Petrobras announces sale of its second refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the sale of the Bahia refinery to the Arab fund Mubadala, Petrobras has announced the sale of its second facility, according to NewsBeezer.

The state-owned company has signed a contract with Ream Participacoes, which belongs to the distributor Atem, for the sale of the Isaac Sabba (Reman) refinery and the associated logistics facilities in the state of Amazonas.

The sale value is USD189.5 million. Of this, USD28.4 million will be paid upon signature of the contract and the remaining USD161.1 million upon closing of the transaction. Atem is a distributor in the north of the country.

Atem has five sales bases and 300 franchise service stations. The company operates in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Roraima, Rondonia, Para, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Sao Paulo and Parana.

According to the state-owned company, the company is subject to the fulfillment of conditions precedent, such as approval by the Board of Directors for Economic Defense (Cade). A total of eight refineries belonging to the state-owned company are currently in the sales process.

The Manaus refinery was inaugurated in 1957 in the presence of the then President Juscelino Kubitschek. The plant has a processing capacity of 46,000 barrels per day. The refinery serves the states of Para, Amapa, Rondonia, Acre, Amazonas and Roraima.

As MRC wrote previously, earlier this month, Petrobras hired JPMorgan Chase & Co as an advisor to sell its stake in the petrochemical company Braskem SA.

We remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Sayanskkhimplast, the largest Russian manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride, commissioned Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz (CAC, Germany) to build a new chlorine drying department, as well as to modernize the existing sulfuric acid concentration unit at the first chlorine and caustic production plant in Russia using membrane electrolysis in Sayansk, the German company said in a statement.

Previously, membrane electrolysis was designed by SAS and launched in 2006, and in 2013 its annual capacity of the electrolysis hall with electrolyzers of the first chlorine and caustic production unit in Russia by the membrane electrolysis method was increased to 180 thousand tons of chlorine gas.

Despite the pandemic that strongly affected supply chains, this project, after a year and a half of design and implementation, was nevertheless completed with successful warranty tests before the end of 2020.

"The Sayanskkhimplast enterprise has been our long-term customer since the establishment of the independent SAS company in 2004. I am very proud that, despite various political circumstances and despite the pandemic, we always manage to maintain trusting cooperation and we were able to contribute to strengthening our leading market positions Sayanskkhimplasta", - said Joerg Engelmann, CEO of SAS.

For this order, CAC developed basic and detailed engineering, supplied equipment, supervised installation, and assisted with commissioning. It is noted that in order to maintain and build up these positions in recent years, Sayanskkhimplast has been constantly working to expand and modernize existing production facilities.

Earlier it was reported that Sayanskkhimplast resumed production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) after stopping for scheduled preventive maintenance. PVC production was resumed on 5 August after a scheduled preventive maintenance. The idle capacity was long enough and started on 8 July. The annual production capacity is 350,000 tonnes.

According to the MRC ScanPlast, Sayanskkhimplast last month reduced capacity utilization and produced 23,400 tonnes of suspension PVC against 26,500 tonnes in May. In the first six months of this year, the Sayan enterprise managed to produce 156,900 tonnes of PVC against 164,300 tonnes a year earlier.

JSC Sayanskkhimplast (Irkutsk Region), founded in 1998, is a complex of large-scale organochlorine production facilities linked into a single production cycle. The enterprises of Sayanskkhimplast OJSC produce PVC, caustic soda and whiteness. After the commissioning of PVC production RusVinyl (Nizhny Novgorod region), Sayanskkhimplast became the second largest PVC production in Russia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has signed a two-year contract to purchase electricity produced entirely from renewable energy sources – mainly wind – to power its “Mobile Emissions Catalysts” plant in Sroda Slaska, west of Warsaw, Poland, said the company.

The financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. “We set ambitious environmental objectives in BASF to achieve climate neutrality by 2050,” said Katarzyna Byczkowska, managing director of BASF Polska.

“However, to make it a reality, global goals must also translate into local strategies. By signing this new contract, we will now cover 100 per cent of our electrical demand in Sroda Slaska from renewable sources."

The purchased electricity, mainly produced from wind by PGE Obrot, is expected to power BASF’s Mobile Emissions Catalysts plant in Sroda Slaska in south-western Poland.

The BASF Mobile Emissions Catalysts plant in Sroda Slaska provides modern solutions for exhaust gas treatment for light duty and heavy duty segments, the company said.

As per MRC, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site.

We also remind that n June, 2021, Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and BASF announced the intention to expand their businesses with the production of styrene monomer (SM) based on circular feedstock. Trinseo has procured first supplies of SM based on circular feedstock from BASF for use in its Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR) and polystyrene (PS) products. Trinseo supplies S-SBR to major tyre manufacturers while its PS products are used in applications such as food packaging and appliances. The first few customers have already processed the material, said the company.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in June 2021 by 10.2% year on year. However, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 8.2% in the first six months of 2021, according to Rosstat's data. June production of polymers in primary form was 937,000 tonnes versus 956,000 tonnes in May. Russia's overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 4,460,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 12.8% year on year.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

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