ExxonMobil's Karen McKee named 2024 Petrochemical Heritage Award recipient

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers announced ExxonMobil’s Karen McKee—president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company—as the 2024 Petrochemical Heritage Award recipient for her outstanding contributions to the petrochemical community. McKee received the award on March 25 during the International Petrochemical Conference in San Antonio, Texas hosted by AFPM.

“This award reflects the extraordinary achievements of the talented employees at ExxonMobil who push for excellence every day. I am confident that our next generation of leaders will continue to pioneer new technologies and develop even greater products that will further improve living standards for societies around the world.” — Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company.

Chet Thompson, AFPM president and CEO issued the following statement commending McKee on her accomplishments: “Being named this year’s Petrochemical Heritage Award recipient is a testament to Karen’s leadership and ingenuity. Throughout our industry, Karen is recognized as one of the best business minds and someone who reliably delivers results in constantly evolving markets. Her strategic vision and ability to see beyond the next corner is certainly helping to propel ExxonMobil’s global work and ever-broadening suite of sustainable products and patented innovations. We applaud Karen for her substantial contributions to our industry and congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition. She rightfully joins a long list of petrochemical industry greats, and her work and legacy in our sector—and on behalf of consumers—is far from over.”

Acclaimed as a skilled pioneer and business leader, Karen is the first woman to receive the Petrochemical Heritage Award. In her near 34-year career with ExxonMobil spanning multiple continents, McKee has overseen the combination of ExxonMobil's downstream and chemicals operations into a single Product Solutions business, led refinery expansions and a series of North American chemical growth projects. All the while, she’s worked to increase community engagement, led several multi-million-dollar ExxonMobil giving campaigns and advance the company’s effectiveness in service to customers.

McKee is recognized throughout the petrochemical industry and has held leadership posts in trade associations, including currently serving as president of the International Council of Chemical Associations. She previously served on the executive committee for the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, working on behalf of petrochemical producers and brands to advance policy promoting circularity, sustainability and responsible care. Additionally, McKee has been a leading voice for the industry in the recent United Nations negotiations of a global agreement on plastic pollution, championing the need to develop policies that enable a circular economy for plastics.

Presented annually by AFPM, the Science History Institute and the Founders Club, the Petrochemical Heritage Award recognizes individuals who have displayed significant entrepreneurship in the petrochemical profession, contributed to better public understanding of this critical industry and been active in philanthropic and communal affairs. Established in 1997, this award encourages emulation, inspires achievement and promotes public understanding of modern science, industries and economies.

We remind, QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil are on track to commence LNG production at their Golden Pass LNG export terminal, situated on the US Gulf Coast near Sabine Pass, Texas, during the first half of 2025. QatarEnergy, a state-owned entity, holds a substantial 70 percent stake in the Golden Pass project, which boasts a capacity exceeding 18 million metric tons per annum (mtpa). Notably, QatarEnergy will offload 70 percent of the terminal's capacity. In parallel, ExxonMobil, a prominent US-based energy firm, possesses a 30 percent share in the venture.
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Borealis has published its annual report 2023, combining its financial and non-financial reports, said the company.

Overall, Borealis Group had a negative operating profit of EUR9M ‘due to adverse market conditions, high inventory effects, and a generally weaker environment in all business areas, driven by higher inflation and cost- of-living crises’, the report reads. The business recorded EUR8,042M in sales and other income, including its Fertilizers, Melamine and Technical Nitrogen Products business unit (NITRO), which was sold in July 2023.

Borealis Polyolefins’ operating profit fell to EUR79 million in 2023 from EUR526 million in 2022. Borealis and TotalEnergies polyethylene joint venture Baystar, which started production in October 2023, recorded EUR158 million in losses compared to EUR58 million in 2022.

The new unit is the first in North America to use proprietary Borstar technology from Borealis. The technology produces polymers with enhanced sustainability by enabling light-weighting and the incorporation of greater amounts of post-consumer recycled materials in a variety of end products.

Weak polyolefin margins in 2023 resulted in a significant decrease in net sales for Borealis Polyolefins, despite similar sales volumes. The segment’s net sales dropped to EUR5,687M in 2023 from EUR7,041M in 2022.

“The year 2023 was one of petrochemical overcapacity and flagging demand, both of which exerted downward pressure on prices and operating rates,” Borealis Supervisory Board wrote in the report. “Overall, industry profitability and operating rates fell to levels last seen during the height of the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.”

Borouge, Borealis’ joint venture with ADNOC, helped to balance the scales with a EUR317M contribution, nonetheless a sharp decrease from the EUR1,062M reported in 2022.

Borealis Base Chemicals delivered a 2023 operating profit of EUR162 million, in comparison with the EUR243 million reported in the previous year.

