Husky Energy selects AVEVA to provide supply chain optimization

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cambridge, AVEVA, a global leader in engineering and industrial software, has signed an agreement with Calgary-based integrated oil and gas company Husky Energy to deliver an end-to-end supply chain management solution for Husky’s downstream business, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The cloud-based solution will enable Husky to plan and schedule its enterprise value chain from crude supply to product distribution through a single and unified system.

"We have adopted our operating model to feature integrated optimization, increasing the total revenue and gross margin captured across the entire value chain," said Pat Conrath, Director of Optimization at Husky. "AVEVA’s technology provides an enterprise cloud solution that enhances collaboration, agility and transparency across our value chain, helping us make decisions that deliver added value to the integrated business."

Husky identified a need to automate business processes, including integrating and standardizing its value chain activities across the downstream business. AVEVA’s Spiral Unified Supply Chain Management solution will enable Husky’s team to plan and schedule its end-to-end downstream value chain.

"All too often, embedded process silos based on point solutions cost companies both time and profitability. AVEVA’s comprehensive software portfolio gives our clients the highest levels of efficiency and enables true value chain optimization," said Harpreet Gulati, Vice President of Planning and Operations at AVEVA.

AVEVA’s Spiral Unified Supply Chain Management is designed to address each component of the value chain, from feedstock data management, trading, production planning and network optimization, to scheduling and performance monitoring. Visit our website to learn more about Spiral Unified Supply Chain Management.

As MRC wrote before, Canadian machinery supplier Husky Injection Molding Systems won a major order from Russia’s Pascal Medical for 12 Husky systems, it was announced 1 November, 2017.
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MOSCoW (MRC) -- A flagship refinery planned by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would have a "severe" impact on air quality and emissions could spread to nearby towns, according to an environmental study produced by state oil company Pemex and reviewed by Reuters.

Large portions of the environmental impact assessment, which includes hundreds of pages of technical language, were blacked out in more than a dozen documents uploaded to a government website. However, Reuters was able to view an unredacted version.

The report drafted by Petroleos Mexicanos, as Pemex is officially known, was submitted on June 12 to Mexico’s oil industry environmental regulator ASEA, which has about three months to review it.

ASEA, whose director is a presidential appointee, could agree with Pemex’s findings or it could come to a different conclusion and then order changes to reduce the environmental impacts.

Pemex declined to comment. It referred questions to the energy ministry, which did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The USD8 billion refinery, to be located in the Gulf Coast port of Dos Bocas in Lopez Obrador’s home state of Tabasco, was a signature campaign promise of the left-leaning energy nationalist.

Lopez Obrador has said the facility would help Mexico wean itself off its growing reliance on fuel imports, the vast majority of which come from U.S. refiners.

In a summary of the report made public, Pemex’s overall environmental impact assessment was positive. It determined the refinery would moderately affect the environment but emphasized that those impacts "will be controlled, mitigated or compensated."

The redacted sections of the document showed that, while most environmental impacts were deemed to be moderate, a “severe” impact was expected on air quality once operations started at the refinery, which is expected to process up to 340,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil.

The assessment said the estimated emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide “do not exceed the limits” set out under Mexican law.

Total emissions from the project would average 4,505.1 kilograms per hour (kg/h) of nitrogen oxides, 10,770.8 kg/h of carbon monoxide and 62,670.5 kg/h of sulfur dioxide, the redacted sections of the document said. The document does not provide

Daniel Basurto, head of the Mexican Academy on Environmental Impact research institution, described the estimated emissions as containing "high levels" of air contaminants.

He noted the emissions assessment is largely based on data from Pemex’s inland Tula refinery, which features very different atmospheric conditions than the coastal Dos Bocas site, meaning that expected emissions could be very different.

Basurto said ASEA should require Pemex to provide more and better data, adding that he has confidence Luis Vera, the Lopez Obrador-appointed ASEA chief, will run an independent process.

The redacted sections of the report said that if the refinery goes into operation, the carbon monoxide would extend over a nearly 15-square-mile (38-square-km) area, while the sulfur dioxide would spread over 43 square miles (112 square km). The latter figure is well within the range of the Tabasco state capital of Villahermosa.

An ASEA spokesman, who asked not to be identified due to the regulator’s press policy, said that Pemex had itself determined what it considers confidential about the refinery. He added that the facility’s environmental footprint should not be kept from the public.

In a statement on Tuesday, ASEA said it could oblige Pemex to make more information public from the assessment to promote "maximum transparency."

