Husky Energy offers to buy MEG Energy in $5 billion deal

MOSCOW (MRC) - Canadian oil and gas producer Husky Energy Inc said it has made an unsolicited bid to acquire rival MEG Energy Corp in a deal valued at USD5 billion including debt, said Hyfrocarbonprocessing.

The combined company would have total production of more than 410,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and refining and upgrading capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), Husky said in a statement.

The offer comes as many Canadian oil producers have struggled with transportation bottlenecks as output has surged, pushing Canadian heavy crude to near-historic discounts to U.S. light crude.

Husky Chief Executive Rob Peabody told Reuters that the combination of MEG’s top-quality assets and staff with its own production and downstream network would allow MEG to circumvent some of the effects from the Canadian crude discount, and provide benefits for both sets of shareholders.

The Husky offer comes less than two months into the tenure of Derek Evans, an industry veteran who took over as chief executive of MEG in August. MEG Energy’s board will consider and evaluate the Husky’s unsolicited offer and the related takeover bid circular, if and when received, MEG said in a statement.

MEG said it has formed a special committee of independent directors and has retained financial and legal advisers. “No formal offer has been made,” MEG said. “MEG shareholders are advised to take no action with respect to any Husky offer until the Board of Directors has had an opportunity to fully review the offer, when received, and to make a recommendation as to its merits."

Under the terms of the proposal, MEG shareholders will have the option to choose to receive consideration of CD11 in cash or 0.485 of a Husky share for every share held.

That offer is subject to a maximum aggregate cash consideration of CD1 billion and a maximum aggregate number of Husky shares issued of about 107 million.

Husky’s offer delivers a 44 percent premium to the 10-day volume-weighted average MEG share price of C$7.62 as of Friday, and a 37 percent premium to MEG’s Friday close of CD8.03.

Goldman Sachs Canada Inc is acting as financial adviser and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is acting as lead legal adviser to Husky. The proposal, which has been unanimously approved by Husky’s board of directors, is expected to result in CD200 million per year in near-term, realizable synergies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina Daqing Petrochemical has shut its No. 2 low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has commemced turnaround at the unit on September 24, 2018. The unit is likely to remain under maintenance till mid-October, 2018.

Located in Heilongjiang, China, the No. 2 LDPE unit has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company’s biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement has come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, is expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude this year, up by about 85 to 90 percent from last year’s level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft will supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would represent an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes. The additional oil sent to Dalian is about 120,000 bpd and will make up the bulk of the Russian increases.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's output of products from polymers grew in August 2018 by 9.2% year on year. Thus, this figure increased by 5.6% year on year in January-August 2018, reported MRC analysts.

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, August production of unreinforced and non-combined films was 104,400 tonnes, compared to 100,900 tonnes a month earlier. Output of film products grew in the first eight months of 2018 by 0.8% year on year to 724,500 tonnes.

August production of non-porous polymer boards, sheets and films increased to 32,400 tonnes, compared to 30,300 tonnes in July. Thus, output of these products reached 233,800 tonnes in January-August 2018, up by 3.8% year on year.

Production of porous polymer boards, sheets and films was 31,900 tonnes in the last month of the summer, compared to 26,800 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of these products reached 196,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, up by 13% year on year.

August production of plastic windows and door blocks was 2,740,000 sq metres and 131,600 sq metres, respectively, versus 2,270,000 sq metres and 119,400 sq metres a month earlier. Overall output of these products was 15,300,000 sq meters and 752,100 sq meters, respectively, over the stated period, up by 11% and 24% year on year, respectively.

August production of plastic bottles and flasks exceeded 1,800,000 items versus 1,990,000 items a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 14,180,000 units in January-August 2018, compared to 13,330,000 units a year earlier.

Production of polymer pipes, hoses and fittings was 61,300 tonnes in the last months of the summer versus 62,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of these products was 389,400 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, up by 7.6% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poliom, based in Omsk, a joint venture of Titan Group, SIBUR and Gazprom neft, has shut down its production for a scheduled maintenance, as per ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's representative said Poliom shut down its polypropylene (PP) production on Monday, 1 October. The outage will be short in comparison with other Russian producers and will last for 10 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 210,000 tonnes.

As reported earlier, SIBUR Tobolsk and Stavrolen also plan to take off-stream their production capacities for turnarounds in early October.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Poliom produced 19,400 tonnes of PP in August versus 18,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Omsk plant's overall PP output totalled about 148,000 tonnes in the first eight months of 2018, up 3% year on year.

Poliom Ltd., a JV of Gazprom Neft, SIBUR and Titan, which was established in 2005, is one of the three leaders of Russian PP producers. The plant, which started operation on 9 February, 2013, was built on Basell's technology, with Tecnimont being the supplier of technological equipment. It can produce 98 different grades of PP (homo-, stat-, block copolymers).
MRC