Export purchases of Kiyanly Polymer Plant PP resumed

MOSCOW (MRC) -- On 18 February, after almost a two-year break, the export trades for Kiyanly Polymer Plant 's polypropylene (PP) were resumed at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Stock Exchange of Turkmenistan, Demand for PP was strong, all quantities of PP put up for auction were sold out during one trading day, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

According to market participants, back in early February, 5,000 tonnes of Kiyanly Polymer Plant's PP raffia to be exported to the CIS countries were put up for auction at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan. But active purchases were only on 18 February, all PP quantities were sold out during one day.

5 deals for a total of 5,000 tonnes were done. Deals for shipments to the CIS markets within the following 5 months were done under the formula with a discount of USD490/tonne FOB/FCA.
MRC

1. Fitch downgrades Petkim and Tupras to negative

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fitch Ratings has revised its outlooks on Turkey’s major petrochemical producer Petkim and largest Turkish refiner Tupras to negative from stable, said American corporation. The move follows Fitch’s recent sovereign rating action that downgraded Turkey to 'B+', four notches below investment grade, with a negative outlook. Turkey is mired in an economic crisis that sent the official annual inflation figure to 49% at the end of January. The Turkish lira struggling to hold ground against the US dollar. The Turkish currency lost 44% of its value against the dollar in 2021. Fitch, in a notice released on Thursday, revised the outlook on Petkim’s long term foreign currency (LT FC) issuer default rating (IDR) to negative from stable, while also affirming the company’s 'B+' rating. “Petkim's LT FC IDR is constrained by the Country Ceiling, due to the company's sizeable exposure to the Turkish economy,” Fitch said.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s economy is expected to contract 20% in the second quarter and by around 3.5% for the full year following intensified sanctions, reported Reuters with reference to JPMorgan's statement on Monday.

“If these new sanctions are indeed imposed, the impact on the Russian economy would be severe,” Jahangir Aziz at JPMorgan said in a note to clients.

“The two pillars of the economy even in the midst of slowing growth, rising inflation, and high interest rates were the ‘fortress’ FX reserves of CBR and Russia’s current account surplus. Not anymore.”

JPMorgan also lowered its forecast for Russia’s trend growth to 1.0% from 1.75% as growing political and economic isolation will crimp expansion in years to come.

As MRC informed before, Russia's invasion of Ukraine will disrupt the global movement of energy commodities, even if Western powers don't impose sanctions on exports from Russia, reported Reuters on February 25. So far none of the retaliatory measures against Moscow have been targeted at exports of crude oil, coal or natural gas, the latter either by pipeline or by ships as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

We remind that earlier this month, Samsung Engineering, one of the world’s leading engineering, procurement, construction and project management (EPC&PM) companies, announced that it had signed a contract for the design of a plant for the Baltic Chemical Complex in Russia. Baltic Chemical Complex LLC. (BCC), the original owner of the contract, previously signed an EPC contract with CC7 in 2019. The project is located at the Gulf of Finland near the seaport of Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast, 110 km southwest of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Samsung Engineering’s work of scope includes an Ethane Cracker Unit with a total design capacity of 2.8 million T/y (Ethylene 1.4 million t/y 2 Trains) and procurement for the project. The Ethane Cracker Unit is the core process element of the plant. The Baltic Ethane Cracker Project produces ethylene from separated C2 out of natural gas.

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 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Axens and Univation Technologies have entered into a cooperation agreement to develop improved capital and operating efficiencies for the production of on-purpose linear alpha olefins (LAO)—including both butene-1 and hexene-1—for use in manufacturing polyethylene resins with the UNIPOL PE process, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The alliance is expected to identify and deliver quantifiable synergies to benefit polyethylene producers globally for new UNIPOL PE projects as well as provide for retrofit opportunities for UNIPOL PE plants already in operation.

