Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to draft MoU on oil and gas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigeria and Saudi Arabia plan to draft a memorandum of understanding on an oil and gas partnership that could lead to the construction of a new refinery and investments in liquefied natural gas, reported Reuters with reference to Nigeria’s petroleum ministry.

Nigeria imports the bulk of its petrol, despite being Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, due to its dilapidated refineries. Last month, Nigeria’s state oil company said it was in talks with different consortiums to overhaul its refineries and save billions of dollars on fuel imports.

Nigeria’s petroleum ministry, in a statement issued days after oil minister Emmanuel Kachikwu held talks with Saudi energy officials, said an early draft of a memorandum of understanding would be ready in the first week of May.

"Areas of interest will cover the existing refinery revamp, building of a brand new refinery, LNG investments and product supply trading in crude and refined products," the ministry said in the statement.

It added that Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih had reiterated the possibility of establishing an independent refinery in Nigeria, considering it the best hub from which to reach other African countries.

Saudi Aramco is expanding its downstream operations such as refining and petrochemicals production as part of its drive to become the world’s largest integrated energy firm.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco will acquire Royal Dutch Shell’s 50 percent stake in the Saudi refining joint venture SASREF for USD631 million. The purchase, which is part of Aramco’s strategy to expand its downstream operations, will be completed later this year.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hungarian energy group MOL has temporarily suspended accepting crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline, it said adding, however, that the move did not affect its refineries, reported Reuters.

"Thus far the quality of the crude oil coming through the pipeline has been in accordance with the regulations, however we have decided to temporarily suspend the takeover of the crude oil," it said in an email.

Poland, Germany and Slovakia have suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, citing poor quality and triggering a rare crisis oversupply from the world’s second-largest crude exporter.

The quality problem arose last week when an unknown Russian producer contaminated oil with high levels of organic chloride, which is used to boost oil output but must be separated before shipment as it can destroy refining equipment.

"Contaminated crude oil cannot enter our refinery,” MOL said. “The suspension does not impact the operation of MOL’s refineries since we can supply them through the Adria Oil Pipeline as well as from our already existing supplies."

MOL added that it was in talks with relevant authorities and international partners to get crude oil transport back to normal as soon as possible.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2019, MOL Group announced that it had signed a sales-purchase agreement to acquire Aurora, a recycled plastic compounder with production plants located nearby automotive manufacturing and plastics conversion clusters in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. Aurora is a medium-size German company, headquartered in Neuenstein, with a unique and lean closed loop concept assuming collection of post-industrial plastic waste, regrinding and compounding. The company’s portfolio largely consists of engineering plastics and polypropylene recyclate-based compounds.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow has announced plans to expand its alkoxylation capacity at its existing facility in Tarragona, Spain directly benefiting the Europe, Middle East, Africa and India region, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This low capital intensity, high return, incremental investment builds on the previously announced alkoxylation capacity expansion on the U.S. Gulf Coast, to support growing demand and advance Dow’s leading positions in attractive consumer, industrial, and infrastructure markets growing above GDP.

"New Dow’s more focused, agile, and market-oriented structure enables deeper collaboration with customers and faster response to market opportunities and capacity constraints," said Ester Baiget, business president of Dow Industrial solutions. "This new capacity optimizes our existing asset infrastructure to enable growth at our customers. It is a true testament to our dedication and passion for seeking solutions that will benefit our customers, our markets and the communities in which we live and work."

Dow’s versatile alkoxylation franchise upgrades basic chemical building blocks in order to produce safe ingredients for cosmetics, household and industrial cleaning, paints and many other products for everyday use. This incremental investment will expand Dow’s production of high-quality lubricants, defoamers, specialty surfactants and ethoxylates.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2018, The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) announced its plan to invest in an alkoxylation facility on the US Gulf Coast. Upon completion, this new facility will support global growth in Dow’s core end-markets related to infrastructure and home and personal care, as well as additional end-markets where Dow continues to strengthen its position for the TRITON, TERGITOL, ECOSURF and CARBOWAX SENTRY brands.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wood has been awarded a new contract by Evonik to deliver engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Group’s new polyamide 12 (PA12) production complex, to be built at the Marl Chemical Park, Marl, Germany, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

PA12 is a high-performance polymer for special applications employed across various end markets including the automotive industry, oil & gas pipelines and 3D printing. The new facility will supplement the existing PA12 production plant, without disrupting existing production.

The contract grows Wood’s relationship with Evonik following efficient delivery of basic engineering, EPCM and commissioning support services to the specialty chemical company’s new world-scale methionine plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. Successful mechanical completion for the project was achieved safely in December 2018 meeting all milestones of the EPC contract.

Dave Stewart, CEO of Wood’s Asset Solutions business in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, said: "This award marks significant progress in our strategy to develop our chemicals business and expertise across Europe.

"Wood is committed to the safe, reliable and successful delivery of this major project supporting Evonik to achieve future PA12 production targets.

"We look forward to building our partnership with this key customer in the downstream sector, leveraging our knowledge and understanding of Evonik’s operations to work in close collaboration."

Dr Ralf Dussel, head of the high-performance polymers business at Evonik, comments: "This is Evonik’s largest investment in Germany so far, valued at approximately €400 million, and it is expected to increase the Group’s overall capacity for PA12 by more than 50 percent. In Wood, we have contracted a well-known, globally active technical services provider, for the successful implementation of such a challenging project."

The project will be executed by Wood’s capital projects team based in Milan, Italy and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

As MRC wrote before, in late March 2019, Wood was awarded a new contract by Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical for its 1MTA ethylene and refinery expansion project being built in Quanzhou, in the Fujian province of southeast China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell Industries expects slightly higher impact to second quarter 2019 results from disruptions caused by a March fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Deer Park, Texas, storage tank farm than in the first quarter of the year, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Financial Officer Thomas Aebischer.

"The impact was primarily felt within our Intermediates and Derivatives segment and was not material to the company’s first quarter results," Aebischer said during a conference call to discuss first quarter results.

"We are still assessing ongoing disruptions, and we expect second quarter impact will be similar to slightly higher than the first quarter," he said.

The March 17-20 fire destroyed 11 large storage tanks at the Mitsui & Co Ltd subsidiary’s site, which is along the Houston Ship Channel like Lyondell’s 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery and two petrochemical plants.

Chemicals from the destroyed 80,000-barrel storage tanks and those used in firefighting spilled into the Houston Ship Channel on March 22, stopping shipping along the waterway for three days and constraining it for nearly a month.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Patel said the refinery ran at 98 percent of capacity in the first quarter after the completion of a planned overhaul.

Patel also said the refinery is in a position to profit from a coming change to low sulfur marine fuel that begins on Jan. 1, 2020.

"As the refining markets adapt to new marine fuel regulations, we’ll be ready to capture improved margins with our continued stable operations," Patel said.

The International Maritime Organization has mandated that marine fuel have a sulfur content no greater than 0.5 percent as of Jan. 1, 2020. Currently, marine fuel can have a sulfur content up to 3.5 percent. The changeover is expected to tighten the supply of diesel fuel, strengthening refining margins.

The Houston refinery has replaced dwindling supplies of Venezuelan crude oil with shipments from Colombian producers and other markets, Patel said.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC