TotalEnergies accelerates refinery wage talks as fuel supply shrinks

TotalEnergies offered to bring forward wage talks, in response to union demands, as it sought to end a strike that has disrupted supplies to almost a third of French petrol stations and led the government to tap strategic reserves, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Provided the blockades will end and all labour representatives agree, the company proposes to advance to October the start of mandatory annual wage talks," it said in a statement. The talks were initially scheduled to start in mid-November.

Union representatives earlier told Reuters the strikes staged by the CGT, historically one of France's more militant unions, would continue. They have disrupted operations at two ExxonMobil sites as well as at two TotalEnergies sites. Over roughly two weeks of industrial action, France's domestic fuel output has fallen by more than 60%, straining nerves across the country, as waiting lines grow and supplies have run dry.

Almost a third of France's petrol stations had problems getting deliveries of at least one fuel product on Sunday, up from 21% the day before, the office of the energy minister said. France has released strategic reserves and raised imports, Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said in a statement, adding these should mean the supply situation improves on Monday.

Speaking to BFM TV, she welcomed TotalEnergie's offer and said she expected a move from ExxonMobil's Esso France unit "so that the French people are not taken hostage by this social dispute and can go to work with confidence".

Esso France, ExxonMobil's local unit, said it would hold a new round of wage talks with unions on Monday "with the aim of enabling the group's refineries to resume operations as soon as possible." Wage talks have been underway for weeks at ExxonMobil, while the CGT at TotalEnergies said it has been trying to get the management to the negotiation table earlier than formal talks scheduled next month.

Workers at TotalEnergies are seeking a 10% pay rise starting this year after a surge in energy prices led to huge profits that allowed the company to pay out an estimated eight billion euros ($7.8 billion) in dividends and an additional special dividend to investors.

The company's CEO last week said "the time has come to reward" workers, but the company had refused to start negotiations. A CGT representative said the union would not make any official comment on TotalEnergie's offer before internal discussions and informing workers. The CFDT union, France's largest, which chose not to call for strikes despite demanding a similar pay rise, said in a statement it was prepared to start wage talks in October.

We remind, the Flemish government recently awarded TotalEnergies the contract to install 1,500 electric vehicle charging points in Antwerp. In the heart of Europe and in Belgium's most populous city, the company is reinforcing its commitment to offering and developing sustainable mobility, with the aim of becoming Belgium's leading company in the public charging market by 2024.

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Shell PLC said that it expects integrated gas trading and optimization results to fall on quarter, along with refining margins, but for market results to rise, said the company.

Shares at 0714 GMT were down 69.0 pence, or 2.9% at 2309.5 pence. The energy group said production for the third quarter in Integrated Gas is anticipated to be between 890,000 and 940,000 barrels of equivalent oil per day. It said it expects a third-quarter pretax depreciation between USD1.3 billion and USD1.7 billion.

Trading and optimization results for its Integrated Gas segment are expected to be lower compared with the second quarter of 2022, as a result of seasonality and substantial differences between paper and physical realization in a volatile and dislocated market.

In the chemicals and products division, the indicative refining margin is USD15 a barrel, compared with USD28 a barrel in the prior quarter. The company expects the decreased margin to have a negative impact of between USD1.0 billion and USD1.4 billion on adjusted earnings for products.

The indicative chemical margin is expected to swing to negative USD27 per ton, compared to positive USD86 a ton; the swing is expected to hit third-quarter adjusted earnings in chemicals by between USD300 million and USD600 million.

Upstream production is expected to be between 1.75 million and 1.85 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, and it expects a pretax depreciation between USD3.0 billion and USD3.4 billion. Marketing results are expected to be higher than in the second quarter, with oil products sales volumes expected to reach between 2.35 million and 2.75 million barrels of oil a day, the company said.

We remind, Mitsui Chemicals has asked Shell Catalysts & Technologies for its Shell S-896 catalyst, which is expected to provide important economic benefits from raw material (ethylene) savings and also help the organization meet the decarbonization goals for their ethylene oxide (EO) refinery in Osaka, Japan.
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Ineos Styrolution has developed what officials claim are the world's first fully bio-attributed ABS resins, said the company.

The new ECO B line is part of Ineos Styrolution's Terluran-brand ABS portfolio. Officials with Ineos Styrolution in Frankfurt, Germany, said in a news release that the new grades complement previous mechanically recycled Terluran ECO materials.

Officials described the new ABS grades as "the final jigsaw piece" in Ineos Styrolution's polystyrene and ABS portfolio, which now consists of mechanically recycled and bio-attributed solutions for all three of the firm's products lines.

The new ECO B grades are based on renewable feedstock according to an ISCC-certified mass balance approach. The new feedstock can be used as a replacement for conventional feedstock for all three components in ABS, acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene monomer.

Officials said this approach maximizes the renewable feedstock in the material while minimizing the CO2 footprint. One of the new grades contains bio-attributed content from styrene monomer from renewable sources. The other new grade contains a complete bio-attributed solution with bio-attributed content from all three monomers.

Terluran is used in a broad range of applications, including automotive, household, electronics, construction, toys, and sports and leisure. "This new bio-attributed standard ABS rounds up our range of sustainable Terluran solutions," ABS Product Director Yohann Bach said. "I expect it to be particularly interesting for customers with very ambitious sustainability goals minimizing their ecological footprint while not compromising on performance."

Officials added that all of Ineos Styrolution's bio-attributed products have identical physical and mechanical properties as their counterparts based on conventional feedstock. Ineos Styrolution is a global leader in styrenic materials, operating 20 production sites in 10 countries. The firm employs 3,600 and posted sales of almost USD6 billion in 2021.

As per MRC, INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has introduced a lineup of commercially available sustainable polystyrene products that is second to none. The new products provide customers a choice to select the best fit for their application. The complete lineup introduced today follows initial announcements on mechanically-recycled polystyrene solutions in 2021[1]. The new “ECO” products offer the performance of the respective virgin products, but with a significantly lower CO2 footprint. All products are drop-in solutions.

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Martin Brudermuller, CEO of BASF was re-elected President of Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council) for another 2-year term, effective immediately, at Cefic’s annual General Assembly, said the company.

Dr. Martin Brudermuller, re-elected Cefic President: "I am grateful to Cefic members for entrusting me to guide and inspire our industry in these very turbulent times. I started my first term as President when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging across the world. Today, we have a war on our doorstep in Europe and an unprecedented energy crisis that is threatening the very existence of Europe’s industrial production.

For the first time in decades, Europe imports more chemicals than it exports. Many of our value chains are breaking up as we speak. There is no more room for business as usual. Appropriate political action is needed and we need it fast to safeguard our industrial base in Europe.

At the same time, the chemical industry needs to re-invent how we produce and what we produce in less than 30 years from now to meet the European Green Deal goals with a double twin transition challenging us. The next years will become a “stress test” for the resilience and ingenuity of our industry. And robust the progress with the Chemicals Transition Pathway including an appropriate prioritisation and sequencing of regulatory measures will be crucial, not only for our sector but for the whole EU economy”.

BASF and Hannong Chemicals are planning to establish a production joint venture “BASF Hannong Chemicals Solutions Ltd.” BASF will hold 51% and Hannong Chemicals 49% shareholding, in the proposed joint venture. The joint venture will combine BASF’s strong technology and product innovation capabilities with Hannong’s highly efficient production capabilities to supply best-in-class non-ionic surfactant products to BASF and Hannong Chemicals, each with their own sales and distribution network, enabling the two companies to cater for increasing market demand.
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AdvanSix announced a preliminary update on its third quarter planned turnaround activities and its expected third quarter 2022 financial results, said the company.

The Company expects third quarter 2022 Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of USD31 to USD34 million. “During the planned multi-site plant turnaround in September, additional required maintenance at our Frankford phenol plant contributed to reduced production across our integrated value chain and a delayed ramp to full operating rates at our Hopewell and Chesterfield sites, resulting in an incremental approximately USD15 million unfavorable impact to pre-tax income inclusive of fixed cost absorption, higher maintenance expense and lost sales. Despite the unfavorable impact of the extended turnaround, cash generation remained robust in the quarter enabling a previously announced 16% increase in our dividend payout, opportunistic share repurchases of approximately USD13 million in the quarter and further debt paydown,” said Erin Kane, president and CEO of AdvanSix.

“While quarterly operational performance overall did not meet our expectations, I’m encouraged that our planned plant turnaround activities are now behind us, supporting future performance, and expect our facilities to operate at our typical high utilization rates for the remainder of the year. Consistent with others in the industry, we are seeing signs of slowing growth in consumer durables and building and construction end markets. We have a proven track record of navigating through challenging macro conditions and continue to believe we are well positioned going forward. Our outlook for the fourth quarter remains favorable, with expected performance rebounding towards results demonstrated in the first and second quarters of this year, supported by our diverse product portfolio, advantage of our business model, and strong underlying agriculture and fertilizer industry fundamentals,” concluded Kane.

The Company will issue its third quarter 2022 financial results before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, November 4.

As per MRC, AdvanSix, a new resin and chemical division of Honeywell, has agreed to acquire US Amines in a USD100 mln all-cash deal. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in Q122 and will be accretive to 2022 earnings.

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