Unipetrol scraps plans to sell Paramo

MOSCOW (MRC) - Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol has abandoned plans to sell its lubricants maker Paramo, said Reuters, citing the company's supervisory board chief Dariusz Jacek Krawiec.

"We do not want to sell it any more, although we were considering it in the past," daily Hospodarske Noviny quoted Dariusz Jacek Krawiec, also general director at Unipetrol owner PKN Orlen, as saying.

Unipetrol had planned to sell the business this year, after closing its refinery operations last year.

Krawiec also said the Polish company would be interested in further acquisitions on the Czech market if there were any, such as a potential privatisation of state pipeline company Cepro.

PKN Orlen plans to propose to the Czech government several options for cooperation, Krawiec said.

He said he "could not rule out" a scenario in which Unipetrol could increase its 51.2 percent stake in refinery Ceska Rafinerska if one of the minority shareholders - Royal Dutch/Shell and Italy's ENI - decides to sell. It could then swap that stake for a share in Cepro.

As MRC wrote before, Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol plans to invest 19 billion crowns (USD976 million) over the next five years under a new strategy to help it return to profit. By 2017, Unipetrol wants to have increased the capacity utilisation of its petrochemical steam cracker unit by 13 percentage points and increase sales of petrochemical products by 11%, to 1.4 million tonnes.

Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, The Linde Group and ThyssenKrupp plan to develop an environmentally-friendly and competitive to utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce syngas on an industrial scale, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

They aim to employ innovative process technology to use carbon dioxide as a raw material, with positive effects on climate protection.

Together with BASF's subsidiary hte AG and scientific partners VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut, Dusseldorf, and TU Dortmund University, the companies are developing a two-stage process.

In the first step, an innovative high-temperature technology will process natural gas to obtain hydrogen and carbon. Compared to other processes, this technology produces very little CO2.

The hydrogen is then reacted with large volumes of CO2, also from other industrial processes, to give syngas.

A mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, syngas is a key raw material for the chemical industry and is also suitable for producing fuels. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is subsidizing the project, which started on July 1, 2013, and is expected to last three years.

"Methane decomposition complements our existing technology portfolio as well as our hydrogen, CO2 and syngas businesses," said Dr. Harald Ranke, head of clean energy technology at Linde.

"Compared to standard procedures of hydrogen generation, this new technology stands out for its higher efficiency and for reducing CO2 emissions by half," he added. "We figure that customers from both the industrial and the hydrogen mobility sector might benefit from this."

As MRC wrote before, BASF successfully completed the second phase of registration for REACH under EU chemical law. REACH stands for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals and represents a fundamental reorganization of chemical law in Europe.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of EUR72.1 billion in 2012.MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Customs officials at the Jeddah Islamic Port have told the importers of shipping containers that shipping fees will increase to SR 1200 from SR 600-700, the rate charged previously, said Arabnews.

They said the price hike in shipping is owing to the "gates crisis" in the port, which have been reserved for ships entering and exiting the port. This is despite the fact that there are nine gates not in use.

Transporters said the problem has to do with the booking of operations that begins at 12 p.m. and leads to the congestion of carriers. "There is no doubt that the government’s public sector is aware of what is happening at the port," a private sector investor who preferred anonymity said.

"The crisis has occurred because there is only one port for entry and one for exit. A meeting was held with the Public Ports Authority last week and another was held with the navigation administration to reach a solution," he added.
"The two gates are insufficient to handle the volume of import operations in the port, which handles 60 to 70% of imports to Saudi Arabia."

Specialists in the transport sector warned of a perpetuation of the crisis at the Islamic port, emphasizing that the situation has become more complicated and that prices will increase at the expense of consumers.

They said the meeting with the president of the Ports Authority was positive and that he promised to solve the problem, but they warned that the crisis does not bode well for the coming season.

Importers say that the shipping crisis, which began more than one month ago, will inevitably lead to price hikes in commodities and that it is the consumers who will be affected at the end of the day.

As per MRC, the Jeddah Islamic Port ranks among the top 100 global ports annually. In fact, the establishment of an integrated project will ensure the presence of a security system that fills any gaps or security breaches at a financial cost of SR 15.98 million.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigeria LNG said Monday it had declared force majeure on its exports of liquefied natural gas as a blockade by Nigeria's maritime regulator over a tax dispute entered its second week, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The blockade, which has prevented liquefied natural gas tankers from accessing Nigeria LNG's loading terminal on Bonny Island since mid-June, is the result of a long-standing dispute over the payment of duties on freight and exports between the company and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

The company, which is a joint venture between Nigeria's state oil company, Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total and Italy's Eni, said in a statement emailed to the Wall Street Journal that it had declared force majeure effective from Friday, June 28.

A force majeure is declared when a company is unable to fulfill its contractual obligations to deliver exports due to circumstances beyond its control.

As MRC wrote before, in mid June Shell lifted a force majeure measure on liquefied natural gas exports from Bonny Island which was in place for almost a month.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip was awarded by the Hyundai-Wison consortium a significant contract to supply its proprietary technology as well as engineering and procurement services for two hydrogen reformers in Venezuela, said Yourpetrochemicalnews.

These 135-million standard cubic feet per day (151-thousand normal cubic meters per hour) reformers are part of the Deep Conversion project being executed by the consortium for Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), to upgrade the Puerto La Cruz refinery.

The contract covers the complete engineering, fabrication, modularization, procurement as well as pre-commissioning and start-up assistance. This project will utilize Technip's high-efficiency top-fired steam reformers, to produce high-purity hydrogen and export steam, and the latest nitrogen oxide reduction technology to ensure minimum emissions.

Technip’s operating center in Claremont, California will execute the contract, which is scheduled for completion in the second semester of 2014.

Stan Knez, Technip’s Senior Vice President Process Technology, commented: "We are delighted to have been awarded this project, which will utilize our state-of-the-art proprietary technology, after successfully completing the basic design package for these hydrogen plants. Hydrogen is the most widely used industrial gas in the refining, chemical and petrochemical industries and this contract further solidifies our position of market leader in this sector."

As MRC wrote before, state-run China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) will begin construction work late this month to build a new USD9.08bn refinery in Jieyang, China. The 400,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery will process Venezuelan heavy oil, thereby tripling oil sales from the South American nation to the world's second-largest oil user.
MRC