Husky Energy to sell Prince George Refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Husky Energy announced it has reached an agreement for the sale of its Prince George Refinery to Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure for USD215 million in cash plus a closing adjustment for inventory, and a contingent payment of up to USD60 million over two years, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Husky previously announced it was considering selling the Prince George Refinery to focus on its Integrated Corridor and Offshore businesses. The Integrated Corridor is a series of physically-linked assets that includes upstream thermal crude production, storage, committed pipeline capacity and refineries. The Integrated Corridor is designed to maximize margin capture, access to markets and optionality. The Offshore business focuses on oil and gas production off Canada’s East Coast and in the Asia Pacific region.

"We continue to deliver on Husky’s five-year plan outlined at our Investor Day in May, with an ongoing focus on capital discipline, consistent execution and increased margins," said CEO Rob Peabody. "The plan is aimed at further enhancing the resiliency of the Company."

Proceeds of the sale will be used in accordance with Husky’s funding priorities, which include maintaining the strength of the balance sheet and returning value to shareholders.

Tidewater is retaining all Refinery staff.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

The 12,000 barrel-per day Prince George Refinery, located in Prince George, B.C., processes light oil into low-sulfur gasoline and ultra-low sulfur diesel, along with other products. As part of the sale, Husky will enter into a five-year offtake agreement with Tidewater for refined products from the Prince George Refinery.

The strategic review of Husky’s retail and commercial fuels business continues to progress.

TD Securities Inc. is acting as financial advisor, with Torys LLP as legal advisor.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2019, Cambridge, AVEVA, a global leader in engineering and industrial software, signed an agreement with Calgary-based integrated oil and gas company Husky Energy to deliver an end-to-end supply chain management solution for Husky’s downstream business.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Board of BP announced today that, after a 40-year career with BP and over nine years as group chief executive, Bob Dudley, 64, has decided to step down as group chief executive and from the BP Board following delivery of the company’s 2019 full year results on 4 February 2020 and will retire on 31 March 2020, said the company.

The Board is also pleased to announce that Bernard Looney, 49, currently chief executive, Upstream, will succeed Dudley as group chief executive and join the BP Board on 5 February 2020. Looney will continue in his current role until this date.

These decisions are the result of a comprehensive and deliberate search process, including consideration of a range of internal and external candidates. The process was led by Helge Lund, senior independent director Sir Ian Davis and remuneration committee chair Paula Rosput Reynolds, a working group of the Board’s nomination and governance committee.

As MRC informed earlier, BP is in the midst of overhauling a 65,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at the refinery Whiting, Indiana. Work on the unit in mid-September and was expected to take about a month to complete.

As MRC informed before, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) have announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies have agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) announced yesterday that it has obtained the relevant regulatory approvals to merge its wholly-owned affiliate Saudi Petrochemical Company (SADAF) with all the assets, rights, liabilities and obligations in its wholly-owned affiliate Arabian Petrochemical Company (PETROKEMYA), said Menafn.

According to Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), the merger is driven by SABIC's strategy to increase efficiency and competitiveness of its operations. The transaction is not expected to have immediate material impact on SABIC's financial position but will improve cost competitiveness in the long term. As of the merger, Sadaf no longer exists as an independent entity.

SADAF’s operations, located in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Jubail industrial zone, include ethanol, mixed xylenes, ethylbenzene and caustic soda production.

Petrokemya’s product lines include benzene, butadiene, ethylene, butadiene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride, with units also based in Al-Jubail.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Motiva Enterprises will be ready to complete the purchase of a Flint Hills Resources chemical plant next to its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery by the end of October, sources familiar with Motiva’s plans said Reuters.

With the addition of the chemical plant, which has an ethane cracker but lacks units to process ethylene coming from the cracker, Motiva plans to accelerate construction of a polyethylene unit to process the ethylene, the sources said.

Due to the accelerated timeline for the polyethylene unit, Motiva will slow down work on an ethane cracker and an aromatics unit it planned to build in the refinery, the sources said.

The final investment decision on the last two units is being pushed back to late 2021, the sources said.

Neither Motiva nor Flint Hills representatives were immediately available to comment.

A final investment decision on the polyethylene and aromatics units as well as the ethane cracker had been expected between late this year and spring 2020.

Motiva is still awaiting regulatory approval of the purchase, which could change the final acquisition date, the sources said.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations between Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina and Saudi Aramco over a joint venture to upgrade Pertamina’s Cilacap refinery have been extended further until the end of this month, reported Reuters with reference to officials' statement.

Arcandra Tahar, Indonesia’s deputy energy minister, said the extension was to give the two companies more time to agree on asset valuation.

Talks had been extended several times over disagreement on valuation for the refinery and Pertamina in April warned that if talks with Aramco failed, it would launch the project without a partner to meet an operational target of 2025.

Aramco and Pertamina agreed to negotiate to form a joint venture for this project in 2016.

Pertamina will decide "as soon as practical" its preferred partner for Balikpapan refinery upgrade, Tahar also said.

Pertamina already approached the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Socar), Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for possible partnership in the Balikpapan project.

As MRC informed earlier, in September 2018, Eni and PT Pertamina (Persero) signed in Porto Marghera, at Eni Green Refinery, a Memorandum of Understanding further expanding the relationship into green refinery.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

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