Sea-borne oil a lifeline as German, Polish refiners swerve Russian supply

Sea-borne oil has thrown a lifeline to refiners in eastern Germany and Poland, with non-Russian deliveries into the Polish port of Gdansk hitting at least seven-year highs this month as they switch away from Russian supply, said Reuters.

Imports booked for May into Gdansk from Egypt, the United States, Norway, Britain and West Africa had hit 8.4 million barrels by May 16, their highest level according to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data that goes back to 2015.

At the same time, Russian crude booked for May into Gdansk and the port of Rostock stood at 700,000 barrels, down from a high of 12.9 million in May 2019, the data showed.

“Non-Russian sea-borne crude volumes towards Gdansk have increased at the expense of Russian barrels,” said Ioannis Papadimitriou, senior freight analyst with oil analytics firm Vortexa. The steep rise in such supply comes as Europe works toward an outright ban on Russian oil.

Imports into Gdansk from Norway in April and from the United States and via Egypt in May all hit highs, the Refinitiv data showed. Norwegian imports in April hit 2.2 million barrels, similar to U.S. volumes booked for May while those booked via Egypt this month have hit 5.7 million so far, the data showed.

“Poland is replacing Russian oil by Saudi crude oil supply via the Egyptian port of Sidi Kerir,” said Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior oil analyst at Refinitiv. “Crude imports from countries other than Russia are now at the highest in history."

In January, Saudi Aramco agreed to buy a 30% stake in Lotos, Poland’s second largest refinery, and to increase oil supplies to Poland’s top energy firm PKN Orlen to 200,000-337,000 barrels per day (bpd), denting Russia’s dominance in the region.

As per MRC, Oil prices were mixed on Monday as investor fears of a global recession spurred by lockdowns in China and weak economic data vied with signs the European Union was stepping closer to an import ban on Russian crude.
Brent crude was down 18 cents, or 0.2%, at USD111.37 a barrel at 1342 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 2 cents, or less than 0.1%, to USD110.51 a barrel. The fall in oil prices "is chiefly due to the weak Chinese economic data, as the lockdown measures are having a direct impact on the world’s second-largest market," said Barbara Lambrecht, energy analyst at Commerzbank.

As per MRC, Russian fuel oil arrivals in the UAE oil hub of Fujairah are set to jump sharply to about 2.5 MM barrels this month, data shows, in a sign that flows of Russian oil and refined products are shifting away from Europe.

We remind, oil prices fell on Monday as concerns over weak economic growth in China, the world's top oil importer, overshadowed fears supply might be crimped by a potential European Union ban on Russian crude.
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US producer Chemours is partnering with corporate, academic and government experts to develop a sustainable way of recovering titanium dioxide (TiO2) and polymers from plastic products, said the company.

The three-year project, which is called Remove2Reclaim, aims to develop larger detection and extraction recycling technologies to separate TiO2 and polymers from plastic products so they can be re-used. As a result, there can be greater applications and a wider range of end-use products made from recycled plastic. The project has already led to innovations in identifying and sorting plastic waste that contains TiO2 and solvent-based methods of removing TiO2.

The project, which began in the fall of 2020, also includes producers such as INEOS, Styrolution, Matco Plastics, and two Belgian universities, Ghent University and KU Leuven, as academic partners, as well VLAIO, the Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency.

Industry players have increasingly focused on sustainability, particularly in the circular economy, which focuses on reducing waste and increasing sustainable feedstock. Chemours is a global producer of TiO2, fluoroproducts, and chemicals such as sulfuric acid and methylamines.

TiO2 is used as a white powder pigment in products such as paints, coatings, plastics, paper, inks, fibres, food and cosmetics.

As per MRC, Chemours has suspended business with Russian entities in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing military attack on Ukraine and the resulting humanitarian crisis.

As per MRC, Chemours says it is looking to achieve a 60% absolute reduction of operations-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In addition to refrigerants, Chemours is a major producer of titanium dioxide, industrial fluoropolymer resins and derivatives and other chemical solutions.

Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. The company has approximately 6,500 employees and 30 manufacturing sites serving approximately 3,300 customers in approximately 120 countries in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC.
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Clariant and its main shareholder Saudi Basic Industries Corp are to end a so-called "governance agreement" defining their relationship, stirring speculation SABIC could launch a full takeover bid for the Swiss chemicals firm, said Reuters.

Speculation was prompted by Clariant's announcement that an agreement between it and SABIC will expire on 24 June. This means that Clariant could be vulnerable to a takeover, as petchems major SABIC can now exceed its 33.3% share in the company and would be able to nominate more than four supervisory board members.

The stock price gained 7.81% on the Swiss stock exchange over the course of the morning, although in the wake of an accounting investigation, remains 1.89% below the level of a year prior.

The governance agreement between the two firms will expire at Clariant’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 24 June, after being established in September 2018.

In response to the news, the Swiss firm acknowledged that SABIC could increase or decrease its stake in the company as any other shareholder, and that the bolster to Clariant’s share price reflected speculation in the market.

