Chevron, Shell win blocks in Egyptian maiden Red Sea licensing round

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron and Shell have been awarded oil and gas exploration concessions in Egypt's first ever Red Sea licensing round, the country's petroleum ministry said Sunday, according to S&P Global.

Chevron was awarded Block 1 and Shell Block 2, while Block 4 was awarded jointly to Shell and the UAE's Mubadala Petroleum, the ministry said.

The three blocks cover a total exploration area of around 10,000 sq km and carry combined minimum investment commitments of USD326 million, the petroleum ministry said, adding that potential investment would rise to "several billion dollars" if discoveries were made.

Egypt was offering 10 blocks in its maiden Red Sea licensing round covering more than half of its Red Sea maritime shelf which borders with Saudi Arabia. The Chevron and Shell blocks are in the northern sector of the Red Sea and no other bid winners were announced for the remaining seven blocks.

The ministry remained upbeat over future Red Sea exploration, however, saying the interest of western oil majors "constitutes a positive and important indication of the attractive investment climate in Egypt."

"The necessary investments for exploration and development...and the lack of production facilities, indicates the eagerness of Chevron," the ministry said. "In addition to Shell, it is a good indicator...that confirms the continued expansion of the size of investments in the petroleum sector and contributes to increasing the chances of success."

In February, a 2D seismic survey in the Red Sea led by Schlumberger concluded there was a 70% chance of natural gas discoveries in the area, according to local media reports. In September, Schlumberger and TGS reimaged 3,600 sq km of legacy seismic data on the Egyptian Red Sea to support interest in the licensing round.

"The underexplored offshore Egyptian Red Sea area is made up of large, untested structures that offer exceptional growth opportunities for oil companies," TGS CEO Kristian Johansen said at the time.

Egypt's plans to explore for oil and gas in the Red Sea received a fillip in 2017 when it ratified a maritime demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which saw the North African country cede sovereignty over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

A long-running dispute with Sudan over control over the so-called Halayeb Triangle to the south, however, continues to hang over Egypt's latest exploration drive.

In March, Sudan's oil minister Saad el-Deen el-Bushra called the Red Sea licensing round an "illegal operation" and threatened legal consequences for companies involved in the round. The Halayeb triangle, which is controlled by Egypt, has been claimed by Sudan since the 1950s.

The blocks awarded to Chevron and Shell are well outside the disputed maritime waters.

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.

We also remind that in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, part of Chevron Corp, successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.

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

Dow and Avangard Innovative advance plastic circularity with agreement to supply recycled plastics for Dow technologies

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Midland, Michigan-based Dow says it has signed an exclusive supply agreement with Houston-based Avangard Innovative LP (AI), said the company.

Under the agreement, Avangard will supply postconsumer resin (PCR) made from film the company recovers and reprocesses. Dow says this is a significant addition its plastic circularity portfolio that is aligned with the company’s goal to advance the circular economy for plastics and minimize waste in the environment.

The companies say they expect to begin offering Dow’s first-ever PCR-based products later this year to North American customers that demand stronger sustainability profiles in targeted applications, such as liners, shrink wrap and protective packaging, among others. Dow says it initially will use PCR from Avangard to create linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) products.

In a conference call to announce the agreement, representatives from the companies declined to provide specifics on the total volume of PCR that Avangard will supply to Dow under the terms of the agreement.

"We’re giving our customers the tools they need to supply consumers with products made from recycled plastic, like the liners they place into their waste bins and the shrink wrap they use to bundle and ship packaged goods,” says Victor Zapata, Dow’s recycling commercial director for Latin America and North America. “This collaboration combines AI’s waste collection and sortation technology with Dow’s materials science expertise, application expertise and operational scale to bring a consistent processing, reliable supply of PCR-based LLDPE and LDPE to our customers throughout North America."

"Any plastic lost to the environment as waste is unacceptable,” says Nestor de Mattos, Dow North America commercial vice president for Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “That’s why we’re collaborating with Avangard to advance new solutions that maintain the value of used plastics. Not only does this effort help Dow meet its sustainability goals, it will help our customers reach their own sustainability objectives, furthering the shift toward a circular economy for plastics."

The exclusive agreement to supply Dow with PCR to combine with virgin resins to create new LLDPE and LDPE products follows Avangard’s announcement that it is expanding its film collection and sortation business, which will be facilitated by the addition of a second plant in Waller, Texas, and by new plants in Nevada and Mexico.

Jon Stephens, chief operating officer at Avangard Innovative, said in the Jan. 13 press conference about the partnership that the new plant in Waller in the Houston metropolitan area will be able to produce 100 million pounds of PCR from film annually. This is double the capacity of the company’s existing plant in Houston. He declined to comment on how the plant is being funded or to go into detail about what makes Avangard’s process unique to other recyclers that are providing PCR from recovered film.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC

Enterprise isobutane dehydrogenation plant starts production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enterprise Products Partners (EPP; Houston, Texas) has started operations at its 425,000-metric tons/year isobutane dehydrogenation plant at Mont Belvieu, Texas, said Chemweek.

Volumes are expected to continue ramping up over the next two weeks at the facility, which is supported by long-term, fee-based contracts with customers, says EPP. The plant will ultimately be able to process approximately 25,000 b/d of butane into 425,000 metric tons/year of isobutylene.

The isobutylene produced by the plant will provide the necessary feedstock to fully utilize the capacity of EPP’s methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and high-purity isobutylene assets and meet growing market demand, says the company. US supplies of isobutylene have decreased as a result of the increased use by steam crackers of lighter feedstocks, specifically ethane, instead of crude oil derivatives, it says.

The completion of the new facility “extends our butane value chain by allowing us to increase production of both high-purity and low-purity isobutylene to be used primarily as feedstock to manufacture lubricants, rubber products, and fuel additives,” says CEO Jim Teague. The project was completed on time and under budget, he says.

EPP’s second propane dehydrogenation plant, currently under construction at the same site, is on schedule for completion in the first half of 2023, he adds.

The isobutane dehydrogenation plant, which is using Honeywell’s Oleflex technology, was built by construction contractor Optimized Process Designs. The project was announced by EPP in January 2017.

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

MRC

Chevron CEO: Oil markets are well-supplied despite recent US-Iran tensions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp Chief Executive Michael Wirth told CNBC that the oil markets remain well-supplied despite recent escalation of tensions between the US and Iran after the death of Iran’s military commander Qassem Soleimani in a US air strike, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Fundamentally supply and demand remain where they were before these incidents," Wirth said in the interview.

"We haven’t seen anything that’s actually changed that," Wirth said. "They see the geopolitical risk, but we’ve been in a well supplied market, and that’s what the general view continues to be."

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.

We also remind that in March 2018, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, part of Chevron Corp, successfully introduced feedstock and commenced operations of a new ethane cracker at its Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, Texas. At peak production, the unit will produce 1.5 million metric tons/3.3 billion lbs. per year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation is the the second-largest integrated energy company in the United States and among the largest corporations in the world. Chevron is involved in upstream activities including exploration and production, downstream activities including refining, marketing and transportation, and advanced energy technology. Chevron is also invested in power generation and gasification processes.
MRC

Total postpones restart of Donges refinery unit due to strike

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French energy major Total has postponed the restart of a distillation unit at its 220,000-barrel-per-day Donges refinery until Friday due to a nationwide strike over planned pensions reform, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

Total, which operates five of France’s seven refineries, said shipments of refined products from Donges were suspended on Tuesday for 72 hours due to the strike action.

It said production was continuing at its other refineries - Normandy, Grandpuits, Feyzin and La Mede - but shipments of refined products from refineries to depots were on hold.

Total halted the distillation unit at Donges on the west coast of France on Sunday due to lack of oil supply after a blockade by port workers prevented crude deliveries to the refinery.

A union official said earlier on Wednesday that workers had voted to prolong the strike at the refinery.

French energy sector workers have said they will intensify actions in the sector this week to pressure the government to drop the planned reform.

Separately, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a speech that public transport unions’ strikes against the pension reform “will go nowhere, the government is determined".

Workers and national railway SNCF and Paris metro RATP have been on strike since Dec. 5, causing severe disruption in the longest transport walkout for decades.

As MRC informed before, in November 2019, Total disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC