Marathon Petroleum profit misses as refining margin falls

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp's quarterly profit missed Street view as higher crude acquisition costs weighed on its refining and marketing margins, reported Reuters.

Despite stronger crack spreads - the difference between the prices of crude oil and refined products - in the Q2, higher crude oil and feedstock acquisition costs led to a 11.1% fall in marketing and refining margins in the second quarter ended June 30.

Marathon, the first major US refiner to report quarterly results, said refining and marketing gross margin fell to USD11.32 per barrel in the reported quarter from USD12.73 last year.

Total costs and expenses rose about 12% to USD17.33 B in the quarter.

Income from the company's refining and marketing segment, which accounted for more than half the total income, fell 45.2% to USD562 MM in the quarter.

Net income attributable to Marathon fell 35.7% to USD515 MM, or USD1 per share, in the second quarter, from USD801 million, or USD1.51 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Marathon earned USD1.03 per share, missing analysts' average estimate of USD1.07 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenues and other income rose 9.3% to USD18.35 B.

As MRC wrote previously, in January 2017, Praxair, Inc. signed a long-term contract to supply hydrogen to Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. The company will use the hydrogen to support an ultra-low-sulfur diesel project planned for 2018. Marathon Petroleum is the third-largest transportation fuels refiner in the US and operates an integrated refining, marketing and transportation system in the Midwest, East, Southeast and Gulf Coast. The hydrogen will be supplied through Praxair’s extensive Southeast Louisiana pipeline network.

Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Angola and Iraqi Kurdistan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell has contained a leak at its Pulau Bukom refining and petrochemical complex in Singapore, and operations have not been affected, a company spokeswoman said, reported Plastemart.

The small leak occurred on Friday, the spokeswoman said, without revealing further details on the affected unit.

The Bukom site, Shell's largest wholly-owned plant, has a 500,000 bpd refinery and a steam cracker that produces more than 900,000 tpa of ethylene. Shell also reported a leak at one of the units at the Bukom site in January this year. It is not clear if the incidents are related.

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell completed a revamp and upgrade of its Singapore ethane cracker. The project increased production for the 800,000-tpy ethylene plant on Bukom Island by 20%. The ethylene and olefins unit is also integrated with Shell’s 500,000-bpd refinery. The revamp project supported expansion of other intermediate product facilities located on nearby Jurong Island, including Shell’s monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant and third-party facilities.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico's Pemex is planning to begin restart of propylene production at two of its refineries next week as it brings key processing units back online, as per Plastemart with reference to company sources.

Pemex will restart a fluid catalytic cracker next week at its Salina Cruz refinery in Oaxaca, which has been shut following a June 14 fire. Pemex's Minatitlan refinery in Veracruz will see the first of two FCC units come back online August 5, and the second unit would be restarted on August 12. The Minatitlan units had been offline for maintenance, the source previously said. Pemex did not respond to repeated requests for official comment.

The Salina Cruz refinery on the Pacific Coast is the largest in Mexico and a major source of refinery-grade propylene, a key feedstock for the manufacture of polypropylene resin. Salina Cruz is also a major supplier of residual fuel oil across the US border to California. The fire at Salina Cruz was the result of an oil spill reaching an ignition point in the wake of flooding from Tropical Storm Calvin, Pemex said earlier this month.

As MRC informed earlier, 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 (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Half a year after the announcement of the 2030 strategy, MOL Group has reached an important milestone in its industrial transformational journey. The license agreements signed with Evonik and thyssenkrupp, will enable MOL to produce propylene oxide, a key component for the production of polyether polyols. MOL intends to become a significant producer of polyether polyols, high-value intermediates for products applied in the automotive, packaging and furniture industries, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

MOL Group has entered into key contracts related to core technologies of the Polyol Project, which was announced in 2016 as part of the first investment cycle of the MOL 2030 long-term strategy. The contracts concern the purchase of technology licenses and process design packages for the so called HPPO (hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide) technology of propylene oxide production.

The licensor of the hydrogen-peroxide unit for captive use is Evonik, while a consortium formed by Evonik and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions licenses the propylene oxide unit. The contracts also contain binding offers and pre-agreements regarding the later engineering and execution phases of the HPPO units by thyssenkrupp and the purchase of proprietary catalysts from Evonik.

In addition, MOL Group has selected Fluor as Project Management Consultant (PMC) for the front-end engineering design and engineering, procurement and construction phases of the project. MOL Group is in the final stages of selecting the licensor for polyether polyol technology as well as the contractor for the engineering of the utilities and other facilities.

These agreements represent the first milestone in the execution of the MOL 2030 long-term strategy, which earmarked around USD1.9 B in investments for transformational projects in the area of chemicals and petrochemicals for the period of 2017–2021. The industrial complex, which will be built in Hungary, will be the single largest organic investment project of MOL Group in 2017-21. Propylene oxide based polyols serve as raw materials for polyurethane foams, which are widely applied in the automotive, construction, packaging and furniture industries.

The planned new industrial complex consists of the HPPO plants having 200 kt/year propylene oxide production capacity, several production lines for polyether polyols, utilities and other infrastructural investments.

As MRC informed before, in November 2016, MOL Group revealed plans to invest USD1.9bn until 2021 to develop its petrochemicals business. For the next five years, the company will focus on improving yield of propylene and investment into attractive propylene derivatives.

MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas PLC is an integrated oil and gas company. The Company produces crude oil, petroleum products, bitumens, lubricants and natural gas. MOL owns and operates refineries, oil and gas pipelines, service stations, and natural gas storage facilities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global plastics market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.03% from 2017 to 2025, as per Plastemart with reference to Orian Research.

Plastics are used in a variety of industries: construction, packaging, appliance, automobile, textile, transportation, and many others. A large number of manufacturers supply many different products to numerous end-users for a multitude of applications. The major drivers for plastics market would be its low cost, flexibility of use, easy manufacturing capabilities, growing construction in Asia-Pacific region among others. Thus, plastics can be regarded as synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids which can be transformed into several useful products. Also, the paradigm shift of technology to recycle plastics for end-use applications provide significant opportunities to the entire supply chain of the plastics market.

Polyethylene (PE) is derived from polymerization of ethylene and has the properties like chemical & thermal resistivity, flexibility, electrical & thermal insulation among others. Due to its light weight and easy manufacturing capability, polyethylene has found applications in various industries such as construction, electronics, and automotive.

The polyethylene market is projected to grow at a considerable CAGR in the emerging economies. Also, the demand from different domains such as injection moulding, food & beverages and packaging has fuelled the demand. On the other hand, Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is projected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period (2017-2025).

Asia Pacific plastics market is projected to account for a share of around 45% of the global plastics market by 2025. The growing automotive and construction sectors in countries such as India and China with the adoption of rapid technological advancement has significantly boosted Asia-Pacific's plastics market. Presence of major automotive industries in Germany and France should drive European plastics market along with the growing demand for high performance and environmental friendly plastics materials such as bio-based plastics and engineering thermoplastics. Also, the Central & South American region is projected to grow at a considerable CAGR during the forecast period.

We remind that, as MRC wrote earlier, the global bio-based PET market is expected to grow at 68.25% CAGR by 2019, as per report by ReportsnReports.
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