09-11 Sep, 2015 - Singapore, SINGAPORE
Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore
Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore
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Due to the oil price slide over the past year, some of the ethylene projects in the US have been cancelled or delayed. This has had a bearing on shale gas – which has lost its attractiveness as a feedstock option for Asian petchem producers.
The price drop has made Asian petrochemical producers turn to naphtha based crackers. Taking advantage of low feedstock costs, Asian petrochemical producers have clocked high margins for turning naphtha into ethylene in 2015.
The region’s petchem plants are operating at full capacity to make ethylene. LG Chem, one of Asia’s top five naphtha crackers, is running its plants at full capacity – two units with a combined 2.2 million tonnes per year (tpy) of capacity.
Analysts predict that the delays in projects in the US will keep ethylene tight and Asian petrochemical margins strong for the next several years.
Analysts anticipate the current boom for naphtha crackers to last through the end of 2017.
The first half of 2015 also witnessed a heavy maintenance schedule for naphtha units in Asia, which aided to sustain cracking margins.
Some of those going into maintenance schedules – South Korea, that is Asia’s top ethylene exporter to China, shut four crackers with a total of nearly 3.8 million tpy of ethylene capacity. Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp shut its 700,000 tpy Mailiao unit in June while Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Corp and Mitsubishi Chemical shut one each of their crackers.
Although the petrochemical producers in Asia are currently earning profits from naphtha crackers, in the long term it’s believed that they will opt for natural gas as a cheaper and abundant feedstock.
Some of the Asian petchem producers are already undertaking projects in this regard. For instance, LG Chem is all set to complete its JV in Kazakhstan in 2019 – that will produce 840,000 tpy of ethylene from ethane.
There is also South Korea’s Lotte Chemical – via its US unit that is expected to form a joint ethane cracker with Axiall in Louisiana in 2019 to produce ethylene.
More insights on the petrochemical markets will be shared at 22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit convening in Singapore on 10-11 September, 2015.
Contact Ms. Huiyan at huiyan@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9113 for more information.
03 Sep, 2015
Iran, China and Indonesia have finalised a deal to construct a refinery on Indonesia’s East Java island. The new refinery will have a capacity to process 150,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day.
This is a major push to Indonesia’s refinery sector – that currently operates four refineries, producing 800,000 barrels per day. Each of the four refineries operating in Indonesia have capacities ranging between 300,000 bpd and 350,000 bpd.
With the commissioning of the new refinery, the country’s total refining capacity is slated to rise to 1.68 million barrels per day by 2022. This will help Indonesia to reduce oil product imports.
Under the JV, Iran is expected to supply feedstock and partially finance the project while China will take care of a major chunk of the finance – estimated to be 85% of the total funds required.
Iran is hopeful of supplying heavy crude feedstock to Indonesia on a long-term basis. It is also envisaged that the private sector from the three countries will build five more refineries to process gas condensates in Indonesia.
It’s estimated that $3.5 billion is required to build the six projects that includes the oil refinery.
Iran has also reached a final agreement with Indonesia to build 48 power plants in the Southeast Asian country.
Besides Indonesia, Iran has collaborated with Brazil to construct a refinery for processing 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil and they are negotiating with India to construct a refinery with a processing capacity of 400,000 bpd of crude oil.
More on Indonesia’s refinery sector developments will be discussed by Dempsy Robby Kambey, General Manager, PT Kreasindo Resources Indonesia at Refining & Petchem Asia (Incorporating Refining Outlook Asia & 22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit) on 9-11 September, 2015 in Singapore.
Contact Ms. Huiyan at huiyan@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9113 for more details.
28 Jul, 2015
Iran is expanding its petrochemical industry in a massive scale to target the growing demand in Asian markets. This includes 17 petrochemical units to be built in the Iranian city of Chabahar, located on the Sea of Oman coast, worth $12 billion. It plans to produce 22 million tonnes of petrochemical and polymer products annually with these new units. These units aim to export to markets in Pakistan, India and China.
The construction of the first pipeline – that will carry ethane for use as feedstock in these units – will also commence soon.
Financed by the private sector, the project includes 4 units of methanol, ammonia, urea/ammonia each, two units of ethylene, and a unit each of aromatics and methanol-to-propylene. The project is said to take about 9 years to complete.
The strategic location on the Sea of Oman is expected to help Iran reduce cost of shipments and exports. Plus, with this location, Iran plans to expand petrochemical plants beyond the Strait of Hormuz and also benefit from the free trade zones and other infrastructural facilities near the Sea of Oman.
The country’s Minister of Petroleum – Bijan Zangeneh has said that $180 billion will be invested in Iran to revive and renovate its oil & gas and petrochemical industries by 2022.
Currently, Iran produces 60 million tonnes of petrochemicals annually with the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) planning to raise this to 100 million tonnes per year at an investment of $30 billion.
By the end of the current Iranian year (ending March 2016), Iran is expected to add 3 new petrochemical plants. These are besides the 60 petchem projects underway that are said to be worth $70 billion.
The country is hopeful of ushering in $70 billion of domestic and foreign investment into its petchem sector.
More insights on the petrochemical markets will be shared at 22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit convening in Singapore on 10-11 September, 2015.
Contact Ms. Huiyan at huiyan@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9113 for more information.
14 Jul, 2015
A recent study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) titled 'Indian Petrochemical Industry: An overview' reveals that India's petrochemical industry is growing at a CAGR of approximately 14 percent and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2020 from its current $40 billion.
This growth rate is notable as the global petrochemical industry growth rate is stagnant at approximately 6 percent.
The report notes that India's chemical industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11 percent over the next few years and reach $250 billion by 2020 from its current value of $120 billion. Petrochemicals currently contribute about 30 per cent to India's chemical industry.
The industry body observes that the petrochemical sector can benefit from increasing market focus on the Middle-East and Asia from the West. At the domestic front, the industry is expected to usher in $25 billion to meet the surging demand in the country. Among the various petrochemicals, polymers dominate the Indian market and it is growing at a good rate with the rise in middle class household consumption.
Apart from exploring areas such as specialty chemicals, specialty polymers and catering to huge emerging domestic demand and a manufacturing hub, the Indian petrochemical industry also has to focus on securing feedstock, right product mix, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) opportunities, the study states.
Comparing India's performance against US and China, the study maintains that, India's per-capita consumption of polymers (PO + PVC) is still at a nascent stage. While India consumes about 5.2 kilograms per capita of polymers, China's per capita consumption is estimated to be 30 kilograms.
India consumes about 6.2 million tons of polymers - which is estimated at a meagre 3 percent of the global consumption of 200 million tons. Despite, such statistics, the trade agency is confident that India's polymer consumption can be boosted if it reaches out to a large population and sustain its current economic growth.
22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit convening in Singapore on 10-11 September, 2015 will discuss the Indian petrochemical market in greater detail.
Contact Ms. Huiyan at huiyan@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9113 for more information.
04 Jun, 2015
India's biggest refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has commenced crude processing at its 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) Paradip refinery in Eastern India. The plant will achieve full commissioning in six months' time, and IOC's overall refining capacity will be increased to 1.61 million bpd, about 35 percent of the country's 4.6 million bpd capacity.
The new refinery will strengthen India's refining capacity which has almost doubled over the last decade to almost 5 million barrels per day. The country is the world's fourth largest refining centre next only to the U.S., China and Russia, according to BP's statistical review of world energy.
The $5.2 billion Paradip refinery's output is predicted to put pressure on the profit margins of Asian refiners as the Indian refinery will compete with new and expanded plants in the Middle East and China. This is at a time when Asian refining margins have eased recently after it plummeted to multi year highs in the beginning of 2015.
IOC will begin its secondary units in phases by end of October. It is said that out of the nearly dozen IOC refineries, the Paradip refinery is the most sophisticated. It can process Mexico's Maya crude. At the time of commissioning, however, West African sweet crude was used.
The new plant will meet the demand in eastern India, which is currently met by fuels sourced from private players and other plants in northern India. It will also help to free up some gasoline for overseas markets.
Three years ago India saw HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) commissioning its 180,000 bpd refinery at Bathinda in Punjab state.
More on refining capacity addition in India and Asia will be under the spotlight at CMT's Refining & Petchem Asia (Incorporating Refining Outlook Asia & 22nd Asia Petrochemical Summit) on 9-11 September, 2015 in Singapore.
Contact Ms. Huiyan at huiyan@cmtsp.com.sg or call +65 6346 9113 for more details.
04 Jun, 2015
