Dow Chemical likley to keep its cracker in Argentina offline for entire Q3

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical's Bahia Blanca complex suffered an explosion in a cracker No. 2. Since then, operations have been stopped in the plant, as per Pastemart.

Dow Chemical's Bahia Blanca petrochemical complex in Argentina will likely remain offline for the entire third quarter. Late in the second quarter, there was a significant countrywide power outage in Argentina, which also spread to neighboring countries. The power outage abruptly shut down the ethylene operations.

Teams on the ground are assessing the damage and beginning repairs. The company estimates that the facility will be offline for at least the entire third quarter and is expected to impact company results by approximately USD100 mln.

According to sources, Dow Chemical Bahia Blanca complex has two crackers - cracker 1 with installed capacity of 275,000 mt/year and cracker 2 with installed capacity of 455,000 mt/year. The complex has six production plants: two for ethylene and four focused in polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE and EPE). The company does not disclose specific ethylene and polyethylene production data.

As MRC informed earlier, as part of the company’s current slate of low capital intensity, high-return incremental growth investments, Dow has recently announced it will retrofit proprietary fluidized catalytic dehydrogenation (FCDh) technology into one of its mixed-feed crackers in Plaquemine, Louisiana, to produce on-purpose propylene. The retrofit will enable Dow to continue to meet growing demand for its businesses serving consumer, infrastructure and packaging end-markets, while also remaining within its stated near-term capital expenditure targets.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption was 1,081,100 tonnes in the first half of 2019, up by 8% year on year. Deliveries of all PE grades increased. Meanwhile, the estimated consumption of PP in the Russian market totalled 694,210 tonnes in January-June 2019, up by 14% year on year. The supply of propylene block copolymers (PP-block) and propylene homopolymers (PP-homo) increased.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More than 20 advisory firms are invited to compete for a role in Saudi Aramco's listing, planned for as early as 2020, reported Bloomberg.

Global banks will this week start making their case on why they should be hired for what's set to be the world's biggest initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Dealmakers representing advisory firms from around the world will from Tuesday travel to Saudi Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran in the kingdom's Eastern Province to compete for a role on the offering that's planned for as early as 2020, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

Aramco, which posted a profit of $46.9 billion in the first six months, has revived its much anticipated share sale after shelving plans to focus on its acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp. Lazard Ltd. and Moelis & Co. have restarted preparatory work and are expected to play a key role in the listing, including in the selection of underwriters and venues.

The company has invited more than 20 advisory firms from the US, Europe and Asia to compete, including some of the world's biggest underwriters as well as a number of smaller banks, a person familiar with the matter said last week.

A spokesman for Aramco didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The company recently said it "continues to engage in IPO readiness activities" and is ready for a share sale that will take place "at a time of the shareholder's choosing."

While Aramco has yet to make a decision on a listing destination, top officials from the exchanges in London, New York and and Hong Kong have been actively pitching the oil giant in recent weeks.

The IPO project was first announced in 2016 as the cornerstone of the kingdom's Vision 2030 plan to modernize its economy, with a target of listing in the second half of 2018. The oil producer was originally working with Evercore Inc. and Moelis, as well as HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

As MRC reported before, in October 2018, Saudi Aramco signed an agreement to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally. The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading. Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 percent owned by textile giant Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, is building a 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery and associated petrochemical facilities that was expected to start operations by the end of 2018.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company LANXESS will attend FEICA European Adhesive & Sealant Conference and Expo from September 11 to 13, said the company.

At this year’s event in Dubrovnik, Croatia, technical experts from LANXESS’s Urethane Systems business will present the latest developments on Low Free (LF) isocyanate urethane systems for adhesives, sealants and one component foams (OCF). The company is a leading innovator in the development of low free (LF) isocyanate technology.

On the third day of the conference, September 13 at 09:30 a.m., Ronald M. Emanuel Jr., Senior Scientist, Global Research and Development, Adhesives at LANXESS, will speak about “Advancements in low free isocyanate monomer prepolymer design for reactive adhesive systems”. The presentation will provide deep insight into low free (LF) isocyanate prepolymer chemistry. “The focus of our development work is to design prepolymers containing low free monomer content for use in adhesive and sealants formulations. In particular, this refers to overcoming the differences that the removal of residual diisocyanate monomer present to the performance of the final adhesive formulation,” explains Emanuel.

Furthermore, there will be a table top exhibition at the event for existing and new customers to meet with LANXESS scientists to discuss how LANXESS’s LF technology can help to provide solutions for specific requirements of their adhesive and sealants products.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,400 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 60 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

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