Chevron finishes repairs at Richmond refinery in California

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Corp., an American multinational energy corporation, has completed repairing and rebuilding equipment in its Richmond refinery (California) that was damaged in a fire last year, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Besides, the company is working toward restarting the crude processing unit, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

A fire on 6 August forced Chevron to reduce gasoline production at the 245,000 barrel a day refinery, the largest in northern California and the third largest in the state.

Spokesman Sean Comey said Tuesday that the company is "working to complete the final regulatory steps required to restart the crude oil processing unit," with normal operations expected in the second quarter.

"We have also begun to implement certain measures to strengthen process safety, mechanical integrity, and management oversight, both at our Richmond refinery and across our manufacturing network as appropriate," Mr. Comey said.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in February, 2013, Apache completed its previously-announced transaction with Chevron to build and operate the Kitimat LNG project and develop world-class natural gas resources at the Liard and Horn River basins in British Columbia, Canada. At present Chevron is in talks with potential buyers for Canada's first exports of liquefied natural gas, paving the way for a USD15 billion project that would open up a new route for North American gas to Asia. Chevron aims to sign contracts to sell about 60-70% of the gas ahead of the project, the report says.

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States, and active in more than 180 countries. It is engaged in every aspect of the oil, gas, and geothermal energy industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is one of the world's six "supermajor" oil companies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aromatics products derived at the facility will help meet growing demand for plastics and synthetic fibers in the region, according to the company. The project, to be located in Pulau Muara Besar, Brunei Darussalam, is expected to be one of the largest aromatics complexes in the world, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Technology from Honeywell's UOP has been selected to produce key petrochemicals in a new complex in Brunei.

Brunei Hengyi Industries, a subsidiary of China's Zhejiang Hengyi Group, will use several UOP technologies to produce aromatics, which are key materials used in the production of polymers, plastics, resins and synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon.

"As the demand for aromatics grows in the region, producers are looking for ways to maximize product yields, while reducing production costs and minimizing investment costs," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of UOP's process technology and equipment business.

"UOP's integrated aromatics technology will provide the lowest energy consumption, cost of production and overall investment cost," he added.

Aromatics products derived at the facility will help meet growing demand for plastics and synthetic fibers in the region, according to the company.

The project, to be located in Pulau Muara Besar, Brunei Darussalam, is expected to be one of the largest aromatics complexes in the world.

The project will combine a 2.2 million tpy hydrocracking unit, utilizing the UOP Unicracking process and catalysts; a 3.3 million tpy UOP CCR Platforming unit; and a 1.5 million tpy UOP Parex unit.

Additionally, the fully-integrated complex will license UOP's Isomar process, its Tatoray process and the ED Sulfolane process.

In addition to technology licensing, UOP says it will provide engineering, training and technical services, catalysts, adsorbents, and specialty equipment for the project. Aromatics production is expected to start up in 2015.

Further details on the aforementioned UOP processes can be found in the news release at the company's website.

As MRC wrote earlier, UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced the launch of a new membrane element that more efficiently removes contaminants from natural gas and reduces the amount of valuable methane and natural gas liquids (NGLs) lost during the contaminant removal process.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Romanian state-controlled chemical plant Oltchim, currently under insolvency, will have electricity and raw materials supplies cut this week, its insolvency manager Gheorghe Piperea said last week in an interview for HotNews, concluding that the plant is highly likely to be liquidated, said Downstreamtoday.

Until recently, the government has claimed that the company is viable and there are prospective buyers for it. PM Victor Ponta, however, admitted for Antena 3 TV station on March 29 that there is no buyer and that EC has warned the government not to bail out the plant.

At stake there are not only Oltchim's 3,200 employees - but also part of the 20,000 people working for Oltchim's suppliers. Oltchim's industrial site includes vast and technically viable production facilities that might be interesting for strategic investors. But the company owes some EUR 800mn in debt - out of which EUR 250mn to the government and EUR 150mn to state-controlled electricity supplier Electrica.

Furthermore, privately-held local firm Bullrom will discontinue propylene supplies to Oltchim in the first days of April, and the country's sole salt producer Salrom will cut salt supply also. Oltchim will as a result completely close down its operations. Some 1,000-1,200 of the 3,200 employees will be fired immediately and 500 others will have their employment interrupted temporarily, Piperea said. The insolvency manager still seeks financing for the severance payments.

Piperea also confirmed that the EC blocked the bridge loan prepared by the Romanian government for the company on grounds that Oltchim has already benefitted of state aid in the past. Under these circumstances, the plant will rather undergo liquidation than recovery procedures, Pipera concluded.

Based at Ramnicu Valcea in southern Romania, Oltchim produces caustic soda, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, inorganic products and building materials, including insulating PVC for panels, doors and window frames.
As per MRC, Oltchim at the present does not supply PVC to the Russian market. Insignificant amounts of PVC-S had been delivered from 2005 to 2009 and on average made 1,900 tonnes per year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) announced the successful closing of the sukuk issued through its subsidiary Sadara Basic Services Company (SBSC), said Arabnews.

The sukuk has received strong investor demand, resulting in 2.6 times oversubscription based on the initial offering size of SR5.25 billion. In keeping with this demand, Sadara has up-sized the issuance to SR7.5 billion.
The sukuk have a floating rate and will have a tenor of approximately 16 years. The sukuk investors will receive an expected return of 6 month SAIBOR plus 95 basis points per annum, to be distributed semi-annually.

The net proceeds of the issue of the sukuk will be used to provide finance for, and procure the construction and delivery of, plants forming part of a chemicals complex located in Jubail Industrial City II in the Eastern Province.

As MRC wrote earlier, established in October 2011, Sadara is a limited liability company developed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company and the Dow Chemical Company. Sadara is building a world-scale, fully integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City II, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Once completed, the complex is expected to be one of the world’s largest integrated chemical facilities, and the largest ever built in a single phase. First production units are expected to come on line in the second half of 2015, with all production units coming on line in 2016.The sukuk prospectus was published on March 16.

"This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities," a statement said.

The Capital Market Authority and the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representations as to its accuracy or completeness, and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss arising from, or incurred in reliance upon, any part of this announcement.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp. and BHP Billiton Ltd. laid out plans to develop a huge natural gas field off the coast of Australia that would use the world's largest vessel capable of processing the gas at sea, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The vessel would tap into the company's remote Scarborough gas field, located in the Carnarvon Basin about 300 kilometers from the Western Australia coast, and use floating liquefied natural gas technology (FLNG).

The FLNG technology is untried but has captured the attention of some of the world's biggest energy companies seeking to develop gas fields that are too small or remote to develop using pipelines and onshore facilities. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is a leading proponent of FLNG vessels, which it plans to deploy in Australia and possibly elsewhere.

Exxon and BHP's proposed facility would be capable of producing between 6 million and 7 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year. Production would begin in 2020-21, the companies said in a filing posted on the website of Australia's environment department Tuesday.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in early 2013, ExxonMobil started operations at one of the world's largest ethylene steam crackers, the centerpiece of the company's multi-billion dollar expansion project at its Singapore petrochemical complex. The expansion adds 2.6 million tpy of new finished product capacity. It includes two new polyethylene (PE) plants, a polypropylene (PP) plant, a metallocene elastomers unit, an oxo-alcohol unit and an aromatics expansion, all of which are completed and beginning operation. Ethylene production is expected to start in the next few months.

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