Fire damages Herbolds warehouse in Germany

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire swept through the headquarters of recycling machinery maker Herbold Meckesheim GmbH in Meckesheim, Germany on Sept. 10, damaging the central warehouse and the shipping department, said Canplastics.

In a statement posted on the website of Herbold’s American subsidiary Herbold Meckesheim USA, the company estimated that the damage will run “into the millions,” but that the office space, the test centre, and the production halls were not affected.

There were no casualties, the statement added.

"The production will continue with certain restrictions and compensated by existing structures,” the statement said. “Herbold will try to avoid serious delivery bottlenecks. The low in-house production depth and a high quantity of supplies from subcontractors will enable a quick restart of machine and spare parts deliveries as soon as logistics have been put back on track."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia’s Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, a venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, is seeking commitments from banks for a USD9.7 billion, 15-year loan, sources told LPC, a fixed income news service, reported Reuters.

Banks have already responded to an initial request for proposals and are required to respond by the end of this week with revised proposals, mainly around pricing.

The new borrowing comprises three tranches: an export credit agency facility, an ECA-covered portion and an uncovered commercial piece of around USD3.08 billion. ECAs from Japan, South Korean and Europe are expected to be involved.

The uncovered commercial tranche will carry different interest margins tied to completion of the project. The pre-completion period is expected to be two years, during which Petronas and Aramco will provide guarantees, and the all-in pricing is likely to be around 80 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate, LPC reported.

After the project is completed, guarantees fall away and the pricing will increase to around 150 bps.

An USD8 billion, 364-day bridge loan which RAPID completed in March paid similar all-in pricing based on an initial razor-thin interest margin of 40 bps over Libor and fees. The bridge attracted 19 banks.

Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow six to 12 months later.

Petronas and Aramco have equal stakes in the half-built, USD27 billion complex located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea. Aramco has agreed to supply at least 50 percent of the crude oil for the project.

As MRC informed before, a supertanker carrying the first crude oil cargo for a refinery joint-venture project between Petronas and Saudi Aramco is expected to reach Malaysia by end-September.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Sinopec Corp has joined a group planning to build an oil refinery in Alberta, an enterprise that would strengthen demand for the Canadian province's heavily discounted crude, reported Reuters.

State-owned Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, along with an Alberta indigenous group, China State Construction Engineering Corp and Alberta management company Teedrum, plan to build a refinery to process 167,000 barrels per day of crude into gasoline and other products, the project's consulting firm Stantec Inc said in a statement on Thursday.

The SinoCan Global refinery would cost CD8.5 billion, with a financing plan still to be worked out, said Teedrum President Ken Horn, who is leading the effort. Ownership has not been determined.

The group hopes to receive regulatory approval from the Alberta and Canadian governments within two years, he said in an interview on Friday. Most of the refined products will be exported.

"It helps create value for the bitumen," Horn said, referring to the tarry, semi-solid form of Alberta's heavy crude. "Right now we ship most of that (crude) out of the province. We should do a lot more to maximize the value of that asset."

Most of Canada's crude is produced in landlocked Alberta, where pipeline capacity has not expanded as rapidly as production. Resulting bottlenecks have hindered transportation to U.S. refineries, steepening an already deep price discount for the province's crude, which grew to a multi-year high this week.

Sinopec's interest is encouraging news for a Canadian sector that has seen foreign oil majors retreat over concerns about high production costs and the oil sands' environmental toll.

China's involvement would complement its existing Alberta investments, Horn said. State-owned CNOOC Ltd bought energy producer Nexen in 2013.

If Sinopec plans to ship refined products from Canada to China, it would likely move them by rail to the Pacific Coast, since pipeline space is limited, said GMP FirstEnergy analyst Michael Dunn. It may make more sense for China to import Canadian crude and refine it domestically, he said.

As MRC informed earlier, in April 2016, Russian petrochemical company SIBUR started talks with shareholder Sinopec about investing in a planned gas chemical plant in Russia's Far East. SIBUR plans to buy gas from fields which Russia's Gazprom will develop in Eastern Siberia.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market fundamentals tighten, US LNG has gained momentum again. Since early 2018, a second wave of projects set to bring more 10 million tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to the market under binding sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) have reached the starting blocks, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Speaking at the Gastech conference in Barcelona today, Kristy Kramer, director, Americas gas research, at global natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said: "The increase is in SPAs is remarkable. In the period since the first wave of US LNG projects and late 2017, just 2 mmpta had been locked in."

