Saudi Aramco and other Gulf oil giants seek to invest in India and Kazakhstan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco was said to be seeking to enter exclusive talks on investing in the largest refining project under way in India - revealed in a coincident industry report to have been the world’s fastest-growing crude consumer last year, reported Plastemart.

Meanwhile, petrochemicals-focused Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) has committed to studying projects in Kazakhstan as part of a wider co-operation agreement between Riyadh and Astana.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Investment Co. (MIC) appears set to build on a history of involvement in the key Caspian state forged by the two legacy companies from which the new firm was born last month. It likewise agreed to study petrochemicals investments in the country’s Atyrau downstream hub.
India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed on June 14 that Aramco was requesting exclusivity in negotiations on taking a stake in the estimated US$40 billion refinery and petrochemicals project planned in the western Maharashtra state.

The Saudi firm’s involvement had been discussed for some time but the impetus was increased by the signature on the same day of the joint venture (JV) agreement between the three state firms behind the landmark project - which would create the world’s largest greenfield refinery with capacity of 1.2 million bpd. India Oil Corp. (IOC) will initially hold a 50% stake, with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) owning 25% apiece. "Saudi Aramco is interested to be a partner with the mega-refinery from the early stages of conception to implementation," Pradhan was quoted as saying in the local press.

The project is scheduled for completion by 2022 and is envisaged encompassing a naphtha cracker and aromatics and polymers units. As Pradhan pointed noted during the JV signing ceremony - and as was confirmed by BP’s well-respected Annual Statistical Review of World Energy published the previous day - India is the world’s third largest crude consumer, while the potential for demand growth is evident in per-capita energy consumption of only around 25% of the global average. According to the BP survey, oil consumption surged by 7.8% to 4.5 million bpd in 2016 - more than four times the world average.

Aramco has unsurprisingly named the Asian powerhouse as among the key target geographies in the company’s plan to increase worldwide refining capacity from 5.4 million bpd to 8-10 million bpd by the middle of next decade. The incentive to invest downstream has been intensified by recent conditions of world oversupply of crude and bearish forecasts of long-term future demand. The state firm has also discussed involvement in the expansion of BPCL’s Bina refinery in the central Madhya Pradesh state from 120,000 bpd to 310,000 bpd and in a 1.9 million tpy petrochemicals complex planned in Gujarat in the north-west by state-owned ONGC. SABIC’s proposed venture into Caspian production would be a newer development - and was reported in the Kazakh press as having been agreed during a visit to the Caspian state by Saudi Energy, Industry & Mineral Resources Minister Khalid al-Falih in early June. This reportedly focused mainly on ensuring Astana’s continued commitment to the agreement by a group of major non-OPEC oil producers to reduce crude output in tandem with cuts by the Saudi-dominated cartel’s members.

The Kazakh government promised to trim output by 20,000 bpd from reference production of 1.7 million bpd but is reportedly seeking some recognition of the additional crude coming on stream from the newly commissioned giant Kashagan field, where output is due to roughly double to 370,000 bpd by the end of the year. According to statements carried in the local press, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting between SABIC’s CEO Yousef al-Benyan and Zhenis Osserbay, the chairman of United Chemical Co. (UCC) – the state firm spearheading Astana’s drive to develop the local downstream industry. The deal entails a feasibility study on the development polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and methanol projects at the Atyrau petrochemicals zone on the central Caspian coast.

UCC has been planning for several years to develop a multi-billion dollar polymer complex at the site to process associated gas currently flared from the onshore Tengiz oilfield, further down the west coast.
While the location is novel for SABIC, the company has made landmark moves over the past year towards realisation of longstanding plans for overseas expansion, signing provisional agreements to develop a coal-to-chemicals (CTC) plant in northwestern China and a facility in Texas fed by US shale gas.

Abu Dhabi’s MIC - formally established in early May through the merger of the government’s MDC and International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) - also signed a co-operation agreement with UCC later that month which was said to include studying the joint development of a PE complex in Kazakhstan.

Kazakh officials reported that the deal had been preceded by talks in Vienna - where MIC-owned chemicals giant Borealis and affiliate OMV are based. Both OMV and the former MDC have some upstream experience in the Caspian state - with the former operating four producing onshore fields in the west.

As MRC reported earlier, in late May 2017, Kazakhstan and UAE agreed to prepare a joint project for polyethylene production. Thus, a memorandum on cooperation between the Unified Chemical Company ltd and Mubadala (UAE) was signed on 23 May 2017 in Astana, which will prescribe development of the draft project with technical and economic parameters.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US specialty polymer firms Polytek Development Corp. and California Medical Innovations (CMI) are to merge their businesses, said Polytek.

The combined company will be led by Polytek CEO Jonathan Kane. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"The merger of the two companies creates a portfolio of products for our industries, unmatched by any competitor in the world, with a coast-to-coast presence that allows us to respond more quickly than ever before," Kane said.

The companies said the merger will enhance their performance and provide a stronger nationwide presence. In addition, the collaboration of their R&D departments and sophisticated manufacturing facilities at both locations will offer more opportunities for customized solutions.

Based in Easton, Pennsylvania, Polytek makes specialty polymers, including polyurethane elastomers and casting resins, silicones, epoxies and latex, used primarily in mold-making and casting applications for the industrial, construction, entertainment, fine arts and technology sectors.

CMI of Pomona, California, formulates and compounds latex, plastisols and thermoplastic elastomers for a variety of industries.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The manufacturing approach in the chemicals industry is rapidly changing to meet increasing demand for customized and specialty products over commodity chemicals, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As industry consolidation accelerates to enable manufacturers to expand their product portfolios, rising environment and health regulations will also compel them to identify alternate energy sources for chemical production. As a result, the industry is set to leverage advanced and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-based technologies to create smart factories that boost productivity, safety, innovation, and cost savings in the long term.

Chemicals 4.0—The Era of Digital Process Production, recent research from Frost & Sullivan's Industrial Automation & Process Control Growth Partnership subscription, finds that chemical manufacturers' shift towards digital plants will facilitate the formulation of robust strategic plans and goals through improved visibility and accessibility of the business operations across the chemical value chain. Market majors such as BASF, Dow Chemicals, DuPont, Evonik, Clariant and Akzo-Nobel are leveraging IIoT-based technologies to achieve higher business growth and explore new revenue streams through product innovation such as smart chemical products.

"Despite limited capital spend, there is a rise in brownfield projects where chemicals manufacturers invest in advanced automation, modular and smart technologies," said Frost & Sullivan Industrial Automation & Process Control Research Analyst Kiravani Emani. "With information and operational technology (IT-OT) convergence, manufacturers can utilize key IIoT technologies, such as smart sensors, cloud, Big Data, and analytics, to facilitate detailed assessment of chemical processes, performance of assets and equipment, and, importantly, control operations."

Geographically, the once dominant chemical industry in Europe is losing share to emerging countries in Asia, mainly China and India. As a result, investments in manufacturing plants and research centers are also shifting to the region. North America's chemical industry, on the other hand, is taking advantage of abundant feedstock from shale gas explorations to reduce raw material costs and dependency on trade imports.

"Chemical giants in partnership with government bodies are actively promoting and investing in digital technologies, especially in advanced countries," noted Emani. "This trend will gradually echo in other countries, promoting local manufacturing and boosting overall chemical industry growth."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EU antitrust regulators said that they had cleared German chemical company Evonik's planned USD630 million purchase of U.S. company Huber Corp's silica business, said Reuters.

The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 28-nation European Union, expressed concern earlier on over the relatively high market share the merged entity would have in precipitated silica, used in tires, toothpaste, defoamers, paints and coatings.

The companies have offered to divest Evonik's precipitated silica business for dental applications in Europe, Middle East and Africa and Huber Silica's precipitated silica business for defoamer applications and its hydrophobic precipitated silica business in Europe.

The Commission said that the merger, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns.

The transaction was originally notified to the Commission on 27 April 2017.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — China has opened more than 6,000 trading accounts for its long-awaited crude futures contract—with three-quarters coming from individual traders—as it pushes ahead with plans to compete with global pricing benchmarks, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

China's oil majors and about 150 brokerages have also registered, but the strong interest by 'mom-and-pop' investors looks set to mark out China's crude futures from western counterparts, which are dominated by institutional investors.

Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), which will run China's contract, says it is finalizing technical issues. The contract has faced years of delays and there is still no set date, but INE and also trading participants now say a launch this year is almost certain.

"The INE is striving to launch the crude oil futures within this year," a spokeswoman said, adding that the exchange has conducted four trials to ensure it is technically ready.

Oil futures trading volume is small during Asian hours despite the region's role as the world's top consumer. Shanghai's crude futures are aimed at giving China more clout in pricing crude in Asia and a share of the trillions of dollars in oil futures trade.

The INE hopes to attract foreign investors, and locally registered entities of JPMorgan and UBS are among those registered, although international players have raised concerns, including denomination in yuan, that may dampen early take-up.

Most oil trades are priced off two crude derivatives, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and London's Brent, traded on the Intercontinental Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) owned by CME Group.

Earlier attempts to establish an Asian derivative crude contract by Singapore and Tokyo foundered. The only liquid crude futures in the region is the Oman contract on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.
MRC