ELIX Polymers renews its EcoVadis GOLD CSR certification with the highest rating

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chemical company ELIX Polymers has renewed its EcoVadis GOLD level Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) certification in the ranking published by EcoVadis, an independent rating agency specialising in sustainable development and performance control, as per the company's press release.

The company obtained its first certification in 2017, with the highest level of recognition, and in 2019, following the renewal audit, it again achieved the GOLD level, increasing its rating by 8 points with respect to 2017.

This is the highest level currently awarded by EcoVadis, following an exhaustive evaluation based on a system which rates 21 criteria that follow international CSR standards, such as the Global Compact, the International Labour Organisation, the Global Reporting Initiative and the ISO 26000 standard.

The overall result obtained by ELIX Polymers places the company head and shoulders above its competitors, making it one of the 2% of evaluated companies with the highest score. EcoVadis evaluates 20,000 manufacturers from 99 countries and in 150 different business sectors. The evaluation consists of 4 scores that assess the company’s milestones and development in areas related to the environment, social/human rights, ethics/fair business practices and supply chain, thus reflecting the performance of ELIX Polymers in CSR.

Judith Banus, Head of the Corporate Social Responsibility Programme at ELIX Polymers, commented: "We are proud to have obtained this award, which acknowledges the effort made by the different areas of the company to improve sustainability management".

ELIX Polymers is firmly committed to corporate social responsibility and puts all its effort into maintaining a strategic sustainable management line that enables us to obtain prestigious certifications such as EcoVadis Gold.

As MRC reported earlier, ELIX Polymers announced a new investment amounting to EUR4 million, whose objective is to optimize its ABS powder production facilities. The company began executing this new project in 2018, which it will continue to develop and consolidate throughout the year of 2019.

ELIX Polymers is one of the most important manufacturers of ABS resins and derivatives in Europe, with 40 years of experience in engineering plastics and an installed capacity of 180,000/year from their plant in Tarragona (Spain) to the world. The operation starts in 1975, when the Tarragona ABS and SAN production plant was inaugurated.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cyberhawk, a world leader in drone inspection technologies and visualization software for UAV data, has signed a global teaming agreement with John Zink Hamworthy Combustion (JZHC), a world-leading authority on flares, burners and emissions control and a pioneer in smart combustion solutions, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Cyberhawk will be supporting JZHC with aerial inspections of industrial assets and comprehensive inspection reporting worldwide. JZHC and Cyberhawk inspection engineers will collaborate to analyze and assess all integrity aspects of UAV flare inspection data, with JZHC providing operational, remediation and/or replacement recommendations. A complete and comprehensive report will be presented to the customer following each inspection.

JZHC designs some of the world’s most advanced flaring and combustion systems. Decades of research and development are incorporated into every flare design to provide unsurpassed reliability, safety, efficiency and cost effectiveness. With the advent of safer, more reliable live UAV flare inspections over the last decade, operators now expect to see aerial solutions offered as part of these solutions.

Since completing the first drone flare inspection in 2010, Cyberhawk is the only global UAV inspection company which has inspected more than 800 flares, consisting of both onshore and offshore, in over 30 countries.

Over the last decade, the use of drones for industrial asset inspections has grown significantly. The ability to inspect in-service flares can eliminate millions of dollars of OPEX from a company’s bottom line. Detection and monitoring of changes to an operational flare system could potentially avoid future unplanned shutdowns because of the early detection. These dollars can be better served through upgrading systems and/or designing preventative UAV inspection programs.

The safety risks presented by traditional access methods are also eliminated, including working at significant heights and in a potentially hazardous industrial environment.

While using drone-mounted cameras to capture detailed visual and thermal data, typical components inspected include the flare tip, pilot burners, stack, ladders, platforms, molecular seal and steam lines. The imagery obtained is analyzed and recommendations are provided. This lends to better maintenance planning and decision-making processes for the customer. For instance, preparing accurate turnaround workscopes and supporting scheduling and the sourcing of labor.

