Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya resigns after three years of losses

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Emilio Lozoya has resigned as Petroleos Mexicanos’ chief executive officer after the oil giant failed to reverse falling output and reported 12 straight quarterly losses, reported Bloomberg.

Lozoya, 41, who took over as CEO of the state-owned producer in late 2012, will be replaced by Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, President Enrique Pena Nieto said in Mexico City on Monday. Gonzalez, a Harvard-trained economist who was deputy finance minister and now heads Mexico’s Social Security Institute, will assume Lozoya’s role.

Pena Nieto said Gonzalez faces two challenges: "To accelerate the transformation of Pemex to take maximum advantage of the opportunities offered” by the opening of the country’s oil industry to investments, as well as to "achieve financial and productive strengthening at a time of low oil prices."

Gonzalez will take the helm at Pemex in the wake of the company’s worst quarterly result in history - a USD10.2 billion loss. Combined with the international drop in oil prices, the country’s largest company has seen crude production fall 11 straight years amid a series of budget cuts and staff reductions.

As MRC informed previously, in November 2015, Fluor Corp. announced that ICA Fluor, its industrial engineering and construction joint venture with Empresas ICA, had signed a contract with Pemex to supply detail engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the utilities and offsites that are part of the Tula refinery upgrade at Hidalgo, Mexico. The total contract value is USD1.1 billion.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Services provider Petrofac has awarded a contract to Bertin Technologies, a subsidiary of CNIM group, to supply, install and commission a pioneering gas leak tracking system, Second Sight, at the Saudi Aramco-owned Jazan refinery, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This system opens up a new era in gas detection methods for the oil and gas industry, according to project officials.

Bertin Technologies says it has achieved a major breakthrough by customizing its own gas imaging camera. Initially developed for defense and civil security applications, Second Sight has been adapted to International Electrotechnical Commission Explosive (IECEx) hazardous areas and to Saudi Aramco standards.

To enhance the level of safety on site, Bertin Technologies will provide a turnkey solution that detects and monitors explosive gas clouds.

The Second Sight solution has been selected by Saudi Aramco and Petrofac because it offers several benefits that complement conventional gas detection methods. It provides, in real time, a complete scene visualization. In the case of an alarm activation, it localizes the leakage source and direction of the explosive gas cloud in the vicinity.

Explosive gas leaks are an ever-present risk that has to be managed at refineries. Any leak has the potential to accumulate into dangerous clouds that can ignite when they reach a certain concentration.

However, traditional point detectors do not always give a full and accurate picture of the chemical environment, according to Bertin officials A single explosive incident can cost billions of dollars and to mitigate against such an event, additional layers of gas detection are implemented.

"Bertin Technologies has been providing chemical and biological detection systems for more than 15 years in partnership with prestigious customers such as the French Department of Defense," said Philippe Demigne, president of Bertin Technologies. "With Second Sight technology, we have already built a portfolio of strong experience in the tracking and visualization of hazardous gas clouds for safety purposes.

"Thanks to a track record in the domain of large events surveillance, including the FIFA World Cup, or in monitoring public buildings from USA to South Korea , the technology has been used and proven in the field," he continued.

"While setting an advanced level in chemical and oil and gas safety standards, Bertin Technologies has demonstrated its agility in combining multiple fields of expertise in order to develop dedicated systems for demanding safety requirements."

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco announced that its downstream investments would exceed USD100 billion over the next decade, as global demand for oil rises by a quarter in the next 25 years.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global demand for petrochemical market was valued at USD550 bln in 2014 and is expected to reach USD890 bln in 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 6.5% between 2015 and 2020, as per Plastemart with reference to MarketResearchStore.

Growing demand from key end user inductees including construction, packaging, transportation, textile, plastics, healthcare etc., coupled with favorable operating conditions mainly in the Middle East and Asia Pacific is expected to drive the global market for petrochemicals over the next five years. Strong growth of these end-use industries is the major driving factor for global petrochemical market. However, manufacturers are expected to face major challenges such as growing environmental concerns. Owing rapidly growing pollution and global warming concerns, use of petrochemicals is expected to decline. Nevertheless, rapidly depleting crude oil reserves is expected to present major challenge to the manufacturers. Moreover, growing awareness about environment safety and shift towards use of bio-based chemicals is expected to hold the growth of this market.

