Petrobras intends to raise USD20 Billion in 2013 to fund its ambitious investment plan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrobras, Brazilian state-run energy company, expects to raise about USD20 billion in 2013 from debt issues and bank loans to fund the company's USD237 billion investment plan, reported The Wall Street Journal
with reference to the company's Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa.

According to A. Barbassa, the financing would be in line with the amount raised from global capital markets in 2012. Petrobras plans to make single, separate issues in U.S. dollars and euros each year, similar to what the company has announced to the market in the past, as well as secure loans from local and overseas banks, the executive said.

"We are looking at all mechanisms," Mr. Barbassa added. "We don't have any date set to do this, but we are always accompanying the market," Mr. Barbassa said.

Petrobras will tap global debt markets to finance its latest five-year investment plan that covers the 2013-2017 period. With the spending, the company aims to boost crude-oil production to 2.75 million barrels a day by 2017, with a hefty share of that output coming from the subsalt region offshore Brazil. Billions of barrels of crude were discovered trapped beneath a thick layer of salt deep under water.

We remind that Petrobras warned its financial picture will deteriorate further in 2013 as the large investment comes just as revenues are at a low. That's bad news for investors who watched the company post its worst annual net profit since 2004 last year. The company blamed the depreciation of the real against the dollar and higher operational costs for falling profits over the past year among the other reasons.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America measured by 2011 revenues.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has signed an initial agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, a world leader in scientific research, reported SABIC on its site.

The agreement paves the way for SABIC and MIT to work together to develop new practical innovation for the company’s solutions and processes in order to meet important global needs from developing unconventional feedstock to innovating new material solutions for challenging applications.

This future collaboration will also allow SABIC researchers to work with world class teams of scientists at MIT in the respective joint research areas.

The research relationship with MIT is just one of many SABIC has already established around the world to bring world-class expertise to the company and its customers.

As MRC informed earlier, in October, 2012, Sabic signed a multi-year agreement with the University of Cambridge, UK, to allow Sabic researchers to work with world class teams of scientists in the areas of chemical engineering, biotechnology, energy, functional materials and modeling.

Besides, SABIC is currently has research relationships with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the National Research Council in Italy and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany.

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is a diversified manufacturing company, active in chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia. SABIC is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer, the third largest polyethylene (PE) manufacturer, the fourth largest polyolefins manufacturer and the fourth largest polypropylene (PP) manufacturer. SABIC is also the world’s largest producer of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Dow Chemical Company has been recently honored with the 2012 Chemical Safety Excellence Award (CSEA) from CSX, a leading U.S. railroad company, reported the company on its site.

The CSEA recognizes Dow’s leadership in chemical safety, and is given to companies that ship more than 600 carloads of hazardous materials during the year with zero releases due to shipper error.

The award also demonstrates Dow’s continued commitment to responsible operations which is one of four pillars of sustainability. While railroads represent one of the most energy efficient modes of transportation for Dow, the company’s first priority is to ship product safely and securely across the nation.

Dow is one of more than 60 companies honored with the 2012 CSEA. Recipients represent a cross-section of industry - from chemicals and energy to technology and agriculture.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, Dow Chemical has recently announced additional actions to accelerate the company's ongoing commitment to aggressive portfolio management and that it is targeting an increased divestiture list of nearly USD1.5 billion over the next 18 months. The company had identified two units that wouldl be actively marketed for divestment: Dow's Polypropylene Licensing and Catalysts business unit and its Plastics Additives business unit.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and synthetic rubber. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately USD57 billion. The Company"s more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sasol has placed a purchase order for ethylene compressor trains from MHI Compressor International, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The compressor trains are a critical long-lead item for Sasol's proposed world-scale ethane cracker at its Lake Charles site in southwest Louisiana.

"The placement of this order has secured vital manufacturing capacity of this specialty equipment before the expected heating of the market," said Johan du Preez, executive vice president of US mega projects for Sasol.

Sasol announced the commencement of the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase for the cracker last December. The cracker will also include downstream derivative units.

To that end, Sasol also recently selected the UNIPOL polyethylene process of Univation Technologies and the tubular process technology from ExxonMobil Chemical for the new linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plants, respectively.

"This forms part of Sasol's strategy of building globally competitive downstream facilities and adding value to the already low cost ethylene production opportunity in North America," said Andre de Ruyter, Sasol's senior vice president for global chemicals and North American operations.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company that began in Sasolburg, South Africa in 1950. It develops and commercialises technologies and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of product streams including liquid fuels, chemicals.
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