Samsung Engineering signs an agreement with Aramco for the National EPC Champions Initiative

Samsung Engineering, one of the world’s leading engineering, procurement, construction and project management companies announced that it has signed an agreement with Aramco for the National EPC Champions initiative, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The official signing occurred on July 5, during the Saudi Aramco Namaat Industrial Investment Program event, held in the Al-Ghawar Hall at Aramco’s main office in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The formal agreement signing between Samsung Engineering, Al Rushaid Petroleum Investment Company (ARPIC), and Aramco took place earlier. Samsung Engineering's President and CEO Sungan Choi, Aramco’s Vice President of Project Management, Abdulkarim Ghamdi, and ARPIC’s CEO and Chairman, Rasheed Al Rushaid, attended the Namaat event following the signing of the agreement.

The National EPC Champions initiative is tailored for investments in the EPC sector to foster local industries through the Namaat program. The Namaat program aims to build national champions, create a robust industrial ecosystem and introduce unique job opportunities. Samsung Engineering, as an International EPC contractor, with ARPIC, as a local EPC contractor, will establish a joint venture with the objective of increasing Saudization levels, maximizing iktva targets, and deploying leading construction technologies.

ARPIC has several collaborations in the oil and gas industry, including joint ventures and affiliates in the areas of manufacturing, construction, and engineering. As a National EPC Champion, Samsung Engineering showcases its prominent presence in Saudi Arabia. Samsung Engineering has solidified its position in Saudi Arabia by carrying out over 30 projects over the past 20 years, including 16 projects with Aramco. Samsung Engineering plans to successfully carry out the National EPC Champions initiative projects, based on its experience in the Saudi Arabian market and network of suppliers and partners, and to further strengthen its position in the local market through digital technology and automation solutions.

Samsung Engineering is strengthening its competitiveness in business execution by optimizing the execution system according to the characteristics of each global region, while promoting shared growth for the client in the performing country. Samsung Engineering is building its own EPC execution systems by region through collaborations with local partners with technical skills and local production systems. In addition to Saudi Arabia, Samsung Engineering plans to expand its global operation strategy to other regions in the Middle East and Asia.

Sungan Choi, President and CEO of Samsung Engineering said, "It is always Samsung Engineering’s mission to put our commitments for long-term development in the Kingdom as a priority and through this National EPC Champions initiative, we are proud to say that we will continue to do so in upholding that mission. We are confident to provide the best digital technology and automation solution services to Aramco, while leveraging our comprehensive experience of working with ARPIC."

As per MRC, Saudi Aramco has notified at least five North Asian refiners, mostly Chinese, that it will be supplying less than contracted volumes of crude oil in July. The cuts to Chinese refiners come as more cheap Russian oil heads to the world's top oil importer, which has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Chinese oil demand has also been depressed by COVID-19 restrictions in the past two months. In addition, demand for Saudi crude has been climbing in Europe where the European Union has moved to phase out Russian crude and European buyers are racing to find other suppliers.
mrchub.com

China's crude oil imports from Russia soared 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and seaborne shipments from Russia's European and Far Eastern ports, totaled nearly 8.42 MMt, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs. That's equivalent to roughly 1.98 MM barrels per day (bpd) and up a quarter from 1.59 MMbpd in April.

The data, which shows that Russia took back the top ranking of suppliers to the world's biggest crude oil importer after a gap of five months, indicates that Moscow is able to find buyers for its oil despite western sanctions, though it has had to slash prices. And while China's overall crude oil demand has been dampened by COVID-19 curbs and a slowing economy, leading importers, including refining giant Sinopec and trader Zhenhua Oil, have stepped up buying cheaper Russian oil on top of sanctioned supplies from Iran and Venezuela that allows them to scale back competing supplies from West Africa and Brazil.

Saudi Arabia trailed as the second-largest supplier, with May volumes up 9% on year at 7.82 MMt, or 1.84 MMbpd. This was down from April's 2.17 MMbpd. Customs data released on Monday also showed China imported 260,000 tons of Iranian crude oil last month, its third shipment of Iran oil since last December, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Despite U.S. sanctions on Iran, China has kept taking Iranian oil, usually passed off as supplies from other countries. The import levels are roughly equivalent to 7% of China's total crude oil imports. China's overall crude oil imports rose nearly 12% in May from a low base a year earlier to 10.8 MMbpd, versus the 2021 average of 10.3 MMbpd. Customs reported zero imports from Venezuela. State oil firms have shunned purchases since late 2019 for fear of falling foul of secondary U.S. sanctions.

