殼牌放棄65億美元石化項目
Royal Dutch Shell has scrapped plans for a $6.5bn petrochemicals project with Qatar Petroleum, citing “the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry”, the oil major said on Wednesday.
荷蘭皇家殼牌(Royal Dutch Shell)週三表示,已經放棄與卡塔爾石油公司(Qatar Petroleum)合作開展一個價值65億美元的石化項目的計劃,原因是“能源行業當前的經濟氣候”。The Al Karaana project, an 80:20 joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Shell, would have produced 2m tonnes a year of petrochemicals products, largely intended for Asian markets.
卡塔爾石油公司與殼牌按照80:20出資比例建立的Al Karaana合資項目原本計劃每年生產200萬噸的石化產品,主要供應亞洲市場。The decision not to proceed — a significant move following the halving of oil prices since last summer — was taken “after a careful and thorough evaluation of commercial quotations” from engineering, procurement and construction bidders, Shell said.
殼牌表示,不再推進該項目的決定是在“對工程、採購和建築投標人的商業報價進行審慎而全面的評估之後”做出的。該決定是自去年夏天以來油價下跌50%以後殼牌採取的一個重大舉措。
These showed “high capital costs rendering it commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry.”
這些報價表明“高昂的資本成本讓該項目在商業上變得不可行,尤其是在能源行業當前的經濟氣候下”。Crude oil prices have plunged by more than 50 per cent since mid-June, creating winners and losers.
原油價格自去年6月中旬以來下跌逾50%,既讓一部分人受益,也令一部分人蒙受損失。Those who have suffered include producers and governments, whereas some companies stand to benefit from a fall in energy costs. This has encouraged analysts to liken the potential boost for the global economy to a huge programme of “quantitative easing”.
那些蒙受損失的包括生產商和各國政府,然而,有些公司卻因能源成本下降而受益。這促使分析師將油價下跌對全球經濟的潛在提振與龐大的“量化寬鬆”計劃相提並論。For oil companies, the falling price has triggered industry-wide scrutiny of capital spending, with the so-called majors — the biggest groups with upstream and downstream operations — expected to cut billions of dollars from exploration and development projects in the coming year, deferring and even axing programmes.
對石油公司來說,油價下跌引發全行業評估資本支出,那些所謂的石油巨頭(擁有上下游業務的大型集團)預計來年在勘探和開發項目中削減數十億美元支出,延遲甚至放棄某些項目。Under pressure to improve returns following the first profit warning in its history last year, Shell had already embarked on an intense round of cost-cutting before the slide in international crude prices to below $50 a barrel, from more than $110 last summer.
殼牌去年發佈了歷史上首個盈利預警,在提高效益的壓力下,該公司已經在國際油價從去年夏季的每桶逾110美元下跌至50美元之前大刀闊斧地實施了一輪削減成本的舉措。By the end of the third quarter, the Anglo-Dutch major had announced asset disposals of $14bn under a belt-tightening programme initiated by new chief executive Ben van Beurden.
截止去年第三季度末,殼牌按照新任首席執行官範伯登(Ben van Beurden)提出的緊縮項目,宣佈了140億美元的資產處置措施。It has promised to pursue profits over production growth and aims to deliver $30bn to investors through dividends and share buybacks over 2014 and 2015. It said in October it was braced for a sustained price downturn and was now taking further action.
該公司承諾致力於盈利而非產量增長,目標是在2014年和2015年通過股息發放和股票回購向投資者提供300億美元的回報。殼牌在去年10月表示,已經對油價持續下跌有所準備,正在採取進一步的行動。Al Karaana, which took its name from an ancient Qatari village, is an example of the kind of planned spending the oil majors will be paring back. The joint venture to develop a huge complex at Ras Laffan, agreed in December 2011, would have produced 2m tonnes a year of petrochemicals, the bulk of which would have come from a monoethylene glycol plant, the largest of its kind in the world.
以卡塔爾古代的一個村莊命名的Al Karaana項目,就是殼牌即將削減此類計劃支出的一個例子。殼牌與卡塔爾石油公司在2011年12月同意在卡塔爾拉斯拉凡(Ras Laffan)聯合建設一座大型綜合性工廠,每年生產200萬噸的石化產品,其中大部分產品來自一個全球最大的單乙二醇工廠。In March 2013 Fluor of the US won the major front-end engineering and design contract for the project. Feedstock for the plant would have come from natural gas projects in Qatar.
2013年3月,美國福陸公司(Fluor)贏得了該項目主要的前端工程和設計合同。按照計劃,該工廠的原料將來自卡塔爾的天然氣項目。Shell’s existing ventures with Qatar Petroleum, including Pearl GTL, the world’s biggest integrated gas-to-liquids plant, located at Ras Laffan, are unaffected.
殼牌與卡塔爾石油公司的現有合作項目未受影響,包括位於拉斯拉凡、世界上最大的一體化天然氣合成油工廠Pearl GTL。Shares in Shell were down 2.3 per cent at £20.28 in afternoon London trading, following further falls in Brent crude to $46.
在倫敦下午盤交易時段,在布倫特油價進一步跌至46美元之後,殼牌股價下跌2.3%至20.28英鎊。