MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vertex Energy’s planned acquisition of Shell’s refinery in Mobile, Alabama is on schedule to close in Q1 2022, the US-based specialty refiner said in an update.
The deal was announced in May. Vertex added that closing remains subject to regulatory clearance, financing and other conditions.
The refinery can process 90,000 bbl/day of crude oil and other refined products, and it produces low-sulphur vacuum gas oil/heavy olefin feedstock and benzene.
As per MRC, Royal Dutch Shell is selling its 90,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Mobile, Alabama refinery to specialty refiner Vertex Energy for USD75 million plus the cost of hydrocarbon inventory. Vertex plans to produce petroleum fuel and renewable diesel at the refinery following the close of the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2021, pending approvals.
Vertex will also buy co-related logistics infrastructure and hydrocarbon inventory, including more than 3 million barrels of crude oil and product storage. The inventory is currently valued between USD65 and USD85 million. Shell and Vertex will have crude supply and product offtake agreements, according to the companies.
Vertex plans to produce approximately 10,000 bpd of renewable diesel and renewable byproducts at the plant by the end of 2022, increasing to 14,000 bpd by 2023. The company said it will spend USD85 million to convert Mobile's hydrocracking unit.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
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.