Rosneft huge oil tender fails after demanding prepayment in roubles

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rosneft failed to sell oil in a jumbo tender after demanding prepayment in roubles, meaning the country's top oil company will need to find ways to divert more crude to buyers in Asia via private deals, reported Reuters.

The failure of the tender highlights a growing struggle by the Kremlin oil major to sell oil due to sweeping Western sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow, which calls the invasion "a special operation", has publicly acknowledged it has faced some oil export problems since March due to sanctions but pledged to boost cooperation with Asia to divert some oil sales from the West.

Western sanctions on Russian oil are part of a broader effort to isolate Moscow politically and economically for the invasion that includes discussion of an EU-wide oil embargo

The European Union also advised its members not to succumb to Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay roubles for gas from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.

The EU is much more dependent of Russian gas than on oil and analysts and economists have said a full embargo on Russian gas would plunge the continent deep into recession.

Last week, Rosneft followed on the footsteps of Putin's orders to Gazprom and asked for 100% prepayment and conversion of the payment into roubles for purchases of its oil.

Rosneft tendered to sell 6.5 MMtons of Urals, Siberian Light, Sokol and ESPO Blend oil loading from Russian ports in May-June but no bids were submitted by Monday, the five traders said.

Rosneft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, India's HDFC Bank and some foreign banks stopped offering trade credit for oil imports to Nayara Energy, a Russian-backed refiner, and some suppliers are seeking payment upfront to avoid potential problems resulting from western sanctions against Moscow. Nayara has not been sanctioned as part of the international response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Russian energy giant Rosneft, which owns 49% of the Indian refiner, has been.

We remind that in December 2021, Rosneft backed Nayara Energy, earlier known as Essar Oil, has chalked out massive expansion plans for India which include setting up of a greenfield petrochemical complex and ramping up its existing refining capacity from 20 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 46 mtpa at Vadinar near Jamnagar in Gujarat. The total envisaged investment for expansion, of which a major part is towards building a new petrochemical complex, is about Rs.1.5 lakh crore, they said. The expansion plans also include increasing its retail presence and additional investment at the captive port of Vadinar.

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) -- An explosion at illegal oil refining depot in Nigeria's Rivers state has killed over 100 people overnight, reported Reuters with reference to a local government official and the NGO Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre's (YEAC) statement on Saturday.

"The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition," the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said.

As MRC informed earlier, Dangote's 650,000-bpd oil refinery being built in Nigeria is due to begin production by the 4Q of 2022.

We remind that in August, 2021, gunmen killed a police officer and six employees of a Nigerian oil and gas services contractor during an attack on buses transporting workers to a Shell project site in the southeastern state of Imo. Attacks on oil and gas facilities have long been a problem in Nigeria, where the multi-billion dollar industry sits alongside impoverished communities that have seen little benefit from it. In this case, the motive was unclear.

We also remind that Royal Dutch Shell plans to reduce its refining and chemicals portfolio by more than half, it said in July 2020 without giving a precise timeframe. The move is part of the Anglo-Dutch company's plan to shrink its oil and gas business and expand its renewables and power division to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply by 2050.
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)-- Materials maker Cepsa Quimica SA has begun production of a sustainable grade of phenol, a feedstock used to make engineering resins, said Sustainableplastics.

Madrid-based CQ is marketing the new phenol under the NextPhenol brand name. The material can be used to make nylon, polycarbonate, methyl methacrylate and coatings. The firm also recently launched Next LAB, a sustainable linear alkylbenzene, which can be used in cleaning products. In a news release, CQ officials said that the new line is part of the firm's ambitions to make its own business activities fossil-free in the long term and also helps CQ customers to make their products and production processes more sustainable.

CQ is a leading global supplier of phenol and LAB. The firm "has formulated clear objectives to make the company sustainable and fossil-free in the long term," feedstocks and ESG head Jose Maria Cuadro said in the release. "To achieve this, we not only look at our own production processes, energy consumption and the supply chain, but also at the origin of the raw materials, replacing traditional fossil sources for renewable feedstocks and wastes," he added.

The new range of products contains at least 68 percent sustainable or alternative carbon sources. "The only difference is that we no longer get them from fossil sources, but from waste and biomass," Cuadro said. He added that product specifications, performance and applications of the new products are basically the same. "We do have to adapt our production processes because renewable and recycled raw materials need additional treatment," Cuadro said.

