Refiner Phillips 66 quarterly profit beats estimates

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US independent oil refiner Phillips 66 reported a bigger-than-expected rise in quarterly profit helped by strength in its chemicals and refining units, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company said earnings from its refining business, its biggest income generator, rose more than 50% to USD224 MM in Q2 2017 due to higher volumes and lower costs.

Phillips 66, which also stores and transports fuels, said earnings from its chemicals business rose to USD196 MM from USD190 MM helped by higher volumes and improved margins.

Consolidated earnings rose to USD550 MM, or USD1.06 per share, in Q2 2017 ended June 30, from USD496 MM, or 93 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Phillips 66 earned USD569 MM or USD1.09 per share. That was higher than analysts' expectation of USD1.01 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

As MRC wrote before, US refiner Phillips 66 expects a permit will be granted to build an oil pipeline under the Missouri River near Native American land in North Dakota, said Chief Executive Officer Greg Garland in November 2016.

Phillips 66 is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. It debuted as an independent energy company when ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets and midstream assets. Phillips 66 began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX. The company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant and units of Texas-headquartered Celanese Corp. are part of an ongoing competition law investigation by the European Commission into the ethylene purchasing market, as per Plastemart.

The company is assisting the relevant authorities and cannot comment further on the details of an ongoing investigation.

EU’s anti-trust watchdog has confirmed unannounced inspections in the ethylene purchasing sector, in several EU member states. As per neweurope.eu, according to a Berlaymont announcement, the EU executive had concerns over companies that couls had formed a cartel. Raids were carried out on 16 May 2017 at the premises of companies active in ethylene purchasing, to examine if the companies concerned have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.

According to the Commission, there is no legal deadline to complete inquiries into anticompetitive conduct and "their duration depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of each case, the extent to which the undertakings concerned co-operate with the Commission and the exercise of the rights of defence."

"The Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from the relevant national competition authorities," adds the EU anti-trust watchdog announcement. "Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step into suspected anticompetitive practices. The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anti-competitive behaviour nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself. The Commission respects the rights of defence, in particular the right of companies to be heard in antitrust proceedings."

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in 2016, the European Commission (EU) began anti-dumping investigations on purified terephthalic acid (PTA) imports from Korea. Upon receiving complaints by the PTA industry within the EU on 20 June, the commission set out to look into the matter from 3 August. EU companies claimed that they were damaged by Korean-originated terephthalic acid imports sold at prices below cost. The time period for the investigation is for one year between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016 and the item under examination is the terephthalic acid with purity over 99.5 percent.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Scheduled shutdowns for maintenance at two low density polyethylene (LDPE) plants did not help to balance the Russian market. Prices continued to fall down under the pressure of weak demand, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Angarsk Polymers Plant shut down its LDPE production for a long turnaround in mid-July, Gazprom neftekhim Salavat took off-stream its production capacities in early July. Nevertheless, despite the long outages at two producers, the price reduction continued in the Russian LDPE market. Weak demand for polyethylene (PE) still put a major pressure on prices.

The LDPE market was quite calm in the first half of July, the price adjustment was minor. However, dynamics of the price cut increased in the second half of the month. Prices for some LDPE grades dropped below Rb80,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in the last week of July.

At the same time, prices of LDPE for the shrinkable films production (153 grade PE) remained fairly high. Spot deals for this LDPE were mainly done in the range of Rb92,500-96,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in late July.

A period of long scheduled shutdowns for maintenance is coming to an end. Angarsk Polymers Plant began to resume its production last weekend. Gazprom neftekhim Salavat plans to resume LDPE production on 5 August.

Ufaorgsintez and Tomskneftekhim intend to shut down their LDPE production capacities for short turnarounds in August-September. But taking into account the July experience, the planned outages are unlikely to put pressure on prices.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Among several other customers, Spanish refiner Repsol has selected Craken catalysts for two of its hydrocracking units, one being a repeated order, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The selection has been based on pilot testing, highlighting the technical suitability of Axens’ offer.

Axens’ latest generation of hydrocracking catalysts, Craken Series, displays required fuels production and product properties, extended long-term stability and cycle lengths, the company stated in a press release. They cover a wide range of operating conditions and enable the adjustment of product yields, properties and qualities, while achieving the targeted activity.

According to Axens, Craken-D and Craken-Flex catalysts are the result of step-out improvements and have been specifically designed to convert feeds such as VGO, HCGO, DAO and other refractory feedstocks into high quality fuels, such as heavy naphtha, kerosene and diesel.

Moreover, the company stated, Craken Series catalysts are extremely tolerant to nitrogen, thanks to a highly performing bifunctional hydrotreating and cracking activity, allowing to process opportunity crudes.

As MRC wrote before, in 2016, Repsol completed the construction work of its new metallocene polyethelene plant at its Tarragona site. Throughout the construction phase, the company's high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Tarragona remained temporarily stopped to allow the safe and efficient execution of all the required activities.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amarinth, a company specializing in the design, application and manufacture of centrifugal pumps and associated equipment to the Oil & Gas, petrochemical, chemical, industrial and power markets, has delivered two bespoke super duplex API 610 VS4 vertical sump pumps to Descon Engineering for the Borouge petrochemicals complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Amarinth secured its second order from Descon Engineering for two 9.5-m long super duplex API 610 VS4 vertical sump pumps. These will be installed at the Borouge 3 plant in Ruwais, 250 km west of Abu Dhabi city, during modification work on the existing header for the sea water intake. Borouge is a JV between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and European plastics manufacturer Borealis. The Borouge site is now the world’s largest integrated polyolefins complex, with production capacity of 4.5 MMt.

The company utilized its own unique software, which is configured to handle over 100,000 vertical pump variants and includes assemblies and sub-assemblies that have already checked against mating parts for clashes, to deliver a design for the 9.5-m long pump that would fit existing constraints.

The pumps include a bespoke baseplate and, due to their length, additional start-up lubrication for the top bearings which automatically switches off once the process feed has reached them. Amarinth also had to carefully size the pumps to be as efficient as possible in order to work within power limitations at the site.

As MRC informed previously, ADNOC is targeting rapid growth in demand for its polymer products from China’s automotive industry and the country’s investment in gas and electricity infrastructure. ADNOC is focused on market expansion in China and Asia, where demand for petrochemicals and plastics, including light-weight automotive components, essential utility piping and cable insulation, is forecast to double by 2040.

Besides, in late May 2017, ADNOC announced that it would work together with the Austrian producer OMV to help grow Adnoc’s downstream businesses. The memorandum of understanding, signed in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and the Austrian chancellor Christian Kern, covers cooperation on new downstream projects, refining operations, refinery-petrochemical integration and optimisation, and technical and maintenance support.
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