Henglis high-tech petroleum complex breathes down PetroChinas neck

MOSCOW (MRC) -- On reclaimed land on the island of Changxin near the port of Dalian, workers are putting the finishing touches on a plant that is the future of China’s refining and petrochemical industry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Here, private chemical company Hengli Group will begin testing its USD11 billion oil refinery and petrochemical complex in October.

The plant is a direct challenge to China National Petroleum Corp’s (CNPC) Dalian Petrochemical Corp facility, the country’s second-largest oil refinery. That 70-year-old plant has been a cash cow for state-owned CNPC but the aging refinery has come under scrutiny after several accidents.

Hengli’s high-tech complex will not only produce the fuels China craves but also the plastics and other chemicals the country will need for the future.

China plans to add a dozen petrochemical mega-complexes along its east coast over the next five years, in the biggest wave of expansion in its history.

The plants will be backed by state majors Sinopec and Sinochem, private groups Shenghong Petrochemical and Wanhua Chemical, as well as Exxon Mobil and Germany’s BASF.

“Under a more liberalized policy, more independent and foreign companies will join the investment that will make China more self-sufficient in chemicals,” said William Chen, chemicals analyst at IHS Markit.

CNPC’s listed arm PetroChina Co, which operates Dalian, has become one of the world’s most valuable oil firms by providing the gasoline and diesel to power China’s expanding private car fleet and the freight trucks underpinning its expanding commerce.

But Dalian may become a symbol of the past as competitors such as Hengli feed the demand of the world’s biggest petrochemical consumer.

China’s demand for diesel will likely peak by 2020 and gasoline by around 2035, according to IHS Markit.

However, the country’s demand for ethylene, a building block for plastics and polyesters, will rise to 26.8 million tonnes by 2020, from 18.7 million tonnes in 2015. Hengli’s sprawling complex is geared to meet that demand and reduce imports.

As MRC informed earlier, Hengli Group received its first cargo of Saudi crude oil by July as it prepares a new refinery for trial runs to be held in October.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fair trade regulator CCI has approved the merger of industrial gas firms Linde and Praxair, subject to certain conditions, as per TheHindu BusinessLine.

The deal, announced in June 2017, is worth over USD 70 billion, according to reports.

“"CCI approves combination of Linde and Praxair, subject to compliance of certain modifications," the regulator said in a tweet Friday.

The approval comes following a public scrutiny launched into the deal in earlier in May by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

The regulator places a deal for public consultation if it is of the "prima facie opinion that the combination has, or likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition".

Similar public scrutinies were launched by the CCI in the case of merger deals such as Monsanto-Bayer, Ranbaxy-Sun Pharma and Holcim-Lafarge.

As per a notice submitted to CCI jointly by Linde Aktiengesellschaft and Praxair, Inc in January 2018, the transaction relates to a proposed combination of the two multinational industrial gas companies under a newly incorporated holding company, Linde Plc.

After completion of the proposed transaction, Linde Plc will be owned by the two companies’ current shareholders, according to the notice.

As MRC informed before, in late August, 2018, industrial gases groups Linde and Praxair won conditional antitrust approval in Brazil for their planned merger after committing to asset sales. Linde will sell its entire business in Brazil, subject to merger completion.

Munich (Germany) headquarted Linde is primarily active in industrial gases and medical gases, speciality gases, helium and the related engineering and services sectors.

Headquartered in Connecticut, US, Praxair is an international industrial gases company.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Norsk Hydro is working to convince Brazilian authorities to allow it to resume full output at its Alunorte plant, the world’s biggest alumina refinery, following two deals pledging social and environmental action, reported Reuters with reference to a top executive.

The deals, signed late on Wednesday in Brazil, were "an important step" but not a guarantee it would be allowed to resume full production at Alunorte, John Thuestad, Norsk Hydro’s executive vice-president for bauxite and alumina, told Reuters.

"We see this as an important step, but for us, it is not a guarantee of getting the embargo lifted," Thuestad, who led the negotiations with Brazilian authorities, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

The deals signed Wednesday include payments for food cards for nearby families and investments for the social development of local communities, as well as technical improvements.