Imports from Malaysia, often used as a transfer point in the last two years for oil originating from Iran and Venezuela, amounted to 2.2 MMt, steady versus April but more than double the year-earlier level. Imports from Brazil fell 19% from a year earlier to 2.2 MMt, as supplies from the Latin American exporter faced cheaper competition from Iranian and Russian barrels. Separately, data also showed China's imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) amounted to nearly 400,000 tons last month, 56% more than May of 2021.

For the first five months, imports of Russian LNG - from mostly Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East and Yamal LNG in Russian Arctic - rose 22% on the year to 1.84 MMt, according to customs data.

We remind, analysts expected Manufacturing PMI to be flat from its ugly preliminary print of 52.4 and saw ISM Manufacturing dropping to 54.5 from 56.1 - both still comfortably in expansion (above 50) despite the collapse in US macro data relative to expectations. BUT... things improved intra-month for Manufacturing PMI - rising to 52.7 final from 52.4 preliminary - but still notably below April's 57.0 print. ISM Manufacturing was worse, falling to 53.0 from 56.1 (below the 54.5 expectations).
mrchub.com

TotalEnergies has agreed to transfer its remaining stake in Russia's Kharyaga oil field to the country's state producer Zarubezhneft, the French company told Reuters, in its first major divestment in Russia in the wake of Western sanctions, said Reuters.

"TotalEnergies has agreed to transfer to Zarubezhneft the remaining 20% interest that the company held in the Kharyaga oil field," a spokesperson for TotalEnergies told the news agency on Wednesday. "This transaction is subject to the approval of the Russian authorities," the spokesperson said, without elaborating on the terms of the stake transfer.

The Kharyaga oil project is operated under a product sharing agreement. As the part of the agreement, TotalEnergies received some 100,000 tons of oil for exports as every month. According to two sources in Russian oil trading, TotalEnergies did not act as the seller of that volume in June, but Zarubezhneft did instead.

TotalEnergies had been a part of the Kharyaga oil project for over 20 years along with Norway's Equinor, which quit earlier this year. TotalEnergies said in March that it would not renew its Russian gasoil and crude oil supply contracts for its German refinery, but would source gasoil from Saudi Arabia and crude via Poland instead.

The French oil major, which has faced criticism for stopping short of joining rivals Shell and BP in divesting oil and gas assets in Russia, still has minority stakes in a number of non-state-owned Russian companies: Novatek (19.4%), Yamal LNG (20%), Arctic LNG 2 (10%) and TerNefteGaz (49%). It has said it could exit Russia if it had to because of sanctions, which have already caused it to book a USD4.1 billion impairment.

As per MRC, TotalEnergies Marine Fuels and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) have successfully completed the first biofuel bunker operation for a vehicle carrier in Singapore. The local operation was made possible with support from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. The MOL-operated car and truck carrier, Heroic Ace, was refueled by TotalEnergies-supplied biofuel on 11th June 2022 via ship-to-ship transfer, while the carrier performed cargo operations simultaneously. The biofuel has been consumed during the carrier’s voyage to Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates.
mrchub.com

Wall Street analysts sharply increased their ExxonMobil Corp second-quarter profit estimates after the largest U.S. oil producer projected it could almost double its first-quarter earnings, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Exxon's preview, released on Friday, signaled strong results ahead by oil companies and refiners and brought renewed criticism from the White House and fresh calls for a windfall profit tax by U.S. lawmakers under pressure from voters feeling pain at the pump.

The White House repeated its call for oil companies to "use their record profits to expand refining capacity, increase supply, and most urgently reduce costs for the American people." "This would be one of the strongest quarters in Exxon's history," said Credit Suisse analyst Manav Gupta in a note. The disclosures indicated an operating profit of about USD16.8 B, a historic quarterly peak. Official results are due July 29.

Analysts raised their quarterly profit outlook on Exxon to about USD4.02 per share from USD2.99 a share prior to the Friday securities filing. The filing showed Exxon expects oil and gas operating profits of more than USD10 billion, $4.5 B from producing gasoline and diesel, and about USD2 billion from chemicals and motor oils. Exxon, like other U.S. oil companies, has been plowing higher profits into debt reduction and plans to buy back up to USD30 B of its shares.

At the same time, spokesperson Casey Norton said Exxon was "investing more than any other U.S. company to grow oil and natural gas production." Its U.S. shale output will rise by 25% this year and oil processing at its biggest Texas refinery will grow 250,000 bpd in the first half of next year, he said.

Exxon shares fell 3% to USD84.81 on Tuesday as benchmark oil prices slid USD10.73 a barrel on worries a possible global recession could hurt demand. The largest refiner among the U.S. oil majors, Exxon will be a key beneficiary of a tight refined products market, analysts said. "We think this could drive material earnings upgrades," said Biraj Borkhataria, an oil analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Exxon borrowed heavily during the pandemic and posted a historic USD22.4 B loss in 2020 to finance future production and pay dividends to shareholders. "High energy prices are largely a result of underinvestment by many in the energy industry over the last several years and especially during the pandemic," said Exxon's Norton.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil, Grieg Edge, North Ammonia, and GreenH have signed a memorandum of understanding to study potential production and distribution of green hydrogen and ammonia for lower-emission marine fuels at ExxonMobil’s Slagen terminal in Norway.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil expects to add approximately 20,000 bpd of light, heavy and extra-heavy lubricant base stocks when upgrades at its Singapore integrated refining and petrochemical complex are complete in 2025.
mrchub.com

The Wacker Group is concentrating its biotechnology research activities in Munich. The company is investing a double-digit million-euro sum in the construction of a Biotechnology Center, which is scheduled to be operational in 2024, said the company.

This investment will strengthen Wacker biotechnology business, said the company. “The Wacker Biotechnology Center will allow us to concentrate and intensify our research activities in the area of biotechnology. The additional capacity we will create here will accelerate the growth of our life-sciences division,” Wacker CEO Christian Hartel said about the construction project. As part of its strategy for growth, the company is planning to significantly increase investment in the biotechnology sector in the coming years. The product portfolio is to expand through innovation, partnerships and acquisitions. By the year 2030, Wacker BIOSOLUTIONS plans to contribute around €1 billion to Group sales. The construction of the Wacker Biotechnology Center, in which the company is investing a double-digit million-euro amount, will aid this strategy.

The Biotechnology Center will be built in Munich, at the location of the Consortium fur elektrochemische Industrie (WACKER’s corporate research facility). Wacker has been conducting fundamental research here for over 100 years and in the field of biotechnology since the 1980s. The growth of biotech business has stretched the capacity available for research activities to its limits. The Biotechnology Center, with space for around 90 employees, is intended to alleviate this. The foundation stone was laid today for the building, whose commissioning is planned for 2024.

Fundamental research in biotechnology has been conducted at the WACKER Consortium in Munich since the 1980s. The construction of the Biotechnology Center will expand research capacity in this field. (Photo: WACKER)
The plans include laboratory and pilot plant areas across approximately 2,000 square meters, spread over three floors. The research here will mainly concentrate on the manufacturing process of biopharmaceuticals, especially in the area of advanced medicines, as well as the fermentation-based manufacture of ingredients for foods and food supplements. The efficiency of the research work will be improved through the consolidation of biotechnological R&D under one roof.

There will also be space available in the Wacker Biotechnology Center for staff from the BIOSOLUTIONS division and project groups. Together with customers and development partners, the Biotechnology Center will bridge the gap between R&D and practice. Is there market demand? With which partners can the specified goals be reached? Does the cost-benefit ratio add up? Various criteria will be used to decide which projects are promoted so that ultimately new products and solutions are developed for customers.

As per MRC, Wacker Chemie AG is accelerating the expansion of its production capacities. Investment projects to this end are either in the planning stage or are nearing completion. Significant capacity expansions for liquid silicone rubber (LSR) will be available in the second half of this year, and will come into full effect in 2023. Increasing production volumes for high con¬sistency rubber (HCR) are also scheduled. With expansion measures at several other sites, Wacker will gradually in¬crease its capacities for HCR and LSR grades significantly in the next few years. Over EUR100 million have been earmarked for this capacity boost.

Wacker Polymers is a leading producer of state-of-the-art binders and polymeric additives based on polyvinyl acetate and vinyl acetate copolymers and terpolymers. These take the form of dispersible polymer powders, dispersions, solid resins, and solutions. They are used in construction chemicals, paints and surface coatings, adhesives, sealants, carpet applications and nonwovens, as well as in fiber composites and polymeric materials based on renewable resources.

Wacker Polymers operates production sites in Germany, China, South Korea and the USA. The business division also maintains a global sales organization and runs technical centers in all key regions.
mrchub.com