Refinery in Saudi capital attacked by a drone

A refinery in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, was attacked by a drone on Thursday morning but petroleum supplies were not affected, reported Reuters with reference to Saudi state news agency SPA.

The attack caused a small fire that was controlled and did not result in any injuries or casualties, SPA said citing a statement by an energy ministry official.

"The refinery's operations and supplies of petroleum and its derivatives were not affected," the statement said.

It did not specify where the attack originated from.

The world's top oil exporter has faced frequent missile and drone assaults by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group that has been battling a coalition led by Riyadh for seven years.

The Houthis have not announced any strikes against the kingdom in recent days and the Saudi-led coalition had not issued a statement regarding Thursday's incident.

"These repeated acts of sabotage and terrorism on vital installations and civilian structures ... do not just target the Kingdom but aim to undermine the security and stability of global energy supplies," the statement said.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the “tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine is making the global energy crisis worse”. Nasser, speaking at CERAWeek in Houston, echoed other energy executives in saying that the crisis exposes the mixed signals delivered by policymakers to the oil-and-gas industry amid the energy transition.

We remind that in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.

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 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

Iranian gas export revenues surged by more than 250% in the year to March, while earnings from petrochemical exports doubled, said Rueters.

Oil Minister Javad Owji said, overall energy export earnings, including crude, rose by 2.5 times but he only gave a breakdown for gas and petrochemicals. Iran does not release figures related to oil exports.

The increase in revenue was partly due to more exports and because Iran managed to collect more of the proceeds from exports in spite of U.S. sanctions, the minister said.

"Through various methods, our government has collected all the revenues from its exports of oil, gas, gas condensate and oil products," Owji said.

Gas export revenues rose to USD4.6 B from USD1.27 B last year, and revenues from petrochemical products exports doubled to USD12 B, the minister said.

As per MRC, Asian refiners, traditionally big buyers of Iranian oil, are keen to resume imports from Iran if there is an agreement to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, which could pave the way for more supply on global markets and soften prices. Most Asian buyers halted Iranian oil imports in 2019 after former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran's oil exports. Indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. on the nuclear deal resumed last week. Western diplomats have indicated they hoped to have a breakthrough by now, but tough issues remain unresolved.

We remind, U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to announce a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports on Tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. The White House said Biden was scheduled to announce actions at 10:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) on Tuesday against Russia over Ukraine, but did not specifically mention oil imports. Oil prices jumped on the news, with Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 for May climbing by 5.4% to USD129.91 a bbl by 1345 GMT.
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German specialty chemicals firm LANXESS said that it swung to a net income of EUR29m in the fourth quarter of last year amid a sharp rise in sales, said the company.

For the full year of 2021, the company’s net income fell by 69.8%, the company said in a statement. In 2020, LANXESS reported high extraordinary proceeds generated from the sale of the stake in chemical park operator Currenta.

EBITDA margin pre-exceptionals fell to 13.4% in 2021 from 14.1% in 2020, weighed by “significantly higher costs and one-time effects”, the company said. "We expect energy and raw material prices to continue to rise in the first half of 2022,” said Matthias Zachert, the Chairman of the Board of Management of LANXESS.

"Global supply chains also remain fragile. Nevertheless, we would anticipate further significant earnings growth in this fiscal year,” he said, adding that the impact of the war in Ukraine is yet unforeseeable.

LANXESS anticipates an earnings jump in the first quarter of 2022 and expects EBITDA pre exceptionals to come in between EUR280m and EUR320m (previous year: EUR242m).

