Shell places its last Australian refinery on sale

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC has announced it plans to sell its only oil refinery in Australia, as the local industry struggles to compete with low-cost operators in Asia, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The number of refineries in Australia has dwindled in recent years as vast new processing facilities have sprung up in India, Singapore and elsewhere in the region.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company said Thursday it may convert its refinery in Geelong, producing up to 120,000 barrels of crude oil a day, to a fuel import terminal if it can't find a buyer. The plant, near the country's second-most populous city, Melbourne, currently supplies about half of Victoria state's fuel.

Shell has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to assist with the sale process, which it expects to complete by the end of next year.

Last year, the company converted a refinery in the commercial capital, Sydney, to an import terminal. Caltex Australia Ltd., half-owned by Chevron Corp., plans to make a similar conversion to its Sydney refinery next year.

Among the handful of remaining refineries in Australia, Caltex has another plant in Brisbane, BP PLC owns refineries in Perth and Brisbane, and ExxonMobil Corp has a refinery in Melbourne.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in November, 2012, Shell announced that it wouldl upgrade its petrochemical plant in Singapore to meet rising demand for ethylene in Asia. The upgrade will increase the plant's capacity to produce olefins and aromatics industrial chemicals used to make plastic, paint and other products by more than 20%.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

SIBUR reports 2012 revenue growth by 9,1%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR Holding, integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company, has reported that its revenue increased by 9,1% year-on-year to Rb271.3 billion, according to the compnay's report.

The revenue growth was driven primarily by energy products on higher production and sales volumes for majority of the products, helped by indexation of regulated natural gas prices and the Russian rouble depreciation against the US dollar on almost flat global oil and oil derivative prices in US dollar terms. Besides, the increased company's production and start-up of new petrochemical capacity enabled SIBUR to more than compensate for the effects of the challenging market environment in petrochemicals, which was volatile throughout 2012 both globally and in Russia and resulted in stagnant demand and weak pricing trends for majority of our petrochemical products, particularly synthetic rubbers.

EBITDA amounted to Rb82.3 billion, a year-on-year decline of 5,1%. EBITDA margin totaled 30.3%. The decrease in EBITDA is explained primarily by tighter spreads between feedstock and petrochemical prices, particularly in the synthetic rubber product group.

SIBUR's profit for 2012 totaled Rb60.1 billion, a decrease of 4,3% year-on-year. 2012 net margin amounted to 22.1%.

In 2012, the company's capital expenditures increased by 33,7% year-on-year to Rb74.3 billion. The growth was attributable to SIBUR's substantial investments in the development of its feedstock processing and transportation infrastructure as well as in petrochemical projects in line with the company's strategic objectives. In 2012, the company's net cash from operating activities increased by 15,7% year-on-year to RR 62.7 billion.

As of 31 December 2012, SIBUR’s total debt amounted to Rb96.0 billion, an increase of 15,8% year-on-year. The increase is primarily attributable to raising funds to finance the company's capital expenditure programme.

Net debt increased by 21,3% year-on-year to Rb82.4 billion as of 31 December 2012 mainly due to growth in total debt.

In January 2013, SIBUR placed its debut USD 1 billion Eurobond due 2018. This placement was aimed at short-term debt refinancing and allowed SIBUR to improve the structure and maturity profile of its debt portfolio to be reported in SIBUR’s financial statements for the first quarter 2013.

SIBUR is the leading petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe. The Company operates across the entire petrochemical process chain from gas processing to the production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers, as well as the processing of plastics.
MRC

LyondellBasell licenses technologies to new China polyethylene, EVA plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co. has chosen LyondellBasell’s Lupotech T and Lupotech A process technologies for a new plant scheduled to be built in Lianyungang, China, informed Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to officials.

Jiangsu said the plant will have a total plant capacity of 300,000 tpy for the production of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA).

LDPE and EVA polymers are in high demand, driven by an increasing need for consumer items ranging from shoes to specialty films, according to company officials.

Key features of the Lupotech T tubular technology and the Lupotech A autoclave technology include low manufacturing and investment costs, fast start-up and grade changes, and high quality LDPE and copolymers with up to 40% EVA covering the entire range of melt flows and densities.

Proven single-line capacities of up to 450,000 tpy are available with Lupotech T, according to LyondellBasell officials.

As MRC reported earlier, over the past four months another Chinese petrochemical company - Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., the largest coal company in the world, - has selected twice the LyondellBasell Lupotech T process technology for a 270 KT per year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant to be built in Xinjiang, China, and for a new 300 KT per year low density polyethylene (LDPE) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer plant to be built in Yulin, Shaanxi Provence, China.

LyondellBasell is a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
MRC

European PVC fell in value for CIS countries by EUR30/tonne

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Slash in ethylene contract prices in Europe and export PVC prices in the USA forces European producers to reduce April PVC prices for the CIS markets, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The contract ethylene price in Europe for April shipments was agreed by EUR60/tonne lower than the March level, which is equivalent to a cut in the cost of PVC production by EUR30/tonne. North American makers have lowered their export PVC prices for April shipments on average by USD60-70/tonne. These factors make European producers proportionally decrease their April export prices for the CIS markets.

Negotiations on European export PVC prices for April shipments started on Tuesday. Some market participants report that they managed to get a reduction of export prices by EUR30/tonne from March. Deals for April shipments of European PVC to the CIS countries were discussed in the range of EUR750-800/tonne, FCA.
MRC

Argentina flood caused fire at YPF La Plata refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-run YPF, Argentina's largest oil and gas company, said Wednesday that it had contained a major fire at the country's largest oil refinery, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

YPF said it suspended operations at its La Plata refinery after a fire broke out Tuesday night in a coking oven.

"Within the coming hours, YPF will put in place a special operating plan to restart operations at its industrial complex," YPF said in a statement. It wasn't immediately clear if the fire has been completely extinguished.

According to YPF, the fire started after flooding caused by a major rain storm cut electricity to the entire refinery. The same storm caused power outages, flooding and, according to the latest information (Reuters), the number of victims grew to 46 people from the previously informed by the local authorities 31 deaths in the capital, Buenos Aires, and nearby cities.

YPF said its personnel and firefighters from two nearby cities managed to bring the blaze under control at about 3 a.m. EDT. The company said there were no casualties.

Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) is an Argentinean integrated oil and gas company. The company is the largest in its sector in Argentina. Its business is structured in six activities: exploration and production; refining and logistics; marketing, offering a range of automotive, aeronautics, naval, farming and industrial fuels; chemicals, manufacturing a variety of industrial products, including a diverse group of raw materials for chemical, industrial and agricultural activities; lubricants and YPF Gas, comprising the retail distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The Company’s majority shareholder is Repsol YPF SA.
MRC