Enterprise begins service on Shin Oak NGL Pipeline

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enterprise Products Partners L.P. announced that its Shin Oak natural gas liquids (NGL) mainline is now in service from Orla, Texas in Reeves County to its NGL fractionation and storage complex at the Mont Belvieu hub, said the company.

The 24-inch diameter pipeline has an initial capacity of approximately 250,000 barrels per day (BPD) and provides takeaway capacity for growing NGL production from multiple basins, including the Permian, where NGL volumes are projected to nearly double within the next three years.

Completion of the related 20-inch diameter Waha lateral is scheduled for the second quarter of 2019. Supported by long-term customer commitments, the Shin Oak project will ultimately provide up to 550,000 BPD of capacity, which is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2019.

"The Shin Oak Pipeline represents another important addition to our expanding network of integrated midstream assets in the Permian Basin," said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner. “Shin Oak provides not only a much needed takeaway option for NGLs, but facilitates growing production of other hydrocarbons in one of the most prolific producing areas in the world, and gives producers access to the most attractive domestic and global markets."

Once the pipeline infrastructure is fully complete, NGLs for Shin Oak will be sourced primarily from Enterprise’s Orla natural gas processing complex, which began operations in 2018, as well as dedicated acreage from the Alpine High development. A third train at Orla is on schedule to begin service in the second quarter of 2019, followed by Enterprise’s Mentone natural gas processing plant, expected to commence service in the first quarter of 2020. These facilities will give Enterprise more than 1.6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas processing capacity and over 250,000 BPD of NGL production capabilities in the Permian Basin.

Complementing Enterprise’s Permian Basin assets is the addition of NGL fractionation capacity at its Gulf Coast facilities. The projects are expected to increase the partnership’s system wide fractionation capacity to approximately 1.5 million BPD by the second quarter of 2020.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is one of the largest publicly traded partnerships and a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals. Our services include: natural gas gathering, treating, processing, transportation and storage; NGL transportation, fractionation, storage and import and export terminals; crude oil gathering, transportation, storage and terminals; petrochemical and refined products transportation, storage and terminals; and a marine transportation business that operates primarily on the United States inland and Intracoastal Waterway systems. The partnership’s assets currently include approximately 49,200 miles of pipelines; 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, crude oil, petrochemicals and refined products; and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Johnson Matthey (JM), a global leader in science that makes the world cleaner and healthier, has entered into a long-term battery materials supply agreement with energy storage and battery company Lithium Werks, said Globenewswire.

Under the agreement, which will start 1 April 2019 and run for five years, JM will supply its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cathode material manufactured at its facility in Changzhou, China.

The cathode material is a key component in battery cells produced by Lithium Werks, for a range of applications, including material handling, large motive, maritime and energy storage.

Through incorporating JM’s advanced LFP technology into Lithium Werks’ batteries, both companies are excited to work together to support the growing demand from industry and consumers for higher performing energy storage technologies.

Commenting on the agreement, Alan Nelson, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Executive of JM’s Battery Materials business said: "We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Lithium Werks to supply our LFP. We look forward to developing our relationship further as JM continues to execute its strategy of break out growth in battery materials."

Commenting on the agreement, T. Joseph Fisher III, Chief Executive Officer, Lithium Werks said: "Having a secure long-term supply of cathode material from a solid supplier such as Johnson Matthey will provide additional certainty to our customers, and enable the transition to clean and sustainable renewable energy."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fluor Corporation has announced that it was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services contract by SABIC for the recommissioning of its polyphenylene ether (PPE) resin plant in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fluor will book the undisclosed contract value in the first quarter of 2019.

"We are pleased to support SABIC with this important recommissioning project at the Bergen op Zoom site where Fluor has more than 30 years of experience of providing innovative solutions to the client," said Simon Nottingham, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "Fluor’s proven track record in brownfield projects and construction-driven execution will minimize disruption at this complex operations site and provide cost and schedule certainty."

SABIC announced the project last year, in response to high global customer demand for its unique NORYLTM resins, based on PPE resin technology. NORYL resins are SABIC’s proprietary family of modified compounds. Recommissioning the Bergen op Zoom PPE resin facility will provide customers with a second source of NORYL resins globally, and affirms SABIC’s commitment to the European market and global customers who specify their NORYL resin material needs from Europe. When operational, the Bergen op Zoom facility is expected to add more than 40% global capacity over a 2017 baseline.

The 14-month project began in January 2019 led by Fluor’s Bergen op Zoom office and will be supported by Fluor’s Cebu office in the Philippines.

As MRC reported earlier, in response to customer needs, in February 2018, Sabic announced projects in Asia and the Netherlands designed to increase global capacity for two of its high-performance engineering thermoplastic materials, Ultem and Noryl resins. The planned new production facility in Singapore is expected to go online in the first half of 2021. The company also plans to recommission operations at its Bergen op Zoom PPE resin plant in the Netherlands by the end of 2019 to produce polyphenylene ether (PPE), the base resin for its line of Noryl resins and oligomers.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina said on Thursday it plans to process its share of Malaysian and Iraqi crude oil production at Petronas’ refineries in Malaysia in return for gasoline as Indonesia strives to reduce oil imports, reported Reuters.

"We’re approaching (Petronas) on whether we can utilize Petronas refinery to process our crude (produced) from Malaysia’s fields," Heru Setiawan, director of investment planning and risk management at Pertamina told reporters."

"We can also bring our crude from Iraq field to Petronas’ refinery," he said.

The two companies agreed earlier this week to a crude swap deal.

Separately, Dharmawan Samsu, Pertamina’s upstream director, said the company is also looking at increasing its stakes in Malaysia’s oil and gas fields.

The companies are also exploring further cooperation in the oil and gas exploration sector in the Middle East and Africa as both companies have assets in countries such as Gabon and Iraq, the officials said.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2018, Pertamina signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to upgrade Balikpapan refinery in 2019.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexichem announced its unaudited results for the fourth quarter of 2018 and full-year 2018, said the company.

The figures have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, having U.S. dollars as the functional and reporting currency. All comparisons are made against the same period of the prior year except for Netafim’s Q1 2017 P&L figures, which are not included in the comparisons. However, proforma financials are included in this report in Appendix I.

Unless specified to the contrary, all figures are in millions. In the comments in this report, we will refer to the term Organic Basis or Organically, which excludes: i) Netafim’s results for the quarter; and ii) the related expenses of the CADE and Netafim Ltd. acquisition. For the full-year 2018 numbers, Mexichem also excludes a Brazilian tax legal settlement benefit. The FX translation effect numbers, which are numbers on a constant currency basis or without the FX translation effects, do not includes any positive or negative effect from Venezuela due to the uncertainties of the economic fundamentals of its FX market and due that any effect is not material for the whole Company’s results. In some cases, numbers and percentages have been rounded and may not add up.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Mexichem posted a 15% year-over-year (YOY) increase in net sales to USD1.69 billion, and a 129% YOY increase in net majority income to USD32 million. Mexichem also reported consolidated net income of USD46 million, compared to a loss of USD22 million reported during last years fourth quarter.

This was a challenging quarter due to market conditions and some movements in certain variables in our Vinyl business, but despite these challenges, we were able to achieve our full-year EBITDA guidance while we continue to advance on the execution of our long-term strategy, said Daniel Mart­nez-Valle, Mexichem CEO. During this transformation journey, Mexichem has been working closely with our partners and customers across all our business groups to identify opportunities and provide innovative, best-for-world solutions to solve them. Our full-year earnings success proves we are on the right track.
MRC