Valero Q1 net income up 16% year on year

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) posted adjusted first-quarter 2015 earnings of USD1.87 per share beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of USD1.74 by 7.5%, said Zacks.

The earnings also came in above the year-ago adjusted income of USD1.54 per share. The bottom-line growth was bolstered by higher refining throughput margins in each of the company’s regions. The group’s operating revenues during the three-month period ended 31 March, however, fell to USD21.3bn from USD33.7bn in the prior-year period.

Total revenue in the quarter surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of USD15,799 million but decreased 36.6% year over year to USD21,330 million from USD33,663.0 million.

The group’s first-quarter 2015 refining throughput volumes averaged 2.7m bbl/day, an increase of 9,000 bbl/day from the first quarter of 2014. Valero said its refineries operated at 92% throughput capacity utilisation in the first quarter of 2015.

Within the group’s ethanol business, operating income fell by USD231m year on year to USD12m in the first quarter of 2015, mainly due to lower gross margin per gallon driven by a decline in gasoline and ethanol prices, Valero said.
In the first quarter of 2015, capital spending was USD698m, of which USD240m was for turnarounds and catalyst. Valero said it expects 2015 capital spending, including turnarounds and catalyst, to be USD2.65bn, as previously guided.

As MRC informed before, in July 2014 Valero Energy Partners LP approved the acquisition from certain subsidiaries of Valero Energy Corporation of the McKee Crude System, Three Rivers Crude System, and Wynnewood Products System for total consideration of USD154 million.

Valero Energy Partners LP is a fee-based, growth-oriented, traditional master limited partnership formed by Valero Energy Corporation to own, operate, develop, and acquire crude oil and refined petroleum products pipelines, terminals, and other transportation and logistics assets. With headquarters in San Antonio, the Partnership's assets include crude oil and refined petroleum products pipeline and terminal systems in the Gulf Coast and Mid-Continent regions of the United States that are integral to the operations of several of Valero's refineries.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JX Nippon Oil and Energy is in plans to resume operations at its paraxylene (PX) plant after maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant was shut on April 24, 2015. The shutdown of the plant coincided with the shutdown of an upstream cracker at the same site.

Thus, the plant remain off-stream for around two weeks.

Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, on 6 January 2015, Japan's JX Nippon Oil and Energy shut its olefins conversion unit (OCU) in Kawasaki indefinitely. The shutdown has been attributed to compressed margins in the wake of low propylene prices as compared to prices of ethylene.

JX has a total PX production capacity of 3.1 million mt/year - the biggest in Asia - across its plants in Kashima, Kawasaki, Mizushima and Oita in Japan as well as in South Korea's Ulsan under a joint venture with SK Global Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace & Co. has announced that it will provide its UNIPOL polypropylene (PP) technology and services to Yunnan Yuntianhua PetroChemical Co., Ltd. for a new PP production facility in Anning Yunnan, China, reported the company on its site.

Yunnan Yuntianhua PetroChemical is a new subsidiary of Yuntianhua Group Co., Ltd., the largest chemical company in Kunming, Yunnan Province. With an expected opening in 2017, the new enterprise plans to purchase propylene from the PetroChina Yuannan refinery and build a unit that will produce polypropylene at a rate of150 kta, or kilotons per year.

Al Beninati, President of Grace Catalysts Technologies, said, "We're delighted with the pace at which the UNIPOL PP technology is being adopted in this growing market. Not only is the technology reliable, but it can also be implemented with low investment and operating cost, is easy to operate, and will produce state-of-the-art PP products. With Yunnan Yuntianhua PetroChemical, our focus, as always, will be on customer service."

Yuntianhua Deputy General Manager Jiang Ling, said, "We are pleased to partner with Grace, the world's leading independent PP technology licensor and catalyst producer. Their UNIPOL PP process technology offers us the most advanced PP product capability available. We are building a facility that will produce world-class products and believe this agreement aligns with our goals for achieving optimum productivity and performance."

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2015, W.R. Grace & Co commissioned a new catalyst logistics silo terminal and finished Phase 1 of construction for the first fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts manufacturing facility in the Middle East.

Grace is a leading supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and has the broadest portfolio of polyolefin catalyst technologies of any independent polyethylene/polypropylene catalyst producer. Grace's industry-leading UNIPOL PP licensing and related catalysts include the UNIPOL UNIPPAC Process Control software, SHAC Catalysts Systems, and 6th Generation non-phthalate CONSISTA Catalysts Systems. Grace's 2014 net sales were USD3.2 billion.

UNIPOL and UNIPOL UNIPPAC are trademarks of The Dow Chemical Company or an affiliated company of Dow. W.R. Grace & Co.-Conn. and/or its affiliates are licensed to use the UNIPOL and UNIPOL UNIPPAC trademarks in the area of polypropylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema Fluorochemicals has announced a new price increase in Europe of 15% for packaged and bulk grades for all Forane HFC products, with immediate effect or as contracts allow, reported the company on its site.

In a macroeconomic environment that has profoundly changed in the past few months, this price increase is necessary to pursue the improvement in the profitability of the HFCs activities and the development of lower GWP alternatives.

Arkema’s Fluorochemicals business unit produces and markets a range of fluorinated gases under the Forane brand in the following markets worldwide:

- Refrigerant fluids for refrigeration and air-conditioning, including commercial and industrial refrigeration, construction, automotive and other applications;
- Blowing agents for polymer foams, specifically polyurethane and polystyrene;
- Feedstock for the production of fluoropolymers;
- Degreasing, cleaning and drying solvents;
-Aerosol sprays.

As MRC wrote previously, in 2014, Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer and the world’s second leading producer of organic peroxides, announced the construction of a new organic peroxide plant on its Changshu site in China. This investment will help double the site’s production capacity. By doubling its production capacity in China, Arkema will continue to support the strong growth in the organic peroxide market in Asia, a region in which the Group is also a producer in India, South Korea and Japan. The new Changshu plant is due to come on stream in early 2016.

Arkema with annual revenue of EUR6.7 billion is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc. Arkema operates 11 organic peroxide plants on the three continents.
MRC

МОSCOW (MRC) -- French energy giant Total SA said Tuesday that its net profit slid 20 percent in the first quarter despite a rise in production as slumping oil prices took their toll, said Economictimes.

The company said net profit for the quarter was USD2.66 billion, down from USD3.34 billion a year earlier. That fall came despite a 10 percent rise in hydrocarbon production to 2.4 million barrels a day.

CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Total is "demonstrating its resilience and profiting from its integrated model" in the face of a 50 percent drop in the average Brent crude oil price over the last year.

Total said its Termokarstovoye gas field in Russia's far north will start up during the second quarter. Four other fields are scheduled to start production in the second half.

Total said it is making efforts to cut costs and lower its breakeven levels in response to the lower oil prices. Oil executives admit that the price of a barrel will not return to previous years' average around USD90 anytime soon.

Analysts at research firm IHS predict oil to average USD60 a barrel this year.

Firms are also slashing exploration budgets, with Total aiming to cut its capital spending by 10 percent this year from USD26 billion in 2014.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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