BP Technology Outlook 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP published the second edition of the BP Technology Outlook. The report explores five areas where BP believes technology can play a game-changing role: Energy efficiency; digital; renewable power; energy storage; and decarbonized gas, Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In order to meet demand, the energy industry uses technology to find, produce and convert primary energy resources including oil, natural gas, coal, uranium for nuclear power, biomass, solar and wind.

From the earliest oil wells to the latest wind turbines, technology developments have driven advances in the way that energy is discovered and produced – and many more developments are anticipated in the decades ahead.

Around 55 trillion barrels of oil and gas (measured in trillions of barrels of oil equivalent or Tboe) have been discovered around the world. Of these, we estimate that around one-tenth, or 4.9 Tboe, could be recovered using today’s technology. By applying evolving technology through to 2050, these recoverable volumes could be increased by more than one-third to around 7.3 Tboe. This volume is more than enough to meet the world’s projected demand to 2050 – estimated at 1.8 to 2.5 Tboe. However, exploration and technology development remains important in this sector to provide resource options that are more economical or have lower environmental footprints than some of the discovered resources. Oil and gas production from a reservoir declines naturally over its lifetime and our analysis supports the International Energy Agency’s estimate that investment of around $600 billion per year industry-wide could still be needed to produce sufficient oil and gas to satisfy demand – a figure which allows for impacts to oil and gas production from announced policies and pledges toward achieving the Paris Agreement.
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ENI 2018-2021 Strategy: Refining & Gas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s CEO, presented the company’s 2018-2021 Strategic Plan to the financial community, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Following a successful transformation, Eni is stronger, more integrated and positioned well for further growth in the upstream sector. The mid-downstream businesses have been restructured to leave them more financially solid and therefore able to create value even in the presence of low price scenarios. The 2018-21 plan represents the natural evolution of the strategy implemented in previous years and is designed to increase the value of all businesses. On this basis, Eni intends to increase the 2018 dividend to EUR0.83 per share, fully paid in cash. The distribution policy will be progressive and based on underlying earnings and free cash flow growth.

In Refining Eni aims to achieve strong growth in the Plan period with an EBIT of EUR900 million in 2021 and a cumulative free cash flow in 2018-21 of more than EUR2 billion.

To do this, Eni will undertake the following actions:
• Supply and asset optimization in refining activity;
• Restart of the Sannazzaro EST plant by the end of 2018;
• An increase of the "green" refining capacity: the bio-refinery in Gela will be operational by the end of 2018 and the second phase of development of Venice completed by 2021;
• Consolidate leading marketing position in Italy, leveraging new sustainable mobility initiatives.
Gas and Power will grow thanks to the following actions:
• Accelerated development of the LNG portfolio, which will reach 12 million tons per year of contracted volumes in 2021, and 14 million by 2025, also through the enhancement of the equity component, increasing from 30% in 2017 to 70% in 2021;
• Enhancement of the gas portfolio in Europe;
• Growth in the retail sector in Europe, which provides for around 11 million customers in 2021, an increase of 25% compared to 2017. Targeting an additional 11 million customers by 2021.
These actions will allow the business to remain structurally positive in the future, achieving EBIT of 800 million in 2021, of which 60% referred to retail and up over the 300 million of 2018. Free cash flow cumulative of 2018-21 of 2,4 billion euros.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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