Oil services firm to split into two publicly traded companies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Franco-American oil services firm TechnipFMC Plc said it would separate its technology and services business and its engineering and construction business into two publicly traded companies, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company, which had a market capitalization of USD10.31 billion as of Friday’s close, said the deal is expected to be structured as a spinoff of its onshore/offshore segment, which manages large engineering, procurement, and construction projects.

As MRC informed earlier, TechnipFMC and Kiewit partnership has been selected as the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPC) contractor for the Energia Costa Azul (ECA) liquefaction project under development in Baja California, Mexico.

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.
Present in 45 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, has completed the creation of a 75/25 joint venture (JV) with Nenter & Co., Inc., as first announced on 29 January 2019, said the company.

The JV acquired all Nenter’s Jingzhou Vitamin E production and related assets. The JV will immediately start implementing the anticipated upgrade activities to ensure compliance with DSM’s safety, health and environmental standards, and will therefore stop production. The shutdown will last as long as needed to finalize these significant upgrades.

The JV now owns and will operate the vitamin E production facilities in Jingzhou, Hubei, China and has a minority shareholding in Nenter’s Shishou facility, in Hubei, China, where an intermediate for vitamin E is produced. The JV will produce vitamin E exclusively for DSM.

The JV will upgrade and refurbish the facilities to secure a high-quality and sustainable supply of vitamin E, which complies with DSM’s safety, health and environmental standards.

The shutdown that was already planned as from beginning of September will be extended to enable the implementation of these upgrade activities. As soon as there is more clarity on the total duration of the shutdown, an update will be given.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine had stored 17.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas by Aug. 25, as the country looks to stockpile at least 20 bcm for the 2019/20 heating season, reported Reuters with reference to gas transport company Ukrtransgaz's Tuesday statement.

Ukraine had stored 14.3 bcm of gas by the same time last year.

The head of state energy company Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, has said that Ukraine needs to increase its gas reserves by 18% this year to cover its winter needs and to guarantee transit to European consumers.

The country consumed 32.3 bcm of gas in 2018, 10.6 bcm of which was imported. For the heating season from mid-October to April it stored 16.9 bcm of gas.

Ukraine used to meet its gas needs with imports from Russia but has not bought Russian gas directly since November 2015 after Kiev's relations with Moscow soured over Russia's annexation of Crimea the previous year.

Kiev now imports from Europe.

As MRC informed earlier, the volume of construction work in Ukraine in January-July 2019 increased by 21.8%, or by UAH 82 billion, according to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing, the Ukrainian News Agency MINPROM reported. The leaders among the regions in terms of construction volume are Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kharkov regions and Kiev. The largest volume of construction recorded in Kiev - 19.3 billion UAH.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany's 320,000 barrel per day (bpd) MiRO oil refinery, the country's largest, plans to restart a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker in around 2 weeks following an unplanned shutdown, reported The Economic Times with reference to a spokeswoman's statement.

The unit, which has a capacity of 91,100 bpd, was shut on August 7, traders said.

The refinery is owned by a consortium of Phillips 66 Continental Holding GmbH, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, and Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH.

According to ICIS-MRC price report, the August contract price of propylene was agreed at the level of July in Europe. Therefore, all European producers announced a roll-over of July export polypropylene (PP) prices for August shipments to the CIS markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A big surplus of U.S. biofuel blending credits would likely blunt potential price increases in the market if the Trump administration follows through on its proposal to boost blending volumes mandates, four industry sources said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Prices for the credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, tanked this month after the Environmental Protection Agency decided to grant 31 biofuel waivers to oil refiners, exempting them from their obligation to blend ethanol into their gasoline.

The administration has since sought to quell anger over the waivers in the agricultural industry and is considering boosting next year's blending volumes mandates to compensate for the impact of the waivers, Reuters reported last week here

While that move could help bolster demand for corn-based ethanol, its impact - especially on the RIN market - could be muted by a buildup in the so-called “RIN bank” over the past few years: There were 2.19 billion carryover RINS from 2018 for use for compliance in 2019, according to EPA estimates, compared to 2.59 billion for 2018, 2.22 billion for 2017 and 1.54 billion for 2016.

“Even if the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) moves forward with some of the ideas being talked about, we wouldn’t expect it to have significant impacts on RIN prices,” said one industry source familiar with the matter, citing the size of the RIN bank.

Renewable fuel credits for 2019 RIN-D6-US traded at 15.75 cents apiece on Friday, far below 88.75 cents each two years ago. RIN prices have fallen due to the Trump administration’s expansive use of the Small Refinery Exemption program, which allows refineries of less than 75,000 barrels per day to seek waivers from their blending obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Under the RFS, refiners must blend certain volumes of biofuels or buy RINs from those that do.

Facilities can also carry over a percentage of RINs from previous years, which has led to the accumulation in the RIN bank.

After the decision to grant the 31 waivers caused an uproar in farm states, the president and his administration discussed ways to boost biofuel demand. One proposal is to lift the 2020 annual corn-based ethanol mandate by 500 million gallons and the biodiesel mandate by 250 million gallons.
MRC