Chinese refiners tap alternative payments to keep Russian oil flowing

Chinese refiners are paying for Russian crude oil using cash transfers to maintain imports from Russia's Fast East, as banks shy away from financing the oil because of sanctions, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Global oil prices have soared to their highest in a decade as banks halted financing Russian oil after the U.S. and other countries ramped up sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. Spot crude premiums and freight rates also spiked, piling on buyers' costs. Several European and U.S. refiners have stopped buying Russian oil this week, even though Washington said Russian oil and gas are exempted from sanctions.

But Chinese buyers are looking to maintain purchases of ESPO Blend crude exported from Russia's Far East Kozmino port using other payment methods as they cannot secure letters of credit from banks, trade sources said. "For those done deals, payments are being sorted out with buyers doing Telegraphic Transfer as bank financing becomes very difficult," said a Singapore-based Chinese trading executive.

Telegraphic transfer, equivalent to cash pre-payment, requires buyers to transfer funds to sellers up front, a challenge for some cash-strapped independent refiners with each Aframax tanker-sized cargo now costing more than $85 MM, the sources said. Some sellers are providing open credit, but this raises their risk exposure. Sources said the cash settlements still need to go through the SWIFT messaging system to Russian banks which are not on the U.S. sanction list, said two trading executives with knowledge of the situation.

ESPO blend is popular among China's independent refiners because of its short voyage time from Russia, availability on a spot basis, and good fuel yield. Russia is the world's No. 2 crude exporter, with exports reaching 7.8 MMbpd in December, the International Energy Agency said.

Last year China imported 575,000 bpd of ESPO shipped by tankers, some 6% of total Chinese crude oil imports, with the majority processed by independent refiners, according to tanker tracker Vortexa Analytics.

State refining major Sinopec is a key buyer and trader of seaborne ESPO. Sinopec's trading vehicle Unipec, which rivals Vitol as the world's top oil trader, typically has large open credit lines with suppliers that allow the major to pay a month after a shipment is loaded.

Unipec has bought as many as eight ESPO cargoes for April loading, traders said. Sinopec did not immediately comment on how the firm pays for its purchases. One independent refiner who buys ESPO crude said the company can only use telegraphic transfer (TT) to pay for the oil, and that financing costs are now high because oil prices have surged and there is no longer a credit period for repayment.

As per MRC, U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to announce a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports on Tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. The White House said Biden was scheduled to announce actions at 10:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) on Tuesday against Russia over Ukraine, but did not specifically mention oil imports. Oil prices jumped on the news, with Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 for May climbing by 5.4% to USD129.91 a bbl by 1345 GMT.
mrchub.com

Westlake Chemical Corporation, the world's petrochemical major, has officially changed its name to Westlake Corporation, according to SpecialChem.

Westlake is now organized under one unified brand name with two financial reporting segments: Housing & Infrastructure Products and Performance & Essential Materials.

“We have reached an important milestone in the history of our company,” said Westlake president and chief executive officer Albert Chao. “Our business portfolio has evolved over the last decade, particularly in the last year when we celebrated our 35th Anniversary.”

“Through a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic growth that has been fueled by market trends, particularly in the rapidly expanding housing and infrastructure sector, we have made significant progress in diversifying our businesses and broadening our product offering.

By changing our name, we will better represent the breadth of industries we serve, including housing and construction, automotive and consumer lifestyle, packaging and healthcare,” added Chao. The company’s two newly established reporting segments replace the former segments, olefins and vinyls. Performance & essential materials includes Westlake North American vinyls, Westlake North American chlor-alkali & derivatives, Westlake European & Asian chlorovinyls, Westlake olefins, Westlake polyethylene and Westlake epoxy.

Westlake completed a series of acquisitions during 2021, including LASCO Fittings, LLC, a manufacturer of injection-molded polyviyl chloride (PVC) fittings; Dimex LLC, a producer of post-industrial recycled plastic consumer and building products; and Boral Limited’s North American building products businesses, which include roofing, siding, trim, shutters, outdoor living products, decorative stone and windows.

These acquisitions have significantly enhanced the company’s position in the housing and infrastructure markets and have greatly expanded its overall product offering. In addition, Westlake recently closed the acquisition of the global epoxy business of Hexion Inc., a leading supplier of coatings and composites used in such high-growth applications as wind turbine blades and light-weight automotive structural components.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC was about 999,300 tonnes in 2021, up by 7% year on year. The emulsion and suspension PVC market showed stronger demand, despite over a twofold price increase. December estimated SPVC consumption was 81,200 tonnes (excluding deliveries to the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan) versus 74,690 tonnes a month earlier.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
MRC

Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe, have announced a price increase for methyl methacrylate (MMA), as per the company's press release as of March 3,2022.

Effective March 1, 2022, or as existing contract terms allow, the price for MMA monomer rose by EUR550 per metric ton.

As MRC reported earlier, in May, 2021, Trinseo announced the closing of the previously announced transaction to acquire Arkema’s polymethyl methacrylates (PMMA) business. PMMA is a transparent and rigid resin with a wide range of end uses that augments Trinseo’s existing offerings across several end markets including automotive, building and construction, medical and consumer electronics.

The main application, consuming approximately 75% MMA, is in the production of PMMA. Methyl methacrylate is also used to produce methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene copolymer (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Russian producers did not adjust their PVC prices for the domestic market in March, and virtually rolled them over from February. But there were active market rumours about a possible significant increase in domestic PVC prices in April partially due to the rouble devaluation.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015.
MRC

Tosoh Corporation managed the parties in joint proposal of “development of technology for producing raw materials for plastics using CO2 and/or other sources” selected by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) funded by the Green Innovation Fund, according to SpecialChem.

Tosoh’s proposal collaborators include Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc., the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Catalytic Chemistry at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); Professors Keiichi Tomishige and Yasuhiro Fukushima, of Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering’s Departments of Applied Chemistry and of Chemical Engineering, respectively; Professor Masazumi Tamura, of Osaka City University’s Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis; and Colcoat Co., Ltd.

These parties will now collaborate in aiming to reduce CO2 emissions during the manufacture of polycarbonate and polyurethane by eliminating from the process the need for the conventional raw material phosgene.

They will, moreover, strive to achieve technology to convert CO2 into a raw material for plastic production by 2030. Their hope is to achieve the same plastic manufacturing cost as currently while improving the functionality of the plastic produced. To those ends, they will pilot the production of several hundred to several thousand tons of plastic per year.

The Japanese government’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 looms large in this project’s efforts to develop technology to capture CO2 for use as a raw material for plastic. Using CO2 in place of phosgene as a raw material to produce dialkyl carbonate and isocyanate, the raw materials for polycarbonate and polyurethane, will reduce CO2 emissions well below those generated with phosgene.

This project will also accelerate the development of manufacturing technology for functional chemicals using CO2 as a raw material. To ensure the widespread future use of that technology, the project collaborators will conduct a life cycle assessment of the chemicals it yields.

Project partner Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will use CO2 as a raw material to develop an intermediate for the polycarbonate manufacturing process that emits fewer GHGs than conventional processes.

By applying this technology to the development of high-performance polycarbonate, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company aims to develop and demonstrate functional chemical manufacturing technology for polycarbonates (PC) on a commercial scale toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

As MRC informed earlier, Tosoh Corporation, a major Japanese petrochemical producer, has announced it will permanently stop producing and selling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and TDI-related products from its Nanyo complex in Japan, effective April 2023. Despite the continuous implementation of measures to improve profitability, the environment surrounding this business has become increasingly severe in recent years, and there are no prospects for improvement, the company stated. Tosoh currently produce 25,000 t/y of TDI at the site.

Founded in 1935, Japan's Tosoh Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, is an international chemicals and specialty materials company. The main activity of the company is the production of chlor-alkali and petrochemical products, which include ethylene, propylene, polypropylene, polyethylene and synthetic rubbers. The Tosoh Group globally includes over 130 companies with manufacturing facilities and offices in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, UK, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
MRC

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the “tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine is making the global energy crisis worse,” according to ArabNews.

Nasser, speaking at CERAWeek in Houston, echoed other energy executives in saying that the crisis exposes the mixed signals delivered by policymakers to the oil-and-gas industry amid the energy transition.

“As oil and gas investments are discouraged, demands are being placed on our industry to increase production,” he said.

The Aramco chief said: “All energy resources will be needed to support a successful transition, and the demonization of our industry is not helping.”

“We need consensus on the essential role of oil and gas with lower emissions, working side-by-side with alternatives to meet the rising global call on energy and deliver on net-zero ambitions.”

Nasser also said the Ukraine crisis has exposed limitations of current energy policies and is a bleak reminder of the impact of geopolitics on the fragile energy transition.

As MRC informed before, in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.

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.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC