Shell Q1 earnings down 56%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell said that its earnings for the first quarter fell by 56 percent compared with a year earlier, as improved performance in marketing and refining failed to offset the effects of the plunge in oil prices, said the company in its press release.

The Anglo-Dutch company’s profit, adjusted for inventory changes and one-time items, was USD3.2 billion, compared with USD7.3 billion in the same period a year earlier. Still, the results beat analysts’ consensus forecasts, and Shell’s shares rose about 1.5 percent in morning trading in London.

But analysts said that there was cause for concern in Shell’s results. In an indication of how quickly a drop in oil prices can erode margins, the company said that its earnings from finding and producing oil and gas were USD675 million for the quarter, compared with USD5.7 billion a year earlier.

Shell said that the price it received for oil in the first quarter was 52 percent lower than the same period in 2014, while the price of natural gas fell by 27 percent. The fall in prices directly cut USD4.7 billion from earnings.

As MRC informed earlier, Royal Dutch Shell has completed a revamp and upgrade of its Singapore ethane cracker. The project increased production for the 800,000-tpy ethylene plant on Bukom Island by 20%. The ethylene and olefins unit is also integrated with Shell’s 500,000-bpd refinery.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil posted Q1 earnings of USD4.9 billion, or USD1.17 per diluted share, down from USD9.1 billion a year earlier. But that topped the analyst forecast of USD3.64 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The company posted adjusted earnings per share of USD1.17, down 44% compared to the previous period, but much better than the forecast of USD0.82.

"ExxonMobil’s balanced portfolio delivered solid financial results in the quarter," said CEO Rex Tillerson in the statement. "Regardless of current market conditions, we remain focused on business fundamentals and competitive advantages that create long-term shareholder value."

Earnings on upstream operations, or those involving finding and drilling crude oil, were USD2.9 billion in the first quarter, down from USD4.9 billion a year ago.

US upstream operations posted a loss of USD52 million, down USD1.3 billion year-over-year. Oil-equivalent production increased 2.3% from the first quarter of 2014, with liquids up 6% and gas down 1.6%. Due to the oil crash, the company slashed its capital expenditures by over USD4 billion last month.

As MRC informed before, in early 2014, ExxonMobil officially opened its multi-billion dollar Singapore chemical plant expansion on Jurong Island, to serve growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The expansion included a second 1-million-t/y steam cracker, two 650,000-t/y polyethylene plants, a 450,000-t/y polypropylene plant, a 300,000-t/y specialty elastomers unit, an aromatics extraction facility to produce 340,000 t/y of benzene, and a 125,000-t/y oxo-alcohol expansion.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has begun trial operations at the mononitrobenzene plant within the integrated 400,000 metric ton methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) complex in Chongqing, China. Mononitrobenzene is a precursor for the production of MDI, said the company.

This MDI site covers an area of more than 50 hectares, including facilities of 400,000 metric tons per year of Mononitrobenzene, 300,000 metric tons per year of aniline, 400,000 metric tons per year of crude MDI, and an MDI splitter with a capacity of 400,000 metric tons per year.

MDI is an important component for polyurethanes – an extremely versatile plastics material that contributes towards improved insulation for appliances and reefer containers, provides lighter and more modern materials for cars, and helps save energy in buildings.

As MRC wrote previously, BASF will expand its capacity for the production of Paliocrom effect pigments by more than 20% by 2017 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The investment will enable the company to accommodate for the growing demand of its aluminum-based effect pigments in the automotive coatings sector. With an investment of approximately EUR10 million, BASF aims to strengthen its position in this fast-growing market.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of over EUR74 billion in 2014 and over 113,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yibin Tianyuan is likely to restart a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant following maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be restarted in mid-May 2015. It was shut in mid-April 2015.

Located in Sichuan province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 380,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Shandong Dongyue is restarting its PVC plant following maintenance turnaround in early March 2015. It was shut on February 6, 2015. Located in Shandong province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

We also remind that Guangzhou Tosoh shut down its PVC plant in China for maintenance turnaround on February 27, 2015. It remained off-stream for around one month. Located in Guangzhou, China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Germany's BASF expects a slide in earnings at its Wintershall oil and gas unit brought on by lower oil prices to cancel out gains at its basic petrochemicals and crop protection businesses this year, said the company in its press release.

Crude oil prices have recovered from a six-year low reached earlier this year, but average prices over the first quarter were more than 45 percent below year-earlier levels.

The world's largest chemicals firm by sales on Thursday affirmed its forecast for 2015 operating profit to stagnate while sales will rise slightly.

Its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), adjusted for one-off items, slipped 2 percent in the first quarter through March as an increase in its share price forced BASF to set aside more money for an employee incentive programme.

Adjusted EBIT came to 2.07 billion euros (USD2.3 billion), still slightly better than the 2.0 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

The company, whose products include car coatings, foam chemicals, catalytic converters and mining chemicals, said its revenues rose 2.8 percent to 20.1 billion euros, boosted by a weak euro that countered the effect of lower volumes in industrial chemicals.

Sales volumes were up 5 percent, lifted by demand for pesticides in western Europe and North America. Also, prices for agricultural products were up 4 percent.

"Contrary to what we've seen from Syngenta, Dow Chemical and DuPont," Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note, comparing BASF's results with those of rivals. "The best we've seen so far."

Quarterly net income fell 20 percent to 1.17 billion euros, below average expectations for 1.27 billion.

Shares in BASF were up 0.2 percent at 89.27 euros by 0858 GMT, in line with Germany's blue-chip DAX index.

As MRC informed earlier, in 2014, BASF posted sales of EUR74.3 billion and income from operations before special items of about EUR7.2 billion. The company is currently expanding its international activities with a particular focus on Asia.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC