Moodys downgrades Pemex ratings on low oil, production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Moody's downgraded Mexican state-oil giant Pemex's foreign and local currency ratings to Baa1 from A3, said Reuters.

"Moody's believes that Pemex's credit metrics will deteriorate further in the short to medium term as oil prices remain depressed, production continues to drop, taxes remain high, and the company's capex needs are financed with debt," Moody's credit officer Nymia Almeida said in a statement.

In response, Pemex said it had expected the downgrade since Aug. 25, and added that it had taken various measures to improve its finances, including renegotiating pension liabilities and cost-cutting.

The company also said that last June, it discovered new oil fields that could hold reserves of up to 350 million barrels.

As MRC informed earlier, the PMI Trading arm of Pemex will build the first solidifying sulfur plant in Mexico,seeking to ensure the movement of sulfur from different refineries and gas processing complexes in the country. The new plant will be located in the Port Authority of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, with a processing capacity of 360,000 tpy and over USD38 million in investment.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Five chemical companies, including Akzo Nobel, DSM, Evonik Industries, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings and Solvay have recently launched a plan to reduce emissions by an additional 1.4 gigatonnes (Gt) per year by 2030, said Chemicals-technology.

The companies have decided to work with other partners to develop sustainable solutions, as well as improve their own performances to reduce emission.

They plan to strengthen research and development activities, and market new technologies that reduce carbon emissions.

The initiative is a part of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi), which mainly seeks to create solutions for reducing carbon footprints.

The WBCSD has partnered with more than 140 businesses and 50 industry partners to speed up the process of developing and deploying new technologies for lowering carbon emissions.

As part of this initiative, all the five firms will work according to the guidelines of LCTPi. WBCSD president and CEO Peter Bakker said: "As an industry of industries, the chemical sector plays an important role in spurring low carbon growth.

"These five global leaders are a vanguard of the chemical industry. Meeting the ambitions they have set across their sector and its value chains can contribute significantly to global emissions reductions in other sectors. "I call on other forward-looking companies to join this initiative and collaborate to bring those actions to life."

As it was writtten earlier, today, 3% of transportation fuels are low-carbon. Within this LCTPi, eleven leading low carbon fuel companies intend to increase their business and the share of low-carbon fuels in transport. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 10% of fuels must be low-carbon by 2030 if we are to satisfy economic growth while staying below a 2°C increase of global average temperature. The report presents the current and future status of decarbonising the transportation sector, some country case studies and an overview of the relevant technologies.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 has put Ireland's Whitegate refinery up for sale, the company confirmed this week, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The news was first reported by the Irish Examiner. The sale listing for the Whitegate refinery comes more than a year after Phillips 66 removed the country's only refinery plant from the market, having failed to find a suitable buyer.

The US-based oil refiner tried to sell the plant near Cork in 2014 amid low refining margins, but failed to attract strong enough bids.

"Phillips 66 has decided to seek a buyer for its 71,000 bpd Whitegate Refinery and associated wholesale marketing business in Ireland," said Dennis Nuss, director of media and external relations.

"We will run a rigorous process to find the best purchaser for the business," he added. "We expect this process to last into 2016."

Refining margins have improved in 2015 as demand has picked up and the cost of crude has continued to fall. "We've seen a stronger margin in the Atlantic Basin this year, and Whitegate has been performing well in this environment," a Phillips 66 spokesman was quoted as saying by the Irish Examiner.

As MRC informed earlier, billionaire Warren Buffett dumped ExxonMobil shares held by Berkshire Hathaway and took a USD4.5 billion stake in refiner Phillips 66 after souring on the outlook for oil prices.

Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. It debuted as an independent energy company when ConocoPhillips executed a spin-off of its downstream and midstream assets. Taking its name from the 1927 "Phillips 66" trademark of ConocoPhillips predecessor Phillips Petroleum Company, Phillips 66 began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX. The company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals. The company has approximately 14,000 employees worldwide and is active in more than 65 countries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Korean petrochemical company SK Global Chemical has scheduled a maintenance turnaround at its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant next year, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the plant is planned to be shut in September-October 2016. It is likely to remain off-stream for around 40 days.

Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the No.1 LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in October 2015, SABIC and South SK Global Chemical inaugurated a new industrial plant to manufacture a range of high-performance polyethylene products using the cutting-edge Nexlene Solution Technology. The 50-50 joint venture holding company, SABIC SK Nexlene Company (SSNC) was established last July and is headquartered in Singapore. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Korea Nexlene Company (KNC), owns the plant in Ulsan, which has an annual capacity of 230,000 tons. The aggregate purchase price for the technology and plant is approximately USD 640 million.

SK Global Chemical is a pioneering petrochemical company in Korea, being the first in the country to build a naphtha cracking facility in 1972. Through continuous facility investment, R&D and technological improvement, the company has maintained its position as the leader of the petrochemical industry in Korea.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alwaha Petrochemical Co., which is 75% owned by Sahara Petrochemicals Co., has signed a SAR 262.5 million (USD70 million) revolving loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), as part of the Saudi Export Program, said Argaam.

The financing facility, which has a five-year tenure, will fund the company’s working capital, Sahara said in a statement.

The loan is meant to promote Saudi-produced petrochemicals with the export program.

As MRC informed earlier, in May 2015, Alwaha Petrochemical shut its PP production for the turnaround.

Al Waha Petrochemicals Company is owned by Sahara Petrochemicals Company, which holds 75% of its share capital with LyondelBasell owning 25%. The company produces 460,000 tonnes/year of propylene and 450,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP) at its complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

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