NSRP to restarts its new PP plant in Vietnam on 17 October after unscheduled turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) is in plans to resume operations at its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam on 17 October, 2021, after an unscheduled maintenance, reported CommoPlast.

The 400,000 mt year of PP plant was unexpectedly shut on 7 October, 2021, due to a technical glitch.

As MRC reported earlier, NSRP has just recently completed maintenance works at its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam. This plant was shut on 24 August, 2021, instead of the initially scheduled date of 17 August, for approximately three weeks. The company decided to postpone the maintenance shutdown at this plant by one week from the previous schedule due to the COVID-19 related lockdown. Thus, the new PP plant came back on-line in mid-September, 2021.

We also remind that Vietnam’s Nghi Son oil refinery officially began commercial production from 14 November 2018, following months of tests. The USD9 billion refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% - by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% - by PetroVietnam and 4.7% - by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US private equity firm Apollo Global Management has completed their exclusive negotiations with Alain de Krassny of De Krassny GmbH for the sale of the Kem One Group, a leading European producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), used mainly in construction, packaging and medical applications, and caustic soda, according to Global Leading Cronicle.

Kem One has 1,400 employees and 8 industrial sites located across France and Spain.

Kem One president De Krassny GmbH and the Apollo funds signed a put option agreement for the proposed sale, which is expected to be finalized by the end of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

As MRC reported earlier, Kem One has declared a force majeure (FM) on PVC with K=70 supplies from its Berre unit in France. The company had to declare FM on September 2, 2021, following an equipment failure on the night of August 27 to 28, 2021. The plant has a suspension PVC production capacity of 290,000 tons/year through 3 fully automated production trains.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 746,700 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. All producers increased their output.

Kem One, a fully integrated vinyl production company, was established mid-2012 following the acquisition of Arkema's vinyl products division by the Klesch Group. The company employs 2,600 people at 22 manufacturing sites, primarily in Europe but also in Asia and North America. Europe’s second-largest producer of PVC with revenues in excess of one billion euros, Kem One continues to grow and build on its numerous strengths with a view to becoming market leader for integrated vinyl solutions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese energy and petrochemicals futures prices surged to multi-year and record highs on Monday, driven by gains in global oil prices and a domestic power shortage as the world's top coal consumer is facing tight supplies, reported Reuters.

"In the near term, the supply shortage in coal pushed up the demand in crude oil and LPG, which are substitutes for coal, for power generation," said Huang Liunan, a Guotai Junan Futures analyst, referring to the global market including China.

The November crude oil contract on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) and fuel oil on the Shanghai Futures Exchange both gained by a fifth since September, reaching their highest since November 2018.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on the Dalian Commodity Exchange also jumped 4% to hit record highs on Monday, gaining a third in the last two months.

Gains in refined fuels were driven by a recovery in road traffic and air travel, Huang added.

"Starting from Q1 2022, we will see a steady increase in demand of jet fuel with the recovery of international traveling, boosting the price of energy-related products even further."

Aside from facing coal shortages, China's power industry is also under pressure from tougher emissions standards at a time when demand for power is strong. Authorities have ordered two top coal regions to boost output and given coal-fired power utilities permission to charge customers higher prices.

Even so, Liaoning, the province with the largest economy in China's northeast rust belt warned on Monday of worsening power shortages despite efforts to boost coal supplies and manage electricity consumption.

Prices of petrochemicals like methanol and ethylene glycol have also surged, tracking gains in coal and crude oil.

Futures prices of methanol - which can be used as fuel - on the Zhengzhou exchange are up 43% since the start of September and gained 8% on Monday to hit a three-year top. Meanwhile, ethylene glycol prices on the Dalian exchange rose 6.5% to record highs, having gained over a third since the start of September. The recent power shortages have hit production of the petrochemical, which is an industrial compound found in many consumer products ranging from antifreeze to solvents and paints.

As MRC wrote before, China's oil consumption is likely to peak around 2026 at about 16 million barrels per day and that of natural gas by around 2040, said a top executive of Sinopec Corp. in September 2021.