At the end of August, the US Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) announced regulatory timelines for 12 LNG projects.

Ms Kramer added: "This means that as well as the six developments that are through the regulatory process, 11 more should receive their final order from FERC by mid-to-late 2019.

"At the same time, strengthening fundamentals mean Wood Mackenzie believes the global LNG supply-demand gap in 2025 will increase from 45 mmpta to 65 mmpta."

This increases the pressure on US LNG projects to finalise commercial arrangements as they look to take FID in the next 12-18 months.

"Gas supply will rise in importance for the next wave of US LNG. The US market will increase by more than 30 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) between 2012, when the first US project took FID, and 2022 when those projects will be online," Ms Kramer said.

In 2022, 36% of US gas will be consumed in or exported through the West South Central census region, which includes Texas and Louisiana. This concentration of demand means there will be more competition for pipeline capacity to reach new LNG projects.

She added: "This means gas supply should be a focus area for the next wave of US LNG.

"Buyers will need to have comfort in the strategy for getting gas into liquefaction, and lenders will want to be confident in a project’s overall commercial offering."

Ms Kramer said: "US producers may also be interested in getting into the mix. Notably absent from the first wave, US producers have witnessed LNG exports rise to current levels of over 3 billion cfd. They are expected to approach 10 billion cfd in 2020.

"Producer involvement would likely change the commercial structures and risk-sharing mechanics of future US LNG projects. We are hearing interest from US producers, LNG buyers, and project developers, but have yet to see a big announcement."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS celebrates its 20th anniversary at its first site in Antwerp. As it marks the occasion, INEOS Oxide has announced investment of EUR200 million into its business, with EUR150m of this to be spent directly at its Zwijndrecht site, in Antwerp, where its incredible story of success began in 1998, said the company.

This latest round of investment demonstrates INEOS Oxide’s commitment to its European business. Projects will grow Ethylene Oxide storage and distribution, debottleneck its plants and increase the production of Ethylene Oxide derivatives for the European Market. A sixth alkoxylation unit in Antwerp is due to start up at the end of 2018, along with a 2,000 tonne expansion of ethylene oxide (EO) storage capacity at the site. The company is also upgrading EO production at Lavera, France to support the growing EO needs in Europe. This phase of investment will improve reliability, efficiency and availability of its business in Antwerp, Belgium as well as sites in Koln, Germany and Lavera, France.

We are also pleased to announce that agreement has been reached with RWE to buy the Inesco Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant on the INEOS Zwijndrecht site in Antwerp. This acquisition will ensure the continued, reliable supply of steam, as a critical feedstock, to the INEOS plants on the site as well as our 3rd party co-siting partners. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year, subject to approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities.

Philippe Muyters, Flemish Minister for Work, Innovation and Sport said,"Adding value. That is what INEOS and, by extension, the chemical industry does. INEOS not only is one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world, its products make a significant contribution to improve lives all over the world. This is not a coincidence: the company truly realises that innovation, collaboration and talented staff are the building blocks of success. Congratulations with your 20th anniversary, I am looking forward to the next 20 years of excellence."

Graham Beesley, CEO of INEOS Oxide said: "We are marking INEOS’ incredible global success at the place where it all began twenty years ago. To highlight our ongoing commitment to Ethylene Oxide, the first business to be bought by INEOS, we are announcing European investment of EUR200 million, with EUR150 million to be spent here at the Zwijndrecht site in Antwerp.

"From its beginnings in Antwerp in 1998 INEOS is today the second largest employer in the Belgium chemicals sector and one of the world’s top 50 companies. INEOS began its life as a company centred around the Ethylene Oxide molecule. It is fitting that we are continuing to invest in its production, storage, distribution and derivatives."

To highlight our 20th Anniversary as a part of the Zwijndrecht community, INEOS will also contribute €20,000 tore-equip technical classrooms and labs at the Saint-Carolus secondary technical school in Sint-Niklaas, which is close to the site. The school offers both a "classic education plan” and a "dual learning plan" in which 50% of the time is spent in practical education in a chemical plant. It specialises in chemical process techniques and is highly successful in equipping its students with the skills necessary to provide operators and technician staff to the INEOS site.
MRC