Statoil to rebrand as Equinor in green energy push

MOSCOW (MRC) - Norway’s Statoil plans to change its name to Equinor, reflecting its commitment to become a broad energy company rather than one focused only on oil it said, as per Reuters.

Equinor is a combination of “equi”, the starting point for words like equal, equality and equilibrium, and “nor” for Norway, the company said.

“Reflecting on the global energy transition and how we are developing as a broad energy company, it has become natural to change our name,” Statoil CEO Eldar Saetre said in a statement. Rebranding would cost up to 250 million Norwegian crowns (USD32.5 million), he later told a news conference.

Statoil, which is headquartered in the port city and oil industry hub of Stavanger, has come to symbolize Norway’s rise in the past half-century to one of the world’s richest nations.

Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad ran a straw poll asking readers whether they liked the name change, with 4,730 people saying “no” and 809 saying “yes”.

The proposal will be put to the annual general meeting on May 15, but Statoil said it already had the backing of the Norwegian state, which has a 67 percent stake in the company.

“The decision reflects that Statoil is developing itself into a broad energy company in line with global developments in the energy sector,” Oil and Energy Minister Terje Soeviknes told Reuters.

Statoil said it expects to invest 15-20 percent of capital spending by 2030 in what it calls new energy solutions, up from about 5 percent last year.

Saetre declined to say how much Statoil was planning to spend on renewables in 2018, but the company has said previously that spending for renewable and low-carbon solutions are expected to total USD500 million to USD750 million from 2017 to 2020 and USD750 million to USD1.5 billion for the 2020-2025 period.

Statoil developed the world’s first floating offshore wind park off Scotland and is looking to install others off countries including the United States and Japan.
MRC

PetroChina Daqing resumes operations at LLDPE plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina Daqing Petrochemical has restarted operations at a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a brief maintenance, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on March 8, 2018. The plant was taken off-stream for maintenance on March 5, 2018. Currently, the plant is operating at normal rates.

Located in Daqing, China, the plant has a LLDPE production capacity of 60,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company’s biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement has come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, is expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude this year, up by about 85 to 90 percent from last year’s level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft will supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would represent an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes. The additional oil sent to Dalian is about 120,000 bpd and will make up the bulk of the Russian increases.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

Eni sells Zhejiang Petrochemicals license to use EST refining technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Eni has been awarded a contract by Zhejiang Petrochemicals for the license for the construction of two refining lines based on Eni Slurry Technology (EST), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The two production lines are located on the island of Zhoushan (Zejiang Province, China), and will have a refining capacity of 3 million tonnes per year each. They will be built as part of a project for the construction of a new refinery with a capacity of 40 million of tonnes per year. Start-up is planned for 2020.

The agreement represents an important step to enhance the value of EST technology. Following the decision by Sinopec to adopt this technology for its Maoming refinery in China, EST can be viewed in the Country as the best worldwide technological solution for operators who wish to completely convert the bottom of the barrel.

The choice by Zhejiang Petrochemicals has great value from an environmental point, considering that the new EST plant replaces the originally planned Pet Coke line.

The full agreement includes: license to use the EST technology, Process Design Package, training, technical services, Proprietary Equipment and the sale of the catalyst.

In June, Hydrocarbon Processing’s International Refining and Petrochemical Conference (IRPC) will give attendees a tour of Eni’s Sanazarro refinery to see the EST plant in action. The visit includes an initial welcome and presentations by refinery officials, an overview of the EST, and a brief safety briefing. Attendees will then enter the refinery for a tour of the main conversion plants, the entrance into the control room of EST and a more specific tour of the Eni Slurry Technology plant.

IRPC Europe will be held in Milan, Italy on June 5-7 and will provide a high-level technical forum in which key players in the global petrochemical and refinery sector will meet to share knowledge and learn about best practices and the latest industry advance.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in June 2016, ENI announced that it could not reach an agreement with the US private equity firm SK Capital to sell a majority stake in ENI’s chemicals subsidiary Versalis (Milan) and had terminated the discussions.

ENI is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of EUR68 billion (USD 90 billion), as of August 14, 2013. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC

Sulzer Achema 2018 preview

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sulzer is delivering service and product excellence through innovation at ACHEMA 2018, to be held in Frankfurt from June 11th to 15th, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The exhibition will bring together experts from across the world and Sulzer is taking the opportunity to demonstrate its expertise in separation technology for chemical manufacturers, pump design and rotating equipment services.

ACHEMA is the leading chemical and process engineering exhibition that creates a forum for the exchange of ideas and new technology. Sulzer will be offering three chances to discover the latest developments in separation and mixing solutions, pumping technology and rotating equipment services.

Sulzer’s experts in separation technology will be on hand in Hall 4.0, Stand D48 to discuss the latest developments in tray technology, random packing applications, skid mounted separation solutions and the use of carbon products in column internals.

Sulzer Chemtech is the market leader for separation and mixing technology and the recent introduction of MellaCarbon™ column internals has delivered considerable advantages for corrosive applications. Decades of experience in the design and construction of tailor-made components ensure optimum column performance for the chemical manufacturing sector.

Further developments have been made in tray performance with increased capacity and improved downcomer technology that enhances performance. In addition, experts on the stand will be able to provide a detailed explanation about improvements to random packing applications and Sulzer’s NeXRing™ solution.

Integration of the latest technology with existing infrastructure is very important and Sulzer offers a turn-key service using skid-mounted solutions that minimize costs and disruption on site. By delivering a fully tested, tailor-made solution, Sulzer ensures maximum benefits with short delivery times.
MRC

McDermott & CB&I receive competition authority approvals for proposed combination

MOSCOW (MRC) -- McDermott International, Inc. and CB&I announced that the companies have received antitrust clearance in Russia for their proposed combination. With this clearance, McDermott and CB&I have received all the required competition authority approvals for the transaction, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As previously announced on December 18, 2017, McDermott and CB&I agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction to create a premier vertically-integrated onshore-offshore company with an enterprise value of approximately $6 billion. Under the terms of the proposed combination, upon completion, it is estimated that McDermott stockholders will own approximately 53 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis and CB&I shareholders will own approximately 47 percent.

The combination is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018. It remains subject to approval by McDermott’s and CB&I’s shareholders, completion of financing and other closing conditions.

As MRC informed before, in December 2017, CB&I announced it had received full notice to proceed by Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. (KPI) for the project management services for a propane dehydrogenation unit (PDH) and a polypropylene plant in the western Atyrau region of Kazakhstan.
MRC