Shell agrees to sale of Martinez Refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc announced it has reached an agreement for the sale of Shell’s Martinez Refinery in California to PBF Holding Company LLC, a subsidiary of PBF Energy, Inc., for USD1.0 billion consideration plus the value of hydrocarbon inventory, crude oil supply and product offtake agreements, and other adjustments, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This divestment aligns with Shell’s strategy to reshape refining efforts towards a smaller, smarter refining portfolio focused on further integration with Shell Trading hubs, Chemicals, and Marketing.

"This deal is another step in our transformation to high-grade and optimise our portfolio to drive resilient returns," said Shell’s Downstream Director, John Abbott.

The transaction is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close in 2019.

As MRC reported before, in March 2018, Shell EP Middle East Holdings B.V. completed the sale of the entire share capital of Shell Iraq B.V (SIBV), which held its 19.6% stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field, for USD406 million, to a subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the retirement of Udo Stahlschmidt, Michael Traxler has now been appointed head of ENGEL’s Mould Technology division, an in-house department at Engel’s headquarters in Austria that has been involved in the project planning of injection moulds for more than ten years, said Plasticsnewseurope.

The department is also contracted as a consultant, for example, when it comes to particularly demanding new product developments or feasibility studies.

Traxler has more than 30 years of experience in precision tool making and injection moulding. He joined Engel in 2015 and previously headed the Packaging business unit in North America.

Engel is currently working towards a decentralised approach to the development of mould technology know-how.

“The project planning of injection moulds requires a great deal of coordination and very close cooperation between us as a system solution provider and the plastics processors. That's why it's so important to be on site and speak the native language of our customers,” said Christoph Steger, CSO of the Engel Group.

Engel has established a strong worldwide network of system partners, each of whom is also one of the leading providers in their field. Often commissioned as a general contractor for the complete production cell, including the mould, Engel assumes the overall responsibility, even if other companies are involved in the project, acting as the central point of contact for the customer. This serves in many cases to accelerate the project while offering the customer a greater feeling of security.

As MRC informed earlier, in May 2019, Austria-based injection molding machine maker Engel has opened its second location in Mexico.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hanwha Total Petrochemical has restarted its Deasan cracker following a maintenance and debottlenecking exercise, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company has resumed operations at the cracker on June 10, 2019. The cracker was shut for maintenance and expansion in end-March, 2019.

Following the expansion, the ethylene capacity has been increased by 310,000 MT and propylene capacity by 120,000 MT.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 1.09 million mt/year and propylene capacity of 640,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Hanwha Total Petrochemical is investing approximately USD500m to further expand its Daesan integrated refining and petrochemical complex in South Korea. The company operates as a 50/50 joint venture (JV) between Total and Hanwha. The planned investment is expected to increase annual polypropylene capacity by almost 60% to 1.1 million tonnes and ethylene capacity by 10% to 1.5 million tonnes by the end of 2020.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Volgograd Kaustik, Russia's fourth largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, resumed its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacities after a scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The company's customers said that the producer on 11 June began PVC production after almost a month of shutdown. The plant was shut down for the turnaround on 15 May. The plant's PVC production capacity is 90,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that next shutdowns for maintenance at Russian PVC plants are scheduled from July.
SayanskKhimPlast and Bashkir Soda Company, which annual capacities are 350,000 tonnes and 240,000 tonnes, respectively, will take off-stream their production capacities for maintenance.

PVC production at Volgograd Kaustik was launched in December 1972 with the assistance of the Japanese firm Kureh's specialists. Nikokhim Group is one of the leaders of the Russian chemical industry, the main production assets of which are located in the southern industrial hub of Volgograd.

The holding company includes: JSC Kaustik is the principal plant of the group, manufactures basic products - caustic soda, chloroparaffins, synthetic hydrochloric acid, chlorine trademark, polyvinyl chloride, sodium hypochlorite, etc .; CJSC NikoMag - production of anti-icing materials, magnesium chloride, magnesium oxide and hydroxide; Zirax, Ltd. - production of high-purity reagents for various industries and JSC Poligran - the production of plastic compounds and rigid PVC compounds.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) from Russia totalled 77,300 tonnes in January-May 2019, up by 42% year on year, whereas imports decreased by 18% year on year to 7,900 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Russian producers maintained fairly high volumes of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) exports, but export sales have declined since May. Last month's exports of Russian SPVC (excluding shipments to the Customs Union) were 12,800 tonnes, compared to 17,300 tonnes in April. Thus, overall exports of resin from Russia totalled 77,300 tonnes in the first five months of 2019, compared to 54,500 tonnes a year earlier. Some producers significantly reduced their exports in June under the pressure of stronger demand from the domestic market and scheduled shutdowns for maintenance at a number of production capacities.

Indian buyers were the main foreign importers of Russian resin this year. Overall sales of resin were 41,700 tonnes over the stated period.

Sufficient supply of PVC from domestic producers, even given high exports, and weak demand from converters led to lower imports, although foreign purchases have still increased for the past two months. May SPVC imports were 2,800 tonnes, compared to 3,200 tonnes a month earlier. And overall imports totalled slightly over 7,900 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 9,700 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC