Crude oil prices go down after a three-day rally, focus shifts to next OPEC+ move

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brent crude futures snapped a three-day rally on Friday in light trading before the Christmas holidays, but the benchmark ended the week higher, with the market focusing on next steps by OPEC+ and the impact of the Omicron variant, report Reuters.

Brent crude futures settled 71 cents lower at USD76.14 a barrel at the early close of 1300 GMT, rising by about 3% on the week.

US markets are closed on Friday for the Christmas holiday.

Oil prices have recovered this week as fears over the impact of the highly infectious Omicron variant on the global economy receded, with early data suggesting it causes a milder level of illness.

"The omicron-is-mild rally could well continue into January now, but reality will bite in February I believe, as the end of the Fed taper moves into sight," OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley said.

The US Federal Reserve said last week it would end its pandemic-era bond purchases in March, paving the way for three interest rate increases that most Fed policymakers now believe will be needed next year.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, will meet on 4 January to decide whether to go ahead with a 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) production increase in February.

Russia believes oil prices are unlikely to change significantly next year with demand recovering to pre-pandemic levels only by the end of 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

Some investors remained cautious amid surging infection cases.

Omicron advanced across the world on Thursday, with health experts warning the battle against the COVID-19 variant was far from over despite two drugmakers saying their vaccines protected against it and despite signs it carried a lower risk of hospitalisation.

Coronavirus infections have soared wherever the variant has spread, triggering new restrictions in many countries, including Italy and Greece, and record numbers of new cases.

Global oil demand roared back in 2021 as the world began to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and overall world consumption potentially could hit a new record in 2022 - despite efforts to bring down fossil fuel consumption to mitigate climate change.

As MRC informed before, 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.

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, EIA said in a monthly report earlier this year, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Austria-based machinery and equipment maker is dropping the Battenfeld brand name from its injection molding machinery, said Canplastics.

In a move designed to highlight its goal of offering complete plastics processing solutions, Austria-based Wittmann Group is dropping the Battenfeld brand name from its injection molding machinery.

In a Dec. 23 news release, company officials said the branding change will start on Jan. 1, 2022, and is expected to completed by the K 2022 trade fair in October. There will be no changes in the organization of the companies within the Wittmann Group, the statement continued, and all company names will be left unaltered by the brand strategy change.

"With the integration of Battenfeld machines into the extended product portfolio of the Wittmann Group [in 2008], the company has so far consistently pursued a two-brand strategy in its external appearance: Wittmann for all products around injection molding machines and Wittmann Battenfeld for injection molding machines and injection molding processes,” the company said. “To highlight the significance of the injection molding machine for the future development of the company, the brand name Wittmann Battenfeld was originally chosen, preferred and used deliberately in communication."

But in recent years, the company said, the organization has shifted to being able to offer “complete solutions from a single source”. “In due consideration of this development, the ‘one-stop-shop’ advantage is now to be given special emphasis by a uniform brand designation and colour scheme for the entire product range,” it said. “This is why the Wittmann Group has decided to use the Wittmann logo for all of its advertising activities and product lines in future."

As it was written before, Wittmann Group is adding some needed pace to its production plant in Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary, after purchasing the neighbouring company building. With this acquisition, Wittmann Hungary’s production area will be expanded from 12,000 square meters to a total of 15,000 square meters.

We remind, Wittmann Group has acquired FarragTech GmbH, a manufacturer of products that use compressed air for resin drying and mold cooling. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Wittmann is represented in Canada by Wittmann Battenfeld Canada Inc., which is headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ont.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Novatek and Uniper signed a term sheet on the long-term supply of large volumes of low-carbon ammonia, said the company.

These supplies will be delivered to Uniper’s markets in Germany and North-West Europe. Novatek is developing a major low-carbon ammonia production facility on the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia, making use of the vast local gas reserves. Carbon dioxide formed during the natural gas-to-hydrogen production process will be captured and stored using a highly efficient underground storage infrastructure (CCS).

Uniper is planning an ammonia import terminal in Wilhelmshaven which will be equipped with a storage facility and a cracker operating with green power. The imported low-carbon ammonia can thus be transformed into gaseous hydrogen – and it will be fed into the future German hydrogen pipeline system. Low-carbon ammonia can also be supplied directly as a feedstock and as a fuel. Modern technology, beneficial geologic parameters and highly optimized production and logistics will help drive the carbon footprint of the supplied ammonia well below the threshold of the EU Taxonomy.

