Oil slides after US inventories rise faster than expected

SEATTLE (polymers.in):  Oil, Natural Gas, Coal
Oil slides after US inventories rise faster than expected
- US inventories climbed by 4.5 million bbl to 533.6 million last week.
- Brent futures for May delivery slipped below USD 50/bbl.
- US WTI crude futures for May were down 67 cents or 1.4% at USD 47.56/bbl. 

Oil has room to fall as speculators bail on bullish bets
- WTI dipped to USD 48.
- US oil production also rose in the latest EIA report, with output now above 9.1 million bbl/day and rising. 

Big Oil Replaces Rigs With Wind Turbines
- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, STatoil ASA and Eni Spa are moving into multi-billion-dollar offshore wind farms in the North Sea and beyond.
- Shell has set up a business unit to identify the clean technologies where it could be most profitable. 

Oil Tightens Its Noose Around Currency Market as Rout Deepens
- Policy makers in Canada and Norway are treading carefully, lest energy prices inflict more damage to their economies.
- Canadian dollar to weaken to 1.36 per dollar from 1.34 through June. 

Libya's Oil Production Rebounds Back to Level Before Clashes
- Libya’s output is at 700,000 bbl/day and the target is 800,00 bbl/day before the end of April.
- The country’s biggest oil field, Sharara, will increase output by 70,000 bbl/day. 

Brent Oil Falls to Lowest Since November as US Stockpiles Rise
- Brent oil dropped to the lowest in almost four months as surging US crude inventories dum optimism that OPEC and its partners will curb output enough to rebalance the market.
- Brent for May settlement declined 32 cents to USD 50.64/bbl.
- WTI for May delivery dropped 20 cents or 0.4% to settle at USD 48.04/bbl.

MEG price declines on weak downstream demand
- Asian MEG prices declined USD 23/ton CFR China and CFR South East Asia in the second week of March.
- European spot MEG prices moved down EUR 30/ton on the week. 

Paraxylene price dives across all regions
- Asian PX prices dived USD 50/ton CFR Taiwan/China and FOB Korea in the second week of March.
- US spot PX prices fell USD 40/ton FOB USG on the week.
- European PX prices crashed at USD 50.50/ton FOB in the spot market.

Intl. Offers for SE Asia in USD
- ABS 1735 (-70)
- GPPS 1370 (-35)
- HIPS 1440 (-65)
- PET 106 (NC)
- HDPE Raff 1185 (+5)
- HDPE Inj .1165 (+25)
- HDPE Blow 1140 (NC)
- HDPE Film 1180 (+10)
- LLDPE 1215 (NC)
- LDPE 1280 (-10)

Polymers Demand
The Trump Agenda: Boosting US Growth Will Not Be Straightforward
- Only 10 US states get more than 10% of their state GDP from exports: Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, South Caroline, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.
- Texas and Michigan would be very concerned about NAFTA being renegotiated or even scrapped as their economies are highly dependent on the free trade deal.

China polypropylene export windows to SE Asia, India seen closing before end March
- Vietnam has been an active buyer of both Chinese re-export and Chinese origin PP homopolymers cargoes over the past week.
- China-Southeast Asia PP price spread narrowed to USD 8/MT March 15 from USD 40/MT a week earlier. 

Polymers Supply
LLDPE plant taken off-stream by Sinopec Maoming
- Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical has shut its LLDPE plant for maintenance turnaround.
- Sinopec located at Guangdong in China and has a production capacity of 220,000 MT/year. 

Total sees process upset at La Porte PP site in Texas: filing
- Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA’s 1,224,700 MT/year PP plant in La Porte, Texas.
- In spot market, homopolymers injection-grade was assessed Wednesday at USD 1317 - 1339/MT. 

PVC imports into Belarus grew by 20% in January 2017
- Janaury imports of unmixed PVC into Belarus increased by 20% year on year, totaling 1,400 MT.

Courtesy: www.polymers.io