China, Abu Dhabi oil firms sign exploration, refining agreement

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China National Offshore Oil Co (CNOOC) has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) on upstream exploration and development, oil refining and liquefied natural gas trade, reported Reuters with reference to ADNOC's statement.

The agreement was signed during a three-day state visit to China by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

Under the agreement, the companies will share the latest know-how in developing ultra-acidic natural gas fields, according to ADNOC’s statement.

They will consider using CNOOC’s engineering arms, Offshore Oil Engineering Co Ltd and China Oilfield Services Ltd, as contractors for design, purchase and construction as well as oilfield service providers for ADNOC.

The two firms will also look at potential opportunities to work with both these companies on offshore oil and gas field assets in Abu Dhabi, the statement said.

They will look into working together on LNG marketing and purchasing.

In oil refining and petrochemicals, ADNOC will consider opportunities for investing in CNOOC’s existing refineries, and potential collaborations in new integrated refining and petrochemical assets in China, the statement said.

As MRC informed previously, in May 2018, ADNOC unveiled plans to invest AED 165 billion (USD45 billion) alongside partners, over the next five years, to become a leading global downstream player, enabling it to further stretch the value of every barrel it produces to the benefit of ADNOC, its partners and the UAE.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil said ot started production on a new high-performance polyethylene line at its Beaumont, Texas polyethylene (PE) plant, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The expansion increases plant production capacity by 65 percent or 650,000 tons per year, bringing site capacity to nearly 1.7 million tons per year.

This expansion builds upon supply advantages created by ExxonMobil’s two new performance PE lines which began production in 2017 at the company’s manufacturing site in Mont Belvieu, Texas. Together, these multi-billion dollar investments will help meet strong global demand growth for polyethylene, particularly high-performance products used for liquid and food packaging, construction liners and agricultural films.

"The availability of new supplies of domestically produced natural gas liquids provides us with a significant advantage when expanding polyethylene production to meet worldwide demand growth," said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company. "Our unique polyethylene products offer enhanced performance benefits to our customers, including strength and ease of processing, compared with commodity products."

The project created 2,000 jobs during peak construction and currently supports approximately 40 permanent jobs. Operations associated with the Beaumont expansion are expected to increase regional economic activity by USD20 billion in the first 13 years, according to research completed in 2015 by Impact Data Source.

Beaumont’s polyethylene plant expansion is part of ExxonMobil’s 2017 Growing the Gulf initiative, which included plans to build and expand manufacturing facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 high-paying jobs across the region.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has increased July list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Asia outside China (AOC), as per the company's press release.

The price increase was effective for orders shipped on or after 19 July, 2019, or as contracts otherwise allow, and is incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, July VAM prices rose by USD50/mt - for AOC.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last raised its VAM prices for AOC on 20 March, 2019, by USD100/mt.

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 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said, its second such filing in less than two years, after a fire last month prompted it to close the largest refinery on the US East Coast, reported Reuters.

After the June 21 explosions and fire, PES started shutting down the 335,000 barrel-per-day Philadelphia plant without a planned restart. Some 1,000 workers are being laid off.

The agreement "provides additional financing and liquidity necessary to ensure we can safely wind down our refining operations and... best position the company for a successful reorganization, the rebuilding of our damaged infrastructure, and a restart of our refining operations," Mark Smith, chief executive officer of PES Energy, said in a statement.

"The success of our plan is critical to energy supply and security for the region, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia," Smith said.

The refinery has struggled financially for years, slashing worker benefits and scaling back capital projects to save cash. PES filed for bankruptcy in January 2018 to reduce debt, but cash on hand dwindled even after the company emerged from the process later in the year.

The company has multiple owners, including investment bank Credit Suisse and investment firm Bardin Hill, and has both assets and liabilities between USD1 billion and USD10 billion, a filing made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware showed.

The company began selling the refinery’s oil supplies and equipment announcing it would seek to permanently shut the plant, sources have told Reuters.

The asset sell-off triggered worries among workers that the company no longer aimed to find a buyer willing to restart the plant, as it had said it would do.

The sale proposals included offers for future crude cargoes and time-chartered Jones Act vessels, sources had told Reuters.

More than 600 union refinery workers will be laid off on August 25. Others were let go shortly after the fire.

Hundreds of contractors that do business with the refinery are also expected to be affected by the shutdown.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it was closely monitoring developments in the Strait of Hormuz and was ready to act if needed to keep the global oil market supplied, reported Reuters.

The Paris-based agency said the right of free energy transit through the strait was critical to the global economy and must be maintained.

Oil prices rose on Monday on concerns that Iran’s seizure of a British tanker in the strait last week may lead to supply disruptions in the energy-rich Gulf.

"Consumers can be reassured that the oil market is currently well supplied, with oil production exceeding demand in the first half of 2019, pushing up global stocks by 900,000 barrels per day," the IEA said in a statement.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime transit route for world energy trade. About 20 million barrels of oil transit each day through the strait, or about 20% of global supply, it said.
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