Petrobras and ExxonMobil form strategic alliance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrobras and ExxonMobil has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding a strategic alliance to jointly identify and evaluate potential business opportunities, as per BusinessWire.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in Rio de Janeiro today by Pedro Parente, president of Petrobras, Brad Corson, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Ventures, and Stephen Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company.

Petrobras and ExxonMobil will evaluate areas of mutual interest that can bring together their world-class experience across all sectors of the oil and gas production value chain, including opportunities for cooperation in exploration, production, gas and chemicals both inside and outside Brazil.

For Petrobras, the formation of alliances is an important strategy in the Business and Management Plan 2017-2021, bringing significant potential benefits, such as risk sharing, augmented investment capacity in the oil and gas chain, technology sharing and strengthening of corporate governance.

This agreement both exemplifies and reinforces ExxonMobil’s strategic relationship with Petrobras and continuing emphasis on growing this relationship and its business in Brazil, building on its more than 100 years in the country.

In September, Petrobras and ExxonMobil jointly acquired six offshore blocks in the Campos Basin in the Brazil National Agency of Petroleum’s 14th tender round.

As MRC wrote before, in late October 2017, ExxonMobil Chemical Company announced that it had commenced production on the first of two new 650,000 tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene (PE) lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The full project, part of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project in the Baytown area and ExxonMobil’s broader Growing the Gulf expansion initiative, will increase the plant’s PE capacity by approximately 1.3 million tons per year.

Petrobras is an integrated energy company with focus in oil and gas, recognized as a leader in deep and ultra-deep water exploration and production, operating mainly in Brazil. Currently, Petrobras produces close to 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. The company’s core values are respect for life, people and the environment; ethics and transparency; market orientation; excellence and trust; and results.

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international energy company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.
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BASF opens its first automotive coatings production plant in Thailand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF’s Coatings division today inaugurated a new automotive coatings plant at its Bangpoo manufacturing site, Samutprakarn province, Thailand, said the producer on its site.

The new plant is the first BASF automotive coatings manufacturing facility in ASEAN, and will produce solventborne and waterborne automotive coatings to meet growing market demand in the region.

"BASF is a trusted partner of all major automotive manufacturers around the world, with a broad competence in all coating layers," said Dirk Bremm, President of BASF’s Coatings division. "The inauguration of the new plant demonstrates our commitment to meeting customer expectations for advanced coating technologies and products in ASEAN, for ASEAN."

According to the LMC Automotive Report from November 2017, this year’s total car production in ASEAN is anticipated to reach around 3.9 million. Thailand will account for more than 50% of this market, representing the largest coatings market within ASEAN, followed by Indonesia and Malaysia. With an increasing number of automotive OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) engaging in production and technology development activities in ASEAN, there is also a growing need for local innovation in coatings solutions and products, as well as a high degree of technical service. "With our robust capabilities in Thailand, we meet the increasing demand for sustainable and eco-efficient solutions,” said Peter Fischer, Senior Vice President, Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific, BASF. “Working closely with our automotive customers globally and regionally, we are committed to be the partner of choice and drive for growth and success in the highly competitive ASEAN market."

The new production plant in Bangpoo complements the facilities at the Coatings Technical Competence Center ASEAN, which was opened in September 2015 at the same location. The technical center includes a laboratory for product development, high performance application facilities, color design, as well as a small batch production unit. The co-location of production and technical facilities enables operational efficiency and speed to market. The new plant’s design not only allows BASF to offer customized service, it also has the potential for future expansion and the flexibility to adapt to new production requirements and changing industry trends.

"BASF has been active in ASEAN for over 50 years, with a strong footprint in Thailand," added Andrea Frenzel, President South & East Asia, ASEAN & ANZ, BASF. "With our new automotive coatings plant, we aim to help Thailand strengthen its role as a key market and production hub for the automotive industry in ASEAN, and to support the economic development of the neighboring countries."

As MRC informed before, in December 2016, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It 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. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
MRC

Ineos considers shifting refinery work due to Forties outage

MOSCOW (MRC) — Ineos may bring forward maintenance work at its Grangemouth refinery in Scotland due to the unplanned outage at its Forties North Sea crude pipeline, which threatens to choke the plant's feedstock, industry sources said on Wednesday, as per Reuters.

