Repsol net profit Up 7.5%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol beat forecasts with a 7.5 percent increase in fourth-quarter adjusted net profit on Thursday, boosted by higher oil and gas prices and increased production, and said its strategic plan was on track, said the company.

Repsol started new projects in Algeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Britain, Peru and Malaysia during 2018, and benefited in October-December from an annual rise in prices and lower exploration costs. The company said it was on track to deliver its 2018-2020 strategic objectives, which include 15 billion euros (USD17.1 billion) in spending, cutting debt and investing in renewables.

In the fourth quarter, recurring net profit adjusted for one-off gains and inventory effects (CCS net profit) came in at 632 million euros compared to 588 million euros last year. The company had provided a forecast, based on analysts' projections, of 601 million euros.

Brent crude is currently trading around USD66 a barrel, off last year's highs but well above the USD50 on which Repsol's targets are based. The realization price for a barrel of oil was USD60.4 in the fourth quarter compared with USD56.6 the year before, Repsol said, while gas prices also rose.

Closing a deal to buy electricity assets in the quarter helped push net debt up to 3.44 billion euros at the end of December from 2.30 billion euros at the end of September.

Long a headache for Repsol, total net debt on its books has now fallen from 6.27 billion euros at the end of 2017.

Buying the electricity assets from fellow Spanish firm Viesgo was part of a bid among refiners across the world to lower carbon emissions and help meet U.N.-backed goals to limit global warming.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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).
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