Petrobras CEO defends Texas refinery purchase after USD530 million loss

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, facing a growing scandal over its USD1.2 billion purchase of a refinery in Texas, said it bought the plant to maximize returns on heavy oil that it could not refine in Brazil, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Pasadena plant still had good margins in 2008 when Petrobras began to negotiate increasing its stake, CEO Maria das Gracas Foster told a Brazilian congressional commission on Wednesday. The state-run company recognized a USD530 million loss from the deal, she said.

Opposition lawmakers are pushing for a formal investigation into the 2006 purchase from Astra Oil Trading, which Foster said paid at least USD360 million for the plant.

Opposition members collected enough signatures this month to create a separate commission to investigate the Pasadena deal, prompting government-allied senators to propose a wider commission to also look into projects that affect the two main opposition parties.

The senate could decide to increase the scope and to include representatives from the lower house. The court that oversees government spending and the Public Ministry is already investigating Petrobras for the purchase of the refinery. The state-run company said it’s collaborating with government agencies and created its own committee to investigate.|

As MRC wrote before, Petrobras awarded two ultra-deepwater contracts to the project management, engineering and construction company, Technip ( TKPPY ). The French company would deliver flexible pipes of about 100 kilometers that would support oil production, gas lift and gas injection.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier global provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, presents its latest innovations at Chinaplas 2014, one of the world's largest plastics industry exhibitions, as per the company's statement.

The company's new technologies are the result of close collaboration with customers to help them reach new markets, achieve sustainability goals and improve profitability.

"Inspired by our customers, we are featuring advanced solutions that help solve the toughest issues in material selection, distribution, manufacturing, colorants and design at this important event," said Mark Crist, vice president of Asia and vice president of Global Key Accounts, PolyOne Corporation. "Our material science and formulation expertise enables customers to improve their performance and gain competitive advantage globally."

PolyOne new technologies on display at Chinaplas include:

-Authentication and Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions: Percept Authentication Technologies present a full-spectrum portfolio of formulations and consultative services that employ covert, overt and forensic techniques. With these solutions, manufacturers can reduce potential risks and loss of revenue from counterfeits in consumer goods, medical devices, packaging, and consumer electronics markets.

- Metal-to-Polymer Conversion for Electrical Applications: LubriOne PEEK Solutions for electrical power tool applications offer innovative options for replacing metal that also help customers to improve performance, reduce production cost and simplify product maintenance.

- Differentiating with Color: InVisiOSM Color Inspiration 2015, a collection of six insightful color directions for designers, brands and marketing managers, adds dimension to trend indicators by capturing visual effects and textural influences as well.

- Dual Light Barrier for Packaging: OnCap Light Shield additive effectively absorbs both ultraviolet (UV) and visible light from clear packages to protect light-sensitive substances, such as food and pharmaceuticals, from degradation. In addition, this specialty solution improves color stability and maintains polymer clarity.

- Food-Safe TPE: Versaflex thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) enables consumer products manufacturers to replace a thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) silicone material with a softer, child-friendly TPE material, while maintaining strict compliance with food contact regulations in Japan and China.

- Vinyl Engineered Performance: Geon Vinyl solutions are formulated to provide high flow for easier processing and can be customized in a wide range of bright and metallic-look colors. This material portfolio also delivers excellent flame, chemical, and UV light resistance, making it a cost-effective replacement for various engineered polymers and metal in applications such as laundry consoles, circuit board housings, medical equipment, and LED lighting.

As MRC reported earlier, PolyOne Corporation has recently announced the addition of new capabilities to its OnColor HC Plus portfolio. These expanded offerings add medical-grade LDPE, nylon, PEBA, PS and PVC to the globally available palette of specialty healthcare colorants, and are pre-certified to meet or exceed biocompatibility requirements for ISO 10993 and/or USP Class VI protocols.

PolyOne Corporation is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanghai Petrochemical shut down its No.1 monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was shut on April 23, 2014. It is slated to remain off-stream for around two weeks.

