Chevron Phillips Chemical, Qatar Petroleum announce plans to jointly develop U.S. Gulf Coast petrochemical project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC and Qatar Petroleum announced they have signed an agreement to jointly pursue the development of a new petrochemical plant in the Gulf Coast region of the United States, said Plasticsnews.

The U.S. Gulf Coast II Petrochemical Project (USGC II) will include a 2,000 KTA ethylene cracker and two 1,000 KTA high-density polyethylene units. Qatar Petroleum has announced the selection of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC as its partner in a new Petrochemicals Complex, which will be developed and constructed in Ras Laffan Industrial

The signing ceremony, hosted at the White House and witnessed by President Donald Trump and His Highness, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar, included Chevron Phillips Chemical President and CEO Mark Lashier and His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum. Chevron Corporation Chairman and CEO Michael Wirth and Phillips 66 Chairman and CEO Greg Garland also attended the ceremony.

Chevron Phillips Chemical would be the majority owner with a 51 percent share and Qatar Petroleum would own 49 percent of the project. Chevron Phillips Chemical would provide project management and oversight and be responsible for the operation and management of the facility. The preliminary cost of USGC II is approximately USD8 billion. Chevron Phillips Chemical and Qatar Petroleum expect a final investment decision (FID) no later than 2021, followed by full funding and the award of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, with targeted startup of the new facility in 2024.

At peak construction, USGC II would support an estimated 9,000 construction jobs and once operational, approximately 600 full time positions. The site’s location would be in the Gulf Coast region, where there is direct access to the significant shale natural gas liquid reserves of the Permian Basin.

His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said, “We are very pleased to sign this agreement, which is the second of its kind in as many weeks, with our trusted partner, Chevron Phillips Chemical, to further cement the strong partnership between our two companies and to complement Qatar Petroleum’s international portfolio in the United States, which is a core growth area for us as we believe it has great prospects and growth opportunities.”

“Qatar Petroleum is already a terrific partner of Chevron Phillips Chemical on petrochemical plants in Qatar and we look forward to expanding our relationship in the United States as we jointly seek to develop a new petrochemical facility along the U.S. Gulf Coast,” said Lashier. “Qatar Petroleum’s financial strength, its commitment to safety as a core value and shared belief in our strategy to build facilities located close to competitive feedstocks make this an ideal relationship."

In June 2019, Chevron Phillips Chemical and Qatar Petroleum announced a joint venture to pursue a world-scale petrochemical plant in Qatar at the Ras Laffan Industrial City. The companies currently operate Qatar Chemical Company Ltd. and Qatar Chemical Company II Ltd., as well as the Ras Laffan Olefins Company. These are some of the safest and most successful assets in Chevron Phillips Chemical’s global portfolio.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PJSC TATNEFT and Slovnaft announced they have signed a cooperation agreement for the development of joint projects in the downstream sector, said the company.

The agreement document identified possible areas for the development of joint projects aimed at the production of biocomponents for motor fuels, modified road bitumen and lubricants.

The areas of partnership in the Downstream sector have been determined during the meeting of the TATNEFT management with representatives of the MOL Group (which includes Slovnaft) at the site of the TANECO Refinery and Petrochemical Plants Complex in January of the current year.

Slovnaft is a crude oil refining enterprise located in Bratislava, Slovakia. The maximum annual refining capacity is 6 million tons of crude oil, which is primarily supplied via the “Druzhba” pipeline. The dominating place in the production portfolio belongs to motor fuel (about 4.5 million tons/year), chemicals (200 thousand tons/year) and primary plastic materials (400 thousand tons/year).

Slovnaft is one of the most technologically equipped oil refineries in Europe. One third part of the motor fuel produced is sold in Slovakia, and two thirds are exported mainly to the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland and Germany. Plastic materials are sold throughout Europe. The Slovnaft share of the wholesale motor fuels market in Slovakia accounts for more than 60%, while it is about 20% in the Czech Republic and Austria. Slovnaft operates 253 filling stations in Slovakia under the company’s own brand, while the total share in the retail market for the sale of petroleum products is about 35%. In addition to operating the oil refining and petrochemical production complex in Bratislava, the company is running the wholesale business in CEE, retail activities in Slovakia and Slovnaft also owns and operates the product pipeline and several trading terminals in Slovakia. The annual turnover of Slovnaft amounts to about 3-4 billion Euros. There are more than 3,400 employees on the company’s payroll.

