Total сreates a digital innovation center in India in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have signed a partnership agreement to create a digital innovation center in India. Based in Pune in the State of Maharashtra, the center will explore disruptive technologies and solutions, as per Total's press release.

"For a large industrial group like Total, it is essential to always stay ahead of these topics", said Marie-Noelle Semeria, Senior Vice President and Group Chief Technology Officer at Total. "After having integrated digital solutions within the Group, we now want to invent those of tomorrow by combining Total's know-how with the agility of TCS."

The partnership will initially focus on refining. Thanks to the intensive use of digital technology, the various building blocks of refining (production units, processes, the supply chain and petroleum product markets) will be driven in a wide-ranging way to improve refinery performance. Real-time data analytics, the Internet of Things, automation, artificial intelligence and agile methodology will be used to improve industrial efficiency, energy performance and availability rates.

"With the digital innovation center, we are positioning ourselves as a pioneer working to develop a smart, connected refinery that will allow us to improve our industrial competitiveness. We want to invent the Refinery 4.0" said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals at Total.

Based on the TCS concept of “entrepreneurship-in-residence,” Total will work with TCS technology and domains experts. TCS will also bring to Total its network, its structured co-innovation approach and its unique Business 4.0 cooperation framework.

"The energy and resources sector is one of TCS’ fastest growing business units. We are delighted to sign this strategic digital innovation partnership with Total for which we will leverage our Business 4.0 framework, with a focus on agile, intelligent automation, internet of things, analytics and cloud-based solutions," said Debashish Ghosh, President of Energy, Resources and EPC Business at TCS.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months.

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

August prices of European PVC dropped for CIS markets

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for August shipments to the CIS countries started last week. European producers slightly reduced their export prices amid stability in ethylene prices in the region, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The August contract price of ethylene was agreed at the level of July, which did not affect the net cost of PVC production. However, despite this fact, European producers had to reduce export prices for deliveries to the CIS markets even amid shutdowns for maintenance at several plants.

This month's demand for PVC was weak from the main consumers in the CIS countries, except for demand for resin with K=70. Demand for this PVC is strong, whereas supply is tight.

Some of European producers' production capacities are idle, conducting turnarounds, the others have equipment interruptions because of the heat. And these factors affected export sales of some producers, but there was no acute shortage.

Negotiations over August shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were held in the range of EUR735-790/tonne FCA, whereas deals were done in the range of EUR745-800/tonne FCA a month earlier.
MRC

Shell restarting Convent, Louisiana gasoline unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc is restarting the gasoline-producing unit at its 209,787-barrel-per-day (Mbpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery, sources familiar with plant operations said Reuters on Monday.

The 92 Mbpd gasoline-producing Fluidic Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) is expected to return to full production by the weekend, if not sooner, the sources said. The unit was shut on May 30 for a planned overhaul.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in March 2018, Shell EP Middle East Holdings B.V. completed the sale of the entire share capital of Shell Iraq B.V (SIBV), which held its 19.6% stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field, for USD406 million, to a subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects.
MRC

China crude imports rise, but capped by weak "teapot" demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's crude oil imports recovered slightly in July after falling for the previous two months but were still among the lowest this year due to a drop-off in demand from the country's smaller independent, or "teapot", refineries, reported Reuters.

Crude shipments came in at 36.02 million tonnes last month, or 8.48 million barrels per day, up from 8.18 MMbpd a year ago, and just up on June's 8.36 MMbpd, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

However, July imports were still the third lowest so far this year.

The slight pick-up likely reflected some teapot plants returning from maintenance, while refining margins also improved thanks to higher domestic fuel prices, said James Gao of consultancy China Sublime Information Group.

But overall, independent plants were under pressure from thinning margins since March following a new government tax regulation and near four-year high oil prices, with one plant having already declared bankruptcy.

Independent refiner Shandong Haiyou Petrochemical Group filed for bankruptcy in late July and its crude processing units have been shut indefinitely.

State-owned refineries, however, are maintaining robust refining margins as they dominate the retail market and also have fuel export quotas, and as competition from teapots is waning.

China's largest refiner Sinopec Corp is due to deliver its best quarterly result since 2013 later this month, thanks to robust refining business and rebound in oil prices.

Rival PetroChina expects its first-half profits to more than double from the year-ago period.

For the first seven months, China took in 260.83 million tonnes, or 8.98 million bpd of crude oil, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier.

China's refined products exports last month were 4.57 million tonnes, nearly flat from a year earlier. Fuel imports rose 14 percent on year at 2.67 million tonnes.

Total natural gas imports - including pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas - rose to 7.38 million tonnes, up 28.3 percent from a year ago, customs said.

Companies have scaled back purchases of spot LNG cargoes in recent months as prices shot up, traders said.

Year-to-date gas imports grew 34.3 percent on year to 49.43 million tonnes.
MRC

Lanxess gets out of rubber with Saudi Aramco sale

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany's Lanxess is selling its 50 percent stake in synthetic-rubber maker Arlanxeo to partner Saudi Aramco for around 1.4 billion euros (USD1.6 billion) in cash in a deal it said will give it more flexibility to grow, reported Reuters.

The deal marks an early exit for Lanxess from the world's largest provider of synthetic rubber for tyres, while the Saudi state oil giant said it would "accelerate the development of growth opportunities in the kingdom, leveraging the strong feedstock position of Saudi Aramco".

Aramco, which is planning to go public and looking to buy a stake in petrochemicals maker SABIC, plays a key role in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitions to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy beyond oil.

"The proposed purchase underscores Saudi Aramco’s strategy to further diversify our downstream portfolio and strengthen our capabilities across the entire petroleum and chemicals value chain," Aramco's Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi said in a statement on Wednesday.

For Lanxess chief executive Matthias Zachert the sale will allow him to focus on more deals to strengthen its specialty chemicals activities. Lanxess has previously said it would keep the remaining half of Arlanxeo until at least 2021.

The German chemicals group expects to receive about 1.4 billion euros in cash from the deal, which is expected to complete by end of 2018, valuing all of Arlanxeo at 3.0 billion euros including debt and liabilities.

Aramco plans to boost investments in refining and petrochemicals to secure new markets and sees growth in chemicals as central to cut the risk of an oil demand slowdown.

The sale in 2015 of the first 50 percent of Arlanxeo to Saudi Aramco had valued the business at 2.75 billion euros, and was pushed by Zachert at the time to make the company less volatile amid signs of increasing global rubber oversupply.

"We increase the resilience of our business, strengthen our financial basis and gain additional strategic flexibility for further growth," Zachert said in a statement.

Zachert has pursued deals to grow in smaller but more profitable specialty markets and vowed last year he would change the company further.

Sources familiar with the company have said the CEO could consider another takeover the size of Chemtura. Lanxess bought the U.S. maker of additives for lubricants and flame retardants for 2.4 billion euros including debt last year.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2018, Lanxess announced plans to open a new applications development and technical services (AD&TS) laboratory for polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) in Latina, Italy.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. Through Arlanxeo, the joint venture with Saudi Aramco, Lanxess is also a leading supplier of synthetic rubber.

Arlanxeo was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of ARLANXEO are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
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