Indonesia, UAE firms sign agreements worth USD9.7 B

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Companies in Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates have signed agreements worth a total of USD9.7 billion during an official visit of Abu Dhabi crown prince to the Southeast Asian country, reported Reuters with reference to the Indonesian government.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the presidential palace in Bogor, south of the capital Jakarta.

On the sidelines of the visit, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed an agreement with Indonesia's state-owned energy company PT Pertamina for oil and gas collaboration in both countries and globally, which has a potential value of USD2.5 billion, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

ADNOC said the deal covered projects in the UAE' upstream oil and gas sector as well as refining and petrochemicals, LNG, LPG, aviation fuel and fuel retail opportunities in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Chandra Asri Petrochemical also signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi's state fund Mubadala and Austrian energy firm OMV to explore opportunities in petrochemicals, the three companies said in a joint statement.

The foreign ministry said the three were exploring the development of a naphtha cracker and petrochemical complex, with a potential value of USD6 billion.

Indonesia's Maspion Group signed two preliminary agreements with Dubai state-controlled DP World to develop a container terminal and industrial logistics park in Gresik in East Java, the ministry and DP World said, valuing the deal at USD1.2 billion.

It will have a capacity equivalent of 3 million 20-foot shipping containers.

Construction is expected to start later this year with operations commencing in the first half of 2022, DP World said in a statement.

One of the world's largest port operators, DP World's concession at the Surabaya Container Terminal ended in April.

Both leaders also talked about increasing investment in Indonesia's tourism sector and allowing Indonesian state construction firms to participate in projects in the UAE, according to the ministry statement.

President Widodo, after winning an election in April, has pledged more investment opportunities to create jobs in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Sheikh Mohammed's visit could net USD10-USD15 billion in deals and partnerships, Jakarta's envoy to the UAE Husin Bagis was quoted as saying by UAE state news agency WAM.

As MRC informed earlier, last week, ADNOC said its Ruwais Refinery West Cracker is offline for maintenance.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Perstorp, the global leader in pro-environment polyols, is launching a new renewable polyol ester (non-phthalate) plasticizer Pevalen Pro, as per the company's press release.

It will make flexible PVC an even more attractive choice of plastic, based on a significantly lower carbon footprint versus competing materials and technologies. Pevalen Pro not only gives PVC an environmental boost as a renewable true non-phthalate plasticizer but also provides superior performance properties.

Jenny Klevas, Perstorp Global Marketing and Product Manager for the polyol ester plasticizer platform, explains: "Brand owners and consumers are searching for new plastics and materials with a sustainable profile and low carbon footprint. We believe that flexible PVC with Pevalen Pro is the perfect combination as it offers precisely what they are looking for, that being a high-performance product with a significantly better environmental footprint."

Perstorp launched Pevalen, a true non-phthalate plasticizer in 2014 as a premium performance alternative to phthalates, especially in sensitive and close-to-people applications where health concerns were, and are, in focus. Pevalen provides PVC producers with not only a cost-effective but also a low environmental impact solution, due to its plasticizing efficiency (less material required), faster processing (less energy), low volatility, high UV stability (prevents premature aging) and unbeatable softness for long-life performance. The launch of Pevalen Pro this year represents a timely and significant contribution to lowering the carbon footprint of PVC, underlining its importance as a sustainable plastic.

Plastics have received much negative press, but plastic remains a highly beneficial material in many aspects including safety, cost-efficiency and durability. The over-reliance on single-use plastics is genuinely a cause for environmental concern, but by contrast, PVC is already a very sustainable plastic material. Indeed, PVC has one of the smallest shares of carbon atoms, and being lightweight, flexible and durable, promotes sustainability through its properties, giving products a longer- and often maintenance-free - lifetime use.

PVC is also a recyclable material if made the right way, which the proactive Vinyl Plus initiative, to which Perstorp belongs, is focussing upon. This PVC industry-funded commitment to sustainable development aims to increase the recycling capacity of PVC and improve the overall sustainability performance.

Plasticizers are critical to flexible PVC, and the environmental attractiveness of PVC can be significantly increased by using the right one. It is in this context that Pevalen Pro is being launched to unlock further pro-environmental gains.

Currently, Pevalen has a clear cradle-to-gate sustainability advantage over leading plasticizer competitors, such as DINP, DOTP and DINCH, based on GWP (Global Warming Potential). As plasticizers make up a significant part of PVC (up to 40% in some applications) the potential for producers to lower their carbon footprint is already available today by using Pevalen. That pro-environmental advantage grows significantly by choosing the new renewable Pevalen Pro and it will be initially available with up to 40% renewable content, with the long-term potential of becoming fully renewable. This will be beneficial to all actors in the value chain and especially to brand owners in the main sensitive and close-to-people areas, such as coated fabrics, artificial leather, flooring, wall covering, automotive interiors and sports and leisure products.

Pevalen Pro is a direct replacement for Pevalen with no compromise on quality and performance, making it very easy to switch to. The renewable grades are made under the Mass Balance concept and backed by third-party ISCC Certification, which guarantees that the bio-based input is sustainably sourced and lives up to the requirements set for a more liveable future.

Future Pevalen Pro grades will offer even higher levels of renewable content with the longer-term aim of helping Perstorp customers to transform to 100% renewable grades. Jenny Klevas concludes: "Pevalen Pro is another important step on our journey to becoming Finite Material Neutral, and with Pevalen Pro we can help our customers to make high-performance sustainable PVC products."

As MRC informed earlier, in December 2017, Perstorp launched world first portfolio of renewable polyols. Thus, Perstorp announced world’s first portfolio of renewable alternatives to the essential polyols Pentaerythritol (Penta), Trimethylolpropane (TMP), and Neopentyl glycol (Neo).

Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Mexico's government on Friday unveiled the winners of contracts to build and develop an ambitious new oil refinery, which include Samsung Engineering and KBR, as per Reuters.

The USD8 billion refinery planned in the southern port of Dos Bocas is one of the flagship infrastructure projects of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who wants to make Mexico more self-sufficient and wean it off gasoline imports.

Lopez Obrador this year threw out bids for it by engineering groups as too expensive, handing oversight of the project to cash-strapped state oil firm Pemex.

Many financial analysts have questioned the wisdom of the refinery, arguing it makes more sense to import fuel. However, the government is adamant it must go ahead.

A block of work that includes the coking plant for what would be Mexico's biggest refinery was won by Fluor Enterprises and ICA Fluor, a tie-up between Mexico's ICA and Fluor Corp., the energy ministry said in a statement.

Samsung Engineering and Asociados Constructores DBNR jointly won two blocks for work including the hydrodesulfurization plant. Meanwhile KBR and Mexican construction firm Grupo Hosto won two others for work such as the gas generator plant, among others.

A contractual bundle for the site's product storage facilities will be tendered next year, the ministry said. The refinery in the president's home state of Tabasco is scheduled to process 340,000 barrels per day of Mexico's flagship grade, Maya heavy crude, and to be completed by 2022.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oman Oil & Orpic Group’s Liwa Plastics Industries Complex project: McDermott makes milestones
The Liwa Plastics Industries Complex (LPIC) will put Oman on the map in the international petrochemicals marketplace, reinforcing Oman Oil & Orpic Group’s position as a significant player, said Refiningandpetrochemicalsme.

McDermott is proudly completing its part of this world-scale project on schedule and at the estimated cost with a major achievement in man-hours without lost-time injury.

LPIC is a transformational project that will improve Oman Oil & Orpic Group’s product mix and business model, increase its profit and support the development of a downstream plastics industry in Oman. Taking advantage of the growing global market for plastics, LPIC will create new business opportunities and employment in the sultanate, and firmly reinforce Oman Oil & Orpic Group as a significant player in the international petrochemicals marketplace as it will bring new business development opportunities for the country in the fast-growing plastics industry.

LPIC project’s physical hub centres on the existing Oman Oil & Orpic Group facility in the Suhar Industrial Port Area. Land within the zone had already been allocated to allow for LPIC and the recently completed Suhar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP). The port zone and the businesses within it have contributed to the phenomenal growth in Suhar over the past 10 years, and LPIC will augment and encourage that trend.

In December 2015, Oman Oil & Orpic Group awarded a contract to a joint venture (JV) between CB&I and CTCI for the heart of the new petrochemical complex comprising the steam cracker and utilities for the LPIC project. On 10 May 2018, the combination of McDermott and CB&I brought together a global off shore and subsea engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company with an established downstream provider of industry-leading petrochemical, refining, power, gasification and gas processing technologies and solutions, thereby creating an organisation that spans the entire value chain from concept to commissioning.

Currently, the combined firm – known as McDermott – has the integrated technology, engineering expertise, construction experience and global reach to design and build the energy infrastructure of the future.

According to Tareq Kawash, senior vice president for Europe, Africa, Russia and Caspian at McDermott, the LPIC project – a major onshore petrochemical project – was already in progress when the combination of CB&I and McDermott occurred. “I would say the combination has helped to provide some access to resources and capability within the MENA region. The project was reaching out to some legacy McDermott assets in Jebel Ali in Dubai for certain fabrication work. In general, the project had already made significant progress when the combination happened,” says Tareq.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The U.S. ethanol industry is about to break under the weight of the Trump Administration's trade war with China and the surge in the number of small refineries exempted from the nation's biofuel laws, said Todd Becker, CEO of Green Plains, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The U.S. ethanol industry was preparing for growth in recent years, but the momentum has stalled in the face of President Donald Trump's trade war with China, a major buyer, and his administration's decision to align itself with the oil industry on demand-cutting waivers from biofuel laws, Becker said.

The sustained downturn in margins will finally begin taking its toll as some producers run out of money and begin a host of austerity measures to weather the storm. "Some plants will slow down, some will shut down, some will shut down forever," Becker said late last week in an interview with Reuters.

Trump fulfilled his promise to lift the summer ban on sales of higher ethanol blends of gasoline, but the infrastructure needed to deliver it requires time to be built. There are some 1,000 retail stores equipped to supply so called E85 gasoline, but the industry needs 10,000 stores to boost demand, Becker said.

U.S. ethanol production in early June reached almost 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest seasonally on record, Energy Information Administration data showed. While that might seem like good news, margins to produce ethanol <ETH-CB-REF> are at the lowest seasonally since 2015, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Ethanol production fell 2.5 percent to almost 1.04 million bpd, according to the latest weekly EIA data. But inventories still rose to nearly 23.7 million barrels, the highest for this time of year on record.

Becker said the industry has been undisciplined, continuing to ramp up production in the face of weak demand growth and growing supplies. He says the company has decided to cut production in the past, but this time they have the capital and operational plan to sustain weak or negative margins. "We can't be the governor of supply alone. We have the liquidity and the balance sheet and we are going to let other people do the job," Becker said.

Green Plains is the fourth largest U.S. ethanol company with a market capitalization of USD400 million. Green Plains, which has seen its share price drop by 40 percent this year, agreed in October to sell three of its ethanol plants to Valero Renewable Fuels Co and suspended its quarterly dividend in June.

Ethanol traders expect companies to start announcing output cuts soon. Plymouth Energy, based in Merrill, Iowa, said in a statement last week it decided to suspend production until further notice because of the weak margin environment.

One trader said production needs to fall by about 10% or demand needs to increase by the same amount to help steady the market. The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a more than decade-old law, requires refineries to blend corn-based ethanol into their gasoline to help farmers. The program also provides waivers to small refining facilities that can prove compliance would cause them financial harm.

Since Trump took office, the Environmental Protection Agency has more than quadrupled the number of waivers it has granted, saving the oil industry hundreds of millions of dollars but enraging another key constituency - corn growers - who claim the move threatens demand for one of their staple products. "The SREs (Small Refinery Exemptions) are a political football for the president, and he's going to have to take a look at how it's affecting agriculture and farmers," said Mark Marquis, CEO of privately-held Marquis Energy, which operates ethanol plants in Illinois and Wisconsin. "I can't say I'm happy with the way the administration has handled implementing the RFS."

While Marquis supports Trump and intends to vote for him in the next election, he said the increase in SREs granted is "troubling." The administration has delayed decisions on the some 40 applications for 2018 waivers amid a Trump-ordered review of the program. The previous rounds of waivers exempted some 2 billion gallons of fuel production from the RFS.

The refining industry says despite all the cries of demand destruction, there is little evidence to show that has actually happened. Federal government data shows demand has remained steady, despite the waivers, and that the industry has a supply problem, not one of demand.

“There is no statistically significant evidence that SREs are responsible for ethanol demand destruction," Susan Grissom, chief industry analyst at American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, said.

Becker says the oil industry is lying and they know it. He says the exemptions have slowed refiners from utilizing higher blends of ethanol and noted blending rates fell last year, though modestly, for the first time in years.
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