“A confluence of factors made the year 2023 a challenging one for petrochemicals companies, and Borealis was no exception,” the report says. “Market volatility, logistics and supply chain disruptions, lagging demand and geopolitical strife will continue into 2024 and beyond.”

Nonetheless, Borealis emphasised again that ‘transformation is essential to adapt to these changing circumstances and that it continues to invest in ‘more sustainable solutions that benefit society’.

The report also highlights that Borealis reached an intermediate decarbonisation goal two years earlier than set forth in its 2030 strategy, which aims to increase the share of renewables used to power European production operations in Base Chemicals and Polyolefins to 100% by 2030. The group’s share of renewables is now over 40%.

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The Future Expansion Project (FGP) and the Wellhead Pressure Management Project (WPMP) at the Tengiz oil and gas field in west Kazakhstan are scheduled for completion at the end of 2024, Kazakh Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev said, as per Interfax.

"The Future Expansion Project and the Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP) at Tengiz are behind the original schedule. The reasons behind the delay in the project are objective and associated with the safety and quality of works. We expect the project to be completed at the end of this year "Satkaliyev said at a Tuesday briefing.

In January 2024, it was announced that the launch of the future expansion project (FGP) would be postponed until the second quarter of 2025, and the wellhead pressure management project (WPMP) until the second quarter of 2024.

"On December 15, 2023, Tengizchevroil LLP [the Tengiz field operator] sent an appeal to its partners for approval, requesting to postpone the launch of the WPMP facilities to the second quarter of 2024 from December 2023, and to postpone the future expansion project to the second quarter of 2025 from June 2024," the Energy Ministry told on January 18, 2024.

Satkaliyev told reporters in October 203 that the launch of the FGP-WPMP had been postponed for six months.

The Tengiz oil and gas field is one of the largest in Kazakhstan, with oil reserves amounting to 3.2 billion tonnes. The field is being developed by Tengizchevroil (TCO), which is implementing Future Growth Project (FGP) and Wellhead Pressure Management Project (WPMP) in Tengiz with a total cost of $46.7 billion (original cost was estimated at $45.2 billion). The project completion initially scheduled for the end of 2022, is now postponed until Q2 2025. The project will increase TCO annual production by 12 million tonnes.

The current partners of Tengizchevroil LLP are Chevron (50%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc (25%), Kazakhstan through KazMunayGas (20%) and Lukoil (5%).

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RussNeft had net profit of 20.441 billion rubles to International Financial Reporting Standards in 2023, the oil company said in a financial statement, as per Interfax.

This was practically level with the 20.446 billion rubles reported for 2022.

Sales revenue fell 17.9% to 238.7 billion rubles and cost of sales fell 26.2% to 172.2 billion rubles.

Revenues from domestic oil sales decreased by 25.1% to 160.6 billion rubles; revenues from exports abroad increased by 2% to 74.3 billion rubles.

The company's long-term liabilities as of December 31, 2023 increased to 74.485 billion rubles against 70.683 billion rubles on the same day last year. Short-term liabilities increased to 93.523 billion rubles from 71.491 billion rubles.

As was reported, RussNeft net profit to RAS in 2023 increased 3.8 times to 31.79 billion rubles. At the same time, revenue fell by 13.1% to 238.83 billion rubles. The cost of sales decreased by 21.7%, to 178.45 billion rubles.

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Gazprom will receive the rights to use the subsoil resources of the Pribaikalsky hydrocarbon block in the northern part of Irkutsk Region, near the Russian gas giant's Kovykta gas condensate field, as per Interfax.

Gazprom submitted the only bid to participate in the auction for the block, so the auction was declared void and the resource rights were granted to the sole bidder, the torgi.gov.ru website said.

Gazprom will pay 15.4 million rubles for the resource rights, which is equivalent to the starting price plus one bidding increment.

Pribaikalsky is located in the immediate vicinity of Gazprom's Kovykta field and Chikansky and Khandinsky blocks. The auction documentation stated that commercial gas and condensate flows have been struck at the latter.

The Pribaikalsky block had D1 category forecast resources of 2 million tonnes of oil, 44.1 billion cubic meters of gas and 5.7 million tonnes of condensate, and D2 category resources of 1.2 million tonnes, 37.1 bcm and 1 million tonnes, respectively, as of the beginning of 2017.

We remind, Gazprom is sticking to its goal of achieving 100% of the technically possible level of network gasification by 2030, and is actively working with the regions via five-year programs, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Oleg Aksyutin said in an article in the company's corporate magazine. "It is expected that due to gasification and post-gasification alone, the increase in demand in the domestic market could reach nearly 20 bcm by 2030," the article says.

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