Refinery to stay shut for several months after fire

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Varo Energy’s Vohburg plant at the Bayernoil refining complex in Germany will likely remain shut for several more months for repairs after a major fire in early September, a source familiar with the matter said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Following the outage, Varo declared force majeure on fuel supplies. The complex’s other plant at Neustadt has been operating normally. The fire hit Vohburg’s fluid catalytic cracking unit that produces gasoline. Vohburg has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day.

A Vohburg spokeswoman said she could not comment at this stage on when the refinery might restart. A Varo spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bayernoil is 45 percent owned by Varo Energy, with Rosneft Deutschland holding 25 percent, Eni Deutschland 20 percent and BP Europe 10 percent.

Varo is a European downstream company with refineries and storage assets in Western Europe and is owned by oil trading giant Vitol, U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group (CG.O) and Dutch firm Reggeborgh Invest.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics has restarted a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a planned shutdown, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the company has resumed operartions at the plant on October 5, 2018. The plant has halted production on September 17, 2018.

Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 264,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 19 March, 2018, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) undertook an emergency shutdown at its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao owing to technical issues. The plant remained off-line for around one day. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 700,000 mt/year, propylene production capacity of 350,000 mt/year and butadiene production capacity of 109,000 mt/year.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Firefighters put down a fire early Tuesday morning at a Westlake Chemical production plant in Plaquemine, LA, reported PowderBulkSolids with reference to several local news organizations.

The company issued a statement saying the blaze started in a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit at the facility at about 4:15 a.m. Fire crews contained the flames to the area of the unit and brought the scene under control by 6:30 a.m., CBS News affiliate WAFB reported. A subsidiary of Westlake, Axiall Corporation, appears to be the operator of the Plaquemine plant, according to information on the company's website.

No injuries were logged during the incident, but a road near to the plant was briefly closed as a precaution.

Officials told news broadcaster WBRZ that fence line monitoring devices indicate no harmful substances were released during the fire.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

In February 2018, as MRC informed before, Westlake Chemical announced plans to expand its capacities for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and VCM at three of its chemical facilities. Two of the plants are located in Germany (Burghausen, Gendorf) and one is located in Geismar, Louisiana. The expansions in Burghausen and Geismar are expected to be completed in 2019. The Gendorf expansions are expected to be completed in 2020 and 2021.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spain's Cepsa will sell a stake of about 25 percent in an initial public offering that sources close to the matter expect to value the company at around EUR10 billion (USD11.6 billion), making it one of the largest oil company listings in a decade, reported Reuters.

The listing, expected in the fourth quarter, will be for a 25 percent stake prior to any greenshoe option whereby more shares could be sold depending on demand, according to the company, owned by Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala.

The price range and implied market value are still to be decided, Cepsa added in a statement.

A recovery in oil prices in recent months, after a deep sell-off that started in 2014, has analysts expecting an acceleration of public listings of oil and gas companies.

Rothschild is the sole financial adviser of the Cepsa deal, while Banco Santander, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, Cepsa said.

The flotation is subject to market conditions, Mubadala said in a separate statement.

Cepsa will also continue with plans for a private placement of shares that could take place alongside the public share sale, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Cepsa employs more than 10,200 people and has fields in Latin America, North Africa, southeast Asia and Spain, with a total production of more than 175,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent.

The company is also a significant player among European oil refiners, with a processing capacity of 483,000 barrels a day in Spain.

Cepsa set aside more than 1 billion euros for new investments in 2018, its chief executive Pedro Miro told Reuters in an interview in November 2017.

After years of stakebuilding in Cepsa, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund bought the remaining shares it did not already own from France's Total in 2011, valuing the Spanish company at around EUR7.5 billion.

As MRC informed previously, in July 2018, Honeywell announced that Cepsa will convert an alkylation unit using hydrofluoric acid to Honeywell UOP’s solid bed Detal-Plus technology at its refinery in San Roque, Spain. The unit produces linear alkylbenzene (LAB), which is used to make a variety of different detergent formulations, including biodegradable household detergents.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam’s top fuel importer and distributor Petrolimex proposes to halt a nearly USD5 billion petrochemical project, jointly developed by Japan’s JXTG Holdings, to "focus resources on executing other projects", a document reviewed by Reuters showed.

Work at the proposed 200,000-barrels-per-day Nam Van Phong Refinery and Petrochemical Complex costing USD4.4 billion-USD4.8 billion should stop, Petrolimex suggested at a meeting with senior government officials last week, the document showed.

Officials from the finance and investment ministries found it logical to halt the project given its lack of competitiveness, concerns about oversupply and uncertainty over tax support from the government, local media reported.

Any halt to the project needs approval from the prime minister or the government.

A Petrolimex spokesman said he had forwarded Reuters’ questions to top officials and will respond once he has answers. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, which holds a majority stake in the company, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

A spokesman for JXTG, which bought an 8 percent stake in Petrolimex in 2016 and signed a memorandum of understanding to work on the Nam Van Phong Refinery in 2014, said the company was aware of media reports but had not heard of any such decision from Petrolimex.

As far as JXTG is concerned, the project is still ongoing, said the spokesman, who declined to be named.

Two of Vietnam’s existing oil refineries, in full capacity, can meet up to 70-80 percent of domestic demand, while imported products enjoy tax cuts from Vietnam’s several trade agreements in the region.

Petrolimex announced plans to build the complex in 2011.

As MRC informed before, late this summer, Huntsman opened a multi-purpose facility at the Amata Vietnam Industrial Park, near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The site is a greenfield investment, will house Huntsman's Polyurethanes and Advanced Materials businesses, and comprises manufacturing, R&D capabilities, a technical service center, warehouse and distribution space, and a commercial office.
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