Air Products completes acquisition of ACP Europe SA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products has completed the acquisition of ACP Europe SA (ACP), the largest independent carbon dioxide (CO2) business in Continental Europe, said Gasworld.

The Tier One company announced the definitive agreement to purchase ACP Europe SA back in February (2018). Concluding the deal enables Air Products to better serve existing customers and pursue new industrial gas growth opportunities.

Customers will now benefit from an expanded liquid CO2 supply position across additional European geographies and greater density throughout Continental Europe.

"This is a good, logical deal. The ACP CO2 business complements our own and provides a solid platform to deliver customer value and pursue further European industrial gas growth," said Ivo Bols, Air Products’ Industrial Gases President in Europe and Africa.

"I have no doubt that our customers will benefit from a stronger portfolio as well as the collective and complementary expertise of our combined team," Bols continued. "With over 120 years of CO2 experience, we have built a quality, well-managed business that deliver," commented Jan De Ridder, Director, ACP.

"Becoming part of Air Products means we can look to the future with great optimism," said Ridder. ACP serves customers across a variety of applications including beverage, chemical, food and horticulture. It has more than 120 employees, four liquid CO2 production plants (with an additional facility under construction) and two dry ice production locations across Europe.

All required customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals have been satisfied. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Elliott Group has announced the grand opening of its new manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, India, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new factory shares the same campus as the company’s existing service center in the Bidadi Industrial Area southwest of Bengaluru. Fully staffed and equipped to design, manufacture and test Elliott YR steam turbines, the facility also houses engineering, sales and service offices, as well as a state-of-the-art training center.

The Bengaluru YR factory represents an expansion of Elliott’s long-time presence in India and its global capabilities, including major manufacturing facilities in Japan and the US. "This new facility will allow us to better serve our in-country customers and new clients, and it will be strategic in the growth of our business," said Nick Dorsch, Vice President of Industrial Products.

Elliott’s new 5,000 square meter manufacturing facility is conveniently located near the Mysore expressway, providing easy access to customers in the oil & gas, petrochemical, refining, fertilizer, and power generation industries. "It will also serve as a gateway for customers throughout South Asia, providing a single, regional source for the sales and support of Elliott YR turbines," said Dorsch.

For more than 100 years, Elliott Group has designed, manufactured, and serviced reliable, efficient turbomachinery for a wide variety of industrial applications. Elliott’s global installed base totals more than 70,000 units, and hundreds of Elliott YR steam turbines and other Elliott machines are in service in India today.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2018, Elliott Group announced that it is moving forward with plans to relocate manufacturing and testing of cryogenic pumps and expanders to Jeannette. The pumps and expanders, which are used in gas liquefaction applications, are a new addition to Elliott’s product lines following the acquisition in October 2017 of Ebara International Corporation’s Cryodynamics Division located in Sparks, Nevada.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell will be prosecuted in relation to an explosion at its Moerdijk facility in the Netherlands in June 2014 and for exceeding ethylene oxide emission limits in 2015-2016, Dutch prosecutors said, as per Reuters.

An incident at the Moerdijk plant on June 3 2014 resulted in a series of explosions and a large fire. Shell is also facing separate court hearings over exceeding emissions of ethylene oxide in 2015-2016.

Shell said in a statement it had been informed by the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office that it had nearly concluded its Nigeria investigation and was preparing criminal charges directly or indirectly related to Shell’s 2011 settlement of disputes over the OPL 245 oilfield off the West African nation’s coast.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major already faces charges of bribery alongside its partner in the field, Italy’s Eni, in a trial in Milan over the same deal, in what is considered the oil industry’s biggest-ever corruption trial.

Prosecutors in Italy allege that the two oil companies knew that around USD1.1 billion used for the acquisition of OPL 245 would be used to pay politicians, businessmen and middlemen.

Both oil firms have denied any wrongdoing.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Meridian Energy Group, Inc., the emerging growth refining firm and leading innovator in advanced technology and environmentally-beneficial petroleum processing facilities, has announced that the company has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an industry-leading firm for the midstream logistics support for the Davis Refinery in Billings County, North Dakota, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the LOI, the midstream logistics firm will build, own and operate the crude oil and refined product midstream and logistics facilities for the Davis Refinery, enabling Meridian to focus on operations of Davis inside the battery limits (ISBL). The firm, who has asked to remain in the background pending development efforts on the assets associated with the LOI, has over 70 years of midstream experience focused on providing a full suite of turnkey solutions to producers across the US. Meridian has initiated site preparation and grading at the Davis Refinery site and is proceeding with final design and equipment fabrication and procurement with full construction resuming in Spring 2019.

Lance Medlin, Meridian Energy Chief Projects Officer on the LOI, "The award of this contract for the Davis terminal marks the end of a long and intensive bidding and vetting process, and the beginning of what will become an even longer working relationship between our two companies. This firm will execute a significant role in the Davis refinery as they develop and operate our crude and refined product terminals and logistics infrastructure. We’re excited to start this new phase together as the Davis Refinery nears its full production date.

Meridian Chairman and CEO William Prentice had this to say, "Meridian intends to be the most cost-effective and cleanest refined product producer in the industry, and that means that Meridian has to focus all of its energy and expertise inside the fence - ISBL. This emerging partnership allows Meridian to do just that – with this LOI in place Meridian is assured that the Davis crude and product handling systems operate in the safest and most efficient manner possible. In addition, the arrangement reduces the capital burden on Meridian substantially, furthering Meridian’s objective of seeing Davis become the quality and cost leader in its market."

As MRC informed previously, in late January 2019, Meridian Energy Group, Inc., announced that the company had signed an agreement with McDermott out of Houston, Texas under which McDermott will finalize the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the Meridian Davis Refinery in Billings County, North Dakota.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Corp’s subsidiary refinery in the southern island province of Hainan delivered its first shipment of low-sulfur bunker fuel that meets the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) emission rules, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to state media reports.

A vessel carrying 2,200 tonnes of the fuel left the Hainan refinery in late February heading to Ningbo on the east coast. The fuel will be put to pilot use at a maritime institution in Shanghai, China Securities Journal reported

The Hainan plant is the second refinery under Sinopec to produce the low-sulfur marine fuel that meets IMO standards.

In January, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Corp shipped 6,000 tonnes of the fuel.

IMO will ban ships from using fuel oil with a sulfur content above 0.5 percent, compared with 3.5 percent now, unless they are equipped with exhaust “scrubbers” to clean up sulphur emissions, starting 2020.

As MRC wrote before, in September 2018, Sinopec Corp joined a group planning to build an oil refinery in Alberta, an enterprise that would strengthen demand for the Canadian province's heavily discounted crude. State-owned Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, along with an Alberta indigenous group, China State Construction Engineering Corp and Alberta management company Teedrum, plan to build a refinery to process 167,000 barrels per day of crude into gasoline and other products, the project's consulting firm Stantec Inc said in its statement.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC