Saudi Aramco in talks for 25% of Reliance refining, petrochemical units

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest crude oil producer, is in "serious discussions" to acquire up to a 25% stake in Reliance Industries’ refining and petrochemicals businesses, reported Reuters with reference to the Times of India.

A minority stake sale could fetch around USD10 billion to USD15 billion, valuing the Indian company's refining and petrochemicals businesses at around USD55 billion to 60 billion, the report said.

The agreement on valuation could be reached around June, the Indian newspaper reported, citing people with knowledge of the development. Goldman Sachs is said to have been mandated to advise on the proposed deal, the report added.

Aramco’s interest in the operator of the world’s biggest refining complex comes after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Delhi in February when he said he expected investment opportunities worth more than USD100 billion in India over the next two years.

Separately, Saudi Aramco’s Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser had met Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani to discuss the Saudi state-owned company’s businesses including crude, chemicals and non-metallics.

Aramco and Reliance were not available for comment outside business hours.

As MRC wrote previously, in October 2018, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil to the Chinese company’s new refinery in eastern China.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced that its board of directors has approved a 15 percent increase in the company's quarterly common stock cash dividend, as per the company's press release.

The dividend increased from USD0.54 to USD0.62 per share of common stock on a quarterly basis and from USD2.16 to USD2.48 per share of common stock on an annual basis. The new dividend rate will be effective immediately.

"Today's announcement marks the tenth consecutive year of dividend increases, reinforcing our commitment to consistent dividend growth as one element of our strategy to maximize shareholder value creation. Over the most recent three-year period, we have increased the dividend by 72 percent, exceeding the commitment we made in 2017. Looking forward, we have a high degree of confidence in our ability to grow earnings and cash flow to support continued annual increases in the dividend in line with our earnings growth," said Mark Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer.

The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD0.62 per share on its common stock, payable on May 9, 2019 to stockholders of record as of April 29, 2019.

As MRC informed earlier, Celanese Corporation has increased April list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after 20 March, 2018, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases. Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:

- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD110/mt - for Mexico & South America;
- by USD100/mt - for Asia outside China (AOC):
- by CNY800/mt - for China.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700employees worldwide and had 2018 net sales of USD7.2 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell said its Moerdijk petrochemical plant in the Netherlands was shutting down, but a planned maintenance turnaround at the site was not yet confirmed, said Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the oil major said Shell was “carefully optimistic” at this point about the lower olefins unit shutting down “which will hopefully lead to the turnaround at some point soon."

Workers have been on strike at the Moerdijk plant and the nearby 404,000 barrel per day Pernis oil refinery, Europe’s largest, since April 8.

A spokeswoman for the oil major said Shell was “carefully optimistic” at this point about the lower olefins unit shutting down “which will hopefully lead to the turnaround at some point soon”.

She added the turnaround was planned to start at some point between mid April and mid May.

Traders had previously expected the turnaround to take place between April 16 and June 21.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Custom plastic compounds and advanced polymers supplier Aurora Plastics is continuing its buying spree, acquiring compounder Elastocon TPE Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed amount, said Canplastics.

In a statement, Streetsboro, Ohio-based Aurora said that the purchase will expand its product line of PVC compounds, PVC alloys, CPE alloys, low-smoke flame-retardant concentrates, purge compounds, and TPE compounds.

"Elastocon brings a broader offering of soft-touch and abrasion-resistant materials,” said Aurora Plastics CEO Darrell Hughes. “It also deepens our presence and offerings to our valued customers in the medical, packaging, consumer, industrial, automotive and non-automotive transportation markets."

Headquartered in Springfield, Ill., Elastocon supplies TPEs, including grades for overmolding, injection molding, and high-performance specialty applications.

"Elastocon’s product line offers an alternative to other materials that might be higher cost and over-engineered,” said Elastocon president Dave Barkus. “We are proud of our odorless, phthalate and latex free materials and look forward to working alongside Aurora Plastics to allow us to strengthen our support network for our customers, including offering quicker shipment and enhanced lab and R&D facilities."

This is the fourth acquisition for Aurora Plastics in two years. Other recent acquisitions include buying S&E Specialty Polymers of Lunenburg, Mass., and Reiner Plastics of Marieville, Que. “Our goal with each acquisition is the same: to continue to be the first choice in polymer solutions,” said Hughes.

Founded in 1997, Aurora Plastics has manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, Massachusetts and Texas; and also in Quebec.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refinery output in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, eased from record highs in March after maintenance shutdowns offset production from a new mega refinery, reported Reuters.

Refinery throughput in March rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier to 53.04 million tonnes, or 12.49 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday.

For the first quarter, crude runs rose 4.4 percent on a year earlier to 155.37 million tonnes, or 12.6 million bpd.

March throughput was down from record rates in the January to February period at 12.68 million bpd.

A number of Chinese refineries, including China National Offshore Oil Corp’s Huizhou refinery and Sinopec Corp’s Changling refinery, were closed last month for maintenance, which peaks during the second quarter before demand rises in the third quarter.

But privately-run Hengli Petrochemical’s new 400,000-bpd refinery in Dalian entered full commercial operations in late March, bolstering overall throughput.

For the month, China pumped 16.54 million tonnes of crude oil or 3.89 million barrels per day, up 2.1 percent from a year ago and the highest daily level in at least a year.

The increases showed that efforts by state-run oil firms to accelerate domestic drilling paid off, halting the decline in the country’s output over the past three years.

Natural gas output last month rose 9.8 percent to 15.1 billion cubic meters (bcm), a touch below December’s record 15.3 bcm.

For the first quarter, gas production rose 9.4 percent to 44 bcm.

As MRC wrote earlier, in September 2018, China's 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.
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