Neftekhim Ltd shut PP production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kazakh Neftekhim Ltd, the only producer of polypropylene (PP) in the country, shut down its production capacities for a scheduled maintenance, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Neftekhim Ltd took off-stream its PP production for the scheduled turnaround on Wednesday, 25 July. The outage will last for almost a month, the resumption of production is planned on 20 August.

Neftekhim Ltd was commissioned in 2009. The company produces methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and polypropylene (PP). The plant's PP production with the capacity of 30,000 tonnes/year was launched in 2011; the plant did not have PP granulation unit then, polymer was produced in the form of powder, which limited its field of application.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. independent oil refiner Phillips 66’s quarterly profit topped analysts’ estimates on Friday as cheaper crude prices boosted refining margins by more than 45%, as per Reuters.

The company’s shares rose 3.2 percent to USD119.71 in morning trading on Friday. Like rivals Valero Energy Corp and Marathon Petroleum Corp, Phillips 66 has traditionally processed heavy crude from countries including Venezuela and Canada into diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and other products.

But booming U.S. shale production has forced refiners to retrofit operations to handle more of the very light crude flowing from oilfields in Texas and North Dakota.

"With roughly one-third of their crude slate being light crude, I would suspect Phillips 66 benefited significantly during the quarter as did the other refiners," said Jennifer Rowland, an energy analyst at Edward Jones.

Phillips 66 said earnings from refining, its biggest business, increased to USD910 million in the second quarter from USD224 million a year earlier. On Thursday, Valero and Marathon Petroleum also topped Wall Street profit estimates as greater processing of cheap, light crude from West Texas boosted margins.

The spread between U.S light crude and Brent crude has widened this year with a rise U.S. oil production, which lowered WTI prices, while Brent crude has climbed on Middle East tensions and OPEC supply cuts.

U.S. crude production has been rising to record high levels since late last year, hitting a record 11 million barrels per day this month.

The widening of the Brent–WTI spread, larger discounts on U.S. inland crudes and improved heavy crude differentials all contributed to increased realized margins, Phillips 66 said.

Realized refining margin was USD12.28 per barrel compared with $8.44 per barrel a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The refiner’s utilization rate, which is defined as the percentage of the total equipment or refinery involved in processing crude, reached 100 percent.

Earnings from the company’s midstream business also doubled to USD202 million while profit at its chemicals business, which manufactures and markets petrochemicals and plastics, rose nearly 34 percent.

The Houston, Texas-based company said its adjusted earnings rose to USD1.32 billion, or USD2.80 per share, in the three months ended June 30, from USD569 million, or $1.09 per share, a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian petrochemical company Sibur is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) potentially worth between USD2 to USD3 billion and which may happen by the end of the year, financial market sources told Reuters.

One of the three financial market sources familiar with Sibur plans said that the company is looking at the possibility of an IPO in Moscow and London and may raise between USD2 to USD3 billion.

Another of the three sources said that the company was looking to raise "a couple of billion dollars" from the deal.

Asked about a potential IPO, Sibur said in a written reply to Reuters that it is considering different "strategic options" how to finance its growth.

Two of the three sources said that JP Morgan and Russia’s Gazprombank are among possible arrangers of the deal. Gazprombank and JP Morgan did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for a comment.

Businessman Leonid Mikhelson, the head of and a major shareholder in Russia’s largest gas producer Novatek, owns 48.5 percent of Sibur. His business partner Gennady Timchenko owns 17 percent, while China’s Sinopec and Silk Fund control 10 percent each.

There was no final decision whether only existing shares would be involved or Sibur would issue new shares for the IPO as well, the sources said.

Sibur is currently constructing a petrochemical complex in western Siberia known as ZapSibNefteKhim, which will be one of the world’s five biggest petrochemical plants, part of a play by Russia to capture more of the value from the oil it produces.

Its another project, a gas chemical complex in Russia’s Far East will require preliminary investments of up to USD8 billion. Sibur is looking for Asian partners to share the risks for the latter.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. oil major ExxonMobil on Friday posted its second quarter 2018 earnings of USD4 billion compared with USD3.4 billion a year earlier, as per Cnbc.

The company’s revenues rose to USD73.5 billion in this year’s quarter from USD58.1 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Cash flow from operations and asset sales was USD8.1 billion, including proceeds associated with asset sales of USD307 million.

Capital and exploration expenditures were USD6.6 billion, up 69 percent from the prior year, reflecting key investments in Brazil, the U.S. Permian Basin and Indonesia.

Oil-equivalent production was 3.6 million barrels per day, down 7 percent from the second quarter of 2017. Excluding entitlement effects and divestments, liquids production increased as growth in the Permian and Bakken in the U.S. and Hebron in Canada more than offset decline and higher downtime driven by scheduled maintenance.

Natural gas volumes decreased 10 percent, excluding entitlement effects and divestments, largely due to a continuing shift in U.S. unconventional development from dry gas to liquids and to downtime in Qatar, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

Darren W. Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive officer, said: "Second quarter results were primarily impacted by significant scheduled maintenance undertaken to support operational integrity. In addition, while we were pleased with the return of full production following the PNG earthquake, extended recoveries from first quarter operational incidents in the Downstream were disappointing."

As MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil said that operations have commenced at its new 1.5 million ton-per-year ethane cracker at the company’s integrated Baytown chemical and refining complex.

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) -- Daqing Petrochemical, part of PetroChina, is in plans to undertake a planned shutdown at its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to start maintenance at the plant in end-July, 2018. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located in Daqing, China , the plant has a production capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 10 May, 2018, PetroChina Daqing Petrochemical shut its No.1 high density polyethylene (HDPE)/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing plant for a maintenance. The exact duration of shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in Heilongjiang, China, the No.1 HDPE/LLDPE swing plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
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