BHP petroleum exit shows oil and gas may follow coal's path to toxic status

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The market hasn't exactly cheered BHP Group's proposed exit from its oil and gas business, with shares of both the mining giant and the acquirer, Woodside Petroleum, tumbling in the wake of deal, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A point of concern for investors is that BHP may have sold the assets too cheaply, and that getting only Woodside shares as payment is less than desirable. While there is likely some element of truth in this, investors may be missing the wider point of the deal, which will create a $29 billion oil and gas company after all.

It's likely that this deal signals that the era of paying premiums to acquire oil and gas assets is over. From now on, companies seeking to offload these type of assets will be forced to accept ever-diminishing prices. BHP's Sydney-listed shares dropped 8.4% in the two days after the deal was announced on Aug. 17 to close at AD47.70 (USD34.44) on Wednesday. Woodside slid 4.2% in the same time period to end at AD20.29.

The pullback continued in early trade on Thursday, with BHP again down, as much as 6.2%, and Woodside dropping as much as 2.6%. To be sure, there were other reasons for BHP's stock to retreat. For one, there's the ongoing slump in the spot price of iron ore, the commodity that generates the most revenue for the world's biggest mining company.

It's also possible that some investors may have sought to take profits after BHP on Tuesday reported its strongest earnings since 2012. But if some BHP stockholders are feeling hard done by, perhaps they should reflect on another asset the Melbourne-based miner is trying to sell.

BHP has had its Mount Arthur thermal coal mine in Australia's New South Wales state up for sale for more than a year. It still hasn't found a suitable buyer. At this stage it's like that BHP might even pay somebody to take the mine, the biggest in New South Wales, off its hands, given the company slashed the value of the asset on Wednesday from a value of about A$550 million to a liability of AD275 million (USD198 million), the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Just seven months ago the Mount Arthur mine was valued at more than AD2 billion by BHP. The massive writedown in value has come despite the price of Australian thermal coal rising to the highest in 13 years. The Newcastle Weekly Index, the benchmark thermal coal price, has more than tripled since its 2020 low of USD46.37 a tonne, reaching USD168.71 in the week to Aug. 13, according to assessments by commodity price reporting agency Argus. While there are costs associated with rehabilitation that any buyer would have to bear, the fact that BHP can't seem to find a buyer for Mount Arthur in the best market for thermal coal since 2008 is telling.

As per MRC, BP acquired US shale assets from BHP Billiton for USD10.5 billion in the largest deal since the 1999 acquisition of Atlantic Richfield oil company. British oil and gas company BP bought US shale assets owned by mining company BHP Billiton.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil said a small debris fire near an out-of-service tank was quickly extinguished at its 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery, reported Reuters.

"There were no injuries ... we continue to meet contractual commitments," the company said in a statement posted online.

Exxon locked out 650 workers at the Beaumont refinery and an adjoining lube oil plant on May 1 and is operating the refinery with managers, supervisors and temporary workers.

As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced that their joint venture, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached mechanical completion of a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit and two polyethylene (PE) units. Project startup is expected to begin ahead of schedule, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.

MEG is commonly used in the manufacturing of polyesters and automotive coolants, and as a building block to create various forms of high-performance plastics. PE is commonly used in protective film, packaging and bottles and containers that prolong the shelf-life of food and medicines, as well as in various automotive parts that improve fuel efficiency and performance, and in medical applications.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel will retire at the end of 2021, the major US producer announced.

Bhavesh V. (Bob) Patel, CEO of Houston-based chemical supplier LyondellBasell Industries, will retire on Dec. 31. Patel, 53, will continue to lead the firm until that time and “will ensure a smooth and orderly transition for his successor,” company officials said in an Aug. 25 news release.

Patel will also resign from the company’s board of directors on Dec. 31. The news release also said the board has established a sub-committee that will oversee the search for a new CEO “and will consider both internal and external candidates."

"Under Bob’s leadership, LyondellBasell has successfully expanded our global portfolio, increased our earnings power, delivered strong cash flows and consistently raised our quarterly dividend,” said Jacques Aigrain, board chair. “We are extremely proud of his commitment to driving sustainability at LyondellBasell, where we have set an ambitious goal to produce and market two million metric tons of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030. Bob’s leadership in this area is exemplified by the company’s actions as a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an organization which helps address plastic waste in the environment."

Patel joined LyondellBasell in March 2010 and was appointed CEO in January 2015. Since that time, the news release said, the firm has grown through a series of strategic global investments, including the acquisition of A. Schulman, the construction of manufacturing plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the establishment of new or expanded joint ventures in the U.S., China, Korea and Thailand.

