Hong Kong, London, New York shortlisted for Aramco IPO

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Arabia has shortlisted New York, London and Hong Kong - singly or in a combination of two or even all three - for the international portion of the listing of national oil company Aramco, two sources with knowledge of the discussions said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The initial public offering (IPO) will also include the Saudi stock exchange, Tadawul, and is still set for late 2018, the sources said. The shortlist means Tokyo, Singapore and Toronto are no longer in the running for what is likely to be the world's biggest IPO. Riyadh could raise as much as USD100 billion in the sale of up to 5 percent of Aramco if it achieves a projected USD2 trillion valuation. A final decision has yet to be made by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom's economic and oil policies, the sources said.

One of the sources said a phased listing was being considered, with the local listing occurring first, followed by an international listing or listings at a later stage. The second source said it was possible that Aramco would be listed on all three international exchanges, as well as the Saudi bourse, but cautioned that no decision had been taken.

The first source said discussions involved listing on at least two of the three venues. "As far as Aramco goes, late 2018 remains the objective and the plan and everything is moving to deliver that," the first source said. Saudi Aramco said in response to a Reuters request for comment: "A range of listing options continue to be held under active review. However, no decision has been taken."

The Aramco listing is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, an ambitious reform plan championed by Prince Mohammad to reduce the dependence of the Saudi economy on oil.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asahimas, part of Asahi Glass, has taken its No. 2 vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit off-stream for maintenance and debottlenecking exercise, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the company has commenced maintenance along with the capacity expansion at the plant on January 15, 2018. The plant is slated to remain off-line for a period of around 7 weeks.

Following the expansion at the capacity will be increased by 100,000 MT to 350,000 mt/year.

Located in Anyer, Indonesia, the No.2 VCM plant currently has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in mid-February 2016, Asahi Glass began shipping polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from the Anyer plant at Cilegon, Indonesia, following completion of an expansion program at PT Asahimas Chemical.

Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., more commonly known as AGC, is a global glass manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. It is one of the core Mitsubishi companies.

PT Asahimas Chemical is owned 52.5% by Asahi Glass, 11.5% by Mitsubishi Corp. and 18% each by the local Rodamas and Ableman Finance.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) has signed an agreement to supply SADIG-ILCO, a new Saudi-German joint venture focused on the manufacture of a wide range of speciality chemicals with ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO), said Worldofchemicals.

Under the terms of the supply agreement, SADIG-ILCO’s new PlasChem Park facility will offtake EO and PO from Sadara through the EO and PO pipelines that are being established by Sadara.

Using these products as feedstock, the company will manufacture a range of speciality chemicals, some of which will be produced for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will further enable the production of market-ready products in several areas, including coatings and adhesives, personal care products and many other industrial applications.

"With Sadara’s products now in the local, regional and global markets, we are able to show investors definitively that the Kingdom is an attractive destination for new and exciting downstream manufacturing opportunities. The speciality chemicals that SADIG-ILCO will produce locally will replace imports and encourage the development of new downstream speciality industries,” said Mohammad Alazzaz, director of Value Park for Sadara.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced that BASF has opened a state-of-the-art control room equipped with Honeywell Experion technology at its waste incineration complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The control room was officially inaugurated on November 28, 2017, by Dr. Uwe Liebelt, president, BASF European Site and Verbund Management, and Vimal Kapur, president of HPS.

Honeywell re-designed the plant's control room with BASF's Industrie 4.0 initiative in mind. Virtualization technology delivers consolidated plant information to operators via eight large-screen Experion Orion Consoles, which also embed traditionally separate Microsoft Office desktop applications alongside the distributed control system one. Two Experion Collaboration Stations enable BASF to run production meetings more efficiently by using real-time data and online documents.

As part of Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System, 29 C300 Controllers and 20,000 I/O modules facilitate plant-wide monitoring, improve safety and fire protection, and increase reliability. In addition, a new MediluX lighting system in the control room improves visual conditions for operators day and night, reducing eye strain and fatigue.
"This strategic project is a prime example of how Industrie 4.0 is transforming industrial operations," Kapur said. "Previously, BASF operators had to gather and piece together data to form a high-level view. Now, critical information is digitally consolidated and streamed onto central displays, transforming efficiency, productivity and decision-making."

The plant's six incinerators process hazardous waste that cannot be reused or recycled and convert it into steam and electrical power. The clean, reusable energy is channeled back into BASF's production processes, helping the company save resources and reduce emissions.

"Thanks to excellent cooperation with Honeywell, our 60-year-old plant now has one of the most modern control rooms in the world," said Dr. Karin Flore, head of waste incineration, BASF.

The incineration plant serves more than 200 BASF production facilities within the company's flagship,10-square-kilometer production site as well as facilities outside the BASF complex. The reliability of the plant is critical to BASF's wider production operations because any standstill could potentially affect the world's largest chemical complex as a whole.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, within the next five years, BASF 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.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Oil held steady above USD69 a barrel on Thursday, supported by falling inventories of crude and threats of an attack on Nigeria's petroleum industry, although a reported rise in U.S. fuel supplies weighed, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude is within sight of its highest since December 2014, supported by supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and concern that unrest in producer nations such as Nigeria could further curb output.

Militant group Niger Delta Avengers threatened to attack Nigeria's oil sector in the next few days, potentially hampering supplies in Africa's largest exporter. "The impact of such a threat, if carried out, would be significant on the global supply and demand balance," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. "The market is still sensitive to geopolitical developments."

Brent crude, the global benchmark, had slipped 7 cents to USD69.31 by 0943 GMT. On Monday it hit USD70.37, the highest since December 2014. U.S. crude was up 2 cents at USD63.99 and reached its highest since December 2014 on Tuesday. A supply report from the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday presented a mixed picture, with inventories of gasoline and diesel rising and crude stocks falling. The U.S. government's weekly supply data is due on Thursday. Brent has risen from USD61 a barrel in early December and some analysts say the rally may be about to run out of steam.

"The upside is now limited for oil prices," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at brokerage Forex.com. "U.S. oil producers will ramp up production in the coming months." The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday it expects U.S. oil output to continue to rise in February with production from shale increasing by 111,000 bpd. The agency previously said U.S. output could reach 10 MMbpd in February and 11 MMbpd in 2019. Even so, traders said prices were unlikely to fall far due to the OPEC-led curbs and the risk of further disruptions.
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