On the basis of product segment petrochemicals market is segmented into ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, xylene, toluene, vinyl, styrene and methanol. Ethylene was the most dominating petrochemical product, accounting for about 25% of the global petrochemicals market in 2014. Ethylene is primarily used in the manufacture of polypropylene and propylene oxide. Methanol is projected to be the fastest growing segment from 2014 to 2020. Growth of methanol is directly related to its increasing usage in gasoline blending and methanol to olefins (MTO) processes.

Other petrochemicals such as butadiene, benzene, xylene, toluene, vinyl and styrene accounted for a significant portion of the global petrochemicals market share in 2013. With around 50% share in total volume consumption in 2014, Asia Pacific has emerged as leading market for petrochemicals. Growing demand for polymers and solvent, dyes, adhesives, paints and coatings in Asia Pacific is expected to fuel the growth of petrochemicals in the region.Petrochemicals market in Asia Pacific is led by China. Asia Pacific was followed by North America and Europe.

The manufacturing companies of petrochemicals have a significant impact on the value chain through a higher degree of forward integration. These companies manufacture raw materials as well as the final product and use it in various product types such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, xylene, toluene, vinyl, styrene and methanol. BASF SE, ExxonMobil, The Dow Chemical Company, Shell Chemical Company, SABIC, Sinopec Limited, Lyondell Basell Industries, Total S.A., Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company are some important competitors in petrochemicals market. The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, the global petrochemical market is expected to reach USD758.3 bln by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growth of key end-use industries such as construction and transportation particularly in BRIC nations is expected to remain a key driving factor for global petrochemical market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SRF is planning to set up a Greenfield biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) plant at Indore, Madhya Pradesh (MP) at an estimated cost of USD58 mln, as per Business-standard.

The proposed investment will be backed by International Finance Corporation (IFC). The proposed facility is set to have a capacity of 30,000 tpa and a metallization capacity of 8,000 tpa.

Of the total investment, World Bank's investment arm IFC is considering financing up to USD40 mln. The balance will be financed by the company’s contribution. The project aims to create 100 direct jobs and similar number of indirect jobs in ancillary units and supply chain. SRF is a leader in refrigerants, engineering plastics and industrial yarns in India. The company also manufactures polyester films and fluoro specialties. Besides India, SRF has a presence in Dubai, South Africa and Thailand.

As MRC informed earlier, Kolkata, Oct 5 Cosmo Films Limited, a leading global speciality firm manufacturing bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), has announced plans to install a new 10.4 mtr BOPP line by early 2017, said Indiablooms.

The line has already been ordered and will increase the company’s annual BOPP production capacity from 140k to 200k MT.

The new production line will be installed at the Karjan plant site near Vadodara, an existing facility with the company which already houses BOPP lines, extrusion coating & chemical coating lines and a metallizer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corp. plans to close its engineered thermoplastic materials facility in Wichita, Kansas, said Kansas.

An Ohio-based polymers manufacturer will lay off 74 employees and close its South Tyler plant, which has ties to Wichita that are more than half a century old. The PolyOne Corp. plant at 1444 S. Tyler Road will wind down operations "over the next several months as we transition production to other existing PolyOne facilities," spokesman Kyle Rose said in an e-mail Friday to The Eagle.

"The difficult but necessary decision was made to better utilize our production capacity and operate more efficiently across our full manufacturing footprint," Rose said.

He said PolyOne is providing transition benefits and assistance to employees.

PolyOne picked up the Wichita plant as part of its 2013 acquisition of Clayton, Mo.-based Spartech.

In 2011, the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County each approved USD15,000 in forgivable loans to Spartech, which planned to expand the 63,000-square-foot plant by adding 35,400 square feet of warehouse space and 18 jobs, and investing about USD7.5 million in new machinery and equipment.

Spartech bought the plant in 1994 from Pawnee Plastics, which was founded in Wichita in 1964.

As MRC informed earlier, in the early February PolyOne announced that it has acquired certain technologies and assets from Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc., which did not include any plants.

PolyOne has 52 manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It also operates plants in China and Brazil.
PolyOne Corporation, with 2015 revenues of USD3.38 billion, is a premier 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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