Wood Group to pay USD115m to settle legacy lawsuit

Engineering giant John Wood Group has agreed to pay out USD115m (GDP97.5m) to settle a legacy lawsuit, said BBC.

The Aberdeen-based firm's settlement follows the conclusion earlier this year of a lawsuit involving Enterprise Products Operating LLC. Enterprise first filed a lawsuit against Amec Foster Wheeler and one of its subsidiaries in 2016, the year before Wood bought Amec.

It related to alleged cost increases and delays on a project agreed in 2013. The contract involved the engineering, procurement and construction of a propane dehydrogenation unit in Texas.

Wood said on Friday that the agreed settlement would be paid in one instalment within the next seven days.

In September, Wood announced it had completed the sale of its Built Environment consulting business to Canadian firm WSP Global for about USD1.8bn (GDP1.52bn), immediately reducing its net debt position.

As per MRC, Wood has been awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) scope for Gen2 Energy’s green hydrogen production facility, located in Mosjoen in northern Norway. Gen2 Energy is a Norwegian company dedicated to developing, building, owning and operating an integrated value chain for green hydrogen. The company targets having several large-scale production facilities for green hydrogen, making it easy and cost efficient for consumers to adapt to green hydrogen.
mrchub.com

Asahi Kasei, a diversified Japanese multinational company, and its affiliated companies have acquired the widely recognized international certification ISCC PLUS1 for several products, said the company.

The certification ensures that biomass, recycled materials, etc., are appropriately managed under the mass-balance method2 in the whole supply chain including manufacturing. With the acquisition of this certification, Asahi Kasei will be able to provide ISCC PLUS certified products.

The Asahi Kasei Group aims to contribute to a carbon-neutral and sustainable world from the perspective of “Care for Earth” by focusing on initiatives such as the use of biomass raw materials, recycled raw materials, and renewable energy. The company strives to meet the expectations of its customers and society by further advancing the provision of products and services with such sustainable characteristics while deepening collaboration with other companies based on its medium-term management plan for fiscal 2024 focused on the theme "Be a Trailblazer."

We remind, Asahi Kasei Plastics Singapore Pte Ltd (APS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Asahi Kasei, acquired the widely recognized international certification ISCC PLUS for its polyphenylene ether (PPE) as a sustainable product on September 19, 2022. Production of PPE using biomass-derived raw material is scheduled to begin in January 2023.

mrchub.com

South Korea's oil refining and energy giant GS Caltex has teamed up with leading domestic companies in their respective fields to enter the carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) sector, said Kedglobal.

The company on Tuesday said Korea East-West Power, Hyundai Glovis, Hanwha Solutions, Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T), Namhae Chemical, Linde Korea, GS Energy and GS Engineering and Construction (E&C) signed an agreement to form the CCUS consortium.

Under the deal, the eight companies will capture CO2 emissions from plants at Yeosu National Industrial Complex in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, including GS Caltex's plant there, for use as raw materials for chemical conversion and mineral carbonation.

The remaining carbon dioxide will be sent to landfills at home and abroad for underground storage. Under the carbon treatment method, CCUS technology is divided into carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU).

GS Caltex will take fully part in the development of the CCUS business covering CO2 collection, utilization and storage and supervise the supply of blue hydrogen.

Hyundai Glovis will handle sea shipping for the carbon dioxide, which will be used in CCS operations at a storage facility developed by GS Energy and Linde Korea.

The CCU side will be done by Hanwha Solutions, Hyundai Glovis, GS E&C, Samsung C&T and Namhae Chemical. Korea East-West Power will conduct carbon capture and supply blue hydrogen.

We remind, GS Caltex Corp., a major South Korean refiner, said Friday it has completed the construction of a new olefin cracking facility on the country's southwest coast, as it seeks to expand the petrochemical business. The new mixed feed cracker (MFC), built in Yeosu, about 320 kilometers south of Seoul, will annually produce 750,000 tons of ethylene, 500,000 tons of polyethylene and 410,000 tons of propylene, among others
mrchub.com

Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC announced it has commenced operations of its Pennsylvania Chemical project, Shell Polymers Monaca (SPM), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Pennsylvania facility is the first major polyethylene manufacturing complex in the Northeastern United States and has a designed output of 1.6 MMt annually.

“Building this world-class facility is a fantastic achievement and one the team can be proud of; it’s a showcase of Shell’s project delivery expertise,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell Downstream Director. “With great market access, innovative offers and connected infrastructure, Shell Polymers Monaca is well positioned and ready to serve customers with high-quality, competitive products.”

Strategically located within a 700-mile radius of 70 percent of the U.S. polyethylene market, SPM sits on 384 acres adjacent to the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. SPM contracted most of its natural gas feedstock at Final Investment Decision from the nearby Utica and Marcellus basins. The advantages of proximity are not limited to production; SPM also offers customers shorter supply chains, which translates to increased flexibility and access to polyethylene pellets that can be used in a wide variety of products such as common household goods, consumer and food packaging, as well as industrial and utility products.

The start-up of Shell Polymers Monaca represents an important step in growing Shell’s chemicals business as part of its Powering Progress strategy. The company is increasingly participating in value chains closer to end-use customers and using advantaged feedstocks to deliver more high value products while reducing exposure to commodity chemicals over time.

“I’m proud that in delivering this facility we’ve had a strong and innovative safety focus; invested in the community through employment and education; and helped repair and improve the local environment by remediating a brownfield site. These commitments are core to Shell’s Powering Progress strategy today and will remain so in the years to come,” said Vigeveno.

We remind, Shell said its third-quarter profit would be pressured by a near halving of oil refining margins, crumbling chemical margins and weaker natural gas trading. The British energy giant reported two consecutive quarters of record profit in the first half of the year amid soaring oil and gas prices, and stellar earnings from its trading operations, the world's biggest.

mrchub.com

NC KazMunayGas JSC (hereinafter – KMG) announces the upcoming meetings with retail investors on November 14-15 as part of the roadshow organized by the company for the detailed and extensive coverage of the local IPO of KMG on the Astana International Financial Center Exchange (hereinafter - Astana International Exchange or AIX) and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), said the company.

Speakers at the meetings will include representatives of Samruk-Kazyna JSC, KMG, and financial advisors of the company.

During the roadshow, the public of the Republic of Kazakhstan will be provided with detailed information on KMG's activities, investment highlights and the company's dividend policy, as well as the terms of the IPO of shares and the procedure for submitting investor applications.

Meetings with retail investors will be held from November 14 to November 25 in the 17 administrative centers of oblasts and the cities of national significance, namely: Almaty, Astana, Shymkent, Atyrau, Turkestan, Karaganda, Aktobe, Zhezkazgan, Kokshetau, Konaev, Petropavlovsk, Taldykorgan, Taraz, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk, Semey, Aktau, Kyzylorda, Kostanay, and Pavlodar.

Earlier it was reported that on November 8, KazMunayGas launched a new plant for the production of polypropylene with a capacity of 500 thousand tons per year in Atyrau, Western Kazakhstan. The new plant is valued at USD2.6 billion and will be able to produce up to 65 types of polypropylene to meet domestic demand, as well as export polypropylene to foreign markets. It uses Catofin and Novolen technologies provided by Lummus Technology.

The project is managed by Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries, owned by the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna. The plant was built by China National Chemical Engineering.

KazMunayGas is Kazakhstan's national operator for the exploration, production, processing and transportation of hydrocarbons, representing the interests of the state in the oil and gas industry. 90.42% of the company's shares belong to the state fund "Samruk-Kazyna", 9.58% - to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
mrchub.com