July oil imports hit a year low on refinery maintenance in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's July crude oil imports slumped to their lowest in a year, tanker arrival data from industry sources showed, and are likely to rebound in August as refiners are expected to boost runs after maintenance of units, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude imports in July fell 12.5% month-on-month to 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd), but rose 12.8% year-on-year, as refiners shut units for maintenance and cut crude imports anticipating lower fuel demand during the monsoon season. Government data released on Tuesday showed India's oil imports declined to about 15.02 million tonnes, about 3.5 million bpd.

Data from trade sources include some cargoes that arrive in July and discharged in August, and differ from the government data. "Some refinery maintenance in July limited Indian imports. Lower fuel demand in April-May should have led to high oil and fuel stocks," said Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq.

Some refiners including Chennai Petroleum, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical and Indian Oil Corp's Gujarat and Mathura plant had cut crude runs due to low fuel demand, a government statement said on Tuesday. Some units were shut at Hindustan Petroleum's Mumbai and Vizag refineries, IOC's Barauni, Haldia and Paradip plants and Bharat Petroleum's Kochi refinery for maintenance during the month, the statement said.

Latin American supplies in July fell to their lowest since June last year as private refiners switched to cheaper Canadian heavy oil, the data showed. Middle East's share in India's overall imports rose to 64.7% from 59% in June, the data showed.

That lifted the share of OPEC's oil in India's overall imports to 77.6% from 66.3% in June, although in April-July, the first four months of this fiscal year, the group's share declined to the lowest.

As per MRC, 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. Gasoline sales by state refiners rose 29.4%, while diesel sales were up 18.5% in June compared with May, the data showed. Sales had declined by about a fifth in May from a month earlier due to lockdowns across the country.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A deadly weekend fire at on offshore platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico operated by Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) could have been caused by a gas leak, reported Reuters with reference to Pemex's chief executive.

Five workers were killed, two are missing and six were injured in the fire on Sunday on the offshore platform that is part of Ku-Maloob-Zaap in the southern Gulf of Mexico, Pemex's most productive oil field.

"This is preliminary because they are doing the analysis to know in detail what happened, but it is presumed that there was a gas leak at the time that maintenance work was being carried out on this platform," Pemex CEO Octavio Romero said in an interview with local journalist Carmen Aristegui.

Scorched remains found in a control room may belong to two people who were missing after the fire, Romero said. DNA samples from relatives were being used to help identify the remains.

The accident knocked 125 wells offline, totaling 421,000 barrels per day (bpd) of lost output, or about 25% of Mexico's total production.

Romero said on Tuesday that Pemex expects to fully resume by Aug. 30 all oil production shut down by the fire.

As MRC informed before, Pemex Petroquimica, a subsidiary of the Mexican state oil company Pemex, has resumed production of high-density polyethylene (LDPE) on line 2 in Cangrejera, Mexico after an unscheduled renovation. Earlier it was noted that Pemex postponed the restart of the second line with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year for the production of LDPE until August 10. It was originally planned that the launch of this production will begin at the end of July. The line was closed on 10 July.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is a Mexican state-owned oil and gas and petrochemical company. Since the nationalization of the Mexican oil industry in 1938, Pemex has remained a state-owned company and, by law, has exclusive rights to explore and produce oil in the country. Almost 60% of the company's revenues go to the state budget. Petrochemical products include, but are not limited to, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The market hasn't exactly cheered BHP Group's proposed exit from its oil and gas business, with shares of both the mining giant and the acquirer, Woodside Petroleum, tumbling in the wake of deal, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A point of concern for investors is that BHP may have sold the assets too cheaply, and that getting only Woodside shares as payment is less than desirable. While there is likely some element of truth in this, investors may be missing the wider point of the deal, which will create a $29 billion oil and gas company after all.

It's likely that this deal signals that the era of paying premiums to acquire oil and gas assets is over. From now on, companies seeking to offload these type of assets will be forced to accept ever-diminishing prices. BHP's Sydney-listed shares dropped 8.4% in the two days after the deal was announced on Aug. 17 to close at AD47.70 (USD34.44) on Wednesday. Woodside slid 4.2% in the same time period to end at AD20.29.