As MRC informed earlier, Tatneft plans to invest around USD3.4 B in TANEKO's upgrade in 2017–2025 and is also considering plans to build the third production line at the refinery at some point, according to Alekhin and the company's documents.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) exported a record 283,333 barrels per day of light sweet crude last month, according to trade sources, as prices weakened against global Brent, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

LOOP, which exports mostly medium sour grades produced in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, last month exported more than twice the amount of light sweet from the prior month. Overall exports of U.S. crude hit a record 3.77 million barrels per day (bpd) one week in June, U.S. government data showed.

A decline in oil imports at the facility, stemming from record U.S. production, paved the way for exports from LOOP storage facilities, said Abudi Zein, chief executive of market research firm ClipperData.

Crude imports at the port dropped in June to about 56,667 bpd, from 174,194 bpd in May, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed. While nearly a dozen new oil-export ports have been proposed along the Gulf Coast, LOOP is the only U.S. oil terminal now capable of fully loading and unloading supertankers.

U.S. crude’s discount to Brent WTCLc1-LCOc1 widened in late May to minus $10.99 per barrel, the most in about a year, bolstering demand for U.S. oil. The spread was $6.42 per barrel on Tuesday.

Six tankers in June together carried a record 8.5 million barrels of light sweet crude from LOOP toward destinations in Asia and Europe, according to data from ClipperData and Refinitiv Eikon.

“If there were a lot of imports coming in, they wouldn’t have the space to push out all that crude,” Zein said. “Higher exports mean the pipe is pumping more out of the (storage) caverns."

LOOP spokesman Wade Tornyos declined to comment. Among the tankers exporting light sweet crude from LOOP in June was New Prime, chartered by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which departed toward India, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and ClipperData.

Suezmax vessels Cap Felix and Amli Sky, last month departed LOOP for Greece and Italy, respectively, the data showed.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A law firm representing small U.S. refineries has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to keep refiners' applications for waivers from the nation's biofuel policy secret from the Department of Agriculture, arguing that the petitions include confidential business information, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The request, made by Perkins Coie in a letter to the EPA dated July 8, adds to mounting pressure from representatives of the refining industry for the Trump administration to box the USDA out of the controversial waiver program. The letter follows Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue publicly expressing opposition to the way the program has been run in recent years.

The program can exempt small refiners in financial turmoil from their responsibility to blend ethanol into gasoline under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Waivers can save them tens of millions of dollars but are broadly opposed by the corn industry, which argues they undercut biofuel demand.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the EPA has roughly tripled the number of waivers it has granted to small refiners, drawing anger from the corn lobby and putting Trump in the middle of a battle between two powerful constituencies important to his re-election campaign.

In the letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Perkins Coie said the applications contained confidential business information (CBI) that should not be shared with the USDA. "The USDA seeks the small refineries’ CBI in order to assert influence over EPA’s final decisions and thereby reduce the number of small refinery petitions granted by EPA. This interference is improper as a matter of law," it said.

The letter added that refiners feared the USDA would share the confidential information in the applications with players in the agriculture community, which could undermine the refineries' ability to compete.

"We would view any release of CBI to USDA as an indication that USDA was given improper influence over the decision-making process for small refinery hardship relief," the letter said.

Last week, Republican senators representing oil states wrote to Trump asking him to keep Perdue away from any decision-making process over the petitions. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy also wrote to Perdue saying he will block confirmation of agency nominations until Perdue "stops interfering."

Perdue has often sided publicly with farmers on the issue of biofuel waivers and told farmers at an event in Iowa recently that he had spoken to Trump about it and was helping to devise a fix. Trump has also ordered a review of the small refinery waiver program after hearing criticism from farmers during a recent tour of farm country.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq and Oman signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the oil and gas sector, including the possibility of building a shared refinery in Oman for processing imported Iraqi crude, reported Reuters with reference to the Iraqi oil ministry's statement.

Iraq will aim to export crude to Oman, according to the MoU, import oil products from there and build oil storage facilities in both countries, the statement quoted Iraqi oil minister Thamer Ghadhban as saying.

"The MoU aims at studying the possibility of building a shared oil refinery in the Sultanate of Oman to process the crude oil imported from Iraq," Ghadban said.

The two countries will also explore prospects of cooperation and investment in exploring and producing oil and gas. In addition to refining, manufacturing, storing and marketing crude oil and oil products between them, the ministry statement said.

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2019, Petrofac secured a number of new awards and contract extensions, with a combined value of more than GBP23 million, to provide training solutions for key National Oil Company and International Oil Company clients in Oman, the UAE and Iraq.
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