Air Liquide and Sasol sign new contracts

TotalEnergies plans to supply renewable energy to Sasol and Air Liquide at the Secunda chemical site in South Africa, said the company.

The companies signed power purchase agreements for the supply of 260MW capacity of renewable electricity over 20 years, TotalEnergies said in a statement on Thursday.

The French energy and petrochemicals major will develop a 120MW solar plant and a 140MW wind farm in the Western Cape province to supply around 850GWh of green electricity per year to the Sasol’s Secunda site, located 700km further northeast, where Air Liquide operates the world's biggest oxygen production site, it said.

The two projects, expected to be operational in 2025, will provide renewable electricity to decarbonise Sasol and Air Liquide’s production, TotalEnergies said.

We remind, TotalEnergies is joining forces with Portuguese packaging player Intraplas to create commercial products with TotalEnergies renewable polymer – a range of the RE:clic portfolio, which uses renewable sources to lower carbon footprint. TotalEnergies’ biorefinery in La Mede, France, allows direct access to renewable feedstock for its drop-in RE: newable polymer range derived from bio-based products. The company claims these polymers retain virgin-like properties.

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Petron Malaysia Refining & Marketing Bhd’s (Petron Malaysia) net profit for the financial year 2022 (FY2022) improved 26% to RM300.59 million, said the company.

Revenue increased two-fold to RM18.35 billion, buoyed by growth in volume and elevated oil prices. "For 2022, the company's sales volume grew by 28 per cent to 33.8 million barrels from 26.4 million barrels in 2021,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

"Despite increased sales volume and higher refinery utilisation, the highly volatile oil market during the year caused prices to plunge in the second half of 2022,” it added.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (Q4 FY2022) Petron Malaysia posted a net loss of RM21.37 million from a net profit of RM60.53 million in the previous corresponding quarter.

Revenue, however, increased by 44 per cent to RM4.27 billion compared with RM2.96 billion reported in the same quarter of 2021, driven mainly by the elevated oil prices and higher sales volume.

On its current financial year prospects, Petron Malaysia said the group remains focused on mitigating the challenges in the oil industry while pursuing growth through investments like retail network expansion.

We remind, Petronas has signed two Project Development Agreements with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc. (ExxonMobil) to jointly pursue Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) activation projects in Malaysia.
Under the agreements, both parties will define next steps, including the maturation of technical scopes for the CCS value chain, evaluation of the identified fields for CO2 storage utilisation, development of appropriate commercial framework and establishment of advocacy plan support on regulations and policy development in enabling CCS projects.

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Italian oil supermajor Eni S.p.A. reported its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings results, revealing its net profit annually tumbled 84% to EUR550 million, or diluted earnings per share of EUR0.97, said the company.

The company's adjusted operating profit remained mostly unchanged in the same period at EUR3.8 billion. In 2022, both Eni's net and operating profit more than doubled versus a year earlier to reach record EUR13.81 billion and EUR20.39 billion, respectively.

"Our strategic objectives are unchanged: we will invest to ensure stable and affordable supplies to meet energy market demand and decarbonize our operations and clients, while maintaining financial discipline to ensure attractive returns for our shareholders," CEO Claudio Descalzi noted. Commenting on the outlook, Eni said it will unveil its 2023 financial targets during its capital markets day.

We remind, PDVSA has allocated an oil cargo to a unit of Eni for a February loading, the first to the Italian firm following a contract suspension this year by new management at the state-run company, people familiar with the matter said. Eni and Spanish oil firm Repsol in May last year received authorizations from the U.S. State Department to take the crude to Europe for outstanding Venezuela debt and dividends, an exception to U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela.

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US-based acetyl and engineered materials producer Celanese reported Q4 earnings that fell below the company's earlier guidance, said the company.

The following shows the company's Q4 financial performance. Figures are in millions of dollars except for adjusted earnings/share, which are listed in dollars. Net income rose because of an $840m tax benefit that Celanese reported in the fourth quarter. That compares with a tax charge of USD27m that Celanese reported in Q4 2021.

CEO Lori Ryerkerk said Q4 results fell slightly below the company's expectations and below its adjusted earnings/share guidance range. In November, Celanese expected to report adjusted earnings/share of USD1.50-2.00. The company's shares fell by 3.60% in after-hours trading.

We remind, Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials and chemical company, announced the completion of an ultra-low capital project to repurpose existing manufacturing and infrastructure assets to unlock additional ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) capacity at its Edmonton, Alberta facility. The expansion supports significant growth in the Acetyl Chain’s downstream vinyls portfolio.

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Belgian chemicals group Solvay SOLB.BR reported record profits for 2022, beating a company-provided consensus after a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter mainly driven by higher selling prices, said the company.

The company, which makes lithium derivatives for batteries, said higher prices had offset weaker volumes and it would continue to maintain pricing power where possible, but warned it expects earnings to fall this year.

For 2023, Solvay said it sees its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declining by 3% to 9% from 2022 due to "softer volumes in key markets", including in chemicals, coatings and consumer markets.

Solvay Chief Executive Officer Ilham Kadri told Reuters plans to split the business into two public companies remain on track for completion in December 2023.

Fourth-quarter net turnover rose 21.6% year-on-year to 3.29 billion euros, driven mainly by higher selling prices across the business but also by sustained demand for soda ash and growth in civil aerospace and coating markets, the company said.

Its annual underlying EBITDA reached a new record in 2022, at 3.29 billion euros (USD3.49 billion), beating a company-provided consensus of 3.25 billion euros.

Quarterly EBITDA came in at 736 million euros, up 28.6% from a year earlier and also above a consensus of 703 million euros. The Brussels-based company raised its dividend by 0.20 euro to 4.05 euro per share, subject to shareholder approval.

We remind, Solvay in advanced negotiations to divest its stake in Rusvinyl. The company confirms it is in advanced negotiations to divest its stake in Rusvinyl, an independent 50/50 joint venture in Russia, to its joint venture partner, Sibur. In addition to the recently obtained preliminary clearance from Russian governmental authorities, the potential transaction is still subject to several other regulatory approvals. Solvay will keep the market informed if and when appropriate, in accordance with applicable law.

Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 21,000 employees in 63 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress.

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