NEXT to sell renewable diesel to Shell Trading US

MOSCOW (MRC) -- NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc. (NEXT) and Shell Trading (US) Company (Shell) have entered a long-term Purchase and Sale Agreement for the purchase of renewable diesel from NEXT’s planned Port Westward, Oregon facility, said the company.

Representing an investment of more than $1 billion (USD), NEXT continues to develop its Oregon renewable diesel facility with an expected annual processing capacity of 13.3 million barrels (600 million gallons). Scheduled to open in 2021, NEXT will supply Shell and other partners with its alternative liquid fuels, satisfying end-user demand while also meeting both federal and state environmental compliance and fuel security requirements.

"We are pleased to be working with Shell on bringing our advanced renewable fuels to their customers. Shell and NEXT share a vision for a greener world through the advancement of renewable transportation fuels, giving consumers greener fuel options,” said Lou Soumas, NEXT Renewable Fuels President. “We look forward to supplying Shell for many years."

NEXT renewable diesel is a second-generation advanced biofuel made from 100 percent renewable feedstocks including used cooking oils, animal tallows, and selected virgin seed and vegetable oils.

"As a drop-in fuel, NEXT’s renewable diesel is a perfect fit with our existing fuels business and will allow us to integrate this advanced fuel seamlessly into our supply chain," said Kate Andresen, Shell Biodiesel Trading Manager for the Americas.

NEXT selected the Port Westward site due to its strategic location at a deep-water site on the Columbia River, access to global feedstock supplies, and close transport to North American West Coast markets.

NEXT is focused on the development and production of second-generation advanced biofuels, including renewable diesel, renewable propane and renewable naphtha to supply contracted off-take agreements for customers in the western United States and Canada. NEXT’s fuels reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%, improving the environment and moving us forward to a greener future.

STUSCO operates in the U.S. as part of Shell Trading and Supply, one of the largest energy trading operations in the world, with its largest trading hubs located in London, Houston, Singapore, Dubai and Rotterdam, trading in crude oil, natural gas, LNG, electrical power, refined products, chemical feedstocks and environmental products. This global organization combines our network of trading companies, industry leading shipping and maritime capabilities, and integrated network of supply and distribution activities to act as the central nervous system for Royal Dutch Shell, adding value across Shell’s Upstream, Downstream and Integrated Gas businesses.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP joined its competitors in posting a strong 2018 performance, with a doubling of profits driven by strong growth in oil and gas output following a large U.S. shale acquisition, said the company.

Record utilisation of its oil and gas fields and refining capacity further helped BP seal what was a transformational year as the aftermath of the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster eased.

But while the London-listed firm's revenue beat forecasts, debt rose and the pace of its share buyback scheme slowed in the last quarter after it paid the first and largest tranche of the USD10.5 billion BHP acquisition.

BP shares rose more than 3.3 percent in early trade, hitting their highest since early December.

"We now have a powerful track record of safe and reliable performance, efficient execution and capital discipline. And we're doing this while growing the business," BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in a statement.

Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron all reported stronger-than-forecast earnings last week driven by higher production in U.S. shale basins where Oil Majors have invested billions in recent years.

The strong gains came despite a sharp drop in crude prices at the end of the year that wiped out most gains made in share prices throughout the year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has announced EcoStruxure Process Safety Advisor, an IIoT-based digital process safety platform and service that enables customers to visualize and analyze real-time hazardous events and risks to their enterprise-wide assets, operations and business performance, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Safety Advisor is built on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure SIF Manager application for tracking and validating safety instrumented function (SIF) performance over the life of a plant. It provides a single view into the health and status of the user’s safety instrumented functions, which helps to identify potential risks and their impact on operations performance.

Platform- and vendor-agnostic, Safety Advisor uniquely extends the functionality of SIF Manager. Using a secure, cloud-based infrastructure, Safety Advisor aggregates real-time data, analytics and insights from multiple sites and geographies into a single user interface so customers can create an accurate, enterprise-wide risk profile in real time. It also identifies the need to take corrective action via easy-to-understand performance dashboards and leading indicators for safety health and then documents the entire process using an embedded SIF audit trail that supports safety compliance.

“EcoStruxure Process Safety Advisor enables the industrial workforce to create a closed-loop safety model that validates actual performance against original design criteria,” said Sven Grone, safety services practice leader, Schneider Electric. “Because they can now accurately predict when safety risks will exceed acceptable thresholds, they are better able to avoid incidents and reduce downtime, while improving the efficiency, reliability and profitability of their operations. At the end of the day, Safety Advisor ramps up our customers’ ability to run safely, comply with safety regulations and drive measurable results to the bottom line."

EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity for customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics and Services. EcoStruxure has been deployed in 480,000+ sites, with the support of 20,000+ system integrators and developers, connecting over 1.6 million assets under management through 40+ digital services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has raised its February list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Asia Outside China (AOC), as per the company's press release.

The price increase below is effective as of 31 January, or as contracts otherwise allow, and is incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, Celanese raised VAM list and off-list selling prices by USD50/mt for AOC.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last increased its prices for VAM sold in Asia on 21 December, 2018, as follows:

- by USD50/mt for AOC.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Weak seasonal demand and oversupply became the main reason for the reduction of low density polyethylene (LDPE) prices in the Russian market. The key suppliers announced a price cut of Rb2,000-4,000/tonne for February shipments, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

January was short due to the long New Year holidays, moreover, demand for LDPE is always very weak in the first months of the year due to a number of factors. Despite these factors, supply of polyethylene (PE) was excessive from some producers. And weak demand from the key export markets did not allow to get rid of oversupply of LDPE in the Russian market. As a result, many sellers announced price reductions for February shipments.

PE for the production of thick films (108 grade LDPE) accounted for the weakest demand in January, offer prices of this LDPE grade had reached Rb85,500-87,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT, by February. At the same time, the company's customers said Angarsk Polymers Plant intends to reduce its output of 108 grade LDPE by one third year on year this year.

Demand for 158 grade PE was slightly stronger last month than that for 108 grade LDPE. In addition, there were temporary disruptions in Kazanorgsintez's PE shipments. Offer prices for February deliveries of 158 grade LDPE were heard in a rather wide range, as follows: Rb91,500-96,400 CPT Moscow, including VAT.
MRC