Pertamina picks Omans OOG, Cosmo Energy for USD10 B refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) - Indonesia's Pertamina appointed a consortium of partners to develop a new USD10 billion refinery at Bontang, said Ardhy N. Mokobombang, director of refinery megaprojects and petrochemicals at the state-owned energy company, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Indonesia, one of Southeast Asia's biggest fuel importers, hopes to reduce its import bill by improving its ageing domestic refining infrastructure, but some projects have been delayed because of financing issues.

Pertamina hopes to soon finalize a framework agreement with Oman's Overseas Oil and Gas LLC (OOG) and Cosmo Oil International, a trading unit of Japan's Cosmo Energy Holdings , to develop the Bontang facility, Mokobombang said on Tuesday.

The Oman government will provide financial support for the project, in which Pertamina expects to take an initial 10 percent stake, Mokobombang said. Pertamina would have the rights to supply 20 percent of the crude for the refinery, and Oman the remainder, he said.

Pertamina plans to reach a final investment decision on the 300,000 bpd Bontang grass roots refinery project in mid-2020, he said. "Hopefully in 2025 this refinery will be operational," Mokobombang told reporters.

A spokeswoman for Cosmo Energy Holdings in Japan said only that the company has not made an investment decision on the project yet. OOG is "active in the development of a number of energy related projects," including a refinery project in Indonesia, it said on its website. OOG could not be reached for comment.
MRC

Business, economic activity show no signs of winter freeze as 2018 gets off to robust start - ACC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), expanded 0.5 percent in January on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and 0.7 percent on an unadjusted basis, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This follows an upwardly revised 3MMA gain of 0.7 percent in December and 0.5 percent in November. The CAB is up 4.0 percent compared to a year earlier, indicating a robust economy well into the third-quarter of 2018.

The Chemical Activity Barometer has four primary components, each consisting of a variety of indicators: 1) production; 2) equity prices; 3) product prices; and 4) inventories and other indicators.

In January, following some weather-related stagnation, production-related indicators showed solid improvement. Strong trends in construction-related resins, pigments, and performance chemistry all suggested further gains in housing activity. Plastic resins used in packaging and in other consumer and institutional applications also improved, suggesting continued consumer confidence. A robust stock market rally continued to push equity prices higher, while product prices and inventories were also positive.

The diffusion index expanded to 71 percent. This index marks the number of positive contributors relative to the total number of indicators monitored.

The Chemical Activity Barometer is a leading economic indicator derived from a composite index of chemical industry activity. The chemical industry has been found to consistently lead the U.S. economy's business cycle given its early position in the supply chain, and this barometer can be used to determine turning points and likely trends in the wider economy. Month-to-month movements can be volatile so a three-month moving average of the barometer is provided. This provides a more consistent and illustrative picture of national economic trends.

Applying the CAB back to 1912, it has been shown to provide a lead of two to fourteen months, with an average lead of eight months at cycle peaks as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The median lead was also eight months. At business cycle troughs, the CAB leads by one to seven months, with an average lead of four months. The median lead was three months. The CAB is rebased to the average lead (in months) of an average 100 in the base year (the year 2012 was used) of a reference time series. The latter is the Federal Reserve's Industrial Production Index.

The CAB comprises indicators relating to the production of chlorine and other alkalies, pigments, plastic resins and other selected basic industrial chemicals; chemical company stock data; hours worked in chemicals; publicly sourced, chemical price information; end-use (or customer) industry sales-to-inventories; and several broader leading economic measures (building permits and new orders). Each month, ACC provides a barometer number, which reflects activity data for the current month, as well as a three-month moving average. The CAB was developed by the economics department at the American Chemistry Council.
MRC

Why Canada is the next frontier for shale oil

MOSCOW (MRC) - The revolution in U.S. shale oil has battered Canada's energy industry in recent years, ending two decades of rapid expansion and job creation in the nation's vast oil sands, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Now Canada is looking to its own shale fields to repair the economic damage. Canadian producers and global oil majors are increasingly exploring the Duvernay and Montney formations, which they say could rival the most prolific U.S. shale fields.

Canada is the first country outside the United States to see large-scale development of shale resources, which already account for 8 percent of total Canadian oil output. China, Russia and Argentina also have ample shale reserves but have yet to overcome the obstacles to full commercial development. Canada, by contrast, offers many of the same advantages that allowed oil firms to launch the shale revolution in the United States: numerous private energy firms with appetite for risk; deep capital markets; infrastructure to transport oil; low population in regions that contain shale reserves; and plentiful water to pump into shale wells.

