Swiss and Egyptian groups make top bids for Petroplus oil refinery in France

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France has received five bids to buy a troubled oil refinery, including the two considered to be serious and well-financed, according to Reuters.

The Petit-Couronne refinery in Western France, now in receivership, was among a string of industrial facilities new French President Francois Hollande had promised to protect before being elected.

The refinery is in trouble after its owner, Swiss-based company Petroplus Holdings AG, filed for protection from creditors.

The two bids deemed serious come from investors in Egypt and Switzerland.

The refinery has a capacity of 161,000 bpd, according to news reports.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in February, 2012, Royal Dutch Shell had signed a contract to hire the French refinery owned by insolvent Swiss-based refiner Petroplus to process crude oil for six months. Resuming operations at the refinery, which was gradually shut down in January, required EUR50 million investment. Shell should have transferred EUR20 million to the refinery in advance of future payments to the refinery. The government should have financed the remaining EUR30 million.

In December, Shell ended a six-month oil processing deal with the troubled plant and has not extended the contract, making the refinery less attractive for buyers due to expensive re-start costs.

Petroplus, one of the largest independent European refiners, was forced to file for insolvency in late January after struggling for months with weak demand due to the economic slowdown in Europe and overcapacity amid tighter credit conditions, high crude prices and competition from Asia and the Middle East.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Occidental Chemical (OxyChem) and Mexichem are targeting February 2017 for possible launhc of a proposed new ethane cracker at an existing Occidental site near Ingleside, Texas, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

OxyChem disclosed the timetable in a recent air permit application to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previous reports had the cracker starting up operations in 2016.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2012, OxyChem signed a memorandum of understanding with Mexico’s Mexichem to evaluate a joint venture for the cracker. The cost of the venture is a USD1 bln. It is anticipated to have a capacity of approximately 1.2 billion lb/year of ethylene, or just above 500,000 tpy.

The companies awarded contracts to CB&I for the technology license, basic engineering and front-end engineering and design (FEED) services. A feasibility study for the new cracker is expected to be ready in the second quarter of 2013.

The cracker will receive ethane feedstock from a pipeline or from a planned natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant to be built on an adjacent property, OxyChem said in its application.

Most of the ethylene would be used by OxyChem at its Ingleside plant to produce 1 million tpy of vinyl chloride (VCM), which it then would sell to Mexichem under a long-term supply contract. Mexichem would then use the VCM as a raw material to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Mexico.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Winnipeg blow molder and injection molder Reliance Products LP has been purchased by industrial packaging and lubricant blending and filling company Bodtker Group, said Canplastics.

The terms of the deal have not been announced.

Reliance specializes in blow molding and injection molding products for both the industrial and consumer markets. According to Calgary-based Bodtker Group, Reliance’s financial strength and complementary products will "further strengthen position in the custom packaging industry in North America."

"We are very excited to bring these two great companies together, making us more competitive and better able to provide value to both our customers and stakeholders," said Nils Bodtker, president and CEO of Bodtker Group. "Reliance delivers on all of our acquisition criteria – it aligns with our core values, has great technology and people, has commitment to the environment and strengthens our position in growth markets."

As MRC wrote earlier, Norplas Industries, an Ohio company owned by Magna International, a Canadian auto supplier, plans to build a state-of-the-art robotic paint line and injection molding factory in a Delta Township industrial tract that includes General Motors Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant.

Reliance has been in business since 1958.The company manufacturers packaging products such as rigid bottles, tightheads, flexible containers and openhead pails. Its consumer products, which are sold through department stores, mass merchants and specialty outdoor retailers, include water containers, portable toilets, storage containers and tent pegs.

Bodtker, through its subsidiaries, makes, refurbishes and distributes metal, fiber and plastic containers ranging from pill bottles to drums and operates blending and filling facilities. Great Western Container in Calgary is its largest subsidiary. Subsidiary Nemco Resources, although it molds a limited number of containers, had been a purchaser of Reliance containers for its lubricants and oil blending business. Reliance has other, major customers and will continue to supply them, according to Deis.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lukoil, Russia's second-largest crude producer, said it had fully replaced oil and gas reserves in 2012 thanks to acquisitions and the upward revision of figures for the Caspian Sea region and Komi Republic, said Upstreamonline.

Like other Russian producers, Lukoil is facing a depletion of reserves and a decline in production at its deposits in West Siberia.

The company said that proven hydrocarbon reserves totalled 17.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including 13.4 billion barrels of oil and 23.5 trillion cubic feet of gas as of end-December, almost unchanged from the previous year under the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) system of classification.

Lukoil has been pursuing a strategy of global expansion, given the competition at home from state-controlled energy companies including larger rival Rosneft. The largest shareholders in Lukoil are its president Vagit Alekperov and his deputy Leonid Fedun.

The company is developing the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield in Iraq and has also been exploring in West Africa.

Under Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS) criteria, its resources totalled 10.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent by the end of last year, the company said.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late January 2013 a fire triggered by a release of hydrocarbons was reported to have broken out earlier this week at a Lukoil-operated field in the Timan-Pechora region of Russia. Company officials said the blaze did not result in any damage to the local environment. Russia's environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor has now launched an investigation of the incident.

Lukoil is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. Headquartered in Moscow, Lukoil is the second largest public company (next to ExxonMobil) in terms of proven oil and gas reserves. The company has operations in more than 40 countries around the world.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Workers returning to the headquarters of Mexican state oil giant Pemex on Wednesday held a minute’s silence in memory of 37 colleagues killed by last week’s explosion, said Upstreamonline.

Director-general Emilio Lozoya Austin was on hand as the building in Mexico City, in which three floors were destroyed by the 31 January gas blast (see MRC news), reopened for business.

Lozoya Austin, who has been active with updates on the company’s situation on social media network Twitter, tweeted on Wednesday: "Today we resume work on at Pemex. I turn to welcome our colleagues, with pain, but with renewed hope."

All of the headquarters except for buildings B1 and B2 are reopening on Wednesday, exactly a week after the huge explosion ripped through the building, killing 37 and injuring over 120.

Pemex said earlier this week that it has not detected any new evidence of gas on the campus and that workers could return to the buildings that house most of its senior management in the executive tower and the skyscrapers A, C and D.

It added, however, that two buildings - B1 and B2 - will remain closed.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).

MRC