US asks Brazil to consider lifting tariffs on ethanol exports

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The United States has asked Brazil to consider lifting tariffs imposed on its ethanol exports and is hopeful of a positive outcome, reported Reuters with reference to a senior official at the US Department of Agriculture.

US Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney said Brazil has not indicated that they would lift them. "Our hope is that the warm relationship between our presidents and how that cascades down might let us find some relief," he told a conference call.

Brazil currently charges a 20-percent tariff on ethanol imports surpassing 150 million liters a quarter in a bid to shield local farmers from foreign competition.

McKinney said Brazil had previously said it would reassess the tariffs two years from the September 2017 date on which they were imposed. “You can imagine there’s always run-ups to that. Nobody said it is a hard date and that’s another reason we are having a discussion,” he said.

As MRC wrote previously, in February 2018, a significant new player emerged in the Brazilian biofuels industry. A grand opening was held signaling the start of operations at FS Bioenergia, a USD115 million corn-only ethanol production facility located in Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso. FS Bioenergia utilized process technologies from ICM, Inc. of Colwich, Kansas. Since 1995, ICM has provided engineering, construction and operational services for more than 100 ethanol plants in North America.
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IVL to buy Nigerian packaging business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indorama Ventures (IVL), through its indirect subsidiary, Indorama Netherlands, has signed a definitive share purchase agreement with Church Street Trustees as trustees of the SI Trust, BTI Overseas Ltd. and Capital Alliance Private Equity II to acquire Bevpak (Nigeria) Ltd, as per Apic-online.

Bevpak, located in Ibadan, Nigeria, is "one of the largest" manufacturers of polyethylene terephthalate preforms in West Africa, IVL noted. It has a production capacity of 18,000 t/y.

The transaction, for which a value was not given, is expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

As MRC informed before, Indorama Ventures (IVL) has commenced production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) at plants it acquired from Artlant PTA in Portugal and EIPET in Egypt, respectively.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, listed in Thailand, is one of the world's leading petrochemicals producers, a global manufacturing footprint with 59 sites in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The company's portfolio is comprises necessities and high value-added (HVA) categories of polymers, fibers, and packaging. Indorama Ventures has approx. 15,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of USD 8.4 billion in 2017. The company is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).
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Venezuelan sanctions unlikely to have a significant impact on U.S. refiners

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuelan sanctions unlikely to have a significant impact on U.S. refiners, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude oil have decreased in recent years as production in Venezuela declined. Recently announced U.S. sanctions directed at Venezuela’s energy sector and state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), will essentially eliminate U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude oil as the full effects of the sanctions emerge. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) does not anticipate any significant decrease in U.S. refinery runs as a result of these sanctions.

U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude oil have been falling for several years and refineries have been replacing Venezuelan crude oil with other heavy crude oils.

Moving forward, refineries may also choose to run lighter crude oils because transportation constraints may limit the availability of heavy crude oils. Refiners with significant asphalt and road oils processing unit capacity, for which Venezuelan crude oil is well suited, may have a harder time finding adequate replacements; however, these refineries have also limited imports from Venezuela recently.

On January 23, 2019, the United States officially recognized the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela. On January 25, 2019, the White house issued Executive Order 13857, Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Venezuela, which expanded U.S. sanctions by including PDVSA in sanctions against the Maduro regime. Although there is a wind-down period for purchasing petroleum and petroleum products, payments must be placed into an escrow account that is not accessible by PDVSA. EIA expects this action to have an immediate impact, essentially eliminating U.S. imports from Venezuela as the full effects of the sanctions are felt. The sanctions apply not only to U.S. persons, but also to any transaction involving the U.S. financial system. The Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury Department indicates that sanctions may be lifted after control of PDVSA is transferred to Interim President Juan Guaido or a subsequent democratically elected government.

The sanctions also prohibit the United States from exporting petroleum products to Venezuela. This prohibition includes diluent, which PDVSA uses to mix with its much heavier crude oils. If PDVSA cannot find another source for diluent in a relatively short period of time, Venezuela’s crude oil production is likely to decline.

In the first 11 months of 2018, U.S. Gulf Coast refineries ran crude oil with an average sulfur content of 1.4% and an average API gravity of 32.6 degrees. The average API gravity was 30.0 degrees in 2013 and this change reflects the trend of Gulf Coast refineries running lighter crude oil slates. The lightening of the crude slate is likely the result of increased refinery capacity and availability of lighter crude oils and is not indicative of a decrease in demand for heavy crude oil, which Gulf Coast refineries are generally optimized to run.
MRC

AVEVA industry-leading portfolio enables edge-to-enterprise visualisation using hybrid cloud

MOSCOW (MRC) -- 23rd Annual ARC Industry Forum, Florida: AVEVA announced a major update to its Monitoring, Control and Information Management portfolio, delivering edge-to-cloud integration and advanced visualization tools, along with seamless access to advanced applications and powerful analytics, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

These advanced capabilities are delivered in AVEVA’s market-leading portfolio including InTouch HMI, InTouch Edge HMI, System Platform, Historian and AVEVA Insight products, providing unmatched enterprise-wide visualization and insight into operations and a high degree of commercial flexibility with a subscription, a foundational element of digital transformation.

With these capabilities available in a hybrid cloud model, customers can quickly bridge OT and IT requirements, create reusable industrial applications with rapid time to value, and drive operational efficiency with increased visibility across multiple levels of an organization, in the discrete, process, hybrid and infrastructure industries.

This enhanced cloud offering provides a seamless, integrated experience that enables customers to access information and functionality from across AVEVA’s broad range of proven value chain applications: from engineering design data, to manufacturing execution management, to predictive maintenance, and much more. Companies can benefit from unparalleled insights and work process digitalization, for example using real-time and historical data with machine learning capabilities to predict possible faults or failures and take pre-emptive action through automated workflows supported by augmented reality tools.

AVEVA CEO Craig Hayman said, "AVEVA is committed to partnering with our customers to achieve maximum value from industrial digital transformation. We enable smarter decisions by creating innovative technology. The latest enhancements in our Monitoring, Control and Information Management portfolio, exemplified by the benefits delivered through the ADNOC Panorama initiative, perfectly illustrate how we are empowering our customers with edge-to-enterprise visibility."

A leading example of where AVEVA’s enterprise visualisation and integration solutions have been deployed, and are a key enabler to wholescale digital transformation, is the diverse and complex operations of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The Panorama Digital Command Centre enables ADNOC to monitor and optimise the performance of its assets and operations across 16 operating companies (OPCOs) from their Abu Dhabi headquarters. This includes oil and gas development and production, through to processing, petroleum and chemical products to transportation and distribution.
MRC

Valero seeks to maintain lawsuit against PG&E over refinery outage

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiner Valero Energy Corp is asking a bankruptcy court to allow its lawsuit against PG&E Corp over an emergency shutdown to move forward, arguing the USD75 million case will not interfere with the power producer’s Chapter 11 proceeding, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In a filing, Valero urged US Bankruptcy Court Judge Dennis Montali in San Francisco to lift the litigation stay on the grounds that the dispute will be more efficiently resolved outside of bankruptcy.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late February 2018, CB&I announced that its CDAlky technology had been selected by Valero Refining - New Orleans LLC for its St. Charles Alkylation Project located in Norco, Louisiana. CB&I's overall scope of supply on the project includes CDAlky technology license, basic engineering and proprietary equipment. When it becomes operational in 2020, the new CDAlky unit will produce 25,000 BPD alkylate from FCC-derived olefin feedstocks.
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