In recent years, the domestic styrene industry has developed steadily. By the end of 2018, China’s annual production capacity reached about 9.5 million tons. In the next few years, styrene production capacity will continue to expand, downstream demand is insufficient to follow up, import volume will be significantly reduced, and the supply and demand pattern will appear larger variables.

Great increase in capacity

In 2018, a total of 760,000 tons/year styrene production capacity was added in Qingdao Bay and Haoyuan, Anhui Province. In the next few years, with the hot construction of integrated refining and chemical projects, Hengli Petrochemical, Zhejiang Refining and Chemical and other large-scale new styrene plants are planned to start up, together with the new projects of other enterprises, the total capacity of styrene plants planned to put into operation this year and next year alone has exceeded 5 million tons/year, and the domestic supply of styrene will increase substantially.

It is noteworthy that the propylene oxide/styrene (PO/SM) co-oxidation process has increased significantly in the planned new plant. Wanhua Chemistry and Tianjin Bohua Chemical Company have chosen co-oxidation process. Compared with the traditional ethylbenzene dehydrogenation method, the investment and operation cost of co-oxidation method are reduced.

Previously, the co-oxidation process has been in the hands of foreign companies, such as Leandberg Basel, Shell, Repsall and so on. On January 5 this year, Wanhua Chemical Co-oxidation of Ethylbenzene with its own intellectual property rights to produce propylene oxide with high efficiency and green technology has passed the appraisal of achievements organized by China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, and will be applied to the company’s new PO/SM plant in the future, which will break the technological monopoly of foreign companies.

In the traditional ethylbenzene dehydrogenation process, the use of raw materials is also more variable. More and more companies began to choose dry gas as the source of ethylene raw material, in order to achieve high value-added comprehensive utilization of refinery dry gas and promote resource conservation.

Insufficient follow-up of demand

Although the production capacity of styrene will increase dramatically, the overall follow-up of demand is insufficient. Industry insiders analysis, in 2018 as the main downstream of styrene ABS, EPS and PS production capacity is less, in the next few years, the planned production capacity in these areas is far lower than the expansion rate of raw styrene, coupled with the pressure of Sino-US trade war on the export of end products, the overall downstream support for styrene is insufficient. Significant reduction in imports

In addition to capacity and demand, imports also have a greater impact on the supply and demand pattern of styrene. As we all know, styrene in China is heavily dependent on imports, while products originated in Korea, Taiwan and the United States account for half of the imported Styrene Market in China.

On June 22, 2018, the Ministry of Commerce issued a final ruling on imported styrene originating in Korea, Taiwan and the United States, levying anti-dumping duties from the next day. With the implementation of anti-dumping and the increase of domestic production capacity, the import volume of styrene will be significantly reduced, and domestic styrene will become the new darling of the market. This can be seen from last year’s customs data. According to statistics, from July to November 2018, China imported 124.32 million tons of styrene, a decrease of 11.3% compared with the same period last year.

Generally speaking, with the successive start-up of integrated refining and chemical projects, the domestic production capacity is expected to expand substantially with the supporting styrene plant. At the same time, the anti-dumping policies on products from Korea, the United States and other regions have rapidly increased the proportion of domestic styrene in the market, and the supply pattern of styrene industry has changed greatly. In terms of the import volume of styrene from 3 million to 4 million tons per year in recent years, if the new production capacity can be released in the next two years, domestic styrene products may completely replace imported products.

Thanks to production growth and other factors, Total, an international oil and gas giant, achieved a good performance last year.

Recently, Daudal released its fourth quarter and full-year report of 2018, with adjusted net profit of $13.6 billion in 2018, an increase of 28% over the previous year, and a return on equity of nearly 12%.

In the first quarter of 2018, Total achieved a net profit of $2.9 billion, up 13% from a year earlier; in the second quarter, it achieved a net profit of $3.72 billion, nearly doubling from a year earlier; in the third quarter, it achieved a six-year maximum single-quarter profit of $4 billion, up 48% from a year earlier; in the fourth quarter, it achieved a net profit of $3.164 billion, up 10% from a year earlier.

Patrick Pouyannlei, chairman of the company, said that the company’s strong performance was mainly driven by production growth. In 2018, the company’s oil and gas production reached a record 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an increase of more than 8% year on year.

In 2018, the net profit of the exploration and production sector of Daudal increased significantly, reaching 10.21 billion US dollars, up 71% year-on-year; the natural gas and renewable power sector increased 56% year-on-year, reaching 756 million US dollars.

Net profit of refinery and chemical industry, marketing and service sectors declined. Among them, the net profit of refinery and chemical sectors was $3.379 billion, down 11% from the same period last year; the net profit of marketing and service sectors was $1.652 billion, down 1% from the same period last year.

In 2018, Daudal made progress in the Ichthys LNG project in Australia, Yamal LNG project in Russia, Kaombo North project in Angola and Egina deep-sea oil field project in Nigeria. In addition to the counter-cyclical acquisition of Maersk Oil, it also acquired new offshore oil rights in the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Pan said that Dodall had completed its stock repurchase plan of $1.5 billion in 2018, and that its mid-term dividend would be increased by 3.1% to 0.66 per share in 2019. Under the environment of oil price of $6 billion per barrel, it would continue to buy back $1.5 billion of shares.

In 2018, Total’s net investment amounted to 15.6 billion US dollars, and its cost reduction was about 4.2 billion US dollars. By the end of 2018, its asset-liability ratio was 15.5%.

The international crude oil market remained volatile last year, but oil prices rose from an average of $54 per barrel in 2017 to $71 per barrel, an increase of 41.48%.

Thanks to the rise in oil prices, several major international oil giants achieved profit growth in 2018.

