Page 16 - DMEA Week 41

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Turkish refiner Tupras revises

2020 forecasts downward

TURKEY TUPRAS, Turkey’ largest refiner, has revised its volume expectation to 23mn tonnes from 25mn
sales and investment forecasts for 2020 down- tonnes. The investment expectation was cut to
The company has ward due to the adverse impact of the corona- $115mn from $125mn.
revised its sales and virus (COVID-19) pandemic on the company’s The capacity utilisation rate of the refiner is
investment forecasts operating environment. now seen at between 75% to 80% for 2020 versus
downwards to account In April, Tupras said it expected the effects of the previous forecast of 80% to 85%.
for the impact of the the pandemic on the economy would diminish Tupras’s production declined to 4.9mn
coronavirus pandemic. starting from June and economic activity would tonnes in the second quarter of 2020 from 6mn
return to normal in August. tonnes in Q1. In the second quarter of 2019, the
“Due to the ongoing negative impact of company’s output stood at 6.9mn tonnes.
the outbreak on petroleum products demand Its net sales revenues plunged 61% on
globally and significant deterioration in crack an annual basis to Turkish lira (TRY) 9.3bn
margins because of the elevated global product (around €1bn) in Q2 while it posted a net loss
inventories, our 2020 expectations needed to of TRY185mn in the quarter versus a net profit
be revised,” Tupras said in a filing with Borsa of TRY670mn a year earlier. Company Ebitda
Istanbul. also declined, falling to TRY477mn from
Consequently, the company revised its sales TRY1.5bn.™

PETROCHEMICALS

Saudi Advanced adds $80mn

unit to new petchem plan

SAUDI ARABIA SAUDI Arabia’s Advanced Petrochemical Co. Saudi Arabia has been working to build up its
said on October 8 it planned to add a 70,000 petrochemicals business in recent years to mon-
Advanceed and SK Gas tonne per year (tpy) isopropanol (IPA) plant etise domestic gas and establish a greater hedge
committed to build the to a project it is developing in Jubail with South against oil market volatility. But Saudi producers
plant in April. Korea’s SK Gas. have been hit hard by the weak conditions on the
The shareholder agreement establishing global polymers market.
its joint venture with SK has been amended to Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo this
include the IPA plant, Advanced said. The plant month pledged a $2b loan to their PetroRabigh
is slated to cost $80mn, taking overall project petrochemicals venture, to cover a shortfall in
expenses to $1.88bn, it said. its working capital. Meanwhile, producers Saudi
Advanced and SK Gas committed to build- Industrial Investment Corp. (SIIG) and National
ing the propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and Petrochemical Co. (Petrochem) are considering
polypropylene (PP) plants in Jubail in April, fol- a merger after sustaining heavy losses.
lowing on from a memorandum they signed the Market leader SABIC, recently bought by
previous year. Advanced has an 85% stake in the Aramco, has been losing money since last late
joint venture they formed, while SK Gas holds year. ™
15%. The units will produce 750,000 tpy of PP
starting in late 2024.
Advanced secured a SAR1.5bn ($400mn)
credit facility to fund its share of costs in July.
Lummus Technology, owned by McDermott,
will deliver licensing for its proprietary CATO-
FIN technology for the PDH plant, while
Dutch-registered LyondellBasell Industries will
license its proprietary Spherizone and Spher-
ipol technologies. US firm Fluor, meanwhile,
has been selected as a project management
consultant.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 15•October•2020