Former Mexico oil chief denies taking bribes from Odebrecht

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The former head of Mexican state oil company Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, "categorically denied" allegations he received USD10 MM in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for awarding the Brazilian company a contract at a refinery, reported Reuters.

Brazil's O Globo newspaper at the weekend reported documents alleging that former Odebrecht executive Luis Alberto de Meneses Weyll said bribes were paid from 2012 in return for a contract at Mexico's Tula refinery.

Lozoya, who resigned as Pemex president in 2016, posted on Twitter late on Sunday that he had never participated in corrupt practices, calling the allegations "absolutely false."

"Supposing there were accusations against me by confessed criminals, it is important to mention at least that these people can say anything in exchange for a reduced sentence," he wrote in a letter appearing on his Twitter account.

Since settling in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland for a record USD3.5 B, Odebrecht has sought to negotiate leniency deals that would allow it to keep operating in other countries across Latin America.

Odebrecht admitted in the settlement with US and Brazilian prosecutors to paying bribes across 12 countries to win contracts, including USD10.5 MM in Mexico.

As MRC informed earlier, last week, Pemex began to restart its propylene production at two of its refineries as it brought key processing units back online. Pemex restarted a fluid catalytic cracker at its Salina Cruz refinery in Oaxaca, which was shut following a June 14 fire. Pemex's Minatitlan refinery in Veracruz saw the first of two FCC units come back online August 5, and the second unit restarted on August 12. The Minatitlan units had been offline for maintenance, the source previously said.

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).
MRC

MeadCo launches ScriptX 8.0 for the oil and gas industry

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UK company MeadCo launched ScriptX 8.0 to the oil and gas industry. ScriptX provides consistent printing of daily reports, equipment lists and all critical documents, both on and off shore, from Internet Explorer, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With Microsoft now only providing technical support and security updates to the most current version of Internet Explorer, MeadCo has moved to provide ScriptX 8.0, designed specifically for use on Microsoft's newest edition, IE 11.

MeadCo foresees that many of its customers in the oil and gas industry may choose to update to IE 11 on all their client PCs and wants its own offering to reflect the very latest technology. However, MeadCo will continue to provide technical support, bug fixes and security updates to users of ScriptX on earlier versions of IE. Alongside this, MeadCo will continue active development of ScriptX 8.0 for IE11.

The key benefits of the ScriptX product, according to the company, are ensuring consistent formatting and appearance of the printed output of browser-hosted content from any local or networked printer. This is regardless of the printing configurations already set in each individual computer's Internet Explorer (IE) browser. This means that HTML and PDF forms, certification documents, daily reports, equipment lists can be printed correctly from all devices.

The new aspects in the ScriptX 8.0 release include the main installers being dramatically reduced in size and the introduction of a new ability to control the smallest scale factor.
MRC

Petronas agrees to divest 10% stake in PL9SB JV to PTTGL Investment

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas has signed an agreement to sell a 10% equity interest in Petronas LNG 9 Sdn Bhd (PL9SB) to PTTGL Investment Ltd. (PTTGLI), as per Apic-online.

PL9SB, a subsidiary of Petronas, began commercial operations in January at its ninth liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction train at Petronas' LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia.

The 3.6-million-t/y state-of-the-art train increased ca-pacity at the Petronas LNG complex to approximately 30-million t/y.

Following PTTGLI's acquisition of a 10% stake, Petronas will own 80% of PL9SB and JX Nippon Oil & Energy will continue to hold a 10% interest, through its Nippon Oil Finance subsidiary.

PTTGLI is a subsidiary of PTT Global LNG Co. Ltd., which is a 50-50 joint venture of PTT Public Co. Ltd. (PTT) and PTT Exploration and Production Public Co. Ltd.

Petronas LNG Ltd. (PLL) and PTT signed a LNG sale and purchase agreement in May, under which PLL will deliver up to 1.2-million t/y of LNG to PTT for a period of 15 years until 2031.

As MRC wrote previously, Petronas said in early 2017 that its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019. Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

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

Amec Foster wins technology contract for gas-to-liquid plant in Uzbekistan


MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amec Foster Wheeler has secured a contract to deliver hydrogen plant technology and design and Terrace Wall steam reformer technologies for Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company’s OLTIN YO’L GTL (gas-to-liquid) plant in the Kashkadarya Region of Uzbekistan, said Hydrocarbons-technology.

Under the contract secured from Hyundai Engineering, Amec will offer materials supply for a Terrace Wall steam reformer heater at the plant, which is currently under construction. Work to be taken up comprises the basic design engineering for the 37,100 normal cubic metres per hour (Nm?/h) hydrogen unit.

In addition, Amec will provide engineering and procurement for the steam reformer heater, as well as site advisory services.

The company is currently engaged in the engineering phase for the plant's steam reformer, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of next year.

"This award confirms the impressive performance of Amec Foster Wheeler’s hydrogen technology, as well as the proven advantages of our Terrace Wall steam reformers."

Amec Foster Wheeler technology, consultancy and fired heaters vice-president Andy Hemingway said: “This award confirms the impressive performance of Amec Foster Wheeler’s hydrogen technology, as well as the proven advantages of our Terrace Wall steam reformers.

"The combination of Terrace Wall reformers’ capital cost-competitiveness, energy consumption efficiency, very high reliability and compact ‘footprint’, ideal where space is limited, especially within existing facilities, is a compelling value proposition for our customers."

Through the contract, Amec Foster aims to extend its technology offerings, including its hydrogen production and unique Terrace Wall steam reformer technologies. Hyundai Engineering was appointed as the engineering procurement and construction contractor for Uzbekneftegaz’s gas-to-liquids plant.
MRC

China refinery runs at 10-mth low amid inventory glut

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese oil refineries operated in July at their lowest daily rates since September 2016, official data showed on Monday, to ease brimming inventories as state-owned oil giants faced off independents in a retail petrol price war, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, processed 45.5 MMt of crude in July, or 10.71 MMbpd, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed.

This is 0.4% higher than a year ago but down about 500,000 bpd from June.

The drop in China's refinery runs and further indications of ample fuel supplies raised concerns about its oil demand in months ahead, knocking back global crude benchmark Brent on Monday and holding it just over USD52/bbl.

"Runs were slightly below our expectation, as fuel demand growth remained tepid and stocks were brimming," said Harry Liu, a downstream consultant with IHS Markit.

Faced with fierce competition from independent oil processors, who added to the product overhang, the biggest state refiner, Sinopec, lowered its runs in the third quarter after running at hefty rates in the first half of the year, Reuters has reported.

Sinopec also reduced its third-party purchases from the independents from June, leading the smaller operators to scale back production as well, Liu said.

Amid the glut of refined fuel products, Sinopec and state-owned rival PetroChina have been waging a retail price war against the independents known as "teapots" at the nation's petrol stations. The competition for sales started in late March and by June had spread beyond the most heavily oversupplied provinces in the north.

For the first seven months of the year, refinery output was up 2.9% from the same period of 2016 at 320.7 MMt, or 11.04 MMbpd, the NBS data showed.

The data also showed domestic crude oil output fell 2.9% last month versus a year ago to 16.25 MMt, or 3.83 MMbpd. That was down from June at 3.94 MMbpd.

Crude output during January–July was down 4.8% from a year ago to 112.79 MMt, or 3.88 MMbpd.

Natural gas production expanded 14.7% in July from last year to 11.7 Bcm. For the first seven months of 2017, natural gas output gained 8.8% on year to 85.8 Bcm, according to the NBS data.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels. Sinopec's upgrades come as China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, is embracing more stringent fuel standards in its battle against pollution and suffering an overall glut in refining capacity. After the upgrades, the total refining capacity of the four refining sites will reach 130 MMtpy, or 2.6 MMbpd, while ethylene capacity will reach 9 MMtpy, Sinopec said.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC