KMI restarts methanol plant in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaltim Methanol Industri (KMI) has brought on-stream its methanol plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on December 16, 2017. The plant was taken off-line in end-November 2017.

Located in Bontang, Indonesia, the methanol plant has a production capacity of 660,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in March 2017, Honeywell announced that Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Company, Ltd. had started its UOP Advanced Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) unit with an annual production capacity of 833,000 mtpy, making it the largest single-train MTO unit in the world.

Located in Lianyungang City in China's Jiangsu Province, the Sailboat facility will produce propylene for the production of acrylonitrile, which is used to make clothing and fabrics, and high performance polymers used in automotive parts, hard hats and other hard plastic products. The plant also will produce ethylene for the production of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, which are used to make adhesives, foams, medical devices, photovoltaic cells, and other products, as well as C4 olefins for the production of butadiene, an ingredient in synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Oil edged up towards USD64/bbl on Tuesday, helped by a North Sea pipeline outage, OPEC-led supply cuts and jitters about threats to Middle East supplies after a missile was fired by a Yemeni group at the Saudi capital, as per Reuters.

But rising output in the United States has put a lid on gains. Shale production will rise to a record in January, according to a government forecast published on Monday, as higher prices encourage companies to pump more. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 22 cents to USD63.63 a barrel at 1220 GMT. US crude gained 33 cents to USD57.49.

The shutdown of the North Sea's Forties pipeline since last week has supported Brent in particular, as Forties is the largest of the five crude grades underpinning the benchmark. Brent reached USD65.83, its highest since mid-2015, on Dec. 12.

"This should ensure buying pressures remain at the fore of the Brent structure until the turn of the year at the very least," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Ineos, operator of the Forties pipeline, said on Tuesday it was moving forward with a preferred repair option and the timeframe for the fix remained two to four weeks starting from Dec. 11, the date of the shutdown.

Oil ticked up after reports that a missile was fired at Riyadh from Yemen, but pared gains after Saudi Arabia said it intercepted the missile and no casualties were reported. A deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member producers including Russia to cut supplies to curb a supply glut that has built up since 2014 has also boosted prices.

OPEC and its allies have extended the agreement until the end of 2018 and Russia's Rosneft said on Monday it could be maintained beyond next year. As a result of the cuts, oil inventories are falling globally and the latest weekly supply reports are expected to show a further reduction in US crude inventories.

The first of these reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2130 GMT on Tuesday. Still, rising US production is countering lower supply elsewhere. US shale output in January is forecast to increase by 94,000 bpd to 6.41 MMbpd, according to the EIA's monthly drilling productivity report. "The US shale oil report issued late yesterday is on the bearish side," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced the completion of its acquisition of CH2M via a cash and stock transaction, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The combination, which received broad affirmative support from CH2M shareholders, is expected to further drive the company’s profitable growth strategy. Jacobs formed an Integration Management Office (IMO) early in August to begin integration planning following the announcement of the proposed CH2M acquisition. The IMO identified rigorous processes and protocols to drive realization of cost and growth synergies, for which Jacobs’ executive team and Board of Directors will continue to provide active oversight.

Both organizations reported strong performance in 2017, bolstering confidence in prospects for enhanced value creation in the newly combined firm and reinforcing the expectations for integration synergies and returns on the transaction.

Reaffirms fiscal 2018 outlook. The company reaffirms its previous fiscal 2018 outlook for both Jacobs as a stand-alone business and the expected contribution from CH2M, which translates to fiscal 2018 adjusted EPS of USD3.55 to USD3.95.2 This guidance includes a negative impact from the amortization from CH2M purchase intangibles. The outlook also incorporates standalone revenue growth ramping during the fiscal year in-line with the company’s previous expectations. Given the timing of the close, the company does not expect any material benefit from CH2M in its Q1 results.

Significant cost savings. Jacobs expects to achieve an estimated USD150 MM of annual run-rate savings by the end of the second year after closing, primarily from real estate, optimized organizational alignment and systems integrations. Jacobs expects to incur approximately USD225 MM in one-time costs to achieve these ongoing savings. In addition, the company expects to incur other one-time costs associated with the acquisition, such as change in control payments, banking and legal fees.

Earnings accretion. The transaction is expected to be 15% accretive to Jacobs’ adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after closing 2% and 25% accretive when further excluding the impact of amortization from CH2M purchase intangibles. Upside for profitable growth. The broader, combined solutions offering of the combined company, including CH2M’s proven leadership in program management and construction management, presents potential for longer-term revenue upside extending both companies’ complementary offerings across their combined client base and broader global footprint.

Attractive risk profile. Jacobs expects that after closing, approximately 85% of combined revenues will ?be derived from lower-risk and reimbursable contracts.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — McDermott International, Inc. and CB&I announced that the companies have agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction to create a premier fully vertically integrated onshore-offshore company, with a broad engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) service offering and market leading technology portfolio, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Upon completion of the transaction, McDermott shareholders will own approximately 53% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis and CB&I shareholders will own approximately 47%.

Under the terms of the business combination agreement (BCA), CB&I shareholders will be entitled to receive 2.47221 shares of McDermott common stock for each share of CB&I common stock owned (or 0.82407 shares if McDermott effects a planned three-to-one reverse stock split prior to closing), subject to any withholding taxes. The estimated enterprise value of the transaction is approximately USD6 B, based on the closing share price of McDermott on Dec. 15.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and Sinopec will expand the production capacity of Neopentylglycol (NPG) at the state-of-the-art Verbund site, BASF-YPC Co., Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture in Nanjing, China, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The plant was established in 2015 with an annual capacity of 40,000 metric tons. Following the expansion, the annual capacity will be doubled to 80,000 metric tons. The expanded capacity will come on stream in 2020.

NPG is a unique polyalcohol offering superior performance in many end-use applications such as powder coatings, textiles and construction due to its high chemical and thermal stability. It is mainly used as a building block in polyester resins for coatings, unsaturated polyester and alkyd resins, lubricants and plasticizers. As the global market leader, BASF has NPG production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Freeport, Texas, United States and Jilin, China.

As MRC informed previously, within the next five years, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) plans to invest globally more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence. Plastic additives improve product properties such as scratch resistance or light stability, and optimize plastics manufacturing processes. As the leading global supplier of plastic additives with manufacturing assets in all regions, BASF is a major partner to the plastics industry.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001.

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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