Europe heading into winter with low storage levels of diesel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Europe is heading into winter with seasonally low levels of diesel in storage tanks, with major implications for the continent's industries and drivers in the run-up to EU sanctions on Russian crude oil and refined product supplies, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Diesel, along with other distillate fuels such as heating oil and gasoil, are the lifeblood of industry with uses ranging from powering factories to heating homes, in addition to being used as a motor fuel. When Russia, which supplies Europe with about 60% of its import requirement, invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the diesel market went into shock as it priced in a possible cutoff of those supplies.

The six-month spread in European diesel futures went into a record backwardation of nearly USD600/t. In a backwardated market, current prices trade at a premium to prices for future deliveries, which makes it uneconomical for traders to put diesel into storage and book a profit. "No one in their right mind would put diesel into tanks at those levels," one European trader said. The result has been that European distillate stocks held by refiners are trending much lower than their historical averages.

Stocks of diesel and gasoil in commercial sites in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub are also well below their historical average, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global shows. The spread currently stands at about USD100 a ton, still well above levels for this time of year.

Compounding the situation further, extremely hot and dry weather in Europe has led to unseasonably low water levels on the Rhine river, a key waterway for moving barges carrying fuel from the massive oil refineries and tank farms in ARA to Germany, France and Switzerland.

Water levels at the gauge point of Kaub in Germany currently stand at 42 cm, and Germany's electronic waterway information service for inland shipping, or ELWIS, forecasts levels to drop further to 34 cm in the coming days. According to consultants FGE Energy, 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil products traversed the Rhine to be unloaded in Germany in 2021, more than 10% of the country's oil demand.

At current levels, barge owners are opting to load their vessels at about a quarter or less of their 2,000-3,000 ton capacity to avoid grounding into the riverbed. This has created major bottlenecks along the route and has raised barge freight rates in some areas to record highs. While oil products also move through pipeline and by rail into Germany, those are already operating at full capacity, FGE says. Trucking is an option, but high fuel costs make this option uneconomical, they added.

"With the river levels so low there's no point in having product in ARA as you can't move it down the Rhine, and backwardation is discouraging having product in tank," one European trader said. "A major disruption to an important gasoil/diesel supply route from ARA to inland Europe could not come at a worse time," FGE said. The market is already tight due to refinery outages in Austria, which along with Germany and Switzerland will be looking to build heating oil stocks ahead of winter.

Soaring natural gas prices which are encouraging a switch to oil products for power generation could also tighten the market further, FGE said. The International Energy Agency on Thursday raised its forecast for oil demand growth for this year by 380,000 bpd to 2.1 MMbpd citing the gas-to-oil switch.

As per MRC, Wood, the global consulting and engineering company, has secured a new contract with INEOS in excess of USD100 MM to deliver engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services for Project One, a new state-of-the-art petrochemicals complex in Antwerp, Belgium, which will deliver an ethane cracker with the lowest carbon footprint in Europe. Effective immediately, the 4-yr contract will be delivered by Wood’s Projects business unit. The scope is focused on the outside battery limit facilities for the ethane cracker and follows the successful completion of front-end engineering design for the facility. Wood’s integrated project management team will also continue to oversee the project, working closely with the INEOS project team.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro declared force majeure on 10 August on several products due to a chlorine leak according to a company source, said the company.

According to the letter, a partial resumption of chlorine supplies is anticipated on 31 August and a full resumption of chlorine supply is expected on 30 November.

The end date is unknown for resumption of operations for downstream production plants beyond 31 August according to the same letter.

As per MRC, Covestro is expanding its production capacities for thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) Films in the Platilon range, as well as the associated infrastructure and logistics and schedules to complete the new facilities as early as the end of 2023.

We remind that Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. With 2021 sales of EUR 15.9 billion, Covestro has 50 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 17,900 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. oil refiner Citgo Petroleum reported second quarter earnings that surged to USD1.28 B, the highest quarterly profit in its history, on higher crude processing volumes and stronger margins, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The results reflect a sharp turnaround after back-to-back annual losses in 2020 and 2021. Demand and prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have soared this year on the U.S. recovery and global shortages caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The eighth largest U.S. refiner's three plants processed 776,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), up from 732,000 bpd a year earlier, it said. It sold a record 130,000 barrels per day of unbranded gasoline to retailers, the company's parent posted on Twitter. Refinery utilization rates, a key measure of efficiency, rose to 101% from 95% in the first quarter this year, it said. The utilization rates topped those of rivals, some of whom also posted record earnings in the June quarter.

A spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the tweets. A subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA, Citgo is run by boards appointed by Juan Guaido, who Washington recognizes as Venezuela's legitimate leader.

The company last year returned to profitability after deep losses during the coronavirus pandemic. Its first quarter USD245 million profit was more than 10 times the year-ago level on higher processing volumes, higher exports and stronger margins.

On Thursday, Citgo said it was offering to buy USD286 million in notes due in 2024 and repay nearly $483 million of a term loan facility. Its net debt to capitalization ratio fell to 28% from 47%, its parent said. The debt reductions signaled that Citgo could soon resume paying dividends to its parent, a practice that was stopped after its 2019 split from state-run PDVSA and the naming of ad hoc boards that oversee Venezuela's foreign assets.

In a tweet, the ad hoc parent said the company's debt agreements required it to pay down debt "before being able to send dividends." Citgo ended the period with USD2.2 billion in cash and proceeds from an accounts receivable securitization, according to the PDVSA ad hoc Twitter posts.

Citgo is protected by U.S. executive orders from creditors trying to seize Venezuela's foreign assets. It would be willing to resume Venezuelan heavy crude imports if the U.S. government authorizes the flow, Citgo's CEO said in July. The crude imports are key to feeding its refineries' deep conversion units.

As per MRC, Citgo Petroleum is willing to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, suspended since 2019 by Washington's sanctions on its parent company PDVSA, if the U.S. government authorizes the flow. Since March, top U.S. and Venezuelan officials have been engaged in political negotiations that could lead to Washington easing oil trading sanctions that have hit the OPEC country's production and exports. OPEC and the French government, representing Europe, have called for Washington to allow Venezuelan and Iranian crude to flow to consuming nations that are struggling to replace Russian energy supplies during the war in Ukraine.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Material supplier Covestro AG is selling its additive manufacturing materials business to additive manufacturing pioneer Stratasys Ltd. for approximately 43 million euros (USD43 million), said Canplastics.

The acquisition will include R&D facilities and activities; global development and sales teams across Europe, the U.S. and China; a portfolio of approximately 60 additive manufacturing materials; and extensive IP comprising hundreds of patents and patents pending.

Stratasys, which is based in Rehovot, Israel, is already a distributor of Covestro’s Somos resins and they are already available for Stratasys’ Neo and Origin One 3D printers.

“The acquisition of Covestro’s highly regarded Additive Manufacturing business positions us to further grow adoption of our newest technologies,” Stratasys CEO Yoav Zeif said in an Aug. 8 news release. “We will now have the ability to accelerate cutting-edge developments in 3D printing materials, and advance our strategy of providing the best and most complete polymer 3D printing portfolio in the industry.”

The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2023, and the majority of employees of Covestro’s additive manufacturing materials business will continue to be based at its sites in Geleen, Netherlands and Elgin, Ill.

As per MRC, Covestro is expanding its production capacities for thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) Films in the Platilon range, as well as the associated infrastructure and logistics and schedules to complete the new facilities as early as the end of 2023.

We remind that Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. With 2021 sales of EUR 15.9 billion, Covestro has 50 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 17,900 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco's second-quarter net profit surged to a record riyal (SR) 181.6bn (USD48bn), on the back of higher crude oil prices and sales volumes, said the company.

The quarterly earnings were the biggest since the energy giant’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. Aramco's overall hydrocarbon production totalled 13.6m barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, it said in a statement on 14 August.

The integration of petrochemicals major SABIC into Aramco is "progressing ahead of schedule and the company continues to capture synergies in multiple areas", the company said.

Aramco’s refining and petrochemical joint ventures with PETRONAS in Malaysia, namely, Pengerang Refining Company Sdn Bhd and Pengerang Petrochemical Sdn Bhd (collectively known as PRefChem), started operations in May and will reach full capacity of 300,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, it said.

"We expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts," Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser said.

"But while there is a very real and present need to safeguard the security of energy supplies, climate goals remain critical, which is why Aramco is working to increase production from multiple energy sources -- including oil and gas, as well as renewables, and blue hydrogen," he added.

We remind, Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Aramco”) inaugurated the Aramco Research Center at KAUST (ARC KAUST), which aims to accelerate the development of low-carbon solutions for the energy industry using advanced analytics. Strategically located within the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the newly established research hub deploys artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop innovative ways to advance low-carbon solutions and enable a Circular Carbon Economy.
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