LANXESS further expands production of high performance materials in Germany

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bond-Laminates GmbH is increasing its production capacity for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites of the brand Tepex, as per LANXESS's press release.

The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of specialty chemicals company LANXESS, is currently building a new, fourth production hall of around 1,500 m2 at its Brilon site. Two additional production lines are scheduled to go into operation there in mid 2019. The company already produces innovative composites for the automotive industry and also for the electrical and sports industries on an area of around 5,000 m2. The investment, an amount in the single-digit-million-euro range, will significantly increase capacity to meet the growing demand for this forward-looking material. With this expansion, Bond-Laminates will create up to 30 new jobs.

The LANXESS High Performance Materials business unit is also investing in its global production network for high performance plastics, and is building a further compounding plant at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site for a sum within the mid-double-digit-million-euro range. Starting in the second half of 2019, LANXESS will produce Durethan and Pocan engineering plastics, which are used primarily in the automotive, electrical, and electronics industries. In addition, a warehouse and a silo facility will be built. Construction will start in the fourth quarter of 2018. The investment will create around 20 new jobs at the Krefeld-Uerdingen site. The new compounding plant will be designed in such a way that LANXESS will be able to expand its operations with further capacities in line with demand over the next few years.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 9.7 billion in 2017 and about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Venture Global LNG, Inc. announces that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the company’s 10 MTPA Calcasieu Pass facility on the Gulf of Mexico, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

On August 31, 2018, FERC notified Venture Global LNG that it plans to issue a Final Order for the Calcasieu Pass facility and the associated TransCameron Pipeline no later than January 22, 2019, in line with the Notice of Revised Schedule for Environmental Review issued on May 18, 2018. The project remains on track for a Final Investment Decision and commencement of construction in early 2019 with full commercial operations expected in 2022.

"FERC’s issuance of the final EIS is an important milestone for our Calcasieu Pass project. With the project fully contracted for financing with binding 20-year offtake agreements with Shell, BP, Edison S.p.A., Galp, Repsol and PGNiG, we are looking forward to a Final Investment Decision and commencement of construction early next year," Co-CEOs Bob Pender and Mike Sabel jointly stated.

Separately, the company’s 20 MTPA Plaquemines LNG facility and associated Gator Express Pipeline expects to receive its final Environmental Impact Statement on May 3, 2019, according to the Notice of Schedule for Environmental Review issued by FERC on August 31. FERC has established a 90-day Federal Authorization Decision Deadline of August 1, 2019.

Additionally, Venture Global announces that Jim Strohman has joined the company as a Senior Vice President and the Project Director for the Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility. Previously, Mr. Strohman spent 17 years with Dominion Energy where he most recently served as the Project Director for Dominion’s Cove Point LNG facility. In that capacity, he directed the execution of the project from FEED finalization and EPC selection through to commissioning and initial project operations. Mr. Strohman is also a retired Commander of the US Navy Reserve, where he served for more than 20 years.

Mr. Sabel and Mr. Pender added: "At Cove Point, Jim directed and delivered – safely, on time and within budget – the largest construction project to date for both Dominion and the state of Maryland, with a budget that exceeded $4 billion, more than 10,000 craft workers and 20 million total work hours. His track record of execution is a very valuable addition to our team."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Arabia signed deals worth more than USD50 billion in oil, gas, infrastructure and other sectors at an investment conference in Riyadh, officials there said, as per Reuters.

Details were announced at the Future Investment Initiative, held in Riyadh in the face of boycotts by Western political figures, international bankers and executives that were prompted by the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Companies involved in the deals included commodities trader Trafigura, Total (TOTF.PA), Hyundai (011760.KS), Norinco (000065.SZ), Schlumberger, Halliburton (HAL.N) and Baker Hughes (BHGE.N), state television said.

Swiss-based Trafigura said it had signed a deal for a joint venture partnership with Riyadh-based Modern Mining Holding Co.

The multi-billion dollar venture would develop a copper, zinc and lead integrated smelting and refining complex in Ras Al-Khair Mineral City, Trafigura said. This was part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to develop its mining sector and plug the midstream, it added.

Saudi Aramco said it had signed agreements with 15 international partners worth more than USD34 billion. The deals include an agreement to build an integrated petrochemical complex and downstream park in the second phase of the SATORP refinery, jointly held by Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Total; and investments in retail petrol stations also by Aramco and Total.

Saudi Arabia’s transport minister signed an agreement for the second phase of the Haramain high-speed railway with a Spanish consortium, state television channel al-Ekhbariya said on its Twitter account.

Saudi officials at the conference said the total value of the deals announced there topped USD50 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State oil giant Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally, reported Reuters.

The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading, according to details released by the Zhoushan government after a signing ceremony in the city south of Shanghai.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 percent owned by textile giant Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, is building a 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery and associated petrochemical facilities that was expected to start operations by the end of this year.

This is the third such project in China that Saudi Aramco has set its sight on as it seeks to lock in long-term outlets for its crude oil and produce fuel and petrochemicals to meet rising demand in Asia and cushion the risk of a slowdown in oil consumption.

Last month, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with the Zhejiang project’s operator Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil.

The oil giant had not yet finalised the size of its stake in the project and still needed to complete due diligence, Aramco’s Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

Saudi Aramco expects to supply 170,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude to the refinery in Zhoushan when it starts operations, he said.

The first crude carrier supplying the refinery should arrive in December or January, depending on when the project starts, he added.

Aramco also owns part of the Fujian refinery-petrochemical plant with Sinopec and Exxon Mobil Corp, and has plans to build a 300,000-bpd refinery with China’s Norinco. It is also in talks with PetroChina to invest in a refinery in Yunnan.

As MRC informed before, Saudi Aramco’s potential acquisition of a stake in petrochemicals maker SABIC would affect the timeframe of its own planned initial public offering, the firm’s chief executive, Amin Nasser, said in a TV interview in late July 2018.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A new USD6.3 billion refinery set up by the Azeri state oil company in Turkey will reduce Ankara’s dependence on imports for processed oil products, reported Reuters with reference to President Tayyip Erdogan.

The new plant could also help to ease some of the pain from Turkey’s currency crisis, given that the lira’s 35 percent slump this year has driven up costs for the country’s energy companies and forced them to increase electricity and natural gas prices for both households and industrial customers.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) in the Aegean coastal province of Izmir, Erdogan hailed the plant as Turkey’s biggest step yet in Turkey’s drive to meet its energy needs.

"This is aimed at saving around USD1.5 billion annually in oil product imports and the reduction of foreign dependence for oil products," he said.

SOCAR Turkey aims to make an acquisition in natural gas distribution in 2019, a senior executive of the company told Reuters on Friday, adding that an offer has been made to German energy company EWE.

The STAR refinery, which is wholly owned by Azeri state oil company SOCAR, will increase Turkey’s 28.1 million tonne annual oil processing capacity by a third, according to official data.

Producing diesel, jet fuel, LPG, petroleum coke and xylene, the plant will supply 25 percent of Turkey’s processed oil product needs, SOCAR’s website says.

The plant will still obtain raw oil from international markets, SOCAR officials said.

SOCAR is the principal partner in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which will carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and Europe. It also owns petrochemicals company Petkim and the Petlim container terminal in Turkey.

Other efforts to improve Turkey’s energy security include a recently announced tender for operation rights of three new solar power plants and the privatization of seven coal fields in an attempt to boost production.

As MRC wrote before, in February 2018, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announced that its main subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT-Kinetics Technology S.p.A. - had signed with the Client SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refineryan EPC contract (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) as an important part of the execution of the Modernization and Reconstruction works for the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery, in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
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