Cyberhawk has teamed-up with JZHC to provide expert analysis of flare inspection imagery. JZHC’s decades of experience in flare solutions will enhance Cyberhawk’s already world class inspection reports. In many cases, the inspection imagery can indicate operational anomalies. By analyzing Cyberhawk’s imagery, JZHC may be able to identify and recommend proactive actions to mitigate operational issues before they result in punitive regulatory action.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell announced a first-of-its-kind technology integration with Intel that will enable new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in its MAXPRO® connected security platform, said the company.

The new security platform, which will support MAXPRO Network Video Recorders (NVR) and Video Management Systems (VMS), will incorporate Intel® Vision products that enable advanced analytics, deep learning and facial recognition capabilities. These greatly enhanced security solutions will drive cost and time savings by significantly reducing false alarms and will meet compliance requirements such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through identity anonymization.

"Ensuring the security of commercial buildings and the safety of those within them has always been Honeywell's top priority," said Pete Lau, President, Commercial Security, Honeywell. "With emerging technology like analytics, facial recognition and deep learning, Honeywell and Intel are connecting buildings and protecting people like never before."

Advances in security and surveillance technology have increased demand for high-definition video and imaging offered by Internet Protocol (IP) cameras. The video surveillance global market is estimated to exceed $68 billion by 2023. At the same time, the technology to properly process the surge in vision data has lagged. End users require a solution that combines both building security and IT systems to address the challenge.

The integration of Intel Vision Products into the Honeywell MAXPRO NVR and VMS products will result in solutions that enhance site security and operator productivity. These integrated, customizable products will accelerate the processing time of each video stream and increase the number of cameras that can stream in real time through a single device. The adoption of Intel® Vision Accelerator Design products will provide Honeywell's security offerings with advanced AI capabilities with computational efficiency, allowing them to analyze video data with improved detection accuracy.

"With rapid advances in AI technology fueled by the influx of enormous amounts of visual data, our customers are presented with powerful new opportunities in multiple areas including edge video analytics and security," said Jonathan Ballon, Vice President, Intel Internet of Things Group. "The Honeywell MAXPRO solution, powered by Intel Vision Products, allows customers to process and analyze visual data in near real-time to make decisions faster, drive faster time to results and help ensure secure buildings, campus environments and banking institutions."

Beyond the software and hardware integrations, the partnership will also leverage the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO™ toolkit, which fast tracks the development of computer vision and deep learning inference into vision applications. Through the toolkit, end users can accelerate computer vision performance, shorten vision solution development, and streamline deep learning inference and deployment.

The toolkit's deep learning capabilities will support Honeywell's Face Recognition analytics, providing another layer of detail in the software that allows it to learn faces of known entities in an organization. The software is also capable of removing face recognition data it doesn't recognize in compliance with GDPR requirements.

Honeywell will join the Intel IoT Solutions Alliance (ISA) and participate in Intel IoT RFP Ready Kits. A global organization comprised of more than 250 technology companies, ISA is dedicated to the development of scalable IoT and machine internet solutions. Intel IoT RFP Ready Kits are focused technology offerings that solve a class of market problems, have been deployed and tested in the field, and provide bundled hardware, software and support. The technology is designed to grow with customer requirements.

Honeywell MAXPRO and Face Recognition are among a suite of vision security solutions alongside Xtralis LoiterTrace, an image analysis tool that identifies and tracks suspicious activity, and Xtralis IntrusionTrace, a video analytics program for real-time intrusion detection. The solutions suite is ideal for high traffic, sensitive environments including enterprise campuses, pharmaceutical companies, and banking and financial institutions.

Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) is a global business with more than 23,000 employees. HBT creates products, software and technologies found in more than 10 million buildings worldwide.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The amount of oil in storage in Alberta rose in February, monthly data shows, despite moves by the government of Canada’s largest crude-producing province to reduce inventories by imposing curtailments on production, reported Reuters.

The reason is a sharp decline in crude by rail shipments, analysts say. A significantly narrower discount on Canadian crude compared with US barrels as a result of the curtailments has made rail shipments uneconomic.

Alberta had 72 million barrels of oil in inventories at the end of February, according to data from the Alberta Energy Regulator, an increase of 3.9 million barrels from the end of January. That means during the first two months of the year storage inventories only dropped by 2.3 million barrels.

"The balancing act for the government is a very steep task because they have to manage all these variables," said Mike Walls, senior crude oil analyst with Genscape. "The government did not expect rail would drop off as steeply as it did and that’s had a dampening effect" on inventory draws.

The AER reports all the crude stored in infrastructure in Alberta, including pipelines and refineries, as well as the main tank farms, which means its inventory totals are often much higher than that of other information providers like Genscape.

Alberta is in the midst of a general election campaign, and Cheryl Oates, spokeswoman for the ruling New Democratic Party’s campaign, said the government used data from a third-party energy data firm to track crude storage levels.

"That data shows that storage is down since the curtailment policy took effect in January and has been more or less stable since February," Oates said. "We are watching storage data closely to ensure it remains below capacity."

The province last year imposed mandatory production cuts, effective Jan. 1, 2019, after the congestion on export pipelines pushed the discount on Canadian heavy crude versus US barrels to record levels. Premier Rachel Notley said at the time the province had 16 million barrels too many in storage.

Canadian crude by rail volumes hit a record high of 354,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December, according to Canadian regulator the National Energy Board, before declining.

Canadian producer Imperial Oil blasted the government for making rail uneconomic and cut shipments from nearly 170,000 bpd to near zero in February. Imperial said last week it has restarted shipping a small amount.

Genscape’s Walls said that from a price perspective curtailments are working, but fundamental data suggested the discount on Canadian barrels should be wider.

Canadian heavy crude was last trading around $8.20 per barrel below West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude, according to Net Energy Exchange. Traders in Calgary say a price differential of around USD15 a barrel between Canadian and US barrels is needed to make rail economic.

“At around USD10 a barrel off WTI for April delivery and around USD9 a barrel off WTI for May delivery, pricing incentives generally aren’t on board to draw barrels from storage on rail,” they wrote,” analysts at TPH Energy Research said in a recent note.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Reliance Industries , operator of the world's largest oil refining complex, has issued a statement that it was not breaching US sanctions against Venezuela, reported Reuters.

The company said that its recent fuel exports to Venezuela were agreed before Washington imposed sanctions in January, and that they were meant to settle Reliance's crude oil imports from Venezuela. The company added that, it has been in "continuous communication with the US Department of State regarding its activities in Venezuela" since the imposition of sanctions.

The Reliance statement came a day after Reuters reported that the conglomerate is selling fuels to Venezuela from India and Europe to sidestep sanctions that bar US-based companies from dealing with state-run PDVSA, according to trading sources and Refinitiv Eikon data.

"Reliance's few transportation fuel shipments to Venezuela, treated as offsets for crude oil receipts, were committed and in-transit when there were no specific restrictions to such transactions. They were all fuels refined in India," it said in a statement.

Reliance had been supplying alkylate, diluent naphtha and other fuel to Venezuela through its US-based subsidiary before Washington imposed the sanctions aimed at curbing the OPEC member's oil exports and ousting Socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Reliance, the Indian conglomerate controlled by billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani, has significant exposure to the financial system of the United States, where it operates subsidiaries linked to its oil and telecom businesses, among others.

Additional sanctions against Venezuela are possible in the future, as US President Donald Trump's administration has not yet tried to prevent companies based outside the United States from buying Venezuelan oil.

Reliance said it had been transparent with U.S. authorities and provided detailed feedback to Washington as they were formulating and adjusting policy regarding product shipments to Venezuela.

"Reliance not only has complied with US sanctions laws, but also has done its best to adjust its dealings with Venezuela on a voluntary basis to reflect the ongoing changes in US policy," the statement added.

Reliance reiterated that it has stopped shipments of diluent naphtha to Venezuela, and has reduced its purchases of Venezuelan crude oil to well below its contracted levels.

In 2012, Reliance signed a 15-year deal to buy between 300,000 to 400,000 bpd of heavy crude from PDVSA. Ship tracking data show that Reliance's average purchases from Venezuela were less than 300,000 bpd in 2018 and in the first two months of this year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in late February 2019, Saudi Aramco’s Chief Executive Officer Amin Nassar said that the company is in talks with India’s Reliance Industries Ltd for possible investments and is seeking other opportunities in the country.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company produces polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and other petrochemical products.
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