...

Eni’s petrochemical product sales up by over 30%

Oil&Gas Materials 3 May 2021 10:16 (UTC +04:00)
Eni’s petrochemical product sales up by over 30%

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Sales of petrochemical products by Italian Eni were 1.18 mmtonnes in the first quarter of 2021, up by 33 percent compared to the same period of 2020, Trend reports citing Eni.

The decrease was driven by unusual industry-wide disruption from extreme winter weather in the US to which the company responded by increasing production of monomers and basic petrochemicals and sales volumes leveraging on better plant availability.

Sales volumes of polyethylene were also supported by a growing European demand, while the elastomers also benefitted from higher demand at the automotive sector.

Petrochemical product margins improved significantly driven by a sharp increase in spot prices of commodities due to the above-mentioned supply disruption. Significant increases were recorded in the polyethylene and styrenics/elastomers segment, driven by lower monomers prices.

In the first quarter of 2021, the Eni Standard Refining Margin was in negative territory at minus 0.6 $/barrel compared to 3.6 $/barrel in the comparative period, due to a significant recovery in the cost of the crude oil feedstock not reflected in the prices of derivative products, particularly the middle distillates, which remained at depressed values due to the low demand. Refining margins were also negatively affected by narrowing spreads between sour crudes like the Ural vs. light-sweet crudes, such as the Brent, due to the lower availability of sour crudes due to OPEC+ cuts, which resulted in low margins at conversion plants.

Throughputs on own account at Eni’s refineries in Italy were 3.85 mmtonnes, 5 percent lower than the first quarter 2020 in response to a sharply depressed refining scenario. Throughputs elsewhere increased by a large amount because the year-ago performance was negatively affected by a prolonged plant standstill of ADNOC Refining’s plants.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

Tags:
Latest

Latest