Located in Shanghai, China, the plant has a production capacity of 225,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical shut down its high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in China on March 26, 2014 owing to feedstock issues. A restart date for the plant could not be ascertained. Located in Shanghai, China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

We remind that Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical restarted its acrylonitrile (ACN) plant on December 25, 2013. It was shut on November 20, 2013 for maintenance turnaround. Located in Shanghai, China , the plant has a production capacity of 130,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
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MSOCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell International Inc. first-quarter earnings rose 5.3% as sales rose across most of the industrial conglomerate's business segments, said The Wall Street Journal.

Citing first-quarter performance, as well as the overall favorable outlook for Honeywell's key end markets, the company boosted the lower end of its per-share earnings outlook for the year by five cents, and now expects a profit of USD5.40 to USD5.55 a share.

Still, Honeywell remains "cautiously optimistic on the macro environment, even with some nice momentum exiting the quarter" in the company's short- and long-cycle businesses driving organic sales growth acceleration as the year progresses, said Chief Executive Dave Cote.

While the global economic recovery has struggled to gain momentum, Honeywell and other major U.S. manufacturers have noticed some pockets of strength, with stronger results in Europe, higher orders in China and improvement in the sluggish U.S. economy.

As the soft economy slows revenue growth, Honeywell—a maker of aerospace, building control and safety products—has focused on boosting its margins to grow its profits. Honeywell has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to streamline the company, focusing largely on Europe.

Last month, the company said it is seeking to spend USD10 billion on strategic acquisitions that would contribute about USD5 billion to USD8 billion in sales over the next five years. The company also at that time said it expects to meet the targets in its previous five-year plan, which ends this year.

For the quarter ended March 31, Honeywell reported earnings of USD1.02 billion, or USD1.28 a share, up from USD966 million, or USD1.21 a share, a year earlier. Adjusted for an expected full-year tax rate at 26.5%, per-share earnings rose to USD1.28 from USD1.16. Total sales rose 3.8% to USD9.68 billion.

Sales at the automation and control-systems business, which serves the commercial-construction industry, rose 7.6% to USD4.07 billion. The aerospace unit's sales slipped 1.8% to USD2.86 billion.

Performance materials and technologies sales rose 2.2% to USD1.75 billion, while transportation systems sales rose 8.6% to USD993 million.

As MRC wrote earlier, OOO Kirishinefteorgsintez selected Honeywell to supply its experion process knowledge system (PKS) and advanced alarm manager system at the company"s refinery in Kirishi, in the Leningrad region of Russia.

Besides, as MRC informed earlier, last summer Honeywell's UOP has been selected by Russias Lukoil to provide technology to produce high-quality gasoline blending components, propylene and other petrochemicals at its facility in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. The suite of Honeywell's UOP technology will be used in a new integrated fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) complex, the second such complex to be licensed by Lukoil at the Nizhny Novgorod facility.The new units, expected to start up in 2015, will produce more than 1 million tpy of gasoline blending components and more than 170,000 tpy of propylene.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Austrian oil and gas company OMV's first-quarter production rose 12% thanks to Norwegian assets bought from Statoil and a partial return of Libyan production, said Reuters.

Output rose to 311,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) from 277,000 in the fourth quarter, also helped by a resumption of production after a shutdown in New Zealand and the completion of development projects in Pakistan, OMV said.

OMV's refining margin rose to USD1.63 per barrel, an improvement over the fourth quarter's USD1.16 but still well below the USD3.01 of a year earlier as economic weakness continued to hurt European oil demand.

"The improvement, however, was more than offset by lower sales volumes, a lower domestic market price level in Germany and the longer than planned turnaround in Bayernoil," OMV said on Wednesday, referring to the German refinery it is selling.

OMV said production in Libya, which accounted for about 10 percent of the company's output before the 2011 uprising that toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi, was hit by security issues again in the quarter and had been shut in since mid-March.

It added that its gas margin in Turkey was negative in the quarter due to higher supply costs resulting from the unfavourable dollar-lira rate.

As MRC wrote before, Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has announced that it has signed a long-term supply contract with OMV for ethylene supply.
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