Linde rejects call for AGM vote on Praxair merger

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany's Linde has for a second time rejected a request for a shareholder vote at its annual general meeting next month on its planned USD65 billion merger with U.S. industrial gases rival Praxair, reported Reuters.

Linde said shareholders would in any case have to decide individually whether to accept a public offer from the new combined holding company, so a vote at the AGM on May 10 would not be appropriate.

"Even if a qualified majority of Linde shareholders would accept the exchange offer, not a single Linde shareholder will be forced to exchange his shares," it said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Linde was responding to a renewed request from German private-investor association DSW, which came on behalf of shareholders Aberdeen Asset Management and BayernInvest.

As MRC wrote before, in early December 2016, Praxair approached the German company with fresh proposals for a merger of equals to create a world market leader valued at over USD60 billion. These proposals address several concerns that led Linde to call off earlier merger discussions in September 2016, principally the location of the merged group headquarters, management issues and potential job losses in Germany, according to insider reports.

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- First oil tanker carrying 140,000 t of crude oil started discharging on Monday for delivery into a 480 mi Myanmar oil pipeline, reported Reuters with reference to China's state news agency Xinhua.

China and Myanmar have reached an agreement on an oil pipeline between the neighboring countries after almost a decade of talks, with the project due to start "very quickly," Chinese vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said on Monday.

As MRC informed before, in mid-March 2017, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) started operating a major crude oil pipeline that connects eastern Jiangsu province with refineries in south China. The pipeline, which spans 560 kilometers, runs at an annual capacity of 20 MMt, Sinopec said.

Besides, it became known that Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuwait’s Equate is constructing a petrochemical plant in the US Gulf Coast at an investment outlay of USD1.7 bln (Dh6.2 bln), the chief executive officer told Gulf News at a conference organised by Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association, reported Plastemart.

The production capacity of the plant, which is expected to be ready in H2-2019, is planned to be 750,000 tons.

As MRC wrote previously, Kuwait-based Equate Petrochemical Company continued its global growth through its wholly owned subsidiary MEGlobal with the launch of work on a new world-scale ethylene glycol (EG) manufacturing facility in Freeport, Texas, US, in August 2016. The new facility, to be completed during 2019, will increase Equate’s monoethylene glycol (MEG) capacity by 750,000 metric tonnes annually and will enhance the company’s global presence to meet customer needs.

Established in 1995, Equate Petrochemical Company is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Commencing production in 1997, EQUATE is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.
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MOSCOW (MRC) – Fluor Corporation announced that it was selected by a division of Marathon Petroleum Corporation to execute the engineering and procurement scope for a major reconfiguration at Marathon’s Galveston Bay and Texas City, Texas refineries, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fluor will book the undisclosed contract value into backlog in the first quarter of 2017. "Fluor continues to provide sustaining capital services at five Marathon sites across the United States, and has supported the Texas City and Galveston Bay operations since 2013," said Mark Fields, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business in the Americas. "Having previously executed the initial studies and early engineering for these projects, we are proud to progress them through the engineering and procurement phase."

The reconfiguration will create a more efficient operation, allowing the two refineries to achieve updated US Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standards. The scope includes a new unit, modernization of several existing units and modifications to the utilities and offsites to support the scheduled process changes and refinery connections. Fluor is also performing the front-end engineering and design work for Marathon’s South Texas Asset Repositioning (STAR) program.

As MRC informed earlier, Marathon Petroleum Corporation completed expansion corporate headquarters in in Ohio December 2016.

Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Angola and Iraqi Kurdistan.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A minor explosion has been reported at Reliance Industries' (RIL) petrochemicals plant in Patalganga (India), as per Business Standard with reference to the police.

A pipeline carrying chemicals inside the plant got choked up, leading to the gasket opening up and then causing the explosion. One employee suffered minor injuries and was taken to an in-house medical facility.

When contacted, a RIL spokesperson confirmed the incident and said there was a minor injury to one of the workers who was taken to an in-house medical facility.

The operations at the plant have not been affected, the spokesperson said.

As MRC informed previously, RIL has delayed the start-up of its new monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant until Q2 2017. The company scheduled to commence operations at the plant in Q2 2017. As per the earlier plans, the plant was to be started in December 2016. Located at Jamnagar, Gujarat in India, the plant has a production capacity of 750,000 mt/year.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company is engaged in a wide range of activities, ranging from oil and gas production to production of polyester and polymer goods, including the production of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and textiles.
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