Mexico's Pemex expects to boost refining to 1.16 M bpd this year

Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex expects to process 1.16 million barrels of crude oil per day by the end of 2023, CEO Octavio Romero said on Monday, a goal which would represent significant growth from current refining levels, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Romero said in congressional testimony that the upbeat forecast includes expected processing from the firm's six domestic refineries, its new Olmeca refinery once it comes online, plus the Houston-based Deer Park facility. He said that Pemex's crude processing would grow to 1.61 million barrels per day in 2024.

Refining more motor fuels at home has been a major policy goal of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has dedicated large streams of public spending into Pemex's refining operations, which have historically been the company's biggest source of losses.

Lopez Obrador has argued that oil-producing Mexico should not depend on foreign suppliers for its gasoline and diesel needs.

In August, crude oil processing at Pemex's domestic refineries stood at about 797,000 barrels per day, down from last year's 816,000 bpd average.

We remind, Pemex’s production of aromatics, ethane, propylene, and sulphur fell in the first quarter, year on year, but methane output rose strongly. The rise in production of methane and its derivatives helped overall petrochemicals production to remain mostly flat, with 319,000 tonnes produced during the first quarter, down by 0.62% year on year.

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Borouge Plc, a leading petrochemical company that provides innovative and differentiated polyolefin solutions, announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Petroleum Construction Company, a UAE-based Engineering, Procurement and Construction Company, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The two-year agreement includes a sales contract worth nearly AED60 million, wherein Borouge will supply steel pipe coating solutions to NPCC for use in infrastructure and energy projects. As part of the agreement, Borouge will also supply critical materials for major UAE energy projects, including the Borouge 4 project, ADNOC Gas’ sales gas pipeline network enhancement (ESTIDAMA) program and Maximizing Ethane Recovery and Monetization (MERAM) project, ADNOC’s Hail and Ghasha Gas Development project, and ADNOC Offshore’s Umm Lulu field.

Rainer Hoefling, Chief Executive Officer of Borouge Pte, said: “In collaboration with our strategic partner NPCC, we are supporting the growth and expansion of the UAE’s downstream and upstream sectors. Our steel-pipe coating solutions play a critical role in ensuring the resilience of natural gas pipeline networks and refining facilities. This agreement builds on our long-term partnership with NPCC and is a testament to our successful track record in enabling megaprojects locally and internationally.”

Borouge’s three-layer polyethylene steel pipe coating solutions safeguard pipelines in onshore and offshore projects, such as deep-sea gas and oil pipelines, against demanding conditions, including abrasion, mechanical impact, chemicals in the soil, environmental elements and external factors like ultraviolet radiation from sunlight during outdoor storage and extreme temperatures.

We remind, Borouge PLC, a leading petrochemical company that provides innovative and differentiated polyolefin solutions, and Borealis, one of the world’s biggest polyolefin manufacturers, announced the launch of two new sustainable polymer products for the automotive industry, in line with both companies’ sustainability drive. Made from up to 70% recycled materials, these are the first sustainable products developed at Borouge’s Compounding Manufacturing Plant (CMP) located in Shanghai, China, which recently received ISO 14067 certification for carbon footprint assessment.

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OMV’s polyethylene (PE) indicator margin for Europe stood at €308/tonne in Q3 2023 versus €312/tonne in Q3 2022 and €320/tonne in Q2 2023, said the Austrian oil, gas and petrochemical group.

For the polypropylene (PP) indicator margin for Europe, the figures were €330/tonne, €357/tonne and €372/tonne, respectively.

For the propylene indicator margin for Europe, the figures were €330/tonne, €574/tonne and €459/tonne, respectively.

For the ethylene indicator margin for Europe, the figures were €455/tonne, €614/tonne and €567/tonne, respectively.

Also in the trading statement, the company put its European refining margin indicator (based on Brent crude) for the third quarter at $14.05/bbl compared with $14.38/bbl in the third quarter a year ago and $7.59 cents/barrel in the second quarter of this year.

We remind, Wood has signed a collaboration agreement with OMV for the commercial licensing of its innovative plastic recycling technology, ReOil. This agreement will support significant advancements in chemical-based plastic recycling, helping to build a circular economy solution for end-of-life plastics that would otherwise be sent to landfill or waste incineration.

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Sanofi has entered into an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to develop and commercialize the vaccine candidate for extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (9-valent) developed by Janssen, a potential first-in-class product currently in Phase 3, said Chemanager.

Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will co-fund current and future research and development costs. Sanofi said it will pay $175 million upfront to Janssen, followed by development and commercial milestones. There will be a profit-share arrangement in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain as well as the UK. In the rest of the world, Janssen will receive tiered royalties and sales milestones. Closing of the deal is subject to customary regulatory clearance.

Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi’s executive vice president Vaccines, said: “E. coli is a significant cause of sepsis, mortality, and antimicrobial resistance in older adults, and the number of cases is rising as the population ages.”

Extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli is a leading cause of sepsis, particularly in older adults. The main risk factors, Sanofi said, include age, especially 60+, and chronic illnesses (e.g., diabetes, cancer, or kidney disease). Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) E. coli strains are an ongoing healthcare concern, with extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli a major driver behind the global AMR crisis.

In separate news, Sanofi and Teva Pharmaceuticals announced a collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize lead candidate TEV’574, currently in Phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, two types of inflammatory bowel disease.

Under the terms of the agreement, Teva will receive an upfront payment of €469 million ($500 million) and up to €940 million ($1 billion) in development and launch milestones. Each company will equally share the development costs globally and net profits and losses in major markets, with other markets subject to a royalty arrangement, with Sanofi leading the development of the Phase 3 program. Teva will lead commercialization of the product in Europe, Israel and specified other countries, and Sanofi will lead commercialization in North America, Japan, other parts of Asia and the rest of the world. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. The partners expect initial program results to be available in 2024.

Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi, said: “Anti-TL1As are a promising class of therapies, and we believe that TEV’574 could emerge as a best-in-class option for people living with serious gastrointestinal diseases. This collaboration strengthens our commitment to advancing innovative treatment options for inflammatory conditions with a high unmet need and bolsters our goal to be an industry leader in immunology.”

Teva’s president and CEO, Richard Francis, added: “This is a new era for Teva, and our robust, innovative pipeline is key to our Pivot to Growth strategy. This collaboration further validates the great science that Teva has to offer with our internally developed anti-TL1A.”

We remind, Repsol and Signode have developed a ready-to-use strap for high tenacity applications made of a polypropylene (PP) compound with 30% recycled content. The Spanish petrochemical and the U.S.-based transit-packaging provider claim the solution is a market first.

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Russia, the world's top seaborne exporter of diesel just ahead of the United States, resumed exports of the fuel on Monday after it lifted its ban on most fuel exports following a decline in domestic wholesale prices, said Reuters.

Russian exports of gasoline and cross-border supplies of diesel by rail and road are still prohibited, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday. On Sept. 21 Russia temporarily banned most exports of gasoline and diesel to cope with a domestic market shortage, with pipeline operator Transneft halting diesel shipments from Primorsk from Sept. 22. The ban was partially lifted on Friday.

TASS news agency cited a spokesman for Transneft as saying that the oil pipeline monopoly had restarted diesel exports on Saturday. Pavel Sorokin, Russia's first deputy energy minister, told RBC TV that storage at oil refineries had been full, which could lead to a decline in refining volumes. He also said the ban will be fully lifted once the domestic market is "saturated" with fuel.

"We will take further steps depending on the situation," he said. Tankers loaded with diesel LSEG data showed that one tanker carrying a cargo of diesel left the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk on Monday and three more were docked ready for loading. All four vessels were chartered in September and had been waiting offshore since the export ban was introduced.

The Chiba, Prime V, Romeos and Eternal Sunshine are each expected to carry about 33,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulphur diesel. Diesel is Russia's biggest oil product export, at about 35 million metric tons last year, of which almost three-quarters were shipped via pipeline. Russia also exported 4.8 million tons of gasoline in 2022.

Of that, 3.5 million tons of gasoline and 6.6 million tons of diesel were exported by rail, according to the LSEG data. Russia has been tackling both shortages and high fuel prices in recent months, which have hurt farmers in particular during the harvesting season. Since the ban was introduced, wholesale diesel prices on the local exchange have fallen by 21%, while gasoline prices are down 10%.

We remind, private Russian oil producer Lukoil will lend Azeri state oil firm Socar $1.5 B as part of a broader deal that will allow Socar's 200,000-barrel-per-day Turkish STAR refinery to process Russian crude again. The deal will give Lukoil another customer in close proximity to Russian ports after most European refiners stopped importing its crude to comply with European Union sanctions imposed after Moscow launched what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine in 2022.

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