Univation and Axens will collaborate to identify and capture capital and operating cost reduction opportunities as well as optimize process requirements for both Axens LAO technology platforms—AlphaButol and AlphaHexol—and Univation’s UNIPOL PE process to deliver value to polyethylene producers. These synergies and optimization will be carried out during the early process design phase of the project.

Jean-Luc Nocca, Executive Vice-President at Axens said, "We look forward to cooperating with Univation Technologies and bring additional values to our customers by developing synergies."

Luis Cirihal, President of Univation Technologies said, "Univation is pleased to collaborate with Axens to enhance value to our mutual customers by enabling even greater cost advantaged production of polyethylene resins with the UNIPOL PE process".

As per MRC, Axens launched new P/PR 200 Series of its catalyst technology. This year, Axens celebrated the tenth anniversary of Symphony, Axens’ suite of high performance reforming catalysts, which gave Axens a unique position in reforming technology. Symphony consists in industrially proven, high-performance, top-stability reforming catalysts together with an outstanding hydrothermal resistance, covering continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR), semi-regenerative and cyclic applications.

We remind, Sumitomo Chemical has successfully conducted the first waste-based polyolefin production at its laboratory in Japan earlier this year, by use of the ethylene produced by Axens ethanol-to-ethylene technology Atol. This process value chain is complemented with the upfront “Waste to Ethanol” technology by Sekisui Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP is seeking to divest the near 20% stake in Russian state-oil company Rosneft it has held since 2013 in the starkest sign yet of the corporate backlash against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, reported Financial Times.

The UK-listed oil group said in a statement on Sunday that it would no longer report reserves, production or profits from Rosneft, and its chief executive, Bernard Looney, would resign from the Rosneft board “with immediate effect”.

BP did not specify how and when it might divest the Rosneft stake. It could write off the shareholding, sell it back to Rosneft or find another buyer. Analysts have speculated that a state-backed Chinese or Middle Eastern group might be interested in the shareholding, but it is thought that BP could struggle to find a bidder. The Qatar Investment Authority is already a major Rosneft shareholder.

BP said the changes in the accounting treatment of the Rosneft stake would lead to two “material non-cash” charges in its first-quarter results that could amount to as much as USD25bn: an USD11bn charge related to foreign exchange losses, and the difference at that time between the “fair value” and the “carrying value” of the stake, which is currently USD14bn.

The other BP-nominated director, Bob Dudley, BP’s former chief executive, will also step down from Rosneft’s board, the oil major said.

Helge Lund, BP’s chair, described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an “act of aggression which is having tragic consequences across the region”.

He said BP had operated in Russia for more than 30 years, “working with brilliant Russian colleagues”.

“However, this military action represents a fundamental change,” he added. The board had concluded that the company’s involvement with Rosneft “simply cannot continue”, Lund added.

BP’s move, which came as Norway’s sovereign wealth fund said it was divesting of all of its Russian assets, will increase pressure on other oil and gas majors and commodity traders with investments in Russia, such as Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Trafigura and Vitol.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, during the visit of the delegation headed by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to Beijing (PRC), negotiations were held between PJSC Rosneft Oil Company and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Agreement was signed on the supply of 100 million tons of oil to China through Kazakhstan for 10 years.

Crude oil will be processed at factories in northwest China to meet the country's needs for petroleum products. The Company's total supplies to China since 2005 amounted to 442 million tons of oil. Rosneft is the leading oil exporter to PRC, providing 7% of the country’s total demand in raw annually. Rosneft is also one of the leading suppliers of petroleum products to China. Since 2009, the Company has exported about 41 million tons of petroleum products.

Rosneft is the world's largest public oil company. The company accounts for about 5% of global oil production, and its proven reserves in the international category will exceed 5 billion tons of oil equivalent. The structure of Rosneft includes the Angarsk Polymer Plant and Ufaorgsintez (part of the structure of Bashneft) after the closing of the deal to purchase Bashneft on October 12, 2016. The main shareholder of Rosneft is the state-controlled Rosneftegaz (50% plus one share), and the British BP owns another 19.75%.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP's business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world"s hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
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