TotalEnergies to ramp up LNG production as it shifts away from Russia

French oil major TotalEnergies said it would increase investments and ramp up production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as it laid out its strategy for a possible future without Russia - while still stopping short of severing links, said Reuters.

Unlike rivals such as BP and Shell, TotalEnergies has held on to several of its holdings in Russia, which include important LNG joint ventures. But on Wednesday, at an investor presentation in New York, it set itself a series of business targets for the next five years that excluded its Russian interests.

"There is no future with Russia in this presentation," chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said. "Less Russia, more Qatar and more U.S.," he added, days after announcing a big investment in a Qatari LNG facility.

As Europe scrambles to find alternatives to Russian gas, TotalEnergies said it would grow sales of LNG by 3% a year through 2027 and increase LNG production by 40% from 2021 to 2030.

Overall, it expects cash flow to grow by USD4 billion in the next five years compared with a previous target for a USD5 billion increase between 2021 and 2026.

We remind, TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) said further efforts would be needed in terms of decarbonisation, as it presented its 'Energy Outlook 2022' document, and that new oil projects would still be needed until the mid-2030s. TotalEnergies added that the current energy crisis should provide an occasion to really anchor in stone means to come up with more energy efficient solutions.
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French oil and gas major TotalEnergies said further efforts would be needed in terms of decarbonisation, as it presented its 'Energy Outlook 2022' document, and that new oil projects would still be needed until the mid-2030s, said Reuters.

TotalEnergies added that the current energy crisis should provide an occasion to really anchor in stone means to come up with more energy efficient solutions.

European energy future and spot prices have soared over worries about gas supplies following reduced flows from Russia in the wake of Western sanctions because of the war in Ukraine, and also over a historically low French nuclear output.

We remind, TotalEnergies' 119,000 bpd Feyzin oil refinery in southern France is likely to remain offline until mid-October at the earliest. Feyzin was completely shut except for an alkylation unit on Sept. 16 after a leak at the fluid catalytic cracking unit and it is likely to remain closed for 4-6 weeks from that date, CGT union delegate Thierry Defresne said. The outage means around 40% of France's refinery capacity is offline at a time where Europe is looking to ease its dependence on Russian refined products.
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-Fluor Corporation announced that the company was awarded two reimbursable engineering, procurement and construction management contracts by BASF for the ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol and infrastructure, offsites and utilities packages as part of the company’s new Verbund program in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, China, said the company.

The contract value to Fluor is more than USD2 billion and was booked in the third quarter of 2022. "Fluor values this longstanding relationship and looks forward to continuing this trusted partnership.”

“Over the past 20 years, Fluor has executed a significant amount of work with BASF in China,” said Jim Breuer, group president of Fluor’s Energy Solutions business. “Fluor values this longstanding relationship and looks forward to continuing this trusted partnership."

Fluor’s project scope of work for BASF’s Zhanjiang Verbund site project consists of two primary packages including the ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol derivative unit and the infrastructure, offsites and utilities scope, comprised of site infrastructure, utility generation and site logistics. Fluor is also performing services as part of the centralized program management team activities.

The project will be led by Fluor’s Shanghai, China, office.

We remind, Fluor (Irving, Texas) has recently announced an organizational revamp that “better aligns its business with identified growth markets and company strategy” after conducting a strategic review. The company is initiating plans to sell its subsidiary Stork (Utrecht, Netherlands) as part of the revamp, it says. Starting in the first quarter of 2021, Fluor will conduct its operations in three business segments - Energy Solutions, Urban Solutions, and Mission Solutions. The energy solutions business will be focused on energy transition, chemicals, and traditional oil and gas opportunities, according to Fluor.

Fluor Corporation is building a better future by applying world-class expertise to solve its clients’ greatest challenges. Fluor’s 41,000 employees provide professional and technical solutions that deliver safe, well-executed, capital-efficient projects to clients around the world. Fluor had revenue of USD12.4 billion in 2021 and is ranked 259 among the Fortune 500 companies. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor has provided engineering, procurement and construction services for more than 110 years.
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On October 1, 2022, Neste merged its wholly-owned subsidiary Neste Engineering Solutions Oy into Neste Corporation, said the company.

The move only affects the company’s operations in Finland and Neste’s Engineering Solutions unit will now oversee the business of the newly merged company.

In April 2022, Neste announced that it would merge the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Neste Engineering Solutions Oy (Nes) into Neste Corporation. The plan has now been completed and the merger took place on October 1, 2022. The merger affects only the Finnish operations. The entire Nes personnel in Finland will be transferred to Neste Corporation. Nes’ business will now be conducted by the Engineering Solutions unit.

We remind, Neste Corporation and Marathon Petroleum Corporation (Marathon) announced an agreement to establish a 50/50 joint venture to produce renewable diesel following a conversion project of Marathon's refinery in Martinez, California. All required closing conditions have been met, including the receipt of the necessary permits and regulatory approvals, and Neste and Marathon have today closed the transaction for the establishment of the joint venture to be called Martinez Renewables.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following a standstill for 80% of the construction works in the Kallo PDH project, Borealis carried out a re-tendering process for the Mechanical and Piping construction works, said the company.

After careful consideration, Borealis has now granted a majority of these works to the contractor Ponticelli. Works on the construction site will now further gradually increase as of 3 October 2022.

The prolonged standstill and gradual re-start of the project has consequences for the timeline of the project. Borealis expects start-up of the new PDH plant during the second half of 2024.

Borealis has zero tolerance for any malpractices. Borealis has implemented these measures to identify and address any potential lack of control by (sub)contractors:

All workers and (sub)contractors are informed and encouraged to make use of Borealis’ ethics hotline. This tool is accessible for Borealis workers and externals and allows for ethics-related concerns to be filed in 24 languages. In this way we can best early detect wrongdoings and take the required measures in the shortest timeframe
Borealis has reinforced its contractor auditing and vetting process to ensure that our contractors are effectively controlling their subcontractors.

To ensure further compliance, we ask each contractor and subcontractor to sign a formal binding declaration prior to deployment on the site in which they formally confirm to be fully compliant with applicable Belgian labour, social security and tax laws.

“We feel sorry for the workers employed by subcontractors for what has happened to them. Borealis has a zero tolerance policy regarding human rights violations, and we act accordingly. With the restart of the construction with Ponticelli, Borealis has further strengthened its standards for major expansion projects in a safe way,” comments Philippe Roodhooft, Borealis Executive Vice President. “Any contractor who does not comply with highest professional standards, be it directly or indirectly, disqualifies as a partner for us.”

“We are very grateful to Borealis for their confidence in these delicate times, which displayed our shared value to never compromise on our most important asset: our People,” comments Thierry Le Gangneux, CEO of Ponticelli. “And thanks to the reinforced connection between our Groups, we are more committed than ever to make this project a success.”

We remind, in July, Borealis suspends contract with IREM-Ponticelli and declares a three-day stand-still for its construction site in Kallo, Belgium.

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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