Ethylene supplies from Middle East improve, pressure in European markets eases

29-Jun-15

Ethylene supplies from the Middle East, especially Ruwais in the UAE, have improved and are expected to relieve pressure on European buyers, as per sources in Platts. Borouge, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Corp. (ADNOC) and Austrian petrochemical company Borealis, is the UAE's sole ethylene producer, and constitutes 11.7% of Middle Eastern ethylene capacity. It has a capacity of nearly 3.5 mln tpa of ethylene. Restart of BP Refining and Petrochemical Olefins 3 cracker in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Shell's Moerdijk cracker in the Netherlands, Versalis' 440,000 mtpa Brindisi cracker in Italy and 740,000 mtpa Naphtachimie cracker in Lavera, France, are also expected to weigh on spot prices. BP Refining and Petrochemicals' 440,000 mt/year Olefins 3 cracker in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, is expected to achieve on spec production by Friday, two buyers told Platts. Versalis' Brindisi cracker is on schedule for end-June restart, sources said. BPRP and Versalis were not immediately available to confirm. The Naphthachimie steam cracker and onsite derivatives production units at Lavera, France, a 50:50 joint venture between Ineos and Total, began restarting last Friday following an outage in mid-May, the company said.