Shell completes withdrawal from its interest in Salym Petroleum Development in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell said it completed withdrawal from its interest in Salym Petroleum Development in Russia on 3 March, said the company.

Shell Salym Development BV - a subsidiary of Shell plc - completed the withdrawal from its 50% interest in the Salym project, which had been jointly developed with Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Gazprom. This follows the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals.

Shell also intends to end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. At the end of 2021, Shell had around USD3bn in non-current assets in Russian ventures.

Shell said it expects that the decision to start the process of exiting joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities will impact the book value of Shell’s Russia assets and lead to impairments.

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

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spanish oil and gas company Cepsa plans to nearly double its investments over the next three years to a total of 3.6 B euros (USD3.82 B), with more than half of that amount going to sustainable energy and mobility, said the company.

It also posted a full-year net profit at current cost of supplies (CCS) of 790 MM euros for 2022, up sharply from the 310 MM euros reported in 2021. The planned investment increase of 93% for 2023-25 is from the previous three years, Cepsa said.

Adjusted CCS earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), excluding one-offs, jumped 62% last year to 2.94 billion euros. Cepsa said the improved core earnings were driven by better market conditions, higher underlying commodity prices and increased refining margins.

In 2022, Cepsa paid a total of 6.65 billion euros in taxes, which it said was an all-time record. Over two-thirds were paid in Spain.

The company said it will pay about 325 million euros in Spain's temporary energy windfall tax based on 2022 revenues, though the charge was not reflected in last year's results. Chief Executive Maarten Wetselaar has vowed to challenge the tax in court.

We remind, Cepsa has signed a deal with the Dutch port of Rotterdam to ship green hydrogen from southern Spain to northern Europe. The hydrogen will be produced at Cepsa’s San Roque Energy Park near the Bay of Algeciras, and will be exported through hydrogen carriers such as ammonia or methanol to the Port of Rotterdam.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tunisia imported record volumes of Russian gasoil and diesel last month as an EU embargo forced Moscow to find new customers for its oil products, according to traders and tracking data, said Hydrocarbonprocesing.

Tunisia imported nearly 77,000 bpd of Russian gasoil and diesel in February, compared with 20,000 bpd in January and 25,000 bpd in December last year, data from analytics firm Kpler showed. Most of the February volumes were delivered by Russia's Lukoil and Dubai-based trader Coral Energy, the Kpler data showed. In January, Coral delivered all of Tunisia's Russian imports, the data showed.

Russia used to be the main diesel supplier for Europe, accounting for roughly 60% of the continent's needs. A full EU embargo on Russian oil products, which went into effect on Feb. 5, disrupted this trade massively, forcing Moscow to find new clients for its distillates and other oil products.

According to Refinitiv tracking data, Russian and Baltic diesel flows to Europe fell to a record low of 1.77 MMt in February. Almost half of these volumes were heading to Turkey while the rest are mostly bound to locations where ship-to-ship transfers take place.

Russia has also been diverting low-sulfur diesel volumes from its Baltic ports to Morocco, Algeria, Ghana, and Brazil.

At the same time, Europe countries have been replacing Russian diesel supplies with increased imports from India, Saudi Arabia, China, Kuwait, Malaysia, among other locations.

We remind, Russia's revenues from oil and gas exports dropped by nearly 40% in January as price caps and Western sanctions squeezed the proceeds from Moscow's most lucrative export. Russia's oil and gas export revenues were USD18.5 billion in January, 38% lower than the USD30 billion Moscow received in January 2022, a month before its invasion of Ukraine, according to IEA numbers shared with Reuters. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said Western measures targeting Russian energy exports had achieved their aims of stabilizing oil markets and reducing Moscow's revenues from oil and gas exports.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Swedish Biofuels AB announced an investment by Mitsubishi Corporation to jointly accelerate commercial deployment of clean renewable fuels using Swedish Biofuels advanced alcohol to jet (ATJ) technology, said the company.

The technology produces fully formulated sustainable aviation fuel (FFSAF) from a variety of biogenic feedstocks. Swedish Biofuels FFSAF is different from other SAFs, as it is not a blend component but ready-to-use, real jet fuel. The FFSAF has been tested successfully by engine manufacturers under US DARPA, US FAA and Swedish FMV programmes.

Swedish Biofuels is now leading the way with the world's first advanced ATJ technology, targeting the complete replacement of fossil jet fuel by FFSAF.

Swedish Biofuels MD, Dr Angelica Hull, stated that the company is honoured by Mitsubishi Corporation's investment decision, which provides an exceptional strategic partnership for Swedish Biofuels, including access to feedstock, sales support, marketing and commercial operations. With this partnership, the company expects to accelerate the deployment of its advanced ATJ technology in its home market and beyond.

We remind, Mitsubishi Chemical Group (the MCG Group) announces that it will start verification testing of a scheme for collecting acrylic resins from end-of-life vehicles, with the goal of commercializing molecular recycling operations for acrylic resin in collaboration with Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. and ABT Corporation1.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Synthos has announced that it will cease production of emulsion styrene butadiene rubber (E-SBR) at its Kralupy plant in the Czech Republic in the second quarter of 2023, said the company.

The company said it had made the decision due to unpredictable utility costs, which have led to an unsustainable market environment for E-SBR for European producers; a direct result of the geopolitical situation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a company press release on 2 March.

E-SBR production has been reduced since September 2022 for commercial reasons. Synthos has a nameplate capacity of 110,000 tonnes of E-SBR at Kralupy.

The company said it has taken the decision to indefinitely cease production of E-SBR at Kralupy, which will reduce its annual E-SBR capacity from 430,000 tonnes to 320,000 tonnes. It said however that despite the reduction it would remain the largest producer of E-SBR in Europe.

Synthos will continue to produce solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR), butadiene rubber (BR), E-SBR, acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and high styrene rubber (HSR) at manufacturing sites in Poland and Germany and BR in Kralupy, according to the press release.

We remind, Synthos has announced that it is reducing its emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber (ESBR) production by 30%, effective immediately. In a statement 8 Sept, the synthetic rubber manufacturer said it could no longer operate its ESBR production at full capacity due to “unsustainable and unpredictable utility costs”. The costs, it said, have increased due to the current developments in connection with the supply of natural gas from Russia to Europe.

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