Alpek concludes acquisition of OCTAL

Alpek concludes acquisition of OCTAL

Alpek, S.A.B. de C.V. announced that it has received all necessary approvals from the regulatory authorities and has finalized its acquisition of OCTAL Holding SAOC, said the company.

Pursuant to the purchase agreement, Alpek acquired 100% of the shares of OCTAL for USD620 million on a debt-free basis. Financing was secured through a mix of free cash flow generated from existing businesses and dedicated bank loans.

Alpek will assume control of OCTAL's operations starting on June 1, 2022. The Company expects an accretive EBITDA effect of approximately USD120 million from these assets throughout the remainder of 2022, largely based on the better-than-expected Polyester market conditions prevalent in recent months. This would increase the Company's Comparable EBITDA Guidance to USD1,370 million and Reported EBITDA Guidance to USD1,485 million.

"We are pleased to have concluded this acquisition ahead of the expected timeline," stated Jose de Jesus Valdez, Alpek's CEO. "We are excited to welcome OCTAL's management team and employees into our family, leveraging their long-standing relationships with customers, their diverse backgrounds, and technical proficiency to drive the Company's long-term growth."

As per MRC, Alpek reported a decline in Q4 consolidated net income because of the shutdowns at two plants and higher taxes. The company shut down its caprolactam operations in Salamanca, Mexico and its stable fibres operations in Cooper River in South Carolina state, US. Alpek shut down the plants because of an extended period of low margins that were caused by high raw-material costs.

It was previously reported that Alpek and its joint venture partners may restart construction of their polyethylene terephthalate (PET) project in Texas in 2022. Production could start in two years, which means a launch in early 2024.

Alpek is the largest petrochemical company in Mexico and the second largest in Latin America. Its business is divided into two main segments: "polyesters" (terephthalic acid, polyethylene terephthalate and polyester fibers) and "plastics and chemicals" (polypropylene, expanded polystyrenes, caprolactam, polyurethanes and other specialty and industrial chemicals). Alpek is the world's leading manufacturer of purified terephthalic acid and PET; it owns the largest expanded polystyrene plant on the continent and one of the largest polypropylene plants in North America. Alpek currently has 19 factories in Mexico, USA and Argentina. Alpek is part of the Mexican conglomerate Grupo Alfa. Alpek also owns DAK Americas.
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U.S. crude, fuel stockpiles fall in tight market

U.S. crude, fuel stockpiles fall in tight market

U.S. crude oil and fuel stockpiles fell last week, as demand continued to outstrip supply, with commercial crude inventories drawing down even as more strategic reserves entered the market, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude inventories fell by 5.1 MM barrels in the week to May 27 to 414.7 MM barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 MM-barrel drop. The fall comes even though the U.S. government released more than 5 million barrels of reserves in the most recent week and as net crude imports rose by 83,000 bpd, the EIA said.

Refining runs fell by 236,000 bpd last week, the EIA said, dropping the overall utilization rate 0.6 percentage point to 92.6% nationwide, which is still seasonally strong, as the United States moves into peak summer driving season.

"Gasoline inventories showed a draw as implied demand kicked higher, despite record prices at the pump, while distillate inventories showed a minor draw too amid a tick higher in implied demand," said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst, Americas, at Kpler.

U.S. gasoline stocks were only marginally lower, declining by 711,000 barrels in the week, while distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, dipped by 530,000 barrels.

Distillate stocks remain at all-time lows on the U.S. East Coast, which has few refineries and depends on transit from other parts of the United States and foreign imports. Refining use on the East Coast is running at more than 98%, highest in nearly four years.

Oil prices moved up after the data, with U.S. crude gaining USD1.13, or 1%, to USD116.38 a barrel, and Brent up 96 cents to USD117.27 a barrel as of 11:32 a.m. EDT (1532 GMT).

As per MRC, refiners worldwide are struggling to meet global demand for diesel and gasoline, exacerbating high prices and aggravating shortages from big consumers like the United States and Brazil to smaller countries like war-ravaged Ukraine and Sri Lanka. World fuel demand has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, but the combination of pandemic closures, sanctions on Russia and export quotas in China are straining refiners' ability to meet demand. China and Russia are two of the three biggest refining countries, after the United States. All three are below peak processing levels, undermining the effort by world governments to lower prices by releasing crude oil from reserves.
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Technip Energies selected by IVERSON eFuels for a green ammonia production project

Technip Energies selected by IVERSON eFuels for a green ammonia production project

МОСКВА (MRC) -- Technip Energies has been selected by IVERSON eFuels AS, a Special Purpose Vehicle between CIP, Hy2gen and Trafigura, to perform the engineering design of a complete green ammonia plant at Sauda, Rogaland, Norway, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The phase 1 of the project includes a green ammonia plant including utilities, offsites and electrical substation connected to the existing power grid, and pipeline, ammonia storage and offloading system.

The planned green ammonia production will be used as fuel for the maritime sector. The Iverson project will have an initial electrolysis capacity of 300 megawatts to produce 600 metric tons of green ammonia per day.

IVERSON eFuels AS targets with a significant scale up production in the future.

Laure Mandrou, Senior Vice-President Carbon-Free Solutions at Technip Energies, commented: “We are proud to have been selected by IVERSON eFuels AS for this ambitious Green Ammonia production project. We will support IVERSON eFuels AS thanks to our innovative mindset, our performance excellence and our unique track record to ensure this first-class project is a success. We are committed to leverage our integration and design expertise to engineer the carbon-free energy future."

Green Ammonia is expected to be used as a climate-neutral fuel, especially in the maritime industry and for climate-neutral power production.

As per MRC, Technip Energies and Alterra Energy have now entered into a global joint development and collaboration agreement to integrate Technip Energies’ pyrolysis oil purification technology with Alterra’s commercially available liquefaction process technology. By integrating both their proprietary processes, the two companies aim to accelerate the adoption of recycled feedstock, thus improving circular economy solutions for the global petrochemical industry. The combination of advanced recycling and purification technologies will enable more efficient processing and reuse of hard-to-recycle plastic.

As per MRC, TechnipFMC announced the launch of the placement of 16 million Technip Energies shares, representing ca. 9% of Technip Energies’ issued and outstanding share capital, through a private placement by way of an accelerated bookbuild offering. Upon completion of the Placement, TechnipFMC would retain a direct stake of ca. 22% of Technip Energies’ issued and outstanding share capital.
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Slovak refiner says sanctions plan will halt exports, threaten operations

Slovak refiner says sanctions plan will halt exports, threaten operations

Slovakia's sole oil refiner Slovnaft, a unit of Hungary's MOL, said that planned sanctions on Russian oil would in their current form ban oil product exports after 8 months from Slovnaft to its key markets in central Europe such as the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A forced reduction in output at the 124,000 bpd refinery will cut refining below the technological minimum, making it also impossible to supply the domestic market, the refiner said in an emailed comment.

We remind, Linde Engineering announced it has been selected by Slovnaft, a member of the MOL Group, a leading integrated Central Eastern European oil and gas corporation, to conduct a complex large-scale revamp of a polypropylene (PP3) plant in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Slovnaft is a crude oil refining enterprise located in Bratislava, Slovakia. The maximum annual refining capacity is 6 million tons of crude oil, which is primarily supplied via the "Druzhba" pipeline. The dominating place in the production portfolio belongs to motor fuel (about 4.5 million tons/year), chemicals (200 thousand tons/year) and primary plastic materials (400 thousand tons/year).
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TPC files for bankruptcy with deal to slash nearly USD1 bn in debt

TPC files for bankruptcy with deal to slash nearly USD1 bn in debt

The TPC Group announced Wednesday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it's a voluntary move that should strengthen its finances and make them more competitive, said the company.

This bankruptcy filing comes two-and-a-half years after explosions rocked the company's Port Neches plant damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.

TPC has entered into a restructuring support agreement with lenders and equity sponsors that provides for capital to fund operations, including: USD450 million in connection with two rights offerings and USD350 million in exit notes; a USD323 million delayed draw debtor-in-possession financing facility that includes up to USD85 million of new money to support the operations and help fund the restructuring; a USD200 million asset-based revolving debtor-in-possession facility.

TPC expects the restructuring to remove over USD950 million of the approximately USD1.3 billion of secured funded debt currently on its balance sheet.

In February, TPC announced that it had entered into a forbearance agreement with its lenders after failing to make interest payments.

As per MRC, The Polyolefins Company (TPC) has decided not to shut its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant in Jurong Island, Singapore in mid-July 2021 for maintenance. The turnaround at this plant with a capacity of 260,000 mt/year of LDPE was initially expected to last for 45 days. TPC last conducted maintenance at its LDPE plant in Jurong Island in July 2018.
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