The pullback continued in early trade on Thursday, with BHP again down, as much as 6.2%, and Woodside dropping as much as 2.6%. To be sure, there were other reasons for BHP's stock to retreat. For one, there's the ongoing slump in the spot price of iron ore, the commodity that generates the most revenue for the world's biggest mining company.

It's also possible that some investors may have sought to take profits after BHP on Tuesday reported its strongest earnings since 2012. But if some BHP stockholders are feeling hard done by, perhaps they should reflect on another asset the Melbourne-based miner is trying to sell.

BHP has had its Mount Arthur thermal coal mine in Australia's New South Wales state up for sale for more than a year. It still hasn't found a suitable buyer. At this stage it's like that BHP might even pay somebody to take the mine, the biggest in New South Wales, off its hands, given the company slashed the value of the asset on Wednesday from a value of about A$550 million to a liability of AD275 million (USD198 million), the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Just seven months ago the Mount Arthur mine was valued at more than AD2 billion by BHP. The massive writedown in value has come despite the price of Australian thermal coal rising to the highest in 13 years. The Newcastle Weekly Index, the benchmark thermal coal price, has more than tripled since its 2020 low of USD46.37 a tonne, reaching USD168.71 in the week to Aug. 13, according to assessments by commodity price reporting agency Argus. While there are costs associated with rehabilitation that any buyer would have to bear, the fact that BHP can't seem to find a buyer for Mount Arthur in the best market for thermal coal since 2008 is telling.

As per MRC, BP acquired US shale assets from BHP Billiton for USD10.5 billion in the largest deal since the 1999 acquisition of Atlantic Richfield oil company. British oil and gas company BP bought US shale assets owned by mining company BHP Billiton.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil said a small debris fire near an out-of-service tank was quickly extinguished at its 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters.

"There were no injuries ... we continue to meet contractual commitments," the company said in a statement posted online.

Exxon locked out 650 workers at the Beaumont refinery and an adjoining lube oil plant on May 1 and is operating the refinery with managers, supervisors and temporary workers.

As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced that their joint venture, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached mechanical completion of a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit and two polyethylene (PE) units. Project startup is expected to begin ahead of schedule, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.

MEG is commonly used in the manufacturing of polyesters and automotive coolants, and as a building block to create various forms of high-performance plastics. PE is commonly used in protective film, packaging and bottles and containers that prolong the shelf-life of food and medicines, as well as in various automotive parts that improve fuel efficiency and performance, and in medical applications.

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 density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments 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) -- LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel will retire at the end of 2021, the major US producer announced.

Bhavesh V. (Bob) Patel, CEO of Houston-based chemical supplier LyondellBasell Industries, will retire on Dec. 31. Patel, 53, will continue to lead the firm until that time and “will ensure a smooth and orderly transition for his successor,” company officials said in an Aug. 25 news release.

Patel will also resign from the company’s board of directors on Dec. 31. The news release also said the board has established a sub-committee that will oversee the search for a new CEO “and will consider both internal and external candidates."

"Under Bob’s leadership, LyondellBasell has successfully expanded our global portfolio, increased our earnings power, delivered strong cash flows and consistently raised our quarterly dividend,” said Jacques Aigrain, board chair. “We are extremely proud of his commitment to driving sustainability at LyondellBasell, where we have set an ambitious goal to produce and market two million metric tons of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030. Bob’s leadership in this area is exemplified by the company’s actions as a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an organization which helps address plastic waste in the environment."

Patel joined LyondellBasell in March 2010 and was appointed CEO in January 2015. Since that time, the news release said, the firm has grown through a series of strategic global investments, including the acquisition of A. Schulman, the construction of manufacturing plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the establishment of new or expanded joint ventures in the U.S., China, Korea and Thailand.

"We have built a strong operational foundation, achieved significant growth, and continue to have a favorable outlook,” Patel said. “After almost 12 years at the company, the time has come for me to move to the next chapter of my career, and my decision is made easier given the strength of the company and the highly experienced, capable leadership team that is in place."

As MRC reported earlier, LyondellBasell said in early August it was restarting the polymers and olefins units at its La Porte, Texas, facility following an acetic acid leak on 27 July, 2021, that killed two people. Both units are located in other parts of the La Porte site.

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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC