Shell Norco, Louisiana chem plant, refinery finishing overhauls

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc is restarting the Gas Olefins Unit 1 (GO 1) at its Norco, Louisiana, chemical plant on Monday, sources familiar with plant operations said, as per Reuters.

Shell plans to begin restarting the 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) coker in the adjoining 225,300 bpd Norco refinery this week, the sources said.

As MRC reported before, in March 2018, Shell EP Middle East Holdings B.V. completed the sale of the entire share capital of Shell Iraq B.V (SIBV), which held its 19.6% stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field, for USD406 million, to a subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. LLC has completed the acquisition of Bemis Healthcare Packaging Europe from Amcor’s Flexible Packaging business unit, said Canplastics.

First announced in June, the deal will see the Bemis unit merged with Nelipak Corp., a global supplier of custom packaging for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries that Kohlberg acquired in July 2019.

In a statement issued at the time of sale, Australia-based Amcor said that the divestment was required by the European Commission at the time of approving Amcor’s acquisition of Bemis on 11 February 2019.

Bemis Healthcare Packaging operates facilities in Clara, Ireland; Derry, Northern Ireland, UK; and Elsham, UK.

Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based Kohlberg reportedly paid USD394 million for the three plants, which collectively generate annual sales of approximately USD170 million supplying flexible packaging to healthcare OEMs.

“We are excited about the addition of the Bemis European Healthcare Packaging business,” said Mike Kelly, president and CEO of Nelipak, said in a statement. “We will leverage the unique capabilities of both organizations to delight our customers with innovative designs, world-class quality and excellent service. This will significantly enhance Nelipak’s capabilities with the addition of flexible packaging alternatives for our global customers."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The environmental regulator for Mexico’s oil industry said on Monday it had approved the construction of a refinery for state oil company Pemex, but imposed conditions to mitigate the environmental impact of the USD8 billion project, said Reuters.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said the facility planned for the Gulf Coast port of Dos Bocas in his home state of Tabasco would help Mexico wean itself off its growing reliance on fuel imports, one of his signature campaign pledges.

Environmental regulator ASEA approved the project after reviewing a report prepared by Pemex that offered a mostly positive environmental assessment of the refinery’s construction despite predicting a “severe” impact on air quality.

ASEA said Pemex, while building the project, must monitor local water quality, rescue and relocate affected wildlife and protect a mangrove forest, among other mitigation measures.

Slated for completion by 2022, the refinery is expected to process up to 340,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil.

Lopez Obrador tapped the oil company to oversee the project after deeming bids from engineering groups were too expensive, putting more pressure on Pemex, the world’s most indebted oil company that has struggled to reverse declining output.

However, the project has been repeatedly criticized by investors and ratings agencies due to concerns it will divert funds away from Pemex’s more profitable exploration and production business.

Ratings agency Moody’s has said the new refinery could exceed the budget by USD2 billion to USD4 billion due to the government’s “limited know-how” on such projects.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SKC Co. has received board of directors' approval to vertically spin-off its chemical business and sell a 49% interest in the new separate entity to Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC) of Kuwait, said Apic-online.

In addition, the parties have signed an agreement to form a propylene oxide (PO) joint venture. The new joint venture company, which SKC and PIC agreed will be valued at USD1.195-billion, will include a 45% stake in SKC Evonik Peroxide Korea.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

"SKC has a strategy to achieve an annual production target of 1-million tons of PO," PIC noted. "SKC believes this joint venture will facilitate the exploration of future opportunities and is an important step towards its strategy."

PIC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), said the transaction will "enhance" its capacity in downstream derivatives and is an "important" step towards achieving KPC's 2040 petrochemical strategy.

As MRC informed earlier, SKC, a chemical manufacturing subsidiary of SK Group, has agreed with Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of Kuwait to set up a 1.45 trillion won chemical joint venture.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq’s oil ministry said it was still in talks with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil over a major deal to improve the country’s southern oil infrastructure, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

An agreement with Britain’s BP and Italy’s Eni was not part of the USD53 billion, 30-year mega-project. It covered the building of two seabed oil pipelines for exports through the Gulf, the ministry said.

Reuters on Thursday cited five senior Iraqi oil officials as saying that Iraq was close to reaching a deal with BP and Eni for an export pipeline project that was initially planned as part of the mega-deal with ExxonMobil.

“The ministry affirms that its negotiations with U.S. company ExxonMobil are ongoing,” the ministry said in a statement.

“...Not reaching an agreement or signing a deal between both parties does not mean the end of negotiations or the ‘exclusion’ of ExxonMobil from the project as reported by news agencies citing officials they did not name.”

The deal with Eni and BP was limited to the two seabed oil pipelines, it said. Large strategic projects required more time to research, negotiate, and study, it added.

The southern mega-deal involves several projects including developing oil fields, expanding storage, transport, and export infrastructure, and building byproduct gas treatment units.
MRC