Profits lift for Petronas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state oil company Petronas increased fourth-quarter profit by 45.4% as it boosted output on the back of successful exploration efforts both at home and abroad, said Upstreamonline.

The Kuala Lumpur-based company reported net profit for the period of 12.8 billion ringgit (USD3.90 billion), compared with 8.8 billion ringgit a year earlier, on 10% higher revenue of 84.8 billion ringgit as the result was also lifted by higher liquefied natural gas prices and a stronger US dollar.

Full-year net profit increased 10.3% 65.6 billion ringgit from 59.5 billion ringgit, as revenue climbed 8% to 317.3 billion ringgit from the previous year fuelled by a 5.8% increase in domestic and international production to 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Petronas has invested heavily in recent years in Canadian shale assets, Iraqi oilfields and explored for new reserves in Malaysia as part of its five-year 300 billion ringgit capital expenditure programme that ends in 2015.

As MRC informed before, in November, 2013, Petronas Chemicals agreed to sell its Vietnam polyvinyl chloride (PVC) assets to Asahi Glass and Mitsubishi as part of ongoing efforts to refocus its business on higher value products. The sale of its 93% interest in Phu My Plastics and Chemicals, which has a production capacity of 100,000 t/y of PVC, is expected to be completed in Q2 next year. Last year, the company had announced that it would close its vinyl business and has already ceased operations at its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and PVC plants in Kertih, Malaysia.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French company Technip has been awarded a front-end engineering design contract with Shell for work on a demonstration project in Scotland, said Upstreamonline.

The company will design a number of onshore elements for the Peterhead Gas Carbon Capture and Storage project in Aberdeenshire.

The project is designed to capture, compress and transport one million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year via a pipeline to an offshore gas reservoir for storage below the North Sea.

Work includes engineering design for a grassroots carbon capture and compression plant, as well as modifications to an existing combined cycle gas turbine power plant.

Technip’s operating centre in Milton Keynes will carry out the work after completing a pre-FEED study for the project about 18 months ago.

As MRC wrote before, Technip was awarded by Kazanorgsintez a contract to provide technology and services for a grassroots furnace at Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The project consists of the engineering and procurement of an SMK double-cell cracking furnace. This is preferred for cracking high-capacity, low-cost ethane and propane gas feedstock.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has reported its annual revenues of EUR5.8 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) before special items of EUR442 million, as per the company's report.

The EBITDA exceeds any other year in the history of Styrolution and its heritage styrenic businesses. A key contributor to Styrolution's strong showing in 2013 was the company's synergy and integration program, strong styrene monomer and polystyrene margins and an improved specialties business.

Since Styrolution was established in 2011, the economy was affected by persisting slow growth globally. In spite of the challenges presented by these market conditions, Styrolution has achieved record results in 2013, also topping the results of its heritage styrenics businesses.

Throughout the year, Styrolution benefitted from increased margins in styrene monomer, the key feedstock in the production of styrenic polymers. The margin increase was mainly driven by tightened supply and demand fundamentals. Polystyrene was also a strong contributor to EBITDA due to margin improvement on the back of an optimized customer and product portfolio structure, especially in the Americas.

Lower fixed costs and higher utilization rates in Europe resulted from the closure of the polystyrene plant in Marl, Germany in October 2012. Specialties further contributed to overall profitability with solid margins and higher volumes resulting from increased focus on profitable market segments and applications, as well as optimizations to Styrolution's specialties production infrastructure.

Styrolution does not expect material changes in overall market conditions in 2014 compared to 2013. The company anticipates a modest recovery in the European economy and that the Americas and Asia should grow at comparable rates to 2013. Overall, Styrolution anticipates stable volume demand and margin development in 2014.

In EMEA, the company assumes that the strong polystyrene margins seen in 2013 will decline in 2014; while a modest recovery in ABS margins in Asia, should also lead to a modest increase in ABS margins in EMEA and the Americas. The company expects that the record styrene monomer margins of 2013 will not be repeated in 2014, but anticipates cost improvements as a result of the turnaround of its Texas City asset.

As MRC reported earlier, in order to further strengthen its polystyrene (PS) business in North America, Styrolution has announced it plans to consolidate PS capacity in the region. In addition, Styrolution will accelerate growth in styrenic specialties through an expansion of its offering for high-performance transparent styrenics, by providing local supply in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Part of Styrolution's Triple Shift growth strategy, these measures will further enhance the company's position as the global leader in styrenics.

The Styrolution Group GmbH is a global provider of styrenics , headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. The company is a joint venture between BASF (50%) and INEOS (50%), were merged into the main styrene operations of the two partners. Its main focus is on the production of monomer, polystyrene, styrenic specialties, and ABS. The company offers styrene plastics for a variety of everyday products from different industries, such as automotive, electronics, construction, household, leisure, packaging, medicine and health.
MRC