Among them, BP’s net profit increased 177 times year-on-year to $9.383 billion, Shell’s reached $21.4 billion, up 36% year-on-year, and Exxon Mobil’s net profit was $20.89 billion, up about 6% year-on-year.

Total, FINA and ELF are global integrated energy producers and suppliers, headquartered in Paris, France. They are the largest oil and gas producers in Africa and the Middle East, ranking fourth in Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

At present, Daudal has 28 refineries, 13 of which are wholly owned, and operates lubricating oil operations in more than 110 countries.

The crude oil market may soon usher in a new development, while Africa and South Africa will become new winners of energy wealth.

Dodar recently announced that it had made a major condensate discovery off the coast of South Africa.

The company said it had discovered a condensate field 175 kilometers offshore from the southern coast of South Africa, located in the Brulpadda prospect area, in Block 11B/12B of the Outeniqua Basin. The oil and gas bearing layer is 57 meters thick, stratigraphic age is Early Cretaceous, and drilling depth is 3633 meters. The following three-dimensional seismic exploration will be carried out by Dodar, followed by four exploration wells. According to Dodar, the exploration well has a resource of about 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

With 45% interest, Dodall is the operator of 11B/12B, covering an area of 19,000 square kilometers. Other partners include Qatar Petroleum, a 25% shareholder, CNR International, a 20% shareholder, and Main Street, a 10% South African consortium.

“With this discovery, Doddle has opened up a new world-class gas and oil business and has the ability to test several follow-up prospects in the same block,” Kevin McClarkland, senior vice president of exploration at Doddle, said in a statement.

Andrew Latham, vice president of Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm, commented that although the well was not a crude oil discovery, Brulpadda would eventually bring about a billion barrels of equivalent, which would surely bring huge changes to South Africa. The crude oil market may find a turnaround.

In response to Dodar’s statement, South African Mining Minister Mantash welcomed this, believing that the oil and gas discovery will promote economic development.

Akif Chaudhry, chief analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said that while this would help South Africa’s gas economy, long-term planning was still critical.

At present, South Africa is drafting a new bill on the development of crude oil and natural gas resources. Several major oil companies have already deployed large-scale offshore areas in Africa. BP, Mobil and Shell are also on the list. Among them, Mobil’s main deep-ploughing areas are western and southern Africa, including Ghana, Mauritania and Namibia and other countries.

According to Dow Jones Sao Paulo, Brazil’s oil production in December 2018 was higher than that in November because of an increase in production from the country’s huge subsalt oil fields.

Brazilian oil production rose to 2.7 million barrels a day in December, 4.8% more than in November and 3% more than in December 2017, the Brazilian National Petroleum Administration (ANP) said Monday. Natural gas production reached 114 million cubic meters per day in December, an increase of 1.2% over November and 0.3% over December 2017.

According to ANP, production from subsalt oilfields in December increased by 3.9% over November to 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with oil production reaching 1.5 million barrels per day and natural gas production reaching 61.5 million cubic meters per day. In December, oil and gas production from subsalt oilfields accounted for 55.4% of Brazil’s total oil and gas production, compared with 50.7% in December 2017.

On January 28, the fluorite commodity index was 123.51, which was the same as yesterday. It was 3.12% lower than the cyclical peak of 127.49 points (2019-01-03), and 150.99% higher than the lowest point of 49.21 on December 18, 2016. (Note: Period refers to 2011-09-01 to date)

According to statistics, the recent domestic fluorite price trend has been slightly lower, the average domestic fluorite price as of 29 days is 3510 yuan/ton. Due to the impact of strict environmental protection inspection, some domestic fluorite plants have been shut down in the near future, while the supply of fluorite in the field has been relatively reduced, but the recent downstream market is not good, and the price of fluorite market has slightly declined. In addition to the low temperature, the low start-up rate of fluorite flotation units in the North has aggravated the shortage of domestic fluorite supply. In the southern fluorite market, the start-up of devices has also been reduced, and the supply of fluorite in the field is tight, but the downstream terminal receipt is not active, resulting in a slight drop in market prices. As of the 29th, the price of 97 fluorite wet powder in Inner Mongolia was 3200-3600 yuan/ton, the mainstream of 97 fluorite wet powder negotiations in Fujian was 3400-3700 yuan/ton, the price of 97 fluorite wet powder in Henan was 3300-3600 yuan/ton, and the price of 97 fluorite wet powder in Jiangxi was 3200-3600 yuan/ton.

The price of hydrofluoric acid in the downstream fluorite market declined, with the domestic market price of hydrofluoric acid at 12333.33 yuan/ton as of the 29th day. The market price of hydrofluoric acid slightly declined, while the domestic fluorite price market declined. In addition, the upstream refrigerant products have more maintenance devices, the demand for upstream fluorite and hydrofluoric acid has weakened, the recent downstream refrigerant trading market has declined, and the price of hydrofluoric acid products has slightly declined. Recent market of refrigerant downstream terminal market is cool, R22 refrigerant plant surface starts at 70%, R22 market device start-up rate is temporarily stable, the main production enterprise bulk water factory offer price is 17500-18500 yuan/ton, but the production enterprise does not have bulk water spot, mainly with a small number of cylinders shipped. In addition, the actual demand side of the market has declined, and the shipment market trend is poor. The domestic market price of R134a is slightly lower, the start-up rate of production enterprises is lower, the market demand for refrigerants is weakened, and manufacturers mainly export their products. However, the on-site transaction price does not change much, and the merchants purchase on demand. Recently, due to the impact of equipment maintenance, the upstream market demand for hydrofluoric acid has weakened. Generally speaking, there are many downstream negative factors, but because of the poor start-up of fluorite market devices and the high price of fluorite, Business Analyst Chen Ling believes that the price of fluorite market may be slightly lower due to the weakening downstream demand.