Oxea declares force majeure on Butyl Acetate in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) – The international chemical company Oxea declares force majeure on Butyl Acetate in Europe until further notice. Due to technical issues at its production plant in Marl, Germany, Oxea is unable to maintain the manufacture and supply of Butyl Acetate, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“Oxea is already working to ensure that the impact is as minimal as possible. During the force majeure period, Oxea will continuously inform its customers about the situation and details regarding the supply capability,” the company said in a press release.

Oxea is a global manufacturer of oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavorings and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. Oxea employs more than 1,400 people worldwide. Oxea is owned by Oman Oil Company S.A.O.C.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Innovation Co., South Korea's top oil refiner, said Monday that its rating was raised by global credit appraisers for its strong bottom line, said Yonhapnews.

Moody's Investors Service has raised its rating on SK Innovation to 'Baa1,' from 'Baa2,' the highest-ever grade given by the global rating agency to the refiner, it said.

Another rating agency, the Standard & Poor's, also upped its rating on SK Innovation to 'BBB+' from 'BBB,' according to the firm.

The rating given to SK Innovation is the highest among Seoul-based oil refiners, it added. The rating upgrades came as SK Innovation saw its 2016 earnings nearly double last year from a year earlier, thanks to better-than-expected results from its petrochemical business and expanded refining margin.

Net profit stood at 1.72 trillion won (USD1.49 billion) last year, compared with a profit of 868 billion won a year earlier, the company said earlier.

Operating income surged 63 percent on-year to reach a record 3.23 trillion won, while sales sank 18.3 percent to 39.52 trillion won over the cited period.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Differing estimates between would-be buyers and LyondellBasell Industries over the value of the company's Houston refinery resulted in Lyondell's inability to sell the plant last year, said Reuters, citing Chief Executive Bob Patel.

A sale of the plant, with a price tag of about USD1.5 billion, would have marked Lyondell's exit from refining and emergence as solely a petrochemical producer. Lyondell has owned the refinery since 1985.

"So it's really at the end of the day our view of value versus the buyer's view of value," Patel told analysts on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results. The refinery located along the Houston Ship Channel is considered desirable for its capability to process heavy, sour crude oil.

Lyondell retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2016 to help sell the 263,776-bpd refinery. Would-be buyers, including Saudi Aramco, Valero Energy Corp and Suncor, were interested in the plant. Saudi Aramco appeared to be the leading contender, sources said, but the company said it never bid on the plant.

Patel said the estimates of the refinery's value turned on the many outages it endured in 2016. "Given sort of the challenges we had in the operation of the plant and if you'll recall in Q3 and 4 the outlook for the industry was being revised, as we were trying to get through all of that," he said.

Within two weeks of an April 8, 2016, fire on a coking unit, production at the refinery fell to 32 percent of capacity as distillation units were shut to replace piping thought to be at risk of failure.

Full production was not restored until the restart of the repaired coker in mid-July, but was reduced in the second half of the year by power outages and another fire.

Lyondell said the refinery's 2016 production averaged 201,000 bpd and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from refining were USD72 million, USD447 million less than 2015.

Lyondell is working to improve the refinery's reliability, which includes a planned overhaul, currently under way, of the 90,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit and the 120,000 bpd crude distillation unit.

No other major maintenance is planned for this year at the refinery, he said.

The FCCU and CDU maintenance will negatively impact first-quarter revenue by an estimated USD80 million, Patel said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Supreme Petrochem has completed the trial runs for producing Styrene Methyl Methacrylate (SMMA) by modifying one of the Polystyrene (PS) lines at the plant in Maharashtra into a swing line capable of producing either polystyrene (PS) or SMMA, reported Plastemart.

This modified line with a SMMA capacity of 42,500 tpa is now ready for commercial production.

Supreme Petrochem is the leader in PS business in the Indian market place with a share of more than 50%.

As MRC informed earlier, in January 2016, Supreme Petrochem received approval for modification of one of the three PS producing lines at the plant in villages Amdoshi, Wangani in the state of Maharashtra into a swing line capable of producing 42,500 TPA of SMMA. The board of directors at its meeting held on January 22, 2016 has approved for the same.

The technology for the modification of the PS line and production of SMMA is from Polysty Inc. USA. The cost of the project, including hardware and technology fee is around Rs 6 crore and is met from internal accruals. The plant start up was initially expected by end of 2016 and the estimated payback period is two years.

Supreme Petrochem Ltd., incorporated in the year 1989, is a Mid Cap company (having a market cap of Rs 1140.65 Cr.) operating in petrochemicals sector. Supreme Petrochem Ltd (SPL) is India’s largest producer and exporter of polystyrene polymer based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. In Indian market it has share of more than 50%. SPL is also the largest exporter of PS from India, exporting to over 93 countries around the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Chemicals has been making progress on a petrochemicals complex designed to leverage affordable feedstocks from Northeast US shale-gas plays, as per Plastemart.

The company has been "ramping up construction" at the site in Potter Township, Pennsylvania, in the Pittsburgh area that will produce 1.6 mln m tpa of polyethylene, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a conference call. "We are working our way through regulatory approval," he said. "A lot of site preparation is already done."

Shell has not set a startup date but has previously targeted early 2020s.

The location of the project is unique, as recent waves of US ethylene and polyethylene projects have almost exclusively targeted the US Gulf Coast. The site will represent the largest ethylene and polyethylene capacities in the region, but Shell pointed to significant advantages in the location.

Shell expects to feed the steam cracker with affordable ethane sourced from the Marcellus and Utica shale basins. Additionally, more than 70% of North American polyethylene demand stands within a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh, according to Shell.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in October 2016, Royal Dutch Shell signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran’s National Petrochemical Co. (NPC) for cooperation in the petrochemical industry, the Iranian oil ministry’s news agency SHANA reported.

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.
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