CB&I Completes Construction of Shell Ethylene Cracker Complex in Singapore

April 14 (yarnsandfibers) -- CB&I announced that the ethylene cracker project in Singapore has been successfully started up, producing on-specification ethylene and propylene. The cracker complex is owned and operated by Shell Eastern Petroleum Ltd and is an integral component of the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex project in Singapore, which comprises modifications to the existing Bukom Refinery as well as the building of a new world scale mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) plant on Jurong island.

The 800,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) cracker increases Singapore's ethylene capacity by 40 percent while also producing 450,000 tpa of propylene, 230,000 tpa of benzene and 155,000 tpa of butadiene. The ethylene cracker uses Lummus Technology proprietary ethylene cracking technology, and the butadiene extraction unit uses proprietary technology from BASF/Lummus Technology.

CB&I, in a joint venture with Toyo Engineering Corporation, completed the engineering, procurement and construction of the cracker complex. During the course of this project, employees achieved over 39 million work-hours without a lost-time incident, a world-class safety achievement. More than 12,000 workers were employed at the peak of construction, and a ferry line was commissioned to provide transport each day from mainland Singapore to the complex on Bukom Island, approximately eight kilometers away.

MRC

April 13 (omnexus) -- The Dow Chemical Company and Bain Capital Partners, a leading global private equity firm, announced jointly that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Dow's Styron Division will be divested to an affiliate of Bain Capital for $1.63 billion. As part of the transaction, Dow has an option to receive up to 15 percent of the equity of Styron as part of the sale consideration. Additionally, the transaction includes several long-term supply, service and purchase agreements which will generate substantial value for both Dow and Styron. With the purchase price and the significant long term contracts, Dow will be able to substantially deleverage and achieve an attractive value for the Styron divestment. The transaction is expected to close by August 2010, subject to completion of customary conditions and regulatory approvals.

"This transaction is yet another step in our disciplined approach to portfolio management, and is consistent with both the timeline and value we previously communicated for these assets," said Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are committed to further focusing our portfolio by shedding non-strategic assets that can no longer compete for growth resources inside the Company, and in the process generating funds for further debt reduction and liberating resources for Dow's higher growth, higher margin portfolio of technology, market driven businesses."

As a standalone, privately held business, Styron will be a leading diversified chemicals and plastics company with attractive global positions in a related set of markets and a unique product portfolio with a large presence in the styrenics value chain. Styron brings together a balanced portfolio of plastics, rubber and latex businesses that share feedstocks, operations, customers and end users. The company will benefit from a leadership position in its two flagship products, polystyrene and latex, as well as global scale, unrivalled customer relationships, and a robust innovation pipeline.

Styron is expected to have approximately $3.5 billion in revenue (based on 2009 data), with 40+ manufacturing plants in all geographic regions, and approximately 1,900 employees. Its businesses serve a diverse customer base in markets such as automotive, appliances, packaging, paper & board, carpet, durables, electronics, optical media, tires, and technical rubber.

MRCMRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

April 13 (plastemart) -- A deal has been inked between the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) and the National Petrochemical Company (NPC). NPC is to receive ┬300 mln worth of investment to be raised through the offering of currency Certificates of Deposit (CD) on international markets by the EDBI. According to a report, EDBI has started selling the CDs to banks abroad on Thursday. This offer was authorized by the last Iranian year's (ending on March 20) budget, which called for the issuance of US$1 billion's worth of currency participation notes to satisfy the currency requirements of the NPC. Under the budget for the current Iranian year, the NPC is permitted to sell up to ┬2 bln worth of currency participation notes. A basis has been created for the sale of more than ┬2 mln and US$1 bln currency participation notes. The notes are being offered in 1, 2 and 3-year maturities, with interest rates of 5%, 6.2$ and 7.5% respectively.

MRC

April 13 (ICIS) -- INEOS confirmed on Monday that it will move its headquarters from the UK to Switzerland to help make tax savings of around ┬450m ($616m) over the next four years. The chemical major's relocation proposal, which was initially announced in early March, has been approved by its lenders, including The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds TSB.

Since the beginning of April, a number of directors - including the group's founder, Jim Ratcliffe - have resigned from INEOS's UK holding company, according to documents filed at UK business registrar Companies House. ⌠As part of the process of change, the directors have resigned from the UK holding company and taken up their posts as directors of the Swiss holding company, INEOS spokesperson Richard Longden said. INEOS said that its day-to-day operations in the UK and elsewhere in the world would be unaffected by the move.

Meanwhile, INEOS said it was still in talks with potential investors over the future of its Grangemouth, UK, petrochemical facility. The company has reportedly been looking to sell a stake in the facility in order to ease its debts. ⌠We are in discussions with a number of interested parties about investment in growth opportunities at the Grangemouth refinery, but they are commercially confidential and it would be somewhat premature to speculate on whether any discussions might lead to investment or not, Longden said. ⌠INEOS has been open that it has been looking for opportunities to strengthen its balance sheet and is looking to improve the company, he added.

Last month INEOS completed the sale of its fluorochemicals business to Mexichem Fluor, a subsidiary of Mexico's Mexichem, as part of its strategy to focus on large-scale petrochemicals businesses.

MRC

MRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.

April 13 (prw) -- Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have identified a class of silver-based catalysts for the production of propylene oxide, which they claim is less expensive than traditional catalysts as well as being environmentally friendly. "The production of propylene oxide has a significant amount of by-products that are harmful to the environment, including chlorinated or peroxycarboxylic waste, said chemist Stefan Vajda of Argonne's Materials Science Division and Center for Nanoscale Materials. ⌠We have identified nanoclusters of silver as a catalyst that produce this chemical with few by-products at low temperatures, he explained.

The statement said that although large silver particles have been used to produce PO from propylene, ⌠this method suffers from a low selectivity