Taiwan’s petrochemical industry imported record amounts of Russian naphtha last month, snapping up fresh supplies being churned out by an oil refinery thousands of miles away.
The nation imported almost 114,000 barrels a day of Russian naphtha last month, representing 66 percent of its total imports of the feedstock for the month, data from energy analytics firm Kpler showed. The hike — to an all-time high — consolidates Russia’s ranking as Taiwan’s top supplier, a position previously held by the United Arab Emirates.
The surge is mainly driven by a recent startup of a third condensate splitter at Novatek PJSC’s Ust-Luga refinery, Kpler lead crude analyst Viktor Katona said.
Photo: Reuters
So far this year, Taiwan was the destination for as much as 78 percent of all Novatek’s monthly naphtha exports from the Baltic Sea port, Kpler’s figures showed.
Russian fuel producers have been expanding in Asia and Latin America after western countries and their allies, earlier the main consumers of Russia’s oil products, banned the imports following the invasion of Ukraine.
Novatek’s Ust-Luga refinery processes condensate, a very light type of oil. It brought a third splitter online in mid-August, allowing for increased naphtha flows, Katona said.
As a result, in the second half of August and early September, the plant raised its processing runs to a historic high of more than 195,000 barrels a day, compared to around 140,000 barrels a day in previous months, industry data seen by Bloomberg showed.
That ramp up move coincided with a jump in Russian naphtha exports to Taiwan. It takes roughly 60 days for the Ust-Luga cargoes to reach the Asian country.
Shortly after the third splitter came online, Novatek started maintenance at at least one of the original units, which temporarily cut the plant’s runs, the industry data seen by Bloomberg showed
“Novatek’s Ust-Luga facility has yet to see a month when all three splitters are running at full capacity,” Katona said. “Once that happens in December or January, Russian flows to Taiwan could easily stay above 100 thousand barrels per day on a sustainable basis.”
Novatek did not respond to a request for a comment on the maintenance schedule and production levels at its Ust-Luga refinery.
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