Saudi Aramco makes IPO offer to Petronas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco has approached Malaysian state energy company Petronas to participate in Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), Petronas said, as the Middle Eastern oil giant seeks cornerstone investors for the listing, said Reuters.

The Saudi government plans to sell 2% of state-run Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, in a domestic listing on Dec. 11, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The approach comes as Petronas, officially known as Petroliam Nasional Bhd, nears the start of commercial operations at a USD27 billion refinery and petrochemical project built jointly with Aramco in southern Malaysia.

“We have been recently approached by representatives of Saudi Aramco to consider Petronas’ participation in its initial public offering exercise,” Petronas, the Malaysian government’s cash cow, told Reuters.

:However, we will not be providing any further comments on this matter at this time."

Aramco’s much-vaunted IPO was delayed as deal advisers said they needed more time to lock in cornerstone, or anchor, investors such as sovereign wealth funds. In 2016, state-owned Postal Savings Bank of China sold 77% of its USD7.4 billion IPO to such backers.

Reuters reported in September that Aramco had approached Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Singapore’s GIC and other sovereign wealth funds to invest in the domestic leg of its listing.

Abu Dhabi’s state investor Mubadala Investment Co has also been approached by Aramco’s advisers.

Asked about its interest in the Aramco IPO, Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd told Reuters it “does not have any investments in the oil and gas sector".

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.

The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Independent U.S. refiner Phillips 66 said it plans work on gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking units (FCCU) at its Sweeny, Texas, and Ponca City, Oklahoma, refineries in 2020, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

At the 265,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Sweeny refinery south of Houston, Phillips 66 plans to continue modernizing the two FCCUs. Work at the 207,000 bpd Ponca City refinery in northern Oklahoma will focus improving the yield from the FCCUs.

As MRC wrote before, US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy and Mitsubishi Chemical have decided to form a joint venture in the Kashima complex in the east coast to consider ways to optimize operations of refining and petrochemical production, reported S&P Global with reference to the companies' statements Thursday.

Under the 50:50 joint venture, which will be established in mid-November, JXTG and Mitsubishi Chemical will look at how the companies can boost competitiveness further by effectively using feedstocks for gasoline and petrochemical production in the Kashima complex, the companies said.

The move by JXTG and Mitsubishi Chemical followed a policy report issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in July 2018, calling for closer cooperation between refineries and petrochemical plants to boost international competitiveness.

Japan's petrochemical companies have been accelerating cooperation - such as joint purchase of feedstocks - in a bid to reduce production cost of petrochemical products amid intensifying competition.

Mitsubishi Chemical has a steam cracker in Kashima with an ethylene production capacity of 564,000 mt/year. It shut one steam cracker there in 2014 - which has an ethylene production capacity of 375,000 mt/year -- following a sluggish petrochemical demand in the country.

JXTG currently supplies naphtha via pipeline from the 197,100 b/d Kashima refinery to Mitsubishi Chemical's steam cracker in the Kashima complex. JXTG's Kashima refinery also has a 35,100 b/d condensate splitter.

As MRC informed before, Mitsubishi Chemical shut at its naphtha cracker in Japan for a scheduled maintenance turnaround in early-May, 2018. The cracker was expected to remain under maintenance for a period of around two months. Located at Kashima in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 540,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 260,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Axens and CORYS have entered into a global exclusive collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize advanced simulation and training solutions for Axens process technologies based on CORYS’ INDISS PLUS® dynamic simulation software, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The CORYS INDISS PLUS® dynamic simulator gives access to CORYS in-house high fidelity models. The dynamic simulator provides an accurate representation of the dynamic behavior of Axens process units for training, troubleshooting, and transient operations support during start-up, shutdown, and unexpected operations.

This framework agreement formalizes a successful and close business relationship between the two companies since many years.

Axens’ exclusive cooperation with CORYS, a leading OTS software supplier, consolidates Axens’ refining and petrochemical expertise and CORYS’ know-how in dynamic simulation and software development into one software suite. This strategic cooperation provides Axens’ refining and petrochemical licensees access to proprietary kinetic reactor models, training scenarios, and services throughout the project lifecycle from operator training to operations support.

Ralf Gathmann, CEO of CORYS, stated: “We are proud to enter into this strategic partnership to more actively integrate CORYS’ products with Axens allowing our mutual clients to improve their training, safety and operations efficiency."

As MRC informed earlier, Michelin, IFPEN, and Axens have announced the construction of the first industrial-scale prototype of a plant producing butadiene from bioethanol in France.

Butadiene is one of the main raw materials for the production of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, because of low prices in Asia in August, ABS imports to Russia amounted to 3.600 tonnes compared to 2,800 tonnes a month earlier and 2,700 tonnes in August last year. According to the results of January - August, the import of ABS in the Russian Federation did not change relative to the same period last year and amounted to 21,900 tonnes.
mrcplast.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Synthetic rubber manufacturer Arlanxeo Holding B.V. will close its Keltan EPDM plant in Orange in the second quarter of 2020, reported RubbeNews with reference to the company's press release.

Arlanxeo said it was closing the Orange facility as part of a realignment of its Keltan production network to improve competitiveness and harmonize technology platforms across the Keltan portfolio.

The company said it would cooperate closely with workers, customers and suppliers to minimize the impact of the closure.

"We realize that the closure of Arlanxeo's Keltan EPDM unit will have a deep impact on our people in Orange," said Christian Widdershoven, executive vice president of high performance elastomers for Arlanxeo and a member of the company's executive leadership team. "Taking care of our employees that devoted time and efforts for the company over the last decades will be our first priority."

The Orange facility has capacity to produce about 70,000 metric tons a year of Keltan EPDM and employs about 300.

Arlanxeo did not say how many workers will be laid off because of the closure. It did say it would seek "to minimize involuntary separations and to provide alternative opportunities for those affected by the closure."

Christian Rooijakkers, Arlanxeo vice president of marketing and sales HPE, said Arlanxeo's business teams would support customers in North America and worldwide to make the transition to specifically developed Keltan grades as smooth as possible.

Arlanxeo will continue to make butadiene rubber and hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber at the Orange facility, its only production site in the US, the company said.

Arlanxeo did not give further details about the EPDM business realignment, but the company recently announced that it is steadily increasing sales of EPDM sold under Keltan KSA brand.

These grades are being produced in Saudi Arabia by Petro Rabigh, a 50-50 joint venture between Arlanxeo owner Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemicals.

Arlanxeo is the sole distributor of Aramco's 50 percent share of the JV plant's EPDM output, Rooijakkers said at the recent K2019 trade fair.

Operational since 2018, the Petro Rabigh EPDM plant has a nameplate capacity of 75,000 tons a year, and Rooijakkers said it has "ramped up according to plan."

Arlanxeo also operates EPDM production facilities in Geleen, Netherlands, and Changzhou, China, each with listed annual capacity of 160,000 tons, along with a 40,000 tons a year unit in Triunfo, Brazil.

The company, then part of Lanxess, in 2016 closed down a 70,000 tons a year EPDM production facility in Marl, Germany.

As MRC wrote before, Arlanxeo is strengthening its market position by investing in its high-performance elastomer products CR (chloroprene rubber) and NBR (nitrile butadiene rubber), laying the foundation for the further increase of production capacity in order to meet the increasing global demand of these polymers. The turnaround of Arlanxeo's CR plant in Dormagen, Germany, announced in the beginning of 2018, was successfully completed in October 2019, allowing for a production of up to 70,000 metric tons of CR per year. The multiple million Euro investment to upgrade and modernize the plant is a strong signal of Arlanxeo’s long-term commitment to the CR business, leading to an increased flexibility and capability of the plant to produce specialty products.

EPDM products are used in applications like automotive, building & construction, plastics modification, consumer goods, cable & wire, and tubes and for the production of high impact polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Arlanxeo was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of Arlanxeo are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
MRC