Together, the Duvernay and Montney formations in Canada hold marketable resources estimated at 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 4.5 billion barrels of oil, according to the National Energy Board, a Canadian regulator. "The Montney is thought to have about half the recoverable resources of the whole oil sands region, so it's formidable," Marty Proctor, chief executive of Calgary-based Seven Generations Energy, told Reuters in an interview.

Canada's shale output stands at about 335,000 bpd, according to energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, which forecasts output should grow to 420,000 bpd in a decade. The pace of output growth could quicken and the estimated size of the resources could rise as activity picks up and knowledge of the fields improves, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Seven Generations and Encana Corp, also based in Calgary, are among leading producers developing the two regions. Global majors including Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips - who pulled back from the oil sands last year - are also developing Canadian shale assets.
MRC

SunPower Oasis power plant begins operation at Total La Mede refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SunPower Corp. announced that an 8-megawatt SunPower Oasis Power Plant was recently completed and is now operating at Total's La Mede refinery in Chateauneuf-les-Martigues, France, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Total Solar is proud of the start-up of its photovoltaic power plant in La Mede. The project was completed in a very short time and in accordance with the strict safety standards specific to a refinery," said Julien Pouget, senior vice president Renewables at Total. "It demonstrates our willingness to continue to actively help drive the growth of solar power in France through the solarisation of industrial sites."

"SunPower delivers cost-competitive solar energy through innovative, integrated complete solutions such as our Oasis platform," said Tom Werner, SunPower president and CEO. "We commend Total for this forward-thinking, milestone project, and for using high performance SunPower technology to ensure long-term value."

The SunPower Oasis platform is a fully integrated power plant solution designed to streamline construction, reduce operations and maintenance costs, and maximize value for customers. The high efficiency SunPower E-Series solar panels that are mounted on the Oasis solar trackers at the La Mede facility produce 30 percent more energy than conventional solar panels in the first year of operation.

As MRC informed before, in March 2016, The National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran and France-based Total signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build a petrochemical complex in Iran. The complex will include a world-scale steam cracker unit in the coastal area. It will be based on a combination of feedstocks comprised of ethane, naphtha and LPG, as well as other available feed. In addition to steam cracker unit, the complex will include relevant downstream units for supplying its products to domestic and international markets.

SunPower is a majority-owned subsidiary of Total SA.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

PP production in Russia grew 2% in 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of polypropylene (PP) in Russia increased to about 1.4 mln tonnes in 2017, up 2% compared to 2016.
The greatest increase in production was shown by SIBUR Tobolsk and Tomskneftekhim, according to MRC ScanPlast.

December PP production in the country grew to 126,800 tonnes, compared with 115,300 tonnes in November; SIBUR Tobolsk and Stavrolen increased their capacity utilisation. In general, in January-December PP production in the Russian Federation exceeded the level of 1.4 mln tonnes against 1.377 mln tonnes a year earlier, the greatest increase in production showed SIBUR Tobolsk and Tomskneftekhim, while Neftekhimiya, Stavrolen and Nizhnekamskneftekhim lowered production indicators.

Structure of PP production over the reported period looked as follows.

The largest producer of PP in Russia - SIBUR Tobolsk in December produced about 46,600 tonnes against 45,900 tonnes a month earlier.
SIBUR Tobolsk's PP production exceeded 510,500 tonnes in January-December 2017, up 10% year on year. Such a major increase in the output was caused by the absence of the plant's shutdown for a scheduled maintenance this year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim decreased capacity utilisation in December, total polypropylene production had decreased to 16,900 tonnes against 18,000 tonnes in November. The producer's PP production in January-December decreased by 3% from last year's level to 210,200 tonnes.

Poliom (Titan Group) also last month increased the capacity utilisation after the problems in November; December PP output was about 18,400 tonnes against 12,600 tonnes a month earlier. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 205,300 tonnes, up 1% year on year.

Tomskneftekhim in December produced about 12,900 tonnes of polypropylene to 12,100 tonnes in November. Total PP production at Tomskneftekhim over the reported period reached 141,500 tonnes, compared with 129,900 tonnes year on year.

December PP production at Ufaorgsintez decreased to about 11,000 tonnes from 11,200 tonnes a month earlier. The producer's PP output decreased to 124,500 tonnes in January-December 2017 compared with 123,100 tonnes year on year.

Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) decreased capacity utilisation in December, total polypropylene production had increased to 12,200 tonnes against 8,100 tonnes in November. The producer's PP output in 2017 reached 107,100 tonnes, down 17% year on year. A low indicator of the current year was a result of a long scheduled maintenance works in March-April.

Stavrolen (Lukoil) also kept production volumes in December at the lower level, and the final production of propylene polymers was 8,700 tonnes. Overall PP production at the plant reached 101,000 tonnes in January-December, down 10% year on year.


MRC