We remind that in August 2021, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, the world's petrochemical major, launched the first phase of the Gulei refining complex in Zhangzhou city in China’s southeastern Fujian province. The refining complex, a 50:50 joint venture between Sinopec’s Fujian Petrochemical Company Ltd and Taiwan Xuteng Investment Company Ltd, invested 27.8 billion yuan (USD4.28 billion) in the first phase. That will result in an 800,000 tonnes per annum ethylene plant, a 600,000 tonnes per annum styrene unit and seven other downstream petrochemical units, Sinopec said.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s National Development and Reform Commission has approved Sinopec’s planned Longkou LNG terminal at Yantai Port in Shandong Province, China, according to Tank Storage.

The terminal will cover an area of 84.5 ha. Sinopec will construct four 220,000 m3 storage tanks, and a berth capable of handling ships with a capacity of up to 266,000 m3 of LNG.

The terminal will have a transfer capacity of 6 million tpa and gasification export facilities with a capacity of 34 million m3 per day.

Sinopec already operates LNG terminals in Shandong, which it announced it was expanding in August 2021, and in Tianjin, which is also undergoing expansion works.

The company is also building a 15m t/y LNG terminal in Zhoushan, China.

As MRC informed before, in August, 2021, Sinopec, the world's petrochemical major, launched the first phase of the Gulei refining complex in Zhangzhou city in China’s southeastern Fujian province. The refining complex, a 50:50 joint venture between Sinopec’s Fujian Petrochemical Company Ltd and Taiwan Xuteng Investment Company Ltd, invested 27.8 billion yuan (USD4.28 billion) in the first phase. That will result in an 800,000 tonnes per annum ethylene plant, a 600,000 tonnes per annum styrene unit and seven other downstream petrochemical units, Sinopec said.

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.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices rose on Thursday after top oil producer Saudi Arabia dismissed calls for additional OPEC+ supply and the International Energy Agency said surging natural gas prices could boost demand for oil among power generators, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The market trimmed gains after U.S. crude inventories rose more than anticipated as refiners cut production in a generally slower period for those facilities. Brent crude futures gained 62 cents, or 0.75%, to USD83.80 a barrel by 12:57 p.m. EDT (16:57 GMT) after hitting a session high of USD84.50 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 55 cents to USD80.99.

U.S. crude stocks rose by a surprising 6 MM barrels, much higher than the modest 702,000-barrel increase analysts had expected. Production edged higher, reaching 11.4 MM barrels per day (bpd). "The continued rise in domestic U.S. oil production pulls the market back down a bit. It should relieve some of the pressure building in the market," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

Oil demand is set to jump by half a MMbpd as the power sector and heavy industries switch from more expensive sources of energy, the IEA said, warning that the energy crunch could stoke inflation and slow the world's economic recovery from the pandemic.

In its monthly report, the IEA increased its global oil demand growth forecast in 2022 by 210,000 bpd, and now expects total oil demand in 2022 to reach 99.6 MMbpd, slightly above pre-pandemic levels. Saudi Arabia dismissed calls for additional OPEC+ production increases, saying the group's unwinding of production cuts was protecting the oil market from wild price swings seen in natural gas and coal markets.

At its meeting this month, OPEC+ stuck to its previous agreement to increase output by 400,000 bpd a month. OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, has done a "remarkable" job as so-called regulator of the oil market, Saudi Arabia's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a forum in Moscow.

U.S. shale producers have been reluctant to invest in raising output after years of weak returns. U.S. production remains well short of late 2019's record at nearly 13 MMbpd. On Wednesday, the EIA said output would rebound to 11.7 MMbpd in 2022. The White House has been in discussions with oil and gas producers about fuel costs, with retail gasoline prices at seven-year highs and winter heating bills expected to rise.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil Synthetics (ExxonMobil) announced it is responding to customer needs and has confirmed plant feasibility to significantly increasing high viscosity metallocene polyalphaolefin (High Viscosity mPAO) synthetic base stock production. The demonstration of higher production capability is a result of a successful plant trial and planned subsequent expansion of the Baytown manufacturing facility in Texas, USA that has been serving customers for 100 years. This resulted in a proven run rate of approximately 20% over design basis and would move the capacity to 60 kilo-tons of High Viscosity mPAO production per year for the plant.

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.
MRC