Repsol to buy 40% of Mexican lubricants producer Bardahl

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Repsol SA said Monday that it has agreed to buy 40% of Mexico's Bardahl, in an operation that will allow the Spanish oil major to produce and sell lubricants in the Latin American country, as per Morning Star.

Bardahl, which produces and distributes lubricants through its own network, has a 6% market share in Mexico, according to Repsol.

Repsol said the investment forms part of its plan to double the sales volume of its lubricants unit by 2021, and that it goes hand in hand with its broader expansion strategy in Mexico. The company plans to open between 200 and 250 service stations in the country a year through 2022. It currently operates 60.

Repsol said it expects to complete the operation, which is subject to regulatory approval, in the third quarter.

Financial details weren't disclosed.

As MRC informed previously, in Q1 2016, Repsol completed the construction work of its new metallocene polyethelene plant at its Tarragona site. Repsol started up the plant and began production and marketing of this new product during Q2 2016.

Repsol S.A is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 28 countries. The bulk of its assets are located in Spain.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The joint venture Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, established by the National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz and the investment consortium of Korean companies - Kogaz, Lotte Group and STX Energy, plans to take off-stream its production of polymers for a turnaround in October, according to ICIS-MRC Price report with reference to the plant's customers.

The plant's clients said Uz-Kor Gas Chemical intends to begin the scheduled maintenance at its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities on 3 October. The outage will be long and should be completed by 27 October.

The company's customers also added that the shutdown for maintenance might be shifted to other dates.

As MRC reported earlier, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical was founded on the basis of Ustyurt Gas Chemical Comples (Surgil deposit). The total cost of the project is over USD4 billion. The complex provides processing of 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas and includes HDPE and PP production facilities with the annual capacity of 386,000 and 80,000 tonnes, respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical is likely to complete turnaround at its No. 2 high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit in Jiangsu, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has planned to resume operations at its unit in end-July, 2018. The unit was shut in mid-July 2018 for about one week.

Located in Jiangsu province, China, the No.2 HDPE Unit has a production capacity of 80,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical also runs polypropylene (PP) plant at the same site. The company halted operations at its plant for a maintenance turnaround in mid-May 2017. The duration of the planned shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in Jiangsu province, China, the plant comprising three units have a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year, 100,000 mt/year and 100,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - A proposed reshuffle of state assets would allow Saudi Arabia to delay the listing of national oil giant Aramco until 2020 or beyond while still spending on economic development projects, according to three sources familiar with the matter, as per Reuters.

Late last week Aramco confirmed a Reuters report that it was working on a possible purchase of a “strategic stake” in local petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp (2010.SE) from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund.

The deal could inject tens of billions of dollars into the PIF, giving it resources to proceed with its plans to create jobs and diversify the economy beyond oil exports, including a USD500 billion business zone in the northwest of the country.

A major goal of the planned Aramco listing - which was initially slated for the end of 2018 and could prove the biggest IPO in history - was to raise money for the PIF, making the fund an engine for transforming the Saudi economy.

A Sabic deal would allow the government to buy time for the initial public offer of shares in Aramco, according to industry and international banking sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It could raise roughly as much money for the PIF as an Aramco IPO, while giving the government more time to reach decisions on contentious aspects of the flotation such as whether Aramco shares should be listed on a foreign market as well as in Riyadh.

“The PIF will have more cash to invest and there is no need to IPO now,” one of the sources said.

Aramco declined to comment on its IPO plans, and a Saudi government official did not respond to a request for comment.

Aramco’s Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Friday in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV that the SABIC acquisition was a complex deal and would need a certain timeframe to be completed, delaying the Aramco IPO. “There is no doubt that the potential acquisition of a strategic stake in Sabic ... will delay the IPO,” he said.

Final decisions on the listing rest with Prince Mohammed, the sources said. The planned IPO is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan championed by the crown prince to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy beyond oil. When he announced the plan to sell about 5 percent of Aramco in 2016, he predicted the sale would value the whole company at $2 trillion or more.

Since then, however, many estimates by oil and gas industry analysts have been far lower, around USD1.0-1.5 trillion, implying the PIF would receive a USD50-75 billion windfall from the IPO.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must reconsider its denial of small West Virginia refinery Ergon’s application for an exemption from U.S. biofuel laws after it relied on an “error-riddled” analysis, an appeals court ruled, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The EPA relied on a recommendation from the Department of Energy that, among other things, failed to take into account that Ergon produced high levels of diesel that may not easily be blended and sold into the local market, according to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland.

The decision will likely bolster supporters of the EPA’s expansion of the small refinery waiver program under President Donald Trump, many of whom argue that President Barack Obama’s EPA had been too stingy with exemptions.

The biofuel industry, meanwhile, has criticized the expansion of the program under Trump, saying it undercuts the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The RFS requires refiners to blend biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool or buy compliance credits from those who do - a measure aimed at helping corn farmers and cutting foreign imports of petroleum. But refineries up to 75,000 barrels per day can seek exemptions from the law each year if they can prove compliance would cause them financial hardship.

Ergon operates a small refinery (23,500 barrels per day) in Newell, West Virginia that produces specialty lube oils and diesel. "We are pleased to see the 4th Circuit Court ruling which recognizes the significant and disproportionate hardship that RFS places on small refineries," said Ergon-West Virginia Inc President Kris Patrick.

The EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned earlier this month following a slew of ethics controversies, oversaw a surge in small refinery waivers.

The EPA put out data last week that said it granted 48 such waivers for the years 2016 and 2017, representing some 2.25 billion gallons of biofuels.

The EPA is required to consult with the Department of Energy on the applications. Under Pruitt, the EPA consistently ignored recommendations from the Energy Department to reject or limit waivers to oil refiners seeking exemptions from biofuels laws.

The panel of appellate judges ruled that the DOE’s analysis was flawed because it did not take into the account the regional market for biodiesel and also separated the plant’s lube oil production in part of the application and included in other areas.

"Although the EPA is statutorily required to consider the DOE’s recommendation, it may not turn a blind eye to errors and omissions apparent on the face of the report, which Ergon pointed out and the EPA did not address in any meaningful way," the judges wrote.
MRC