BP to boost U.S. investment after tax reform

MOSCOW (MRC) - British oil and gas company BP will increase investment in the United States after the lowering of tax rates under President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said on Tuesday, as per Reuters.

"It is important for us, there is no doubt we will increase investments," Dudley, himself a U.S. citizen, said in an analyst call after BP reported a surge in profits in 2017.

BP invested USD90 billion in the United States over the past decade, excluding $65 billion in fines and clean up costs over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, making it the country's biggest investor in the energy sector, Dudley said.

"The regulatory system in the United States is suddenly so much easier. It was becoming an avalanche of regulations in every direction," he said. "From a business community stand point this is quite transformational, there will be a lot of capital attracted to the U.S. because of that."

BP took a one-off charge of USD900 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to adjust to new U.S. tax rules, though it expects a long-term boost from the corporate-friendly rates.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Honeywell UOP announced that Qantas Airlines operated a 13,000-km flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia using Honeywell Green Jet Fuel, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The flight was the first between the U.S. and Australia to use this fuel, which was manufactured from Carinata seeds engineered by Agrisoma Biosciences.

Fuel for the flight was produced by AltAir Paramount LLC using Honeywell UOP’s Renewable Jet Fuel™ process technology, which converts non-edible animal fats and oils into renewable fuels. The Carinata seeds used for the fuel are a non-edible industrial mustard seed. They are pressed and yield half their weight in oils that are then refined into jet fuel.

"Honeywell Green Jet Fuel can replace as much as half of the petroleum jet fuel used in flight, without any changes to the aircraft technology, and still meet ASTM specifications,” said Dave Cepla, senior director of Honeywell UOP’s Renewable Energy & Chemicals business. “Depending on the feedstock, this fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65 to 85 percent versus petroleum jet fuel."

Qantas established a partnership with Agrisoma to promote Carinata as a crop for Australian farmers, specifically as a renewable feedstock for making commercial aviation biofuel. The first such commercial seed crop is expected to harvest in 2020.

"Farmers can grow Carinata with the same equipment as wheat and canola, and it can be grown in the off-season to replenish field nutrients,” said Steve Fabijanski President and CEO of Agrisoma. “And while they produce a high oil content, the meal left over from the oil extraction is an excellent high-protein feed for livestock."

AltAir, which converted the Carinata oil into jet fuel, operates the world’s first commercial-scale renewable jet fuel plant at the AltAir Paramount refinery in Paramount, Calif. The plant produces 35 million gallons per year of renewable fuels, including Honeywell Green Jet Fuel, using Honeywell’s UOP Renewable Jet Fuel process, which produces fuels that are chemically identical to petroleum-based fuels. AltAir Paramount is a subsidiary of Alon USA Energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ARLANXEO (JV of Lanxess and Saudi Aramco), one of the world’s leading suppliers of synthetic elastomers, has signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco Products Trading company, headquartered in Dhahran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pertaining to the marketing and sales of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) rubber, as per the company's press release.

By entering into this agreement, ARLANXEO is strategically expanding its activities in the market for EPDM rubbers. ARLANXEO will start to supply the new EPDM grades within the first half of 2018 under its own Keltan trademark with the extension KSA, that represents the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Extending the Keltan portfolio underscores ARLANXEO’s strong commitment to these products. With Keltan and Keltan KSA, ARLANXEO will provide a unique and broad EPDM portfolio in order to serve customers in a comprehensive manner. "Keltan KSA will have its own brand identity and positioning supported by a dedicated organization," explains Jasvinder Kaur, Head of Keltan KSA.

The EPDM Keltan KSA grades will be produced in Rabigh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The EPDM plant in Rabigh is part of a fully integrated chemical complex which operates under the name Petro Rabigh with Saudi Aramco as a shareholder.

"Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company is pleased to partner with ARLANXEO to introduce Keltan KSA, a combination of Petro Rabigh manufacturing strength and ARLANXEO’s global market expertise. This partnership between Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company and ARLANXEO will leverage the highest value for all stakeholders." underlines Muhammad Al-Arfaj, Vice President of Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company.

Christian Widdershoven, member of ARLANXEO’s executive board and Head of the High Performance Elastomers division highlights "Through this agreement, we are further strengthening ARLANXEO’s position as the global supplier for synthetic rubbers in the world market."

EPDM rubbers are used to manufacture seals and hoses in the automotive industry, gaskets and sheeting in the building and construction industry and bulls-eye and seals in the consumer goods industry. EPDM rubbers stand out thanks to their high resistance to water, ozone, UV, heat, and weather. In addition, they offer excellent dynamic properties and a wide temperature range, are extremely flexible, durable, and have outstanding electrical properties.

As MRC wrote previously, ARLANXEO is expanding its global chloroprene rubber (CR) production at the site in Dormagen, Germany. The production capacity there will be increased to as much as 70,000 tons per year overall that will be available to the market already during the first quarter of 2019. ARLANXEO is investing an upper single-digit million in the expansion project overall.

ARLANXEO was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of ARLANXEO are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Japan's Cosmo Energy Holdings said on Friday its subsidiary, Maruzen Petrochemical Co, failed to properly inspect 30 percent of its products for petrochemicals and tyres, the latest quality assurance scandal involving a Japanese company, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Maruzen Petrochemical said it was involved in "inappropriate conduct regarding quality inspection" on 21 products such as propylene and benzene produced at its two factories.

It said it failed to conduct some of the tests and analysis on products that are outlined in contracts with customers.

Maruzen Petrochemical President Masaru Nabeshima told reporters the misconduct had no impact on quality or safety and that it has continued to supply products to customers. The revelation is the latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan's manufacturing industry. Similar lapses have occurred at Kobe Steel and Toray Industries Inc, and incorrect final inspection procedures have been found at automakers Nissan and Subaru.

As of now, it does not appear that any laws have been broken, the company said. The products in question are likely to have been shipped to 121 corporate customers, it said.

President Nabeshima said the company would set up an internal investigative committee to make thorough checks on the issue and come up with measures to prevent their recurrence by around April. Cosmo Energy Holdings has a 52.7 percent voting right in Maruzen Petrochemical. Other major shareholders include Ube Industries, Denka Co and JNC Corp. A Cosmo Energy spokeswoman said some of the products in question had been manufactured by Maruzen's naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant, adding that it had rectified the misconduct by late January. The revelation would not lead to a halt in manufacturing units operated by Maruzen or Cosmo, she said.

Shares in Cosmo Energy fell as much as 10 percent before closing down 2.5 percent, against a 0.9 percent decline in the Nikkei average.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's energy minister and senior executives from Russian oil majors discussed the quality of Russian oil on Tuesday, a day after Reuters reported some European refiners are threatening to cut purchases due to worsening quality, as per Reuters.

The quality of Russia's flagship Urals oil grade was one of the topics on the agenda at a meeting at the energy ministry in Moscow between the executives and the minister, Alexander Novak, the ministry said in a statement. A ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting. A source familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no decision has been taken on how to tackle the worsening quality. The source said though there is concern in the ministry that the quality issues could lead to a drop in the price of Urals.

The meeting at the energy ministry was attended by, among other executives, Vagit Alekperov, president of Russia's No.2 oil producer Lukoil, Vladimir Bogdanov, the head of Russia's third largest oil producer Surgutneftegaz and Pavel Fedorov, a vice president of country's largest oil company Rosneft. Maxim Grishanin, the deputy chief executive of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft was also present, according to a Reuters reporter who was at the ministry.

European refineries which process Russian oil have been complaining about the worsening quality of Urals, including rising sulphur content and higher gravity, making the oil harder to refine. The quality has deteriorated so much that several buyers are reviewing how much they buy and the price they are willing to pay for it, according to traders and sources close to European refiners. Some industry sources linked the drop in quality to rising supplies of the lighter, higher-quality ESPO blend to China.

The oil exported by Russia is a blend of crude cargoes of different chemical compositions, that are mixed inside the domestic pipeline network. If better-quality cargoes are diverted eastwards, that results in a lower aggregate quality being exported to Europe. The worsening quality of Urals has had a negative effect on prices. On Monday, Urals crude differentials in northwest Europe eased to their lowest levels since October on sluggish demand for the grade.
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