SAPREF temporarily shut down amid looting

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Africa’s largest refinery SAPREF, a 50-50 joint venture of Shell Refining SA and BP Southern Africa, in the east coast port city of Durban has been temporarily shut down due as the country struggles with mass looting and the worst violence in years, reported Reuters with reference to an industry official's statement.

SAPREF has a nameplate capacity of 180,000 barrels per day and accounts for around 35% of the refining capacity in Africa’s most industrialised economy, a net importer of petroleum products.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2021, SAPREF let a contract to KBR Inc. to provide technology for an upgrade of the 33,000-b/d FCC unit at its 180,000-b/d refinery in Durban, South Africa. As part of the contract, KBR will license its Catalyst Regeneration technology as well as deliver basic engineering, detailed engineering, and proprietary equipment for the FCC regenerator project, which will enable SAPREF to improve the unit’s reliability and integrity by optimizing catalyst and air distribution.

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OPEC stuck to its forecast for a strong recovery in world oil demand in the rest of 2021 and predicted oil use would rise in 2022 at similar to pre-pandemic rates, led by growth in the United States, China and India, reported Reuters.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly report on Thursday that demand next year would rise by 3.4% to 99.86 million barrels per day (bpd), and would average more than 100 million bpd in the second half of 2022.

"Solid expectations exist for global economic growth in 2022," OPEC said. "These include improved containment of COVID-19, particularly in emerging and developing countries, which are forecast to spur oil demand to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2022."

The report reflects OPEC's confidence that demand will recover robustly from the pandemic, allowing the group and its allies to further ease record supply curbs made in 2020. Some analysts have said world oil demand may have peaked in 2019.

OPEC's report said 2019 demand averaged 99.98 million bpd. OPEC also maintained its prediction that demand would grow by 5.95 million bpd in 2021.

OPEC forecast oil demand in China and India would exceed pre-pandemic levels next year. It said the United States would make the biggest contribution to 2022 demand growth, although US oil use would stay just below 2019 levels.

World economic growth was expected to slow to 4.1% next year from 5.5% in 2021, still supported by government stimulus and with the outlook "depending primarily on COVID-19-related developments", OPEC said.

Oil was trading below USD74 a barrel after the OPEC report was released. The price has climbed more than 40% this year with the help of supply cuts by OPEC and its allies, a group known as OPEC+.

As MRC informed earlier, China's crude oil imports fell 3% from January to June versus a year earlier, in the first first-half contraction since 2013, as an import quota shortage, refinery maintenance and rising global prices curbed buying. Imports totalled 40.14 million tonnes last month, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday, equivalent to 9.77 million barrels per day (bpd).

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A US bankruptcy judge raised concerns that Limetree Bay refinery on the Virgin Islands may not have enough money to get through the early days of its Chapter 11 restructuring, reported Reuters.

"I'm very worried it's not enough money," Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones said during a hearing on Tuesday.

Jones, who is based in Houston and a veteran of a number of refinery restructuring in the southern district of Texas, added that his liquidity concerns are among the worst he has ever had.

The refinery is due to receive up to USD25 million in interim financing as it tries to restructure nearly USD2 billion in debt. Jones approved the financing.

As MRC wrote previously, Limetree filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday after spending more than USD4 billion trying to restart the refinery on St. Croix. But lawyers for Limetree say the refinery needs at least USD150 million in funding to maintain operational capabilities, complete ongoing repairs and retrofitting, fund necessary repairs identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency and establish a reserve for potential expenses.

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

1. Refiners crude processing skids to 7-month low in India in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian refiners' crude throughput slipped to its lowest level in seven months in May as a raging second wave of coronavirus drove a slump in domestic fuel demand and crude imports, government data showed, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. Refiners processed about 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) or 18.97 million tonnes of oil last month, data from the country's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas showed. That was 7.7% below April levels but still 16% higher than a year earlier.



MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia July 15 after the impasse between Saudi Arabia and the UAE on OPEC+'s oil production quotas for August showed signs of a resolution, alleviating concerns of near-term supply shortage, reported S&P Global.

At 11:05 am Singapore time (0228 GMT), the ICE September Brent futures contract was down 74 cents/b (0.99%) from the previous close at USD74.02/b, while the NYMEX August light sweet crude contract was down 70 cents/b (0.96%) at USD72.43/b.

The overnight progress in finding a compromise to the Saudi Arabia-UAE standoff with regards to oil production quotas for August and beyond, allayed concerns of the OPEC+ - a coalition of OPEC and other oil producers - alliance sticking to the prevailing July production policy for the months ahead, which was expected to result in supply tightness.

"Crude oil's rally fizzled on signs of stronger supply. Brent crude oil prices fell after news broke early in the session that Saudi Arabia and UAE were close to a deal on increasing production," ANZ analysts said in a July 4 note.

The deadlock was due to the UAE wanting to change its production baseline within the OPEC+ pact from 3.16 million b/d to a new April 2020 baseline of 3.84 million b/d, which it argued was fair and representative of current production.

"The deal will take some time to get finalized, but it seems the UAE will be allowed to produce more output next year. It seems OPEC+ will shortly have a plan to raise output and that is welcomed news as surging demand had oil market getting too tight," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a July 15 note.

As MRC wrote previously, earlier this week, Saudi Arabia and Oman called for continued cooperation between OPEC and other allied producers to stabilise and balance the oil market.

We remind that China's crude oil imports fell 3% from January to June versus a year earlier, in the first first-half contraction since 2013, as an import quota shortage, refinery maintenance and rising global prices curbed buying. Imports totalled 40.14 million tonnes last month, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday, equivalent to 9.77 million barrels per day (bpd).

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 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC