ExxonMobil to merge refining, marketing divisions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corporation announced it will combine its refining and marketing operations into a single company, ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Company, in 1Q 2018. Bryan Milton, currently president of ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Company, has been appointed president of the combined division by ExxonMobil’s board of directors, effective Jan. 1, 2018, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

By combining activities of the two divisions—ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company and ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Company—the company will achieve further integration to improve decision making and enhance performance in the market. The improvements will help the company to better respond to the needs of its customers and compete more effectively.

ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Company, along with ExxonMobil affiliates, will manage crude purchasing and logistics, refining, supply, trading, midstream, marketing and sales of refined products.

Milton, 53, joined Exxon Chemical in 1986 at Fawley in the U.K., where he worked in various plant and developmental engineering roles, including assignments as operations manager and as plant manager. He also spent time in upstream natural gas commercial sales. He previously held various leadership positions within ExxonMobil Chemical Company in Houston and in 2004 was named managing director for ExxonMobil Aviation fuels, based in the U.K.

Milton was appointed manager of the Baton Rouge chemical plant in 2006, and in 2008 he was assigned executive assistant to the chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil Corporation. In 2009, he was appointed vice president of Basic Chemicals for ExxonMobil Chemical Company. Before his current role, Milton was president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company. Milton was appointed to his current position in 2016
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations on December shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) began among Russian producers and converters on 28 November. All producers announced a Rb3,000/tonne price reduction from November, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

A serious reduction in demand from the domestic market and a tangible decline in export prices in China made Russian producers to make a significant reduction in PVC prices in November. The situation repeated again in November, demand from the domestic market continues to decline, besides Chinese producers announced another tangible reduction in export prices of acetylene PVC.

Negotiations on December supplies of Russian PVC started and taking into account all above said producers had to reduce prices by Rb3,000/tonne or more in comparison with the November level. Chinese producers in the second half of October began to dynamically reduce the export prices of acetylene PVC.

As a result several companies resumed purchases of acetylene PVC, imports in November rose to 2,500 tonnes.
Chinese producers announced another decline in export prices, price offers fell below USD800/tonne DAP Moscow, for container shipments by rail.

Demand for PVC by Russian consumers in November seriously reduced under the pressure of the seasonal factor, despite the reduction in purchases, part of the converters will enter in December with sufficient PVC stocks left since November.

Demand from a number of consumers will even more decrease in December, as in the middle of the month converters will begin to shut their capacities for long-term prevention. Producers faced difficulties in selling PVC in the domestic market in November, as consumers were in no hurry to agree on deals and often forced competitors to compete with each other. As a result, some converters have managed to achieve lower prices than announced earlier this month.

Reduction of demand in the domestic market, some producers tried to compensate by the growth in export volumes.
But demand in foreign markets is not good enough to help Russian producers sell all PVC surplus.

Negotiations for the December supplies were similar to the November ones, the converters were not in a hurry to agree the deals and are trying to achieve the maximum possible concessions. Overall, deals for November shipments were done in the range of Rb62,000-63,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, for K=65/67 and for quantities up to 500 tonnes. Negotiations over prices for resin with K70 started from Rb62,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and higher.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Mexico's national oil company Pemex has declared force majeure on the loading of Isthmus crude, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The producer informed buyers late on Tuesday the force majeure would affect cargoes loading in early December, the sources said. Pemex has offered to replace Isthmus supplies with another Mexican crude grade, Maya, one of the sources said.

The source said force majeure on Mexican crude loadings routinely happens during winter due to poor weather conditions, usually lasting a few days.

Pemex could not be immediately reached for comment as its office is closed during Asian hours. Four oil tankers are waiting off Dos Bocas port to load Isthmus crude, shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon shows.

These include supertanker Maran Ajax and three suezmax tankers Pentathlon, Suez Fuzeyya and Trinity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corporation has resumed operations at its residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit in Dalin, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit was brought on-stream earliy this week following a turnaround. The unit was shut for maintenance in mid-September 2017.

Located at Dalin in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the RFCC has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, the company shut its RFCC in Dalin from 16 August to 3 September 2016 for an unplanned turnaround.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, worldwide leading as chemical company and supplier of catalysts, has celebrated the official opening of its new, world-scale chemical catalysts manufacturing plant in Caojing, Shanghai, China, as per the company's press release.

The new plant is BASF’s first chemical catalysts manufacturing facility in the Asia Pacific region.

The BASF wholly-owned plant is located in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) in Caojing. It will serve the growing chemical industry in China and around the Asia Pacific region, with base metal catalysts and absorbents. The plant will be highly automated and energy efficient.

The opening celebration took place today with guests from the chemical industry, construction partners and local government officials. "The start of our new, world-scale production plant for chemical catalysts in Shanghai represents a milestone for our process catalysts business. 60% of the world’s chemical production will happen in Asia by 2020, with more than half of this in China," said Detlef Ruff, BASF’s Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts. "Local production will significantly help us strengthen our relationships with customers from the chemical industry in Asia and further enhancing the customer experience with improved product availability and shortened lead times. In combination with the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Shanghai, we can now offer our customers regional specific development and production of the latest catalyst technologies. The plant also offers potential for additional expansion as well as flexibility to adapt to new customer production requirements in the years to come."

"Together with our partners, BASF has invested CNY 19.7 billion as of the end of 2016 (approximately EUR2.5 billion) in state-of-the-art production located in Caojing. What we produce here directly supports the development and modernization of Chinese industry. Our solutions improve efficiency and sustainability in the chemical industry and other industries, and reduce reliance on imports, thus enhancing competitiveness of our customers in light of supply-side reform," said Dr. Stephan Kothrade, President Functions Asia Pacific, President and Chairman Greater China, BASF. China’s supply-side reform aims to manage market capacities and boost innovation.

Leveraging experience from the eleven chemical catalyst manufacturing sites around the world, the new plant will use cutting-edge production technologies to manufacture innovative catalysts and adsorbents. These are used, for example, in the production of fatty alcohols, styrene, butanediol. BASF adsorbents are used in many applications to remove impurities from product streams, for example to purify olefins. Butanediol (BDO) serves as a chemical intermediate, among others, for the production of polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF) and poly butylene terephthalate (PBT). PolyTHF is used e.g. in the production of elastic spandex fibers, PBT predominantly in engineering polymers. Styrene is for example polymerized into polystyrene, which finds applications in packaging or insulation for buildings. Fatty alcohols are used as detergents and surfactants, typically used in cosmetics and in the food industry.

The new site will be supported by the new Process Catalyst R&D Center, located within the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Pudong, Shanghai, which is focusing on the development of new process catalyst to meet specific needs in Asia. With strong research competencies in catalyst preparation, scaling and performance evaluation, this R&D Center will further strengthen the collaboration with partners in the region, and will provide support to the new chemical catalyst manufacturing site.

As MRC informed before, in July 2016, BASF closed the previously announced transaction to divest its global Polyolefin Catalysts business to W. R. Grace & Co., a global leader in specialty chemicals and materials.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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