Mitsubishi looks to sell products terminal and trading arm in California

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Corp is looking to sell a fuel terminal that provides transportation fuels which meet California's stringent emissions requirements, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters .

The company is working with Ernst and Young's energy advisory group to market its 600,000-bbl Petro-Diamond terminal in Long Beach, California, and its corresponding fuel trading division, the sources said. Mitsubishi is seeking either a joint venture partner for Petro-Diamond or an outright sale, the sources added.

The terminal is the only U.S. refined products asset owned by Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest trading house by sales. Mitsubishi previously had a sizable trading operation in Singapore, also named Petro-Diamond (PDS). The company began winding down in 2020 after it said a PDS trader had lost USD320 MM in unauthorized transactions in crude oil derivatives.

Mitsubishi could still scrap the sale of the U.S. terminal if it fails to find a suitable buyer, they said. A target valuation for Petro-Diamond could not be determined. EY and Mitsubishi did not return requests for comment. PetroDiamond was formed in 1983 and markets and distributes on-spec transportation fuels in Southern California including CARB gasoline, low sulfur diesel, ethanol and marine fuels.

Last year, an executive order required that by 2035 all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles, and that the state reduce the dirtiest forms of oil extraction. Royal Dutch Shell Plc has been looking for a buyer for Aera, its California-based oil and gas-producing joint venture with Exxon Mobil Corp, Reuters reported in July.

As per MRC, Mitsubishi Corp will invest 2 trillion yen (USD17.54 B) by 2030 in alternative energies such as renewables and hydrogen to drive its decarbonization efforts and cut emissions. Mitsubishi, a trading house and mineral resources company with energy and metals assets worldwide, aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 on 2020 levels, and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, it said in a statement.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- MOL Group, a multinational Oil & Gas and petrochemicals company, has selected Antea’s risk based inspection (RBI) and inspection data management software (IDMS) for the asset integrity management (AIM) of an upstream plant and processing facility, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Antea was chosen due to its extensive software functionality, robust RBI and IDMS offerings, competitive price-point, value-added customer service and the professionalism of its team.

Antea AIM software provides MOL with the ability to visualize asset health with the click of a button, and to manage all maintenance, inspection, and testing activity data in one comprehensive digital database - all while improving safety, reliability, environmental responsibility of the sites and reducing cost of ownership.

“We are proud of the trust placed in us by such a global leader in petrochemicals and Oil & Gas,” said Franco Gambato, Sales Director of Antea. “We look forward to facilitating prolonged asset life, reduced risk, and greatly enhanced profitability for these MOL sites.”

As MRC reported earlier, The MOL transformation story began in 2016 when it was one of the first within the oil and gas sector to admit that there were gloomy days ahead and that it was essential to begin the transformation. To plot out the path to a low-carbon future, the company published MOL Group 2030+. Five years after the launch of that transformation plan, the Hungarian energy company has revised its goals with an updated strategy.

We remind that in March 2021, MOL became a biofuel producer through the realization of an investment in the Danube Refinery. Bio feedstock will be co-processed together with fossil materials increasing the renewable share of fuels and reducing up to 200,000 tons /year CO2 emission without negatively affecting fuel quality.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

MOL is the largest Hungarian oil, gas and petrochemical group, engaged in exploration and production, transportation of hydrocarbons, as well as the operation of a network of trunk gas pipelines. TVK is a 100% subsidiary of MOL. TVK manufactures HDPE, LDPE, and PP.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said its board has approved the creation of a new subsidiary to sell petroleum products, gas and petrochemicals domestically, said Reuters.

Pemex Chief Financial Officer Alberto Velazquez will head the new subsidiary and Antonio Lopez, deputy director of financial risk management and insurance, will step into his role, Pemex said. "This proposal advances the structural changes that Pemex's management has been implementing in order to strengthen the most important productive company in the country," the company said in a statement.

Pemex said the move was aimed at seeking a bigger share of the local market and would not lead to higher costs for the company. Reforms spearheaded by Mexico's previous administration opened up the country's energy sector to foreign and private producers, but President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government has battled to roll these back. Lopez Obrador has said he wants to revive both Pemex and state power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad. In July, he said Pemex would distribute gas to consumers.

The American Petroleum Institute, a top U.S. oil lobby, recently raised concerns about Lopez Obrador's energy policies, arguing they undermined investor confidence and violated Mexico's trade commitments.

As MRC informed before, Pemex Petroquimica, a subsidiary of the Mexican state oil company Pemex, has resumed production of high-density polyethylene (LDPE) on line 2 in Cangrejera, Mexico after an unscheduled renovation. Earlier it was noted that Pemex postponed the restart of the second line with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year for the production of LDPE until August 10. It was originally planned that the launch of this production will begin at the end of July. The line was closed on 10 July.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is a Mexican state-owned oil and gas and petrochemical company. Since the nationalization of the Mexican oil industry in 1938, Pemex has remained a state-owned company and, by law, has exclusive rights to explore and produce oil in the country. Almost 60% of the company's revenues go to the state budget. Petrochemical products include, but are not limited to, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings said on Wednesday it would spin off its petrochemical and carbon operations, at a time when Japan moves to reduce GHG emissions, reported Reuters.

The company did not clarify if the businesses would be sold to a third party or become its subsidiaries, but said in a statement that the operations would be carved out by fiscal 2023.

The statement outlined a new vision for the company and said its plan was part of a bid to "spearhead the reorganization of the domestic basic chemicals industry".

Japan is aiming to cut carbon emissions by 46% by 2030, and become a carbon neutral society by 2050.

As MRC wrote before, Mitsubishi Corp will invest 2 trillion yen (USD17.54 B) by 2030 in alternative energies such as renewables and hydrogen to drive its decarbonization efforts and cut emissions.

We remind that in September 2021, Mitsubishi Corp and Shell Canada Products, by its managing partner, Shell Canada Limited (Shell Canada), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to the production of low-carbon hydrogen through the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) near Edmonton, Canada. Mitsubishi Corp said it aims to build and start-up the low-carbon hydrogen facility near the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Scotford towards the latter half of this decade, and Shell would provide CO2 storage via the proposed Polaris CCS project. The low-carbon hydrogen, commonly called blue hydrogen, would be produced via a natural gas feedstock and exported mainly to the Japanese market to produce clean energy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow expects Q4 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to be about USD150-200m lower than market consensus, said the company.

The reason: higher raw material costs and lower polyethylene (PE) and co-product pricing. However, the company is seeing continued economic and supply recovery in Q4, it said. It noted “robust” end-market demand strength across industrial and consumer markets, as well as improving supply positions following weather-related outages, turnarounds and start-up of new PE capacity in the US Gulf Coast region. Nevertheless, logistics challenges continue to constrain demand, it said.

As per MRC, Dow Chemical, one of the largest US petrochemical companies, has begun bringing operations back online "as third-party utility balances and raw materials availability allow. Dow said its Taft operations were "making progress" toward restarting, and the company expected to have a clearer timeline for resumption of production in the coming days based on repairs and as access to power and raw materials allow.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Dow Chemical is an American diversified chemical company headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It is a major manufacturer of polymer products, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene and synthetic rubbers. The company produces more than five thousand products at 188 production facilities in 37 countries.
MRC