Aramco Trading to open London office in overseas expansion

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Aramco’s trading arm plans to open an office in London soon as it expands its international business, sources familiar with the move saiв Reuters.

Aramco Trading Co (ATC) also opened an office in the bunkering hub of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates in December to trade oil products and hired two traders from Trafigura and PetroChina to run operations there, the sources said.

“Last June, a trading office was inaugurated in Singapore, and last December (another) in Fujairah and very soon in London, just like any trading house,” one of the sources said. Another source said: “They have moved a few trading desks to Singapore and Fujairah. London is surely next."

A third source said the London office might be inaugurated as early as next week during International Petroleum (IP) Week, an industry event held annually in the British capital. Saudi Aramco, the parent company, already has an office in Marylebone, London. The ATC London operations may be located in the same place as the parent company and are likely to start with a handful of crude oil traders, one of the sources said. ATC did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

The trading sector faces increased rivalry between national oil companies (NOCs), international oil firms and Swiss merchants. NOCs have cheap feedstock and strength in refining, allowing them to compete aggressively with oil majors and especially traders that lack their own production.

ATC aims to boost its trading volumes in crude and refined products to 6 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020 and the company’s headquarters will remain in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, ATC’s chief executive told Reuters last year.

The CEO, Ibrahim al-Buainain, also said the plan to open an ATC regional office in Europe - either London or Geneva - was set for the first quarter of 2019. Middle East oil producers are venturing into buying and selling oil to boost their incomes as a sharp drop in crude prices since mid-2014 has forced the industry to become more efficient and commercially focused.

State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is establishing a new trading operation along with Italy’s Eni and Austria’s OMV. ATC was set up in 2012 initially to market refined products, base oils and bulk petrochemicals, but has since expanded into crude trading mainly to feed international Aramco joint ventures such as the U.S. Motiva refinery and S-Oil in South Korea.

Aramco, the world’s top oil producer and exporter, aims to become the largest integrated energy firm, with plans to expand refining operations and petrochemical output. It pumps around 10 million bpd of crude, of which it exports about 7 million bpd.

The company plans to raise its refining capacity - inside Saudi Arabia and abroad - to 8-10 million bpd, from around 5.4 million bpd now. Aramco is expanding its refining business at home as well as in new markets particularly in Asia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kraton Corp. is considering various initiatives to enhance shareholder value, including the possible sale of its Cariflex polyisoprene products business, said the company.

"The (Kraton) Board of Directors has initiated a process to review strategic alternatives for its Cariflex business, which may result in a sale of that business," the company said in a Feb. 19 news release. Separately, the board also authorized a repurchase program for up to USD50 million of Kraton's outstanding shares.

"We believe that the high-margin Cariflex business and its attractive growth prospects are not appropriately valued as part of Kraton," company President and CEO Kevin Fogarty, said in a statement. The company is focusing on enhancing its core businesses to drive value creation and strengthen its balance sheet, Fogarty said.

"We are extremely proud of our Cariflex franchise, developed and commercialized largely over the past 10 years by an extremely talented and dedicated global business team," he said. "Nevertheless, Cariflex is, for the most part, a stand-alone business at Kraton, with minimal revenue or cost overlap with our polymer and chemical segments.

"For this reason, we believe this segment could be a strong strategic fit with several players which are better positioned to realize valuable synergies associated with it and unlock its full value," Fogarty said. According to the Kraton website, Cariflex polyisoprene products are ideal for applications such as medical goods that require extreme purity, comfort, exceptional protection and consistent high quality.

"These products are superior alternatives to natural rubber since it is free of the naturally occurring proteins and eliminates Type 1 allergic reactions which can occur through frequent exposure to (natural rubber)," Kraton said. Meanwhile, Kraton's board has authorized the purchase of USD50 million of Kraton's common stock by March 2021.

"The repurchase program may be suspended for periods or discontinued at any time, and the amount and timing of the repurchases are subject to a number of factors, including Kraton's stock price," the company said.

Kraton will release its fourth-quarter and full year financial results Feb. 27, and follow up the day after with a conference call to discuss those results.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency has received 37 applications for small refinery waivers for 2018 from the US Renewable Standard (RFS) through mid-February, reported Reuters with reference to data released on Thursday by the agency.

The 37 applications matches the total the EPA received last year, when it approved waivers at small refineries owned by oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp.

None of the applications have been approved or rejected, according to the agency, which has until March 30 to rule on the applications.

The RFS requires refiners to blend increasing amounts of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into the fuel supply every year or buy compliance credits from competitors that do, a burden the refining industry says costs it hundreds of millions of dollars every year and threatens to put some refineries out of business.

The requests for exemptions have become a battleground between rivals in corn and oil industries after former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt greatly expanded the program, angering corn-belt farmers who say it hurts demand for ethanol and other biofuels.

As MRC informed before, in January 2019, ExxonMobil said that it had reached a final investment decision and started construction on a new unit at its Beaumont, Texas refinery that will increase crude refining capacity by more than 65 percent, or 250,000 barrels per day.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- German chemical company BASF and The Linde Group’s Engineering Division are collaborating to serve natural gas processing applications using BASF’s absorbent technology and Linde’s adsorption and membrane technology, said Gasworld.

With the combined capabilities of materials expertise from BASF and engineering expertise from Linde, the two companies are well positioned to expand their global leadership position in natural gas applications. The collaboration is a strong signal to the natural gas industry and will open access to previously inaccessible gas compositions for treatment.

BASF’s innovative Durasorb™ adsorbents will be used to improve Linde’s high-performance membrane processes, which provide stability and selectivity advantages over competitive membrane processes.

Membrane technology that can process gas high in CO2 is becoming increasingly important in the natural gas industry, Linde explained in a statement. The ability to treat gas high in both heavy hydrocarbons and CO2 will allow BASF and Linde to serve a part of the industry that now must rely on high cost alternatives.

Customers will benefit from a one-stop solution. BASF and Linde will perform the required design work to ensure that the adsorbent is well suited to the membrane. Linde will supply both units to the customer required to process natural gas: the membrane unit and the pre-treatment unit located upstream, applying Durasorb™. This arrangement will simplify the technical and the procurement processes for the customer as well as increase the reliability and performance of the membrane process.

“The partnership leverages the strengths of both companies and expands the market reach of Durasorb™, allowing BASF to serve together with Linde an even greater portion of the fast-growing natural gas industry,” said Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice-President of Process Catalysts at BASF.

“We are enthusiastic to cooperate with BASF in this strategically important market. A proper and sophisticated pre-treatment of natural gas is key to deploy the full potential of high-performance membranes,“ added Tobias Keller, Executive Vice-President of Linde Engineering’s Product Line Adsorption and Membrane Plants.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil refiner HollyFrontier Corp beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit, as refining margins were boosted by cheaper crude from U.S shale basins and Canada, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company said refinery gross margins, or the difference between the cost of crude oil and the average selling price of refined products, surged 77 percent to USD22.17 per barrel in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.

Refining margins for U.S. oil refiners have been fattening as transportation bottlenecks in Canada and the oil-rich Permian basin have ensured the flow of discounted crude.

Excluding items, the company posted a profit of USD2.25 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of USD1.92, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net profit attributable to the company's shareholders fell to USD141.9 million, or 81 cents per share, in the quarter, from USD521.1 million, or USD2.92 per share, a year earlier.

Sales and other revenue rose 8.8 percent to USD4.34 billion.
MRC