As per MRC, Clariant, a focused, sustainable, and innovative specialty chemical company, today announced that the investigation of accounting issues related to provisions and accruals (as disclosed by Clariant on 14 February 2022) conducted by independent advisors and external counsel (Deloitte and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher), has been concluded.

We remind that in October 2020, Clariant announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.

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bp and Linde announced plans to advance a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Texas that will enable low carbon hydrogen production at Linde’s existing facilities, said the company.

The development will also support the storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from other industrial facilities – paving the way for large-scale decarbonization of the Texas Gulf Coast industrial corridor.

Upon completion, the project will capture and store CO2 from Linde’s hydrogen production facilities in the greater Houston area – and potentially from its other Texas facilities – to produce low carbon hydrogen for the region. The low carbon hydrogen will be sold to customers along Linde’s hydrogen pipeline network under long-term contracts to enable production of low carbon chemicals and fuels.

As part of the project, bp will appraise, develop and permit the geological storage sites for permanent sequestration of the CO2. bp’s trading & shipping business aims to bring custom low carbon solutions to the project, including renewable power and certified natural gas, along with commodity trading and price risk management expertise.

Linde will use its proprietary technology and operational expertise to capture and compress the CO2 from its hydrogen production facilities for the project. Together with its extensive infrastructure of hydrogen production facilities and its storage cavern connected through its pipeline network across the Texas Gulf Coast, this project will enable Linde to supply cost-effective, reliable low carbon hydrogen and, together with bp, provide carbon capture and storage solutions.

The overall development, expected to be operational as early as 2026, will also enable capture and storage of CO2 from other large industrial facilities in the region and could ultimately store up to 15 million metric tons per year across multiple onshore geologic storage sites – the equivalent of taking approximately 3 million cars off the road each year.

As per MRC, bp has signed a ten-year offtake agreement with Clean Planet Energy, a UK-based company that is developing facilities to convert hard-to-recycle waste plastics into circular petrochemical feedstocks and also into ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD). Clean Planet Energy designs and builds facilities — which they refer to as ecoPlants — that are expected to process plastics typically rejected by traditional recycling centers and so would otherwise be sent to landfill or incineration.

As MRC informed earlier, bp is seeking to divest the near 20% stake in Russian state-oil company Rosneft it has held since 2013 in the starkest sign yet of the corporate backlash against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

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.
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Perstorp Group said that it is to be acquired by PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG). PCG announced that it has signed a Securities Purchase Agreement on 14 May 2022 to acquire the entire equity interest in Perstorp Holding AB, said the company.

The agreement was signed with Financiere Foret S.a.r.l, a company under PAI Partners, a European private equity firm.

Jan Secher, President and CEO of Perstorp said, “We are excited to become part of the PETRONAS family. I see a strong commonality in values and priorities for how to take our respective businesses forward, meeting the challenges and opportunities of the future. By tapping into PCG’s strength and market leading position in the Asia Pacific region, we are confident that Perstorp can continue to develop into its next phase of growth. Being part of PCG means Perstorp gets the scale to increase the pace of innovation and accelerate our sustainable transformation, which is at the forefront of the chemical industry. PCG’s and Perstorp’s businesses complement each other very well.”

Established more than 140 years ago, Perstorp is a leading niche specialty chemicals player that develops sustainable solutions with focus on the Resins & Coatings, Engineered Fluids and Animal Nutrition markets. The company has a global sales presence, seven state-of-the art manufacturing sites in Europe, US and China (the 8th plant will be ready in India in 2023) and three research and development (R&D) centres worldwide with approximately 1,500 employees serving more than 2,600 customers globally. Perstorp is highly regarded among its customers for its product quality and application expertise, supply reliability, customer centricity and Pro-Environment products and solutions.

PCG’s journey to achieve its vision of becoming the preferred chemical company providing innovative customer solutions is based on a clear strategy; to strengthen its basic petrochemicals portfolio, and to selectively diversify into derivatives, specialty chemicals and solutions. In the execution of this strategy, the acquisition of Perstorp group marks the creation of a significant specialty chemicals portfolio, while enhancing PCG’s overall earnings. This transaction follows the acquisition of BRB Group in 2019, a leading global independent producer and formulator of silicones, lube oil additives and chemicals, which launched PCG into new areas aligned with its long-term growth ambitions.

The acquisition values Perstorp Group at an enterprise value of EUR 2,300.0 million. The completion of the acquisition is subject to relevant regulatory and shareholders’ approvals.

As MRC reported previously, in December 2021, Perstorp, the world leader in the production of Trimethylolpropane (TMP), ramped up the capacity to meet growing demand from the European market. TMP is used to enhance the properties of numerous materials. Common applications include the use in saturated polyesters for coil coatings, polyurethanes for coatings and elastomers, acrylic acid esters for radiation curing, esters for synthetic lubricants, and for the surface treatment of pigments.

Perstorp Specialty Chemicals AB is a subsidiary of Perstorp Holding AB. The company was founded in 1881 and is based in Perstop, Sweden. Perstorp Specialty Chemicals AB manufactures chemical products. The company offers base and specialty polyols, formates, organic acids and formaldehyde products.
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