Venezuela refining arm Citgo on the verge of yet another power shake-up

A new battle for control of Citgo Petroleum, the eighth largest U.S. oil refiner and Venezuela's foreign crown jewel, could soon be unleashed under a proposed management shake-up by the South American country's opposition lawmakers, said Reuters.

The revamping would come despite the company posting strong profits after two years of losses and could lead to executive departures, experts and current board members said. The lawmakers say they want to shore up the stability of Citgo after three years of frequent reshuffles and as the political environment in Venezuela looks set to shift.

However, the U.S. State Department is worried that the changes could trigger a messy fight for control, two people involved in talks about the topic said. Washington has pressed Venezuelan lawmakers to stabilize the country's foreign operations.

Citgo, a subsidiary of state-run oil firm PDVSA, is currently run by boards appointed by Juan Guaido, whom Washington recognizes as Venezuela's legitimate leader. It views President Nicolas Maduro's 2018 reelection as a sham. But the power of Guaido has been waning, and some opposition politicians fear that his mandate as leader of Venezuela's parallel "interim government" may not be renewed in January.

Arguing that greater stability was needed, they approved a deal last month to move the power of board appointments for Citgo and Venezuela's other foreign assets from Guaido to a new super-advisory council. The three-member council, to be appointed by the lawmakers, will also supervise and evaluate Citgo's performance, proposing changes and designing legal strategies with the intention of protecting the refiner and the other companies abroad. Citgo and the U.S. State Department declined to comment.

The move was led by parties including Primero Justicia, which has called for all Venezuelan assets overseas to be transferred to an independent body. Julio Borges, Primero Justicia's leader, said new structure was needed to save Citgo and other holdings from meddling by individual parties. "We must take them away from political control," Borges told Reuters. Gustavo Marcano of the Primero Justicia party said the council "is a first step in giving greater stability to the foreign companies before any possible political changes."

After revisions that gave Guaido a say in the boards' make-up, Guaido's Voluntad Popular party agreed to the pact, two sources close to the decision said. Guaido's final approval will still be required for ratifying Citgo executive appointments.

As per MRC, Citgo Petroleum is willing to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, suspended since 2019 by Washington's sanctions on its parent company PDVSA, if the U.S. government authorizes the flow. Since March, top U.S. and Venezuelan officials have been engaged in political negotiations that could lead to Washington easing oil trading sanctions that have hit the OPEC country's production and exports. OPEC and the French government, representing Europe, have called for Washington to allow Venezuelan and Iranian crude to flow to consuming nations that are struggling to replace Russian energy supplies during the war in Ukraine.
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Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk, a subsidiary of Shell, announced a new investment that supports its plan to transition the chemicals park into a site able to serve the changing needs of the customers, said Hydrocarrbonprocessing.

Customers want more low-carbon products and products made using recycled material. Shell Moerdijk will build a new pyrolysis oil upgrader unit that improves the quality of pyrolysis oil, a liquid made from hard-to-recycle plastic waste and turns it into chemical feedstock for its plants. The investment marks a first major step in transitioning the park, within ten years, by increasing the use of circular and bio-based feedstocks, growing its offer of low-carbon products and becoming net-zero emissions through the application of hydrogen and CCS.

To achieve these ambitions, Shell intends to invest billions in Shell Moerdijk's chemical complex over the next decade, subject to investment decisions and within existing capital allocation frameworks.

The new pyrolysis oil upgrader unit treats liquid made from plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled and would otherwise be incinerated. Expected to start production in 2024, the unit will have a capacity of 50,000 tons per annum, which is the equivalent to the weight of about 7.8 B plastic bags; and supports Shell’s ambition to recycle one million tons of plastic waste in its chemicals plants by 2025. Shell will use the treated pyrolysis oil to produce circular chemicals which are the ingredients used in many end products that are all around us. The investment responds to growing customer demand.

An important step to achieve net zero by 2032 is hydrogen. Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk is developing plans, pending final investment decisions, to build a facility that will produce hydrogen from the residual gases from the Park’s production process. Shell will use this hydrogen to heat the industrial furnaces. The aim is to capture and store the CO2, a residue in the process of making hydrogen, in old gas fields under the seabed.

In addition to the use of circular pyrolysis oil, bio-based feedstocks can be used. In 2021, Shell decided to invest in the construction of a biofuels facility at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam. The biofuels facility is currently being built and is expected to start production in 2024.

Shell looks at doubling the number of plants at Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk in the coming decade, subject to investment decisions. The expansion will support the introduction of a number of new products with a lower carbon footprint, while meeting society’s increasing demand for these.

