moving in the right direction," Landry said.

Exxon spokesperson Sarah Nordin confirmed the meeting.

"The company's bargaining team met with the union today," Nordin said. "After discussion, both sides remain far apart. The company's current offer remains available for a vote by the membership."

As MRC informed earlier, Exxon locked out the workers on May 1, citing the risk of a strike. ExxonMobil's Beaumont, Texas refinery is operating at about 60% of its 369,024-bpd capacity as a lockout of union workers lasted ninth week in early July.

The USW has said the company’s last proposal requires its members to give up long-standing seniority and would create a separate contract for workers in the lube oil plant from that for workers in the refinery. Exxon has said the proposal would give it flexibility to be profitable in low-margin environments.

We remind that 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

1. SIBUR to bring MAN production in Tobolsk to full mechanical readiness by end 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR, the largest petrochemical complex in Russia and Eastern Europe, plans to bring Russia"s first plant for the production of maleic anhydride (MAN), located on the territory of ZapSibNeftekhim in Tobolsk and technologically related to it, to full mechanical readiness by the end 2021, said the company on its site. Thus, the start of commissioning at the MAN production facility will begin in 2021. At present, the installation of all metal structures on the construction site is 98% completed, the total amount of which is 10,500 tons. The installation of technological equipment, which includes 240 production units, including a MAN synthesis unit, units for absorption, desorption, air compression, regeneration, and steam generation, is at the final stage.



MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR, the largest petrochemical complex in Russia and Eastern Europe, plans to bring Russia's first plant for the production of maleic anhydride (MAN), located on the territory of ZapSibNeftekhim in Tobolsk and technologically related to it, to full mechanical readiness by the end 2021, said the company on its site.

Thus, the start of commissioning at the MAN production facility will begin in 2021. At present, the installation of all metal structures on the construction site is 98% completed, the total amount of which is 10,500 tons. The installation of technological equipment, which includes 240 production units, including a MAN synthesis unit, units for absorption, desorption, air compression, regeneration, and steam generation, is at the final stage.

In 2020, a MAN synthesis unit, where the main n-butane oxidation reaction will take place, as well as a steam generation unit, were delivered to Tobolsk via the Northern Sea Route from Germany and Korea. In early 2021, a compressor unit designed to compress atmospheric air before it is fed to the synthesis unit arrived at the construction site from South Korea. Equipment for large-sized units has been installed at the construction site, and the product pipeline is currently being installed. At the same time, 75% of technological equipment and 100% of building materials and metal structures are of domestic production.

By the beginning of June, the mechanical readiness of the first facility - an electrical substation, which will serve the existing MAN production, - had been achieved. Commissioning of the water recycling unit, built into a single closed water circulation system at the petrochemical production of ZapSibNeftekhim, will start in July 2021.

"The first MAN plant in Russia was actually built two years after the first pile was driven. This is a very tight time frame for the construction of such technologically complex production facilities. Additional challenges were the high density of production facilities at the construction site and the global coronavirus pandemic, which peaked main construction and installation works. We successfully coped with the first thing due to a clear schedule of construction and installation works and planning their sequence. The strict observance of all anti-COVID-19 measures at the facility, as well as the achievement of a safe level of collective immunity of the project office employees partially due to vaccination, helped to overcome the second thing. At present, we are completing the last construction and installation works and are preparing to reach the mechanical readiness of the entire complex ", - said the head of the project office" Creation of a new MAN production in Tobolsk" Vladimir Mishin.

MAN is base raw material for unsaturated polyester resins, copolymers with acrylic acid, epoxy resin hardeners, lubricating oil additives; It is used in the production of parts for cars, underground and overground storage tanks, films, synthetic fibers, pharmaceuticals, detergents, fuel components, large-diameter pipes, as well as in the food industry - for the synthesis of fumaric, malic, maleic, and tartaric acids.

Plasticizers are substances introduced into a polymer material to make it elastic and plastic during processing and operation. In particular, plasticizers are used for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The share of plasticizers used for the production of PVC products is about 80%.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 432,100 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponds to the last year's figure. At the same time, two producers reduced their output.

PJSC "SIBUR Holding" is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe with full coverage of the industry cycle from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to plastics processing.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French cleantech company Ecoslops has started the production of recycled fuel from maritime transport at La Mede platform biorefinery, said the company.

The production consolidates the agreement signed between TotalEnergies and Ecoslops SA2, a company that produces fuel and light bitumen from hydrocarbon residues from maritime transport, in 2019. From these residues, the Ecoslops P2R1 unit plans to produce up to 30,000 tonnes per year of recycled fuel (naphtha, gas oil, and fuel oil) and light bitumen.

This circular business model reportedly allows the revalorisation of these residues from maritime transport, and the creation of value locally.

"The start-up of the Ecoslops unit is fully in line with TotalEnergies’ circular economy and energy transition ambitions at La Mede platform. Acquiring an equity interest in Ecoslops Provence in 2019 reaffirmed our position as a strong player in the local economy and we are now further consolidating our site’s industrial redeployment project”, said Stephane Cambier, director of the La Mede platform.

In 2019, the La Mede platform became France’s first biorefinery with the goal to produce 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel each year.

In January 2020, TotalEnergies announced, in partnership with Engie, that La Mede would become the place for installation of France’s largest site to produce green hydrogen from 100 per cent renewable electricity.

As per MRC, Total Petrochemicals, the third largest producer in Europe in terms of oil production, lifted force majeure on the supply of metallocene polyethylene (MPE) from the Feluy plant (Feluy, Belgium) on 24 June. Force majeure circumstances at this enterprise with a capacity of 180 thousand tons of MPE per year were announced on March 26 this year due to the discovery of unplanned technical problems.

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.
MRC