GE signs historic USD300M deal to help improve maintenance inspections of 11 Petrobras power plants in Brazil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a historic agreement, GE’s Power Services business announced that it will service power generation equipment in 11 power plants owned by Petrobras, Brazil’s majority state-owned oil company, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Valued at more than USD300 million, the deal represents GE’s largest transactional power generation services agreement in Latin America. The fleet under the contract represents approximately 80 percent of the Petrobras total installed fleet and generates 4.3 gigawatts (GW) of energy, equivalent to the residential power consumption of 57 million Brazilians.

"Petrobras is an integrated energy company with a focus on oil and gas and constant commitment for greater efficiency in our investments and reduction of our costs without compromising our safety and production goals," said Alexsandro Silva, general manager of Support for the Operation of Energy Assets of Petrobras. "Petrobras and GE have been working together for several years to ensure high performances of the power generation assets installed at our plants. We are pleased about this unique transaction experience with GE, which is expected to help Petrobras to accomplish the scheduled outages of our assets for the next four years while also increasing significantly our savings in maintenance throughout the duration of the agreement."

As the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the assets, GE’s expertise on gas turbine engineering, operational profiles and technology solutions were key attributes to the successful deal. GE’s Fleet360 platform of total plant services solutions will help Petrobras ensure reliable, long-term execution of the scheduled outages of its 11 power plants throughout the country while significantly cutting maintenance costs.

"This historic win marks our largest transactional power generation services agreement in Latin America," said Scott Strazik, president and CEO of GE’s Power Service business. "It builds on our successful relationship with Petrobras, reconfirms our commitment to our transactional business and supports our focus to work with our customers to find the right mix of solutions to help meet their dynamic needs. In addition, sustaining gas turbine performance in these times of ever-shrinking budgets can be a difficult challenge. This project highlights how we can tailor the right services solutions to cut Petrobras’ operational and maintenance cosst by up to 25 percent and provide support for the next four years."

The four-year agreement signed in December 2017 includes inspections, parts and repairs for 20 of GE’s heavy-duty gas turbines (four 6FA, six 7FA, 10 GT11N2), 23 of GE’s LM6000 aeroderivative gas turbines, three GE steam turbines and 13 GE generators, which Petrobras has been operating at the 11 power plants since 2001.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in late December 2016m, Petrobras said its board had approved the sale of two petrochemical companies, Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, to Mexico's Alpek SAB de CV for USD385 million.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Axalta Coating Systems launched one of its refinish brands, Nason Finishes, at a large paint importer and distributor in South Africa. City Paint & Tool, which has been operating for more than 50 years, has nine branches, as per Coatingsworld.

"We only work with products that meet our expectations and that outperform the competition in their market tier," said Patrick Gillespie, director of City Paint & Tool. "Nason Finishes has definitely ticked these boxes. Not only is the product priced right for the segment at which it is targeted, but our turnaround time for mixes has definitely improved."

"Nason Finishes is formulated to be fast and easy to apply, so City Paint & Tool’s customers will find the products work together to deliver the best results when time and money are limited," added Hannes Kloppers, Axalta’s country business manager for South Africa.

The Nason Finishes launch was held in City Paint & Tool’s main offices in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where assembled guests learned about the benefits of Nason’s Color Navigator spectrophotometer, a portable, hand-held color measurement instrument that is designed to be used directly on a vehicle or part to obtain the correct color match. There was also a hands-on demonstration of the Color Navigator.

"Everyone who attended the launch was astonished at how quickly and easily they were able to match colors accurately,” Gillespie said. “The City Paint & Tool’s motto is ‘We coat your world’ – and with Nason’s help, we will keep delivering this to our customers."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Corp will shut down its largest refinery for maintenance throughout May, and at least four independent oil plants have started overhauls this month, curbing China's crude oil demand, reported Reuters.

The news comes after Sinopec, China's largest state refiner, announced big cuts in its Saudi oil imports.

Sinopec's 460 Mbpd Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company will be shut down from May 1 for a 40-day maintenance, in a major overhaul planned once every four years, an industry source briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The overhaul at Zhenhai, one of the country's largest processors of Saudi crude oil, coincides with Sinopec's decision on Tuesday to slash crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia during the month.

Four independent refineries with total processing capacity of 200 Mbpd - Shandong Haiyou Petrochemical Group Co, Tianhong Chemical, Zhonghai Fine Chemicals and Rizhao Lanqiao Port Chemicals - are currently being shut down, according to Ding Xu, an analyst with Zibo Longzhong Information Group.

"Independent plants are battling with lower margins as crude oil prices went up, dampening demand for crude and leading to more maintenance plans," said Ding.

A survey by Longzhong showed utilization ratio at 42 independent plants fell to 65 percent this week versus 67 percent in early January, Ding added.

A new tax rule that came into effect in March aimed at curbing alleged tax evasions by independents also limited smaller refiners' appetite for crude, leading to brimming tanks and cargo congestion at Shandong ports late last month.

An official with Sinopec's trading arm Unipec said on Tuesday the refiner planned to cut Saudi crude oil imports loading in May by 40 percent after Saudi Aramco set higher-than-expected official selling prices.

One of the reasons cited by a separate company official on Tuesday for the deep cuts was planned refinery maintenances. The official did not elaborate.

The Zhenhai plant will also shut down its 1.1 MMtpy ethylene complex during the same period for overhaul, said the source familiar with the repair works.

As MRC informed earlier, China's Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- EconCore is extending the capabilities of its innovative ThermHex technology for production of high-performance lightweight thermoplastic honeycomb core materials and sandwich panels, as per the company's press release.

The company, which already licenses the technology for production of polypropylene (PP) honeycombs, is now able to produce honeycombs from high performance thermoplastics (HPT). A further development enables the integrated production of Organosandwich preforms with continuous fibre-reinforced skins.

"We have already successfully produced and tested honeycombs from several high-performance thermoplastics at our refurbished R&D facilities in Leuven, Belgium" says Tomasz Czarnecki, Chief Operating Officer at EconCore. "We have been working with various types of modified Polycarbonate (PC), Polyamide 6.6 (PA6.6) and Polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) and we are continuing to pursue developments with these and other high-end polymers. We are now entering the final phase of product validation and we expect to work on several application developments in automotive, aerospace, transportation, and building and construction markets this year."

EconCore’s patented technology uses a series of in-line, high-speed, operations to produce honeycomb structures from a single continuously extruded thermoplastic film. It involves a sequence of thermoforming, folding and bonding operations. ThermHex technology has the potential to work with a wide range of thermoplastic polymers to create honeycombs, whose cell size, density and thickness can be altered with simple hardware and/or process parameter adjustments. The process makes it possible to create extremely cost-effective finished composite sandwich materials by inline bonding of skins to the honeycomb.

"Today we offer honeycombs with the best performance per cost on the market. In the near future we will offer also honeycombs with the best performance per weight" adds Jochen Pflug, Chief Executive Officer at EconCore.
Thermoplastic honeycomb cores for composites provide a ratio of performance to weight that is very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with other types of core materials. ThermHex cores are around 80% lighter than solid thermoplastic cores in use today, in such products as metal skinned- panels for transportation and building applications. The lightweight cores also have positive implications for product handling, raw material inventory, outbound logistics and installation.

In use, honeycomb structures prove superior not only in terms of mechanical performance: the acoustic performance and thermal insulation of honeycomb structures is also beneficial for many applications.

HPT honeycombs will build on the intrinsic benefits of lightweight honeycomb structures, with higher heat resistance (useful for such products as housings for electric vehicle batteries) and very good flame resistance (critical for building panels). EconCore is also working with materials modified for FST (flame, smoke, toxicity) compliance in railway and aerospace applications. The company also sees substantial potential in photovoltaic (PV) panels and numerous other products.

As MRC wrote before, in 2014, German specialty chemicals company Lanxess, the world’s largest synthetic rubber supplier, and EconCore N.V. joined forces to develop new thermoplastic sandwich materials for lightweight construction. The objective of the collaboration was to fabricate honeycomb cores from Durethan polyamides with the help of an automated, continuous process patented by EconCore. In addition, Tepex continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites from Lanxess subsidiary Bond-Laminates was to be combined with the new polyamide honeycomb cores to produce high-performance composites.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sunoco LP has announced the execution of a definitive agreement to purchase certain assets from Superior Plus Corporation for approximately USD40 million plus working capital adjustments, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The assets consist of a network of approximately 100 dealers, several hundred commercial contracts and three terminals, which are connected to major pipelines serving the Upstate New York market. The wholesale fuels business sells approximately 200 million gallons of fuel annually through multiple channels. The three terminals have a combined 17 tanks with 429 thousand barrels of storage capacity.

The acquisition is consistent with Sunoco's strategy of utilizing its scale to grow the core fuel distribution business and adding fee-based refined product terminals into the overall portfolio. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in April 2018.

The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Sunoco with respect to distributable cash flow.

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, Fluor was awarded a construction management contract by Sunoco Logistics for the Mariner East 2 project at its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.
Upon completion, Mariner East 2 was anticipated to provide an additional 275,000 bpd of natural gas liquids (NGLs) for distribution to local, domestic and international markets. Fluor was to manage the construction of new terminal facilities to store, chill, process and distribute propane, butane and ethane at the complex.
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