As per MRC, Shell said surging demand for oil products that had almost tripled refining profits in the second quarter would boost earnings by up to USD1.2 bn. In an update before second quarter results on July 28, Shell also said it would reverse up to USD4.5 B in writedowns on oil and gas assets after it raised its energy prices outlook following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Earnings from oil and refined products trading were expected to be strong in the quarter but lower than the first quarter of 2022, Shell said.
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Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, today declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD0.68 per share on its common stock, payable August 8, 2022, said the company.

The dividend is payable to stockholders of record as of July 25, 2022.

As per MRC, Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, today priced USD7.5 billion in permanent financing for the acquisition of a majority of DuPont’s Mobility & Materials business. The Company announced that its subsidiary, Celanese US Holdings LLC (the “Company”), has priced a registered offering (the “Offering”) of USD7.5 billion aggregate principal amount of notes of various maturities with interest rates ranging from 5.91% to 6.38% (the “Notes”). The Notes will be guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by the Company and certain Celanese domestic subsidiaries, similar to prior issuances. The Offering is expected to close on or about July 14, 2022.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 8,500 employees worldwide and had 2021 net sales of USD8.5 billion.
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Borealis lifted the cracker products force majeure, declared on 23 June, on 9 July, following the successful restart of the cracker, said S&P.

A company spokesperson said the cracker was back in normal operations.

Borealis (Vienna, Austria) has declared force majeure on all cracker products from its ethane-fed steam cracker at Stenungsund, Sweden, after encountering technical difficulties during a restart of the facility following a maintenance turnaround.

Borealis had lifted a previous force majeure on the cracker on 17 June, declared earlier in the month after struggles restarting from major maintenance work that began in April. The new force majeure was declared on 23 June, Borealis confirmed to S&P Global on 1 July. The company had previously said it expected on-spec production to be achieved by 26 June.

The Stenungsund cracker consumes mainly ethane but has high feedstock flexibility and can crack naphtha, propane, and butane. Borealis signed a 10-year deal starting late 2016 with Antero Resources for the supply of US ethane to Stenungsund, having signed a seven-year deal for North Sea ethane with Statoil, now Equinor, starting in October 2015.

As per MRC, Borealis is investing around EUR200 mln to upgrade and expand its XLPE and semicon assets at existing production locations in Europe. This ambitious initiative will serve the W&C market by safeguarding the reliable supply of high-quality insulation and semiconductive materials in the long term, and particularly those required to support global offshore wind and interconnector projects
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As per MRC, Borealis (Vienna, Austria) has announced several deals for its certified renewable feedstock range for use in polypropylene (PP) and polyethene (PE) packaging and pipeline products. Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals and fertilizers, has announced that Nupi Industrie Italiane (NUPI) has selected the ™ polypropylene (PP) for the next generation of their PP-RCT (Polypropylene Random Crystalline Structure Temperature) piping solutions for domestic plumbing, heating as well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems designed to perform under higher stress conditions and temperatures.

Borealis is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions and a European front-runner in polyolefins recycling. In Europe, we are a market leader in base chemicals and fertilizers. We leverage our polymer expertise and decades of experience to offer value adding, innovative and circular material solutions for key industries such as consumer products, energy, healthcare, infrastructure and mobility.
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Momentive Performance Materials (Momentive) named Bob Bush as its new Chief Financial Officer, said the company.

"Bob has been an instrumental part of Momentive’s Finance organization for the last several years and we are excited to have him continue to lead us on our journey and drive profitable growth as our new CFO,” said Momentive President and CEO Sam Conzone, Ph.D.

Bush has responsibility for all areas of Finance within Momentive, including Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Treasury, Global Tax and Controllership, as well as Finance Shared Services and Information Technology.

Bush brings with him more than 33 years of broad Finance experience and industry knowledge. Having begun his Momentive journey in 2013, he has held several Finance leadership roles in FP&A, Global Operations, Business Finance, and most recently served as Vice President & Treasurer. Prior to Momentive, he held several Financial leadership positions at ITT Corporation and at GE.

Bush earned his Bachelor of Computer Science from Marist College and a Master of Business Administration from the University at Albany. In addition, he graduated from GE’s Financial Management Program (FMP) and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

We remind, Momentive Performance Materials group (Momentive), a global high-performance silicones and specialty solutions company, announced that it is has signed a purchase agreement which will keep the company’s headquarters in the Capital Region by relocating its global Corporate Headquarters from Waterford, N.Y., to the former SI Group location on Balltown Road in Niskayuna, N.Y. This is the first step in a plan to construct a brand-new R&D center which will relocate approximately 200 Corporate and R&D/Technology Momentive employees to the site in Niskayuna.

Momentive is a premier global advanced materials company with a cutting-edge focus on silicone and specialty products.
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