Klaus-Dieter Maubach, CEO of Uniper: "This project would cover a significant share of the low carbon hydrogen demand in Germany. Uniper is committed to reaching carbon neutrality in its European Generation business by 2035. Decarbonized and low-carbon gases such as hydrogen will play a major role in achieving these goals. Germany, like many other heavily industrialized countries, will rely on hydrogen imports, as the demand for hydrogen will exceed domestic production capacities. Hence, we actively set up global collaborations and partnerships and plan Wilhelmshaven as a major hydrogen hub. I firmly believe that Novatek, which has already developed a state-of-the-art LNG facility on Yamal, will deliver one of the world’s most efficient and cleanest ammonia export projects providing Europe with ammonia and hydrogen featuring a carbon footprint below the EU Taxonomy threshold."

As per MRC, in January2021, Uniper and Novatek signed a MoU to jointly investigate the potential for Novatek supply Blue and Green Hydrogen to Uniper’s power stations and markets in Russia and North West Europe. Blue Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas, accompanied with the CO2 capture and storage in geological underground formations, while Green Hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy.

Gazprom, NOVATEK and SIBUR have found an alternative route for the supply of condensate for processing from the fields of the monopoly in the Nadym-Pur-Taz region. Gazprom, forced to reduce production after the accident at the condensate preparation plant in Urengoy, agreed to redirect 85 thousand tons of raw materials per month to the Purovsky plant of NOVATEK.

Uniper is a leading international energy company, has around 12,000 employees, and operates in more than 40 countries. The company plans for its power generation business in Europe to be carbon-neutral by 2035. Uniper’s roughly 35 GW of installed generation capacity make it one of the world‘s largest electricity producers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Norway’s Equinor said that it collaborated with France’s Engie to develop a project designed to produce low-carbon hydrogen from natural gas in Belgium, according to Kemicalinfo.

The announcement of the H2BE project - which aims to produce hydrogen from natural gas using autothermal reforming (ATR) combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS) - follows a memorandum of understanding between the two companies signed in February.

The Belgian government released its hydrogen strategy in October and Equinor said the H2BE project would help Belgium deliver on the strategy.

Equinor is a major supplier of Norwegian gas to Belgium, with deliveries sent into the Zeebrugge receiving terminal.

It said the ATR technology allows for decarbonization rates above 95% and for producing hydrogen at large scale at “competitive” cost levels.

Equinor and Engie now plan to launch a feasibility study to assess the technical and economic suitability of a site in the Ghent area to produce the hydrogen.

“Commercial talks with potential hydrogen offtakers, predominantly large, hard-to-abate industries, continue simultaneously,” Equinor said.

Discussions are also ongoing with North Sea Port on integration with port infrastructure, it said, while Belgian grid operator Fluxys is also joining the project.

All partners aim to start operations well before 2030 in order to contribute to Belgium’s 2030 interim decarbonization targets.

As MRC informed earlier, there were serious breaches of regulations at an Equinor methanol plant that caught fire last year, Norway's petroleum safety watchdog (PSA) said in June 2021, ordering the company to improve maintenance practices and documentation.

In October 2017, Mongstad suffered a two-week outage caused by a naphtha leak, and in December 2018 Equinor halted parts of the refinery's gasoline output following a spill of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

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 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Materials supplier Geon Performance Solutions has acquired Roscom Inc., an ISO 9001:2015–certified PVC compounding facility in Croydon, Pa., said Canplastics.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Roscom makes flexible and rigid PVC compounds for both indoor and outdoor applications. In a Dec. 20 news release, Geon CEO Tracy Garrison said that Roscom “is an excellent fit” for Geon.

"This addition represents a key step forward in our strategy," Garrison said. “The Croydon facility and tenured team will enable us to better serve our customers in the Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada. We intend to maximize the incredible expertise of the Roscom team and look forward to bringing its additional product portfolio to our customers."

Roscom president and chief operating officer Nick Lynch, will remain with the company through the transition as an advisor, the news release also said, and sales and manufacturing operations for both companies will continue as usual through the transition.

Westlake, Ohio-based Geon operates 10 manufacturing plants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and China, and supplies materials for the appliances, building and construction, electronics, healthcare, transportation, and wire and cable sectors.

As per MRC, Westlake Chemical plans to begin scheduled maintenance works at its cracker at Lake Charles, Louisiana in September. The cracking unit with a capacity of 740,000 tonnes of ethylene per year (Petro 2) will be shut down for maintenance for 60 days starting from September.

Asa per ICIS-MRC Price Report, negotiations on January shipment of Russian polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have started this week. At the same time, both suppliers and buyers were in no hurry to agree on deals for the next month.
Independently of each other, producers began to announce December prices for January shipments. PVC prices continued to decrease on the foreign markets, but this factor has not affected prices in Russia yet. Because of long logistics and "low season", converters do not even think about an import alternative.

MRC