From a production point of view, he added, customers won't notice any difference between the traditional and new products. "The biggest benefit is that the customer will be able to increase the sustainability of their products and production processes because of our sustainable raw materials, thus reducing their ecological footprint," Cuadro said. "Buyers and consumers are increasingly demanding this."

The new NextLAB and NextPhenol product lines are currently being produced at CQ plants in the Spanish provinces of Cadiz and Huelva as well as Shanghai. These plants have been certified according to the ISCC Plus standard, which focuses on the sustainability and traceability of recycled materials, waste products and biomass for the production of recyclable plastics and chemical raw materials, officials said.

CQ employs more than 1,000 and has plants in seven countries. The firm's other chemical products include plastic feedstock cumene.

As it was written earlier, Cepsa is exploring a sale of its chemicals business under a strategic review as it seeks to raise funds to accelerate its transition to clean energy. Cepsa is working with Citi to identify possible buyers for the division which is valued at up to 3 billion euros (USD3.5 billion), the sources said, cautioning that discussions were at a preliminary stage and no deal was certain.

Cepsa is a Spanish petrochemical company. Full name Compania Espanola de Petroleos S.A. The company is headquartered in Madrid. Refining is one of the main activities of CEPSA. The production of asphalt and other road surfaces is another of the company's core activities; nine CEPSA factories are engaged in the production of these products.
mrchub.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nextek’s Nextloopp project has arrived at a decisive point in its progress towards closing the loop on post-consumer food-grade recycled polypropylene, or FgrPP said Sustainableplastics.

Following the successful trials at Tomra in September 2021, the 43-strong multi-participant global project is now moving forward with production trials of food-grade compliant rPP. During the September trials, 99.9% sorting purity using Nextek’s invisible PolyPrism fluorescent markers was achieved. This, said Professor Edward Kosior, the driving force behind Nextloopp, was the real breakthrough: demonstrating that sorting into food packaging - as the current regulations require - is indeed possible, combined with the ability to clean and decontaminate recycled polypropylene packaging to food safety standards. For consumer safety, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) requires that recycled food-grade materials can only be made from (>95%) food packaging and that the recycled plastic must meet the same high standards required for virgin food-grade plastics.

Nextloopp is now dispatching its PPristine recycled PP prototype resins from post-consumer food packaging to its 43 participants for further trials, during which over 60 different products will be produced from Nextloopp’s four grades of PPristine food compliant and "INRT grade" resins.

This milestone confirms the project is poised to address the key challenges to recycling this valuable polymer, according to Luke Burgess, director of Business Development at Viridor, the UK’s largest recycling operator. It also opens up important commercial opportunities for the circular economy, he added.

Colleague participants concurred. Robinson Packaging’s Managing Director UK, Steve Haley, pointed to the rising demand for post-consumer recycled material and the need for a high-quality food-grade solution, while in Malaysia, Heng Hiap’s CEO, Kian Seah, foresaw demand for food-grade rPP soaring, driven by public and regulatory pressure as the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pro-Pac Packaging Group's Category Manager–Food, Tim Strachan, says they are exploring innovative, sustainable change in rigid PP packaging driven by consumers, retailers and their customers who all want to make an impact. Nextloop has provided tremendous knowledge, support and the technology to reach this latest milestone, noted Pro-Pac Packaging Group's Category Manager–Food, Tim Strachan, ‘bringing them even closer to answering the complexities of adding food-grade recycled PP material into food-grade PP products’.

Meanwhile, the project is now still fine-tuning the required data to compile the dossier for its application to EFSA and FDA for food compliance.

We remind, Ineos Olefins and Polymers Europe have joined the UK-based Nextloopp project, which is aiming to launch the first food-grade mechanically recycled polypropylene (R-PP) material from post-consumer waste in Europe. INEOS will be at the centre of an important two-year project that will inform the building of a demonstration plant in the UK to produce 10,000 tonnes per year of food-grade recycled polypropylene.

The Nextloopp project had initially targeted a launch date during the second half of 2022. However, delays resulting from the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit have pushed back the project completion date by approximately six months, in to 2023.

The group plans to overcome this challenge for R-PP by using marker technology to separate out the food-contact origin material at sorting and separation stage. The process will include a decontamination stage to comply with both EFSA and US Food and Drug Administration standards.
mrchub.com