Total exits Canadian Joslyn oil sands project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said Aug. 31 it will acquire full ownership in the Joslyn oil sands lease from the project’s partners for roughly CD225 million, as per OilandGasInvestor.

The price tag consists of CD100 million cash at closing plus annual cash payments of CD25 million over each of the next five years. The sellers consist of several partners led by operator Total SA.

Total said the Joslyn project partners decided to put its further development on hold following the oil price fall in 2014. Therefore, activities have since been limited to fulfilling regulatory requirements and ensuring the safety of the site.

"Reducing our exposure to Canada’s oil sands by selling this asset is in line with our global strategy to focus our oil investments on low breakeven resources and develop a resilient portfolio in the mid and long term. It is also consistent with the gradual reduction of our stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project in 2017," Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of Total, said in a statement.

The Joslyn lease is located directly south of Canadian Natural’s current Horizon oil sands mining and upgrading project in Alberta within the Athabasca region.

Canadian Natural said its acquisition of 100% working interest in the Joslyn oil sands project "adds significant value to the company’s already extensive portfolio of high-quality long life low decline assets and will allow for more effective lease-line development opportunities between the Horizon and Joslyn projects."

As MRC informed before, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which have progressively started up in the last 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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Ergon BioFuels LLC, a subsidiary of privately held Ergon Inc, will close its ethanol plant in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in December, the company said in a press release, as per Reuters.

"Unfortunately, continued erosion in margins, coupled with underperforming production equipment and the economic challenges of being a destination plant, forced us to make this very difficult decision," Ergon Chief Operating Officer Kris Patrick said in the statement.

The company had planned to invest in improvements in the corn dry mill facility, including a corn oil extractor, before deciding to close it, Patrick said.

Ergon purchased the plant, which has capacity to produce 56.5 million gallons of ethanol annually, from Bunge Ltd late in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In the 12 months up until June 2018, China was the second largest buyer of US LNG, accounting for approximately 3 mmtpa of US LNG, with Shell being the largest seller, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

However as the US-China trade dispute escalated, Chinese buyers have gradually reduced purchases of US LNG.

The impact on the short-term market, is likely to be less than we previously indicated. This is partly because the level of the tariff is lower than initially proposed, 10% now vs 25% in August, but also because we think China has already completed the majority of its procurement for winter. Possibly because of this, we have recently seen spot and futures prices for winter come down despite strengthening oil prices.

If China still needs to procure spot cargoes, we think that this is likely to result in a premium of up to 10% on supply from non-US, lean sources like the Australia East Coast projects, Tangguh, Gorgon or the Qatari Mega-trains. Chinese buyers' appetite to pay significantly higher prices for LNG from other sources may be limited by the price they can sell gas domestically.

For the long-term market, the consequences are likely to be felt on new supply developments. It restricts the target market for developers of new US LNG projects trying to sign new long-term contracts. However, there is still plenty of appetite for second wave US LNG projects from other buyers in Asia and Europe, as evidenced by recent contracting momentum at Freeport, Calcasieu Pass and Sabine Pass Train 6. The first wave of US LNG projects were successful despite not signing contracts with Chinese buyers.

It could also support development of other projects outside of the US targeting the Chinese market (including Russia pipeline projects), potentially allowing them to push for higher long-term contract prices. The recent deal between PetroChina and Qatar is evidence of this.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arlanxeo, a global leader in performance elastomers, raises its prices for ethylene-propylene- diene rubber grades (EPDM), as per the company's press release.

Thus, prices for the mentioned above product increases as follows:

- In Europe, Middle East and Africa effective as of September 18, 2018 up to 100 euro per metric ton.
- In Latin America effective as of October 1st, 2018 up to 120 USD per metric ton.
- In North America effective as of October 18, 2018 up to 0,05 USD c/lb.

Arlanxeo distributes EPDM under the brand name Keltan.

EPDM products are used in applications like automotive, building & construction, plastics modification, consumer goods, cable & wire, and tubes.

As MRC wrote previously, in September 2017, Arlanxeo presented its solutions from the TSR business unit for the first time. Thanks to its good adhesion, aging resistance and low air permeability, the product X_Butyl is the ideal polymer for numerous adhesive applications, such as transparent adhesive tapes, sealants for double glazing, high-quality hot melt pressure-sensitive adhesives, vinyl floor adhesives and even sealants for roofing membranes. X_Butyl is also used for self-fluxing, semiconducting electrical splicing tapes, thereby avoiding the need for separate layers of adhesives.

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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MOSCOW (MRC) - Brazil’s largest poultry processor BRF SA has seen rising competition for corn supplies in the country’s center-west region coming from plants producing corn-based ethanol, Chief Executive Pedro Parente said, as per Reuters.

The executive said the new situation posed a challenge for the company regarding securing raw material for feed at reasonable cost. Corn-based ethanol is a relatively new trend in Brazil, but has been developing quickly in center-west states such as Mato Grosso due to the ample supplies of the cereal.

"We have seen an increase in consumption of corn by ethanol makers in Mato Grosso and Goias, they became a relevant corn user,” said Parente at a presentation in a seminar organized by broker and analyst INTL FCStone in Sao Paulo.

The BRF CEO estimated that ethanol makers were already using between 10 and 15 percent of the supplies in those states, where the meatpacker has processing plants and operates with associated chicken and pork growers.

Brazil is the world’s second-largest ethanol producer behind the United States, but traditionally produces the fuel from sugarcane. New investments in the center-west, however, are increasing the share of ethanol made from corn in total volumes.

BRF’s Chief Financial Officer Elcio Ito said the company has started to add DDGs (dried distiller grain), the byproduct from corn-based ethanol, which is rich in protein, as an alternative ingredient for feed.

He said DDGs compete with soymeal in cost in the areas where corn ethanol plants operate, so BRF buys the DDGs when they are cheaper than soymeal and depending on the type of feed they need to produce.

BRF is struggling to overcome a ban imposed by the European Union due to food quality issues. Parente said the company currently has high stocks of chicken breasts, the product it used to widely export to Europe, as a result of the ban.

The CEO said the firm is selling the breasts at some selected markets at lower prices, to reduce the stocks.
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