As per MRC, LANXESS to produce Polyamide 6, Polyamide 66 and Polybutylenterephthalate (PBT) at its Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, location, making significant steps toward a new throughput range. With this technology, constructed around the high-performance ZSK 92 Mc18 twin screw extruder, LANXESS is producing demanding compounds at throughputs never achieved before.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals concern with a turnover of EUR7.2 billion in 2018. The group employs approximately 15,400 people in 33 countries. Currently, the concern includes 60 manufacturing enterprises. LANXESS's core business is the development, production and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. The concern is included in the lists of the world's leading sustainability indices: the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
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Shell faces writedowns on USD400 MM in Russian downstream assets, it said, having announced USD3 B worth of other projects previously, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The oil major announced on Feb. 28 that it would quit its ventures in Russia with Gazprom and related entities including the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

"It is expected that these decisions ...will impact the carrying value of the related assets and lead to recognition of impairments in 2022," Shell said in its annual report on Thursday.

The downstream assets come on top of USD3 B mentioned in its Feb. 28 announcement, a company spokesperson said.

Shell's production from Russian oil and gas projects reached stood at 140,000 bpd of oil equivalent compared with around 2.2 MMbpd of oil equivalent total volumes for sale, according to its annual report and a spokesperson.

As MRC informed earlier, on February 27, Shell’s U.K. rival BP announced plans to shed its almost 20% stake in Rosneft, which is controlled by the Russian state. Norway’s Equinor said Monday that it would halt new investment in Russia and begin selling its holdings in the country.

We remind that Shell Chemicals expects its new petrochemical complex in southwest Pennsylvania to come online by the end of 2022, Royal Dutch Shell CFO Jessica Uhl said February 3, during the company's Q4 2021 earnings call.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MRC) -- Petronas Hydrogen Sdn Bhd and ENEOS Corporation (ENEOS) have signed a Joint Feasibility Study Agreement (JFSA) to advance the studies for a commercial hydrogen production and conversion project in Kerteh, Terengganu, said th company.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said under the JFSA, both parties will pursue detailed technical and commercial feasibility studies for the production of low carbon hydrogen from Petronas’ existing facilities, production of green hydrogen from a new hydro-powered electrolyser facility, and hydrogen conversion into methylcyclohexane (MCH).

"The agreement is part of the long-term Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last August for the development of a clean hydrogen supply chain between Malaysia and Japan," it said in a statement.

According to the statement, the facilities are projected to have a total hydrogen production and conversion capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes per annum by 2027 for export in MCH form to Japan, where the clean hydrogen will be distributed to Japanese industries through ENEOS’ refineries.

Through ENEOS, the hydrogen-to-MCH project has been selected as one of the Green Innovation Fund projects by the Japanese government -- a testament to the project's viability and competitiveness, which is a critical aspect in the development of the nascent clean hydrogen supply chain. The two trillion Japanese yen funding was introduced to support green research and development projects as well as facility developments to propel Japan’s ambitious decarbonisation plans, which include achieving the three million tonnes per annum clean hydrogen demand target by 2030.

Petronas and ENEOS are also exploring other hydrogen projects and technology opportunities, both domestically and internationally. Petronas said since 2020, it has entered into several strategic partnerships with international and domestic players to grow its hydrogen production capabilities and delivery networks, covering low-carbon and green hydrogen.

It had also announced the setting up of a new, independent entity that would focus on cleaner energy solutions and capture opportunities in the energy transition sphere alongside its core portfolio. Petronas said the entity will provide customers with lower carbon solutions through three initial core offerings – renewables, hydrogen and green mobility.

Recently, the Company announced that it will set up a new, independent entity focused fully on cleaner energy solutions and will capture opportunities in the energy transition alongside its core portfolio. The entity will provide customers with lower carbon solutions through three initial core offerings – renewables, hydrogen and green mobility.

As per MRC, Petronas Chemicals Aromatics shut down its paraxylene production facility at Kerteh, Malaysia in February for scheduled maintenance. This production facility with a capacity of 550,000 tonnes of paraxylene per year will be under repair for about 50 days.

Petronas is a Malaysian government-owned oil and gas and petrochemicals company and a Global Fortune 500 company. It currently operates and operates in markets in more than 60 countries.
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