Anadarko shareholders go for the cash in USD38B Occidental buyout

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shareholders of Anadarko Petroleum Corp voted overwhelmingly to sell the company for USD38 billion to rival Occidental Petroleum Corp , ending a short-lived contest that pitted two of the most storied names in the oil industry against one another, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Occidental in May beat out Chevron Corp to grab a major oil industry prize: Anadarko’s nearly quarter million acres in the Permian Basin, the top U.S. shale field, where low-cost output has helped turn the United States into the world’s top oil producer at more than 12 million barrels per day.

Anadarko’s shareholders voted 99% in favor of the deal that gives them USD72.34 per share based on Wednesday’s closing price for Occidental. Investors also voted in a non=binding measure 71% against executive payouts tied to the deal. Anadarko’s top six executives are to receive USD300 million in payouts.

Occidental said immediately after the vote it had closed the transaction, and had named new executives to run Western Midstream Partners LP, Anadarko’s natural gas pipeline business. Its shares rose 2.5% to close at USD47.13.

“We begin our work to integrate our two companies and unlock the significant value of this combination for shareholders,” Occidental Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said in a statement. Anadarko shares are up 56% from the day before it disclosed merger talks, while Occidental shares are down 30% since its discussions were revealed.

The market’s sour response has dampened enthusiasm for deals. Even with stocks of many shale firms trading at multi-year lows, it may not be enough to spur a buyout spree by the world’s largest oil and gas firms, said Artem Abramov, analyst with Rystad Energy.

“Some super-majors might be waiting for even lower pricing,” Abramov said. Hollub has been lining up financing and organizing asset sales to fund the deal while battling activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants to replace four Occidental directors and influence the pace of the company’s asset sales.

Hollub avoided her own shareholder vote on the deal by securing a controversial and pricey USD10 billion financing agreement with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Icahn likened the deal to “taking candy from a baby” on Buffett’s part.

Occidental this week sold USD13 billion in bonds to help fund the Anadarko purchase and has proposed selling Anadarko’s Africa assets to Total SA. It also formed a drilling partnership with Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA to develop part of its Permian shale field for up to USD1.5 billion.

Occidental last week reported a 14% drop in second quarter profit, as costs related to the deal and weaker chemical earnings hit its bottom line.
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Varo Energy to raise stake in Germany's Bayernoil refining complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- European downstream firm Varo Energy said it had agreed to increase its stake in a major refining complex in Germany to up to 55% by buying shares from oil major BP, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Swiss-based Varo currently holds 45 percent of the Bayernoil complex while BP holds 10%. Bayernoil consists of two plants - Vohburg and Neustadt - with a combined capacity of 220,000 barrels per day. Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Rosneft hold the remaining interests.

As part the agreement with BP, Varo will also acquire the major’s polymer modified bitumen plant at Vohburg and a 9% stake in the major crude oil pipeline TAL that brings oil from the Italian port of Trieste to central Europe.

Varo partially restarted the Vohburg plant in June after a devastating fire at the gasoline-making unit last year. “The Bayernoil refinery is a key strategic asset for VARO’s operations in Germany and beyond. Investing in additional shares will offer greater flexibility and help us further optimize our logistics to continue to best serve our customers,” Varo CEO Roger Brown said in a company statement.

The transaction is expected to close in the coming months. The company also operates Switzerland’s only refinery at Cressier and has storage and retail assets in Western Europe. It is owned by oil trading giant Vitol, U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group and Dutch firm Reggeborgh Invest.

Varo’s shareholders cancelled a floatation on the Amsterdam stock exchange in 2018 and held talks earlier this year on selling part of the firm with an outside investor including Hong Kong tycoon Henry Cheng.
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Gazprom neftekhim Salavat restarted HDPE production from turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, one of Russia's largest production complexes for oil refining and petrochemicals, has resumed its high density polyethylene (HDPE) production after scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The customers of the enterprise said the production of HDPE at the plant was fully resumed by 8 August after the scheduled maintenance works, and the shipment of commercial products will begin in the coming days. The turnaround at PE production started in early July. The annual production capacity of HDPE at Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat is 120,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that the next series of scheduled shutdowns for scheduled works of Russian polyethylene producers will begin in September. Two producers will simultaneously shut down their production capacities for maintenance works: Stavrolen (from 1 September for 45 days) and Kazanorgsintez (a sequential shutdown of capacities is planned from 14 September to 21 October).

OAO "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly OAO "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of the leading petrochemical companies in Russia, carrying out a full cycle of processing hydrocarbon material. The list of products manufactured by the plant includes more than 140 items, including 76 grades of the main products: gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrenes, silica gels and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols and amines, a wide range of household products made of plastics, surfactants and much more.
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Wanhua Chemical acquired majority stake in Connell Polyurethane

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wanhua Chemical (Yantai, Shandong / China) acquired not only MDI/TDI process specialist and plant manufacturer Chematur Engineering (Karlskoga / Sweden), but also a majority stake in the smaller Chinese MDI producer Connell Polyurethane, said Plasteurope.

Connell Polyurethane current plans for a 400,000 t/y plant mean that Wanhua would strengthen its leading position and increase its distance from world number two, BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany).

Wanhua is paying CNY 925m (just under EUR 120m) for Chematur, which has expertise that includes plants for hydrogen peroxide and bioethanol derivatives in addition to MDI and TDI. In 2018, Chematur generated sales of SEK 115m (approximately EUR 10m) and an operating profit of SEK 22.4m.

Connell Polyurethane operates a plant for the MDI precursor aniline in the northern Chinese province of Jilin. Since 2016, additional billion-yuan plans have been in place for MDI production capacities in Fuzhou, Fujian based on Chematur technology. Further plans exist for production capacities for 55,000 t/y of formaldehyde and 360,000 t/y of aniline, for which the authorities have already given the go-ahead and which are scheduled to be operational by 2021. However, construction does not appear to have started yet.

Wanhua operates global capacities totalling 2.75m t/y of MDI and TDI, which is closely followed by BASF with 2.62m t/y excluding the German company JV shares in China. In Europe, the MDI and TDI plants located at Wanhua isocyanate producer BorsodChem (Kazincbarcika / Hungary) are still down for maintenance. However, these are expected to be restarted in mid-August if everything goes according to plan.
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Ineos Styrolution hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for ASA plant in Bayport

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Styrolution announces that the company hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its new 100 kt ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) plant in Bayport, Texas, said Plasticker.

The development of the new site is part of a bigger expansion plan for the Americas, which includes increased ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) capacity at the Altamira site in Mexico, while transition the ASA production to the new site in Bayport.

The location of the new site was selected based upon its easy access to raw materials, being adjacent to the Ineos Styrolution’s styrene monomer plant, low cost utilities and proximity to major customer markets. The new site is expected to be operational by 2021.

In February 2019, Ineos Styrolution made its first production move into China with the acquisition of two 200,000-tonne polystyrene facilities from Total S.A. The deal, which includes the Foshan site in the Guangdong Province in South China and the Ningbo site in the Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, was agreed in August 2018 and has now received regulatory approval. It also includes two sales offices in Gunagzhou and Shanghai.
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