As MRC informed previously, Mexican national oil company Pemex is currently processing about 9% more crude oil at its domestic refineries than it did in 2017, said Chief Executive Officer Carlos Trevino in April 2018.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras will leave the gas distribution business in Brazil, disposing of all of its assets in the area, reported Reuters with reference to Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco's statement.

At a Sao Paulo stock exchange event, Castello Branco also said Petroleo Brasileiro S.A., as the company is formally known, planned to sell at least one refinery this year and was expecting to receive binding offers for its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution unit as soon as August.

Petrobras, which is selling tens of billions of dollars of assets to cut debt and refocus on deepwater offshore exploration and production, has already completed some major sales in gas distribution.

In 2016, Petrobras sold its NTS gas pipeline unit in southern Brazil to a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management SA for USD5.2 billion. In April it sold its TAG unit in northern Brazil to France’s Engie SA for USD8.6 billion.

"We’re going to open up space, selling companies, getting out of transportation. We’ve already started this process, selling NTS and TAG," Castello Branco said. "We’re going deeper with pipeline sales. We’re getting out of gas distribution."

Regarding the company’s LPG distribution unit Liquigas, Castello Branco said Petrobras had already begun making a short-list from the non-binding offers it has received. The company had agreed to sell the unit in 2016 to Brazil’s Ultrapar Participacoes SA, but the deal was blocked by Cade, Brazil’s antitrust body.

"We hope to receive binding offers at the beginning of August," he said.

The company in April presented a plan to sell off eight refineries, in what is likely to be one of its largest ever divestments.

As MRC wrote previously, in H2 June, 2019, Petroleo Brasileiro SA said it had signed a deal with local antitrust regulator CADE regarding the proposed sale of some of its refining installations. According to a securities filing, the company said the agreement will allow for increased competition in Brazil’s refining sector, by attracting new players to the business.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSOCW (MRC) -- There were active negotiations over prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for July shipments to the CIS markets this week. Despite a major reduction in ethylene prices, European producers reduced export PVC prices more modestly, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The July contract price of ethylene was agreed down by EUR75/tonne from June, which theoretically should lead to a decrease of EUR37/tonne in PVC production costs. Nevertheless, despite the significant decrease in prices of the main feedstock - ethylene, some European producers limited the reduction in export prices of PVC to be shipped to the CIS countries by the amount of EUR10-25/tonne, and in some cases, June prices even rolled over.

Negotiators said some producers still had had export restrictions for several months because of scheduled shutdowns for maintenance. And this factor became the main cause of a slight drop in export prices.

Demand for PVC increased from the main consumers in the CIS countries in June-July under the pressure of seasonal factors.

Deals for July shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were done in the range of EUR710-785/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR720-810/tonne FCA.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil and gas major Total said that the first batches of biofuel had come off the production line at its converted La Mede refinery in the south of France, reported Reuters.

The biorefinery has a capacity of 500,000 tons per year. It will produce both biodiesel and biojet fuel for the aviation industry, and Total added it would also produce premium hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), known as renewable diesel.

Total invested EUR275 million (USD310.4 million) to convert the previous loss-making crude refinery so that it now produces biofuels.

"Biofuels are fully renewable, and an immediately available solution to cut carbon emissions from ground and air transportation," Bernard Pinatel, Total’s president for refining and chemicals, said in a statement.

When produced from sustainable raw materials, they emit over 50% less carbon than fossil fuels, Pinatel said, adding that the refinery at La Mede will help France curb biofuels imports.

Total has said it will produce the biofuels using around 60% to 70% sustainable vegetable oils including rapeseed, palm oil and sunflower oil, and 30% to 40% from treated waste from animal fats, cooking oil and residues.

Total has come under criticism from farmers who have expressed concern that imported palm oil for the refinery would unfairly compete with locally produced vegetable oil, while environmental activists against the refinery, citing the deforestation caused by palm oil production.

Total said that as part of its agreement with the government, it has committed to using no more than 300,000 tons of palm oil per year or less than 50% of the total volume of raw materials needed.

It said that at least 50,000 tons of French-grown rapeseed oil would be used in the refinery.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months. This event marked the completion of the upgrade program launched in 2013 of one of the largest and most efficient integrated refining & petrochemicals platforms in Europe. Thus, the company had invested more than EUR1 B to further improve the competitiveness of this major site located in the heart of Europe's main markets.
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