"We have built a strong operational foundation, achieved significant growth, and continue to have a favorable outlook,” Patel said. “After almost 12 years at the company, the time has come for me to move to the next chapter of my career, and my decision is made easier given the strength of the company and the highly experienced, capable leadership team that is in place."

As MRC reported earlier, LyondellBasell said in early August it was restarting the polymers and olefins units at its La Porte, Texas, facility following an acetic acid leak on 27 July, 2021, that killed two people. Both units are located in other parts of the La Porte site.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq approved a plan by BP to spin off its operations in Iraq into a standalone company, a cabinet statement said, as the British oil major looks to shift focus to low carbon investments, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new company, Basra Energy Ltd., would hold BP's interest in Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field and be jointly owned by China National Petroleum Corp, one of BP's partners at the site.

As MRC reported before, BP and Lukoil want to quit their Iraqi energy projects due to the current investment environment, the country's oil minister said earlier this month, as OPEC's second biggest producer faces an exodus of international oil companies that want to exit unattractive contracts. Lukoil wants to sell its stake in West Qurna 2 to Chinese companies.

We remind that Russian energy major Lukoil (Moscow) is studying several potential petrochemical projects in Russia and Bulgaria, with investment decisions expected to be made on two of them in 2021.

Thus, Lukoil announced an investment decision in June, 2019, to proceed with a 500,000-metric tons/year polypropylene (PP) plant at its Kstovo refinery. In September this year it selected Lummus Technology’s Novolen PP technology and basic design engineering for the facility’s production unit. Kstovo is one of Lukoil’s largest crude refineries in Russia with a throughput of 17 million metric tons/year, with the company recently adding a catalytic cracking unit that almost doubled the refinery’s production of propylene feedstock to 300,000 metric tons/year.

At Budennovsk in Russia’s far south west, the company’s Stavrolen petchems complex currently has the capacity to produce 350,000 metric tons/year of ethylene, 300,000 metric tons of polyethylene (PE), 120,000 metric tons/year of PP, and 80,000 metric tons of benzene. Lukoil has for several years been considering construction of a new gas chemicals plant at Stavrolen to crack more ethane extracted from associated petroleum gas produced by its oil and gas fields in the north of the Caspian Sea. The potential new plant would raise Stavrolen’s ethylene and PE output to around 600,000 metric tons/year each, and increase PP production to 200,000 metric tons/year.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lukoil announces the start of a catalytic cracking complex construction project at the Perm refinery, said the company.

The project is implemented under an agreement with the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation on providing an investment incentive as part of the negative excise tax on refinery feedstock until January 1, 2031.

The feedstock capacity of the complex will be 1.8 million tonnes per year. The complex will include a catalytic cracking unit, a high-octane gasoline components unit and infrastructure facilities. A distinctive feature of the new complex will be the high adjustable propylene yield.

The complex is planned to be launched in 2026, which will allow to increase production of high-octane motor gasolines and to start production of polymer grade propylene to be used as a feedstock at Lukoil's petrochemical facilities.

Lukoil completed the core Russian refineries upgrade program in 2016, with investments exceeding USD10 billion. Lukoil was the first Russian company to start producing exclusively Euro-5 compliant gasolines and diesel fuel and to fulfil conditions of the Russian Refineries Upgrade Program under quadripartite agreements between the Russian authorities and vertically integrated oil companies. The Company continues upgrading its refineries in Russia. In 2021, Lukoil finished construction of a high-viscosity index lubricants production complex in Volgograd, commissioned PENEX isomerisation unit and a polymer-bitumen binders production unit at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery. A delayed coker unit is planned to be launched at the Nizhny Novgorod refinery before the end of 2021.

As per MRC, Lukoil plans to invest USD3 billion in production of petrochemicals within the next 6 years. Lukoil has put the unit's annual production capacity at 800,000 tonnes. It will help Lukoil to boost production of gasoline by 400,000 tonnes per year.

As MRC informed earlier, Stavrolen (Budennovsk, part of Lukoil), a major polyolefins producer in the Russian Federation, plans to upgrade its technical equipment and to increase its production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) as part of modernization.

As reported earlier, in the first week of September 2020, Stavrolen resumed PP production after a forced and long outage due to technical problems. In fact, the plant did not produce PP since 16 July.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Stavrolen produced slightly over 11,000 tonnes of PP in April versus 10,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Budenovsk plant"s overall output of propylene polymers reached 42,900 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 4% year on year.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include operations for exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest private oil company worldwide by the proven hydrocarbon reserves. Lukoil"s structure includes one of the largest Russian petrochemical plant - Stavrolen.
MRC