Signed with federal and state prosecutors as well as the state government and environmental authorities, they do not include a timeline for resumption of production at full capacity.

Hydro was technically ready to restart the closed capacity, Thuestad said, and would now concentrate on convincing the relevant Brazilian judge.

"It’s the right decision to reopen the facility," especially given the tightness of the world’s alumina market, he said.

Hydro was ordered by Brazilian regulators in February to slash output by half at Alunorte after the company admitted to making unlicensed emissions of untreated water during severe rains.

Thuestad said more than 90 inspections had established Hydro did not cause any harmful pollution. The company has denied many of the prosecutors’ allegations and said there was no evidence of a lasting environmental effect.

However, Thuestad said the lesson Hydro was drawing from the incident was that it needed to improve its relations with local Brazilian communities and with authorities in the country.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Global oil demand will peak in 2023 as electric vehicles (EVs) become competitive with cars fuelled by petrol and diesel, and after 2040 no new oil developments will likely be needed, quality assurance and risk management firm DNV GL said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The forecast from the Norway-headquartered firm, which offers certification and consultancy services to around 100,000 customers globally, adds to investors' worries about some oil assets becoming stranded if demand enters into permanent decline.

"Amid declining consumption in the future, we see little scope for adding capacity in high-cost areas, such as in the Arctic," DNV GL said in its long-term forecast, highlighting such a risk.

By around mid-2030s, EVs will account for half of all new light-duty vehicles sold in the world, and 10 years later half of all road transport, light and heavy, will be electric, it added. The transport sector is the main user of oil.

"After 2040 we will likely enter a period where new oil fields are not required to replace depleted fields," DNV GL said, adding that by 2050 oil demand is expected to be about a half of its peak.

Demand for natural gas is expected to grow until the mid-2030s, when capital spending on non-fossil energy will overtake spending on fossil energy, DNV GL said in its report.

"The attention of boardrooms and cabinets should be fixed on the dramatic energy transition that is unfolding," said Remi Eriksen, the group's president and chief executive.

Investors are increasingly worried that some oil and gas assets could be left in the ground as a result of stricter regulations to curb carbon emissions and the fall in costs of renewable energy and car batteries.

Oil majors have different views on possible oil demand peak, but all say that even if demand peaks, trillions of dollars of investments in oil and gas will still be needed to develop new barrels due to the natural decline of existing fields.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest listed oil company, said on Feb. 2 that oil demand could fall by 25 percent to around 78 million barrels per day (mbd) from the current levels if governments choose to implement measures to limit global warming.

The company, however, did not disclose how efforts to limit carbon emissions would impact its business. In a separate report it said that excluding those climate measures, oil demand is expected to grow by 20 percent by 2040, driven by commercial transport and the chemical industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s crude oil imports rose 6.5 percent in August from a month earlier to their highest since May, boosted by a rebound in demand from smaller, independent refiners, customs data showed, as per Reuters.

Arrivals last month were 38.38 million tonnes, or 9.04 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs. This was up from 8.0 million bpd a year ago and 8.48 million in July and just slightly lower than the forecast of 9.12 million bpd from Thomson Reuters Oil Research.

For the first eight months of the year, crude purchases stood at 299 million tonnes, up 6.5 percent, the data showed.

Independent refiners, known as teapots, wound back their crude buying earlier this year, shutting or suspending operations due to a combination of sinking diesel demand, higher crude prices and new tax rules.

However, a recent rise in fuel prices and improved margins have led to an in increase in crude processing, with many now returning from summer maintenance to gear up for rising winter demand.

Teapot buying in August rose to 6 million tonnes, or 1.4 million bpd, up 40 percent from July, and September arrivals are expected to breach 7 million tonnes, data from Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodities Research showed.

Total gas imports in August were at 7.77 million tonnes, up 5.4 percent from 7.38 million in July, according to the data. In the year to date, imports were 57.18 million tonnes, an increase of 34.8 percent.

The increase comes after state-owned oil companies pledged to take measures in advance this year to prepare for potential shortages during the winter heating season.

Sinopec vowed to increase LNG spot cargo purchases, while CNOOC said this week it would give third-party users access to its major LNG import terminals.
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