The Forties pipeline which carries about 450,000 bpd of Forties crude, roughly a quarter of the North Sea's total output, was shut early this week after a crack was found, sending global crude prices soaring to a 2-yr high. The original plan was to perform maintenance on the Grangemouth diesel-making hydrocracker throughout March 2018, and to shut down a crude distillation unit and a diesel hydrotreater from April 1 to May 13, 2018, the sources said.

Regional refinery margins, which move inversely to crude oil prices, declined to their lowest since March 2016 after the Forties pipeline was shut down, according to Reuters data. Ineos said on Wednesday it was still considering repair options on the pipeline and reiterated any repairs would take several weeks.

"Ineos could keep the Grangemouth refinery running but at a fair cost," one of the trading sources said. Moving maintenance forward now appears the most likely option, but nothing has been decided. For one thing, it was unclear if maintenance crews were available on short notice, he said.

Another trading source said the refinery was considering shutting down crude sections because importing crude into the site was complicated and costly. "Imports will kill a pretty much non-existent (refining) margin," he said.

Grangemouth stopped offering some oil products, including jet fuel, on Tuesday in the wake of Forties Pipeline System (FPS) outage, traders said. Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultancy Energy Aspect, said the 200,000-bpd refinery imported a maximum of 120,000 bpd of crude oil, mostly from West Africa, this year from the nearby Finnart oil terminal northwest of Glasgow. The rest of its crude supplies came through the FPS.

"The issue for Grangemouth is to make up for lost FPS volumes via imports. That faces both infrastructure constraints but also long transit times of around 20 days which may mean the refinery has to reduce runs if the FPS outage is prolonged," Sen said. Ineos did not immediately reply to a request for comment about plans for the refinery.
MRC

Sika opens new concrete admixtures and mortar products facility in USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sika has opened a new concrete admixtures and mortar products facility in Texas, the USA, as per the companies press-release.

With the opening of a new facility near Houston, Sika is further expanding its presence in the fast-growing US market. The 16-hectare site will be used for manufacturing a comprehensive portfolio of concrete admixtures and mortar products. The facilities will also serve as a strategic business center which will help tap into the enormous growth potential of the construction market in Texas and the southwestern states of the USA.

Sika’s extensive new factory has opened following a 12-month construction period. The site also houses special equipment for the production of polymers that form the backbone of high-performance concrete admixtures. This facility – the Group's 22nd in the United States – will supply customers in the major Texas conurbation as well as in the southwestern US. With a total of 20 million inhabitants and a booming construction industry, the megacities of Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio are among North America’s fastest-growing urban areas. From this new
site, Sika will focus on developing the Texas and southwestern US markets.

It will also open a training center for customers and applicators, as well as setting up sales and customer service
functions. This will ensure that the region is supplied with a wide product range from all target markets and a full service.

Christoph Ganz, Regional Manager North America: "By opening this new facility, we are continuing the expansion of our supply chain in the rapidly expanding metropolitan regions of North America. Texas is currently the fastest-growing construction market in the US, and the new factory in southern Texas will help us position ourselves ideally to benefit from this boom.

Thanks to the commissioning of 13 additional factories in the last five years alone, we now have comprehensive geographical coverage of the dynamic North American market and have thus laid the foundations for continuing our above-average growth."

MRC

OPEC sees balanced oil market by late 2018 as cuts erode glut

MOSCOW (MRC) — OPEC expects the world oil market to be balanced by late 2018 as its deal with other producers to cut output reduces excess oil in storage, even as US and other producers outside the group pump more crude, said Reuters.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in a monthly report, cut its estimate of global demand for its crude in 2018 by 270,000 bpd to 33.15 MMbpd, in part because of higher US supply. But the 14-country producer group said its oil output in November, as assessed by secondary sources, was below the 2018 demand forecast at 32.45 MMbpd, a drop of about 133,000 bpd from October.

The report follows the Nov. 30 decision by OPEC, Russia and several other non-OPEC producers to extend their oil output-cutting deal until the end of 2018 to finish clearing a global glut of crude that built up from 2014.

"This should lead to a further reduction in excess global inventories, arriving at a balanced market by late 2018," OPEC sad in the report. Oil prices are trading near to $64/bbl, close to their highest since 2015, supported by the OPEC-led effort and an unplanned shutdown of a British oil pipeline. The price of crude is still about half its level of mid-2014.

OPEC said oil stocks fell further in October. Its production figures showed compliance with the supply cuts increased in November from already high rates.

Adherence by the 11 OPEC members with output targets has risen to 121%, according to a Reuters calculation, higher than October's level.
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