Korea exports 26,999 mt of benzene from Mar 1-6

South Korea has exported 26,999 mt of benzene from March 1-6, according to the preliminary export data obtained from an industry source based in Seoul, Monday.

By country, China has displaced the US to become the largest recipient of South Korean benzene, by taking in 17,999 mt. This was followed by exports to Taiwan which were tallied at 9,000 mt.

Paraxylene traders seek to extend long positions in view of further price rise in Asia

Asia's paraxylene (PX) spot traders are seeking to extend their long positions in anticipation of further price rises ahead, industry participants informed, Tuesday.

Although the PX market balance was generally long, according to one source, sentiment towards PX has been buoyed by a strong rise in crude oil prices over latest trading sessions, coupled with a robust showing in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) prices downstream.

Eyeing further price rises in PX, traders are opting to swap prompt cargoes for back-month ones, sources said.

China's Jiangsu Hengsheng Resumes its Methanol Unit

China based Jiangsu Hengsheng has restarted its Methanol unit on March 8, 2016 with production capacity of 400k metric tonne per annum

The plant is located at Jiangsu, the company is offering methanol at Yuan 1,800 per metric tonne ex-work, up Yuan 40 per metric tonne from March 4. It was shut for a week-long turnaround early March.

ONGC Videsh plans to invest $500 million to up output from Colombia

ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of country’s flagship explorer ONGC, is mulling to spend nearly $500 million to increase crude oil output from the Mansarovar project in Colombia. However, this investment would be subject to extension of the Nare contract.

“From 2006 till 2015 year Mansarovar has invested around $1.5 billion. If the new strategic cooperation agreement of Nare Association is granted, the new investment would be close to $0.5 billion in the near future,” said Harvinderjit Singh, CEO of Mansarovar Energy Colombia, the joint venture between OVL and China’s Sinopec Petroleum International.

Mansarover has been the fifth largest oil producer in Colombia with production over 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). In 2015, incremental average production in Nare Association if the new cooperation agreement is granted could be around 9,000 – 11,000 barrels per day through the implementation of new technologies, infill drilling and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications in Nare Fields.

During recent visit of Indian and Chinese diplomats to the field it was mentioned that Nare contract is expiring in November 2021 and any further major capex investment for increase in oil production from Nare fields would be related to the grant of extension beyond the expiry period.

Oil prices bounce back over 40%

After a prolonged slide that took oil prices within sight of the $20-a-barrel threshold last month, sentiment in commodity markets seems to have turned, raising the question of whether oil prices have finally bottomed out.

Whether it will prove lasting or not remains to be seen, but the recent rebound in the oil market comes as investors focus on declines in oil drilling and pin their hopes on a freeze in output by major producers.

Crude oil futures traded in New York rose 5.5 percent on Monday to $37.90 a barrel, after rising nearly 4 percent on Friday. The U.S. benchmark price has had three straight weeks of gains, the longest such stretch since May. In London, Brent oil futures rose above $40 a barrel for the first time since December.

Oil markets have bounced back more than 40 percent since hitting of a low of $26.21 a barrel in New York in early February. At the time, many analysts, including forecasters at Goldman Sachs, said that oil could slide to $20 a barrel with little to stem the decline.

Sasol Delays U.S. Chemical Plant as Price Drop Spurs Savings

South Africa based Sasol Limited will review the cost and timing of its $8.9 billion chemicals plant in the U.S. as slumping prices caused first-half profit at the world’s biggest producer of motor fuel from coal to drop 63 percent.

Some units converting ethane into plastics and other products at Lake Charles in Louisiana will start in 2019 instead of 2018, said Johannesburg-based Sasol, which aims to complete a review of the project by the middle of this year.

SK Global to Shut its PP Unit

Ineos & Chevron Delay Planned Turnaround in Texas

EQUOTE Plans to Restart its MEG Unit

Government plans to double per capita plastics consumption

Government is encouraging investments in petrochemical sector and plans to double per capita consumption of plastics to 20 kg a person by 2022, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

"The government has ambitious plans of doubling the current per capita consumption of plastics from the present 10 kg per person to 20 kg per person by 2022," Pradhan said at the 'Indian Oil Petrochemical Conclave 2016' here.


This would require setting up one naphtha cracker every year bringing in huge growth opportunities in employment generation and start of new ancillary industries, among others, the Minister noted.


Pradhan further said, capital outlays worth Rs 2,00,000 crore are expected to be made in diverse product lines - in polyester intermediates, polyester film and yarn, polymers and other petrochemicals.

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India's plastic sector has huge scope for growth

The Indian plastic and petrochemical sector has a huge potential for growth and there is a need for free trade agreement (FTA) and duty inversion to make cost of manufacture in the country cheaper, according to Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir.

"The plastic sector has a huge potential for development and there is a great scope for consumption in sector of housing, public infrastructure and agriculture," Ahir said at the inauguration of PolyIndia 2016 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre here on January 28, an official statement said.

Ahir added that there was a need to review free trade agreement (FTA) and duty inversion "which can make cost of manufacture in India cheaper than import".

The three-day exhibition on plastics and petrochemicals was themed 'Indian Plastic and Petrochemical sector: Potential for Global Manufacturing Hub.'

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Positive movement starts in the Global polymer market

The international Polymer market has shown some positive movement in terms of price of commodity and engineering polymers after a couple of months. Prices of  Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) have moved up by USD 10-20 per metric tonne in all categories. The result of that is visible in the Indian polymer market as well, with all the Indian Polymer producers announcing unchanged price revision of polymers,  while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL) have hike their Polypropylene (PP) basic price by Rs 1.20 per kg.

Firstly, the reason behind this positive movement is that the price of key feedstock .i.e. Ethylene , Propylene and Styrene was also assessed higher in the international key Asian regions and secondly, the slightly improved buying and demand helped in lifting the price in the global market. From conversations with traders, Indianpetrochem gathered that demand for the PVC has noticeably improved and end users have begun to make some profitable purchase for manufacturing products such as pipes and fitting apart from other small units.  

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