Crude oil futures stable to higher in Asia amid supply restrictions and increased US stocks

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were stable to higher during mid-morning trade in Asia trade Sept. 23 amid supply constraints and a draw in US crude stocks, reported S&P Global.

At 10:10 am Singapore time (0210 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was up 15 cents/b (0.2%) from the previous close at USD76.34/b, while the NYMEX November light sweet crude contract was 9 cents/b (0.12%) higher at USD72.32/b.

"Crude prices rallied after US stockpiles tumbled to the lowest levels since October 2018," said OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya, adding that oil market fundamentals were turning bullish as concerns of an economic slowdown in China eased and amid forecasts that supply shortages for natural gas could lead to increased demand for oil.

ANZ Research analysts similarly noted that crude oil prices have risen as supply availability was back in focus, with US oil inventories falling for the seventh consecutive week.

US commercial crude stocks fell 3.48 million barrels to 413.96 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 17, to more than 8% below the five-year average, Energy Information Administration data showed. Stocks were last lower Oct. 5, 2018.

Oil supply disruptions due to Hurricane Ida continue as operators in the US Gulf of Mexico struggle to return to full production. Almost 294,214b/d or 16.18% of production remained shut-in as of Sept. 22. according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. US crude output averaged 10.6 million b/d in the week ended Sept. 17, up 500,000 b/d week on week but still down 900,000 b/d from pre-Ida levels.

Global oil supply was also expected to remain tight, with UAE energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei saying Sept. 21 that OPEC and its allies should stick to its agreement to increase production by 400,000 b/d each month, even as some observers call for a greater production increase as pandemic restrictions ease, S&P Global reported.

As informed earlier, Shell said earlier this month it observed damage from Hurricane Ida to its transfer station West Delta-143 offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. West Delta-143 serves as the transfer station for all production from its assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals. Shell said then it was not yet safe to send personnel offshore to learn the full extent of the damage and estimate the effect on production.

We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

Showa Denko appoints new CEO

Showa Denko appoints new CEO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Showa Denko has announced that Kohei Morikawa will resign as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to become Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of SDK, and Hidehito Takahashi, Representative Director, Managing Corporate Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager, Preparation Office for Group Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of SDK will succeed Morikawa, effective January 4, 2022, according to ACNNewswire.

Takahashi is currently in charge of Carbon and Ceramics divisions, Coating Materials Department, Yokohama and Shiojiri plants and Corporate Strategy Department of SDK.

SDK also announces that at Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd. (SDMC), which is a consolidated subsidiary of SDK, Hisashi Maruyama will resign as President and CEO to become Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of SDMC, and that Hidehito Takahashi, Director of SDMC, will succeed Maruyama, effective January 4, 2022.

These changes in the presidencies have been decided at SDK's board of directors meeting on 22 September.

Through unification of the presidencies and generational changes in top management, SDK and SDMC aim to accelerate integration of the two companies and foster speedy management of the Showa Denko Group as a whole.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2018, Showa Denko shut its crackert in Oita (Japan) for a scheduled maintenance. The turnaround at this cracker with the capacity of 691,000 mt/year of ethylene lasted until April 19, 2018.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; TSE:4004, ADR:SHWDY) is a major manufacturer of chemical products serving from heavy industry to computers and electronics. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial, high-performance and high-purity gases and chemicals for semicon and other industries, the Inorganics Sector provides ceramic products, such as alumina, abrasives, refractory/graphite electrodes and fine carbon products.
MRC

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat restarted HDPE production after turnaround

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat restarted HDPE production after turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gazprom neftekhim Salavat (GNS, Salavat, Bashkortostan) resumed its polyethylene (PE) production after the scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

According to the company's customers, GNS resumed the production of HDPE after the long scheduled maintenance works from 19 September. The scheduled shutdown started on 20 June and was initially planned to last for one month. The plant's HDPE capacity is 120,000 tonnes/year.

At the same time, 45,000/tonnes per year production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) has not yet been resumed yet.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's total HDPE production reached 5,100 tonnes in July, compared to 9,600 tonnes in June. Thus, the Salavat plant's overall production of this PE grade totalled 63,600 tonnes in January-July 2021, down by 13% year on year.

OAO "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly OAO "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of the leading petrochemical companies in Russia, carrying out a full cycle of processing hydrocarbon material. The list of products manufactured by the plant includes more than 140 items, including 76 grades of the main products: gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrenes, silica gels and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols and amines, a wide range of household products made of plastics, surfactants and much more.

MRC

Braskem and SCG Chemicals studying construction of JV bio-based plant for production of ethylene and PE in Thailand

Braskem and SCG Chemicals studying construction of JV bio-based plant for production of ethylene and PE in Thailand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemicals and plastics producer Braskem (Sao Paulo) and Thailand’s SCG Chemicals (Bangkok) are studying construction of a JV bio-ethanol dehydration plant for the production of bio-based ethylene and polyethylene (PE), as per Braskem's press release.

The project would be located at SCG Chemicals’ petrochemical complex in Map Ta Phut, Rayong/Thailand and the output would be marketed as Braskem’s “I’m green” bio-based PE.

Braskem said it would contribute with its technology and knowhow in ethanol dehydration and its bio-based PE marketing expertise, while SCG Chemicals would bring its PE units and production expertise for the manufacture of the bio-based PE. The project would up to double existing capacity for the I’m green bio-based PE, Braskem said.

The partners have executed a memorandum of understanding to perform feasibility studies to jointly invest in the project.

Braskem said the project is aligned with its goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and of diversifying and expanding its industrial footprint. For SCG Chemicals, the project is part of its target to achieve green polymer sales volumes of 200,000 t by 2025.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2021, the oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (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 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC

SABIC and ExxonMobil JV commissioning new petrochemical complex in US Gulf Coast

SABIC and ExxonMobil JV commissioning new petrochemical complex in US Gulf Coast

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC), the world's fourth-biggest petrochemicals firm, said its joint venture project with ExxonMobil in the US Gulf Coast has started commissioning activities and preparing for an initial startup, reported Reuters.

The project includes the establishment of an ethylene production unit with annual capacity of about 1.8 MMtpy, which will feed two polyethylene (PE) units and a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit, it said in a statement.

SABIC expects that this project will have a positive impact on its consolidated financial statements after the commercial operation begins.

It supports SABIC's strategy to diversify its feedstock sources and strength its petrochemical manufacturing presence in North America for a wide range of products, it said.

As MRC informed earlier, in late July 2021, ExxonMobil and SABIC announced that their JV, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, had reached mechanical completion of a MEG unit and two PE units.

We remind that a little more than two years after announcing it had selected San Patricio County as the site for its new ethylene cracker plant, ExxonMobil and SABIC celebrated the groundbreaking for the new facility (September 2019).

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.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC