Clariant completes sale of North American Land Oil business

Clariant, a focused, sustainable, and innovative specialty chemical company, announced the completion of the divestment of its North American Land Oil business to Dorf Ketal, a specialty chemicals manufacturer and service provider headquartered in India, for USD 14.5 million on 31 March 2023, said the company.

Clariant’s North American Land Oil business is a provider of chemical technologies and services to the North American oil and gas industry and generated sales of USD 115 million in 2022. After seeing strong growth in 2018 and 2019, the global oil industry entered a crisis in 2020. This prompted a strategic review which concluded that the NORAM Land Oil business is primarily service-oriented with a limited focus on sustainable solutions and will not reach profitability levels expected for a specialty chemicals portfolio.

“Clariant is a true specialty chemicals company whereas the North American Land Oil business is primarily a distribution and service business,” said Conrad Keijzer, Chief Executive Officer at Clariant. “We are therefore glad that, with Dorf Ketal, we have found the right owner for our customers and our employees. I want to express my gratitude to our former colleagues and wish them all the best in their new environment."

The North American Land Oil business employs 180 professionals in the USA and Canada.

We remind, Clariant Catalysts has collaborated with Evonik and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (tkIS) for a propylene oxide (PO) project in China. Qixiang Tengda will depend on Evonik-tkIS HPPO technology to transform propylene into PO, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The new plant will have a capacity of 300,000 tonnes/y.

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Canada's province of Alberta - the heart of the country's oil and gas industry - is expected to offer more support for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) projects now that the federal government has its incentives in place, the federal natural resources minister told Reuters.

CCUS is one of the key technologies Canada is relying on to help reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and industry says additional government incentives are the last piece of the puzzle needed to kickstart the projects. This week, Canada's federal budget expanded eligibility for CCUS investment tax credits over the next five years, by adding CD520 MM to the CD2.6-B program laid out in last year's budget.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government and the province of Alberta, however, have been at odds over who should pay to increase funding for CCUS, which industry says is needed because the U.S. is offering much more generous incentives. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said he has had many conversations with the Alberta government on CCUS, including one earlier this week, and he hopes to see some of the major CCUS projects launched by end-year.

"They are working through their internal process about what mechanism they may use... But my sense of the government of Alberta is they are fully aware of that and intend to be part of this," Wilkinson said in a telephone interview from Berlin, where he is meeting officials to advance cooperation on the shift to clean energy.

Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith, who is facing a May election to stay in power, has said she is open to bolstering CCUS financial support, but she has been highly critical many of Trudeau's climate policies, including a planned emissions cap for the oil and gas industry.

Canada is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and the energy sector is the country's highest-polluting industry and it needs to drastically cut emissions if Canada is to achieve its climate commitments. Gabrielle Symbalisty, press secretary for Alberta's Energy Minister Pete Guthrie, said the province is exploring covering eligible capital costs of CCUS by expanding its petrochemical incentive program, and that it would work with the federal government to coordinate federal and provincial incentives.

We remind, The Pathways Alliance, a collaboration between Canada's six largest oil sands producers targeting net-zero emissions by 2050, is planning to develop a CCUS hub in northern Alberta, expected to cost USD12.2 bn by 2030.

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Exxon Mobil Corp's Low Carbon business has the potential to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and outperform the company's traditional oil and gas as soon as a decade from now, CEO Darren Woods said, said Reuters.

The largest U.S. oil producer on Tuesday laid out to investors the aims of its emerging energy transition strategy in a meeting with Wall Street. Exxon is tackling what should be a multi-trillion market in 10 years or more, Woods said.

The result will be an Exxon less prone to commodity price swings through predictable, long-term contracts with customers striving to reduce their own carbon footprint.

"This business is going to look quite a bit different than the base business of Exxon Mobil," vowed Dan Ammann, president of Exxon's two-year-old Low Carbon Business Solutions unit. "It is going to have a much more stable, or less cyclical, profile."

How quickly that vision becomes a reality will depend on regulatory and policy support for carbon pricing - something the U.S. has not broadly accepted - and the cost to abate greenhouse gas emissions, among other changes, he said. Ammann declined to comment on whether expectations for rising oil prices underpin the strategy.

The company on Tuesday put out parameters for how it sees that growth unfolding, with carbon priced as much as three times current levels. Exxon is one of the most oil- and gas-focused companies among Western oil producers, a strategy that delivered record profits for its investors last year as fossil fuel prices soared.

Unlike its peers, Exxon has stayed away from renewable energy like solar and wind. Its energy transition plans lean heavily on reducing carbon emissions from its own operations, which Exxon is spending USD10 B by 2027 to implement.

Exxon is tackling carbon capture, hydrogen, biofuels, which it estimates have a combined potential of USD6.5 T by 2050, equivalent to the traditional oil and gas business.

We remind, ExxonMobil Corp has started up its long-planned project to expand light crude oil processing capacity by 250,000 b/d at ExxonMobil Product Solutions Co's integrated refining and petrochemicals complex along the US Gulf Coast in Beaumont, TX, US.

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Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) are collaborating to use flake from recycled PET trays to produce PET film suitable for food packaging trays, said the company.

The partnership is an important step in diverting PET trays from landfill or incineration to support the EU’s recycling targets and create a circular economy for PET trays.

After six years of research and development, Indorama Ventures is commercially producing recycled PET (rPET) flakes from post-consumer trays in their Verdun facility in France, which are comparable in quality to flakes originating from bottles. This development supports a closed-loop economy for PET trays by giving consumers more sustainable options and enabling packaging producers to meet their recycled content targets. It also protects and preserves food, reducing about 154 million tons of food waste costing EUR143 billion per year across the EU1.

Marta Matos Gil, Chief Sustainability Officer at Evertis, said, “PET trays are crucial to provide safety and convenience to consumers, ensuring longer shelf life for food and reducing waste. For some time, our industry has had a goal to create circular solutions for these essential products. Indorama Ventures’ innovative recycling methods shows how we can create a truly circular economy by developing infrastructure and capacity to collect, sort and recycle PET trays and transform them back into valuable raw material. This partnership helps Evertis to meet our sustainability goals and boost our product innovation in terms of circularity, recyclability, and eco-design. This is crucial in the current market, where our clients face new packaging regulations and consumers are concerned about the environmental impact of the products they buy. Evertis can meet both those needs."

Indorama Ventures’ solution increases the total amount of recycled PET availability with the new tray-to-tray recycling workstream. According to the company, the new recycling technology has the potential to divert more than 50 million post-consumer PET trays from landfill or incineration each year2.

Yash Lohia, Chairman of IVL’s ESG Council said, “We can support a circular economy by conducting rigorous testing at every stage of the process, from sorting and recycling to conversion, to ensure the highest quality. Our Deja™ sustainable ingredients brand, including rPET, supports the EU’s plastic collection and recycling targets."

The partnership supports Evertis’ 2025 target of 50% post-consumer recycled content in their products. In 2019, the company obtained the ECOSENSE certification3, renewed in 2023 as the RETRAY certification , which verifies the recycled content in film production.

As the most recycled plastic in the world4 , PET is driving sustainable growth due to its recyclable, flexible, safe and lightweight properties. This collaboration helps close the loop on PET tray-to-tray recycling, diverting PET from landfill or incineration and fostering more sustainable production towards a circular economy.

We remind, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), one of the world's leading sustainable chemical companies, and technology specialist Polymateria Limited have signed an exclusive 10-year partnership to help household brands bring biodegradable nonwoven hygiene products to the market through biotransformation technology.

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Apotex Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc. announced that its acquisition by an affiliate of funds advised by SK Capital Partners, LP has closed, said the company.

The Company also announces that experienced pharmaceutical executive Allan Oberman has been appointed President and CEO and member of the Board of Apotex.

Allan brings four decades of experience in corporate leadership to Apotex, including 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he served as CEO of Concordia International Corp. and CEO of Sagent Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to these positions, he served as President and CEO of Teva Canada (formerly Novopharm Limited), COO of Teva International Group, President of Teva EMIA and President and CEO of Teva Americas Generics. Mr. Oberman has almost three decades of corporate governance experience, having served on numerous boards, including as Chairman of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, and Vice-Chairman of the U.S. Association for Accessible Medicines. He has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University, and a BA from Western University.

“As a competitor to Apotex for many years, I am very familiar with the company and have admired its people, long-term track record of innovation and commitment to making medicines affordable to patients in Canada and worldwide,” stated Allan Oberman, President and CEO of Apotex. “I’m excited to join the team and build on that legacy.”

“We welcome Allan to the Apotex team. His experience leading major Canadian and international pharmaceutical companies and delivering enhanced shareholder value will benefit Apotex as we grow into a Canadian-based global health company,” said Aaron Davenport, Chairman of the Board of Apotex and Managing Director at SK Capital. “SK Capital looks forward to working with Apotex as it moves into its next phase of growth, leveraging its iconic brand, broad product portfolio, international presence and skilled team.”

Jeff Watson, Apotex’s CEO since 2018, will join the Apotex Board of Directors. “We thank Jeff for his leadership and welcome him to the Board, where we will continue to benefit from his stewardship and counsel,” added Mr. Davenport.

We remind, Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and value-driven energy solutions, announced an integrated technology award from SP Chemicals and its subsidiary SP Olefins. SP Chemicals will license Lummus' CATOFIN technology for a new 800 KTA propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, and SP Olefins will license Lummus' Novolen technology for a new 400 KTA polypropylene (PP) unit. Both units will be located at SP Chemicals' complex in Jiangsu Province, China.

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