Neil Carson maybe appointed as Director of Royal Dutch Shell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Carson is non-executive Chairman of Oxford Instruments and TT Electronics, a non-executive director of TI Fluid Systems and also a former non-executive director of Amec Foster Wheeler and Paypoint, said Process-worldwide.

The Netherlands – Royal Dutch Shell has recently announced its intention to propose to the 2019 Annual General Meeting that Neil Carson be appointed a Director of the Company with effect from June 1, 2019.

The Nomination and Succession Committee recommended Neil’s appointment to the Board following its review of the skills, knowledge and experience needed and a rigorous and thorough search process. The firm stated that Neil has a wealth of expertise, and the Board is delighted to recommend to shareholders that he be appointed a Director of the Company.

As a Non-Executive director, Neil brings a track record of utilising well his strong operational exposure, familiarity with capital intensive business and a first-class international perspective on driving value in complex environments.

Neil currently serves as Honorary President of the Society for the Chemical Industry and was awarded an OBE for services to the chemical industry in 2016.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EQUATE Group announced its fourth quarter (Q4) 2018 and full-year 2018 earnings, said the compant.

In Q4 2018, the EQUATE Group reported an EBITDA of USD427 million, compared to USD388 million for the same period in 2017. EQUATE Group’s total EBITDA for 2018 stood at USD2.12 billion, compared to USD1.73 billion in 2017. Net Income After Tax for the year was USD1.56 billion, compared to USD1.13 billion in 2017.

"EQUATERS across the globe defined excellence in 2018," said Dr. Ramesh Ramachandran, CEO and President of the EQUATE Group. “The record-breaking EBITDA was a result of extraordinary performance across all functions. We had an exceptionally safe year without any recordable EH&S incidents across the globe, a manufacturing volume record at all global sites and a very good pricing environment - notably in the first three quarters - and excellent cost optimization.""
Looking ahead to 2019, Ramachandran said, “Global headwinds in the commodity environment and high volatility due to uncertainty of tariffs resulted in a slowdown in the fourth quarter that persists in early 2019. That said, EQUATERS have always overcome challenges and I have every confidence that their expertise and commitment will continue to result in success."

The EQUATE Group maintained its leadership position as the second largest producer of EG globally, with EG production of over 2.5 million metric tons. This market leadership will be further strengthened in the coming months with an additional 750,000 MT in EG capacity as the new Oyster Creek, Texas Site comes on line on the US Gulf Coast.

The EQUATE Group is a global producer of petrochemicals and the world’s second largest producer of ethylene glycol (EG). The Group owns and operates industrial complexes in Kuwait, North America and Europe that annually produce over 6 million tons of ethylene, EG, polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), styrene monomer (SM), paraxylene (PX), heavy aromatics (HA) and benzene (BZ). The EQUATE Group includes EQUATE Petrochemical Company (EQUATE), The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), as well as a number of subsidiaries such as MEGlobal and Equipolymers. Their products are marketed throughout Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Group’s shareholders are Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Employing more than 1,500 people worldwide, the EQUATE Group is a leading enterprise that pursues sustainability wherever it operates through partnerships in fields that include the environment, economy and society.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese demand for crude oil is rebounding as independent refiners push to buy before prices climb further from low levels hit late last year, restocking with supplies that will arrive in March and April, reported Reuters with reference to trade sources.

That appetite from such refiners, often known as ‘teapots’, has driven up spot premiums for oil from Africa, Europe, Russia and Oman, the sources said, with prices for some grades hitting multi-month highs.

That comes after teapots slowed crude purchases for delivery in the first two months of 2019 as demand for the fuel they churn out typically fades over the Lunar New Year holidays, which this year fall in early February.

"It’s as if someone lit a match and the market’s caught fire," said one of the sources. All sources declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to media.

Global benchmark Brent oil prices had fallen more than 30 percent to just above USD50 a barrel by the end of 2018, but prompt May crude futures have rebounded to above USD60 a barrel this month.

Teapots tend to time their crude purchases based on oil price movements, and often when one buys others will follow, the sources said.

Spot premiums for crude grades popular with Chinese buyers are between 50 cents and more than USD1 a barrel higher than price quotes seen at the start of the month, they said.

For example, Oman’s spot premium almost doubled last week to USD1 a barrel from the start of the month, while offers of Russian ESPO crude for delivery to China in March have risen by 50 cents to about USD3.20 a barrel to May ICE Brent futures, according to the sources and Reuters data.

However, demand is expected to cool by the end of this week as would-be buyers leave the office for the week-long Lunar New Year break, the sources said.

China’s refined product consumption could only see 0.5-percent growth in 2019 from last year as gasoline demand slows with an expected 5-percent drop in passenger vehicle sales, while diesel use will continue to contract on weaker industrial output, Lin Chen, Nomura’s head of greater China energy global markets research, said in a note.

Still, the world’s biggest oil importer could see crude imports rising to 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, up more than 4 percent from the previous year, Chen said.

China’s refining throughput is set to hit another all-time high of 12.7 million bpd in 2019, about 600,000 bpd more than last year, driven by new refineries Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical, he added.

Competition from these new plants means that other independent refiners are unlikely to increase their throughput this year, Chen said.

Also, oil imports in the key refining region of Shandong in the east of the country are unlikely to rise until Dongjiakou city completes a port expansion by year-end, he said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toyo Engineering Corporation has been awarded a contract to build a 650,000 t/y ethylene and polyethylene (PE) plant located in Ust-Kut, Irkutsk region, Russian Federation by Irkutsk Polymer Plant, a subsidiary of Irkutsk Oil Company (INK), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

INK has been interested in reduction of the environmental burden by shifting to rational utilization of the associated petroleum gas instead of flaring it off, that enables off-gas to be utilized for production of the value-added petrochemical products. In this aspect, TOYO has cooperated with INK since 2011 providing advisory, planning and support work for modernizing INK’s industrial facilities under the General Engineering Service Agreement (GESA), which resulted in realization of the project.

In September 2018 an Agreement for Cooperation regarding construction of the gas chemical complex was signed, in the honorary presence of the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, during the 4th Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok.

As MRC wrote before, in January 2019, TOYO was awarded a contract of Acrylic Acid Production plant with capacity of 100,000 tons/year in Cilegon, Banten, on the western tip of Java, Indonesia from PT. Nippon Shokubai Indonesia (NSI), Indonesian subsidiary of Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd. (NSCL).

TOYO has completed more than 40 projects in the former Soviet Union and Russian Federation since 1960’s. TOYO also focuses on the expansion of the business opportunities for ethylene and polyethylene projects as its core business, and this award marks TOYO’s outstanding track record as the 47th ethylene plant project worldwide as well as the 26th polyethylene plant. TOYO’s long experience in Russia, established performance and reliability in worldwide ethylene projects led to this award. TOYO will continue contributing to the development of the petrochemical industry in Russia as well as to further development of Japan-Russia relation and cooperation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TechnipFMC been awarded a large(1) reimbursable contract by ExxonMobil for detailed engineering, procurement, and construction for the recently announced crude expansion project in Beaumont, Texas, USA, said thr company.

The awarded scope covers the addition of four new units – atmospheric pipe still, kerosene hydrotreater, diesel hydrotreater and benzene recovery at ExxonMobil’s Refinery.

The new units of this expansion project will be integrated into the existing facilities at the refinery. The expansion will optimize the facility by giving ExxonMobil the flexibility to run lighter crudes.

Nello Uccelletti, President of TechnipFMC’s Onshore/Offshore business, stated: “We are pleased to have been awarded this contract by our long-term client, ExxonMobil. We look forward to bringing our global project execution capabilities, extensive U.S. Gulf Coast execution experience and leadership in the refining sector to this significant refinery expansion project for ExxonMobil.”

For TechnipFMC, a “large” contract ranges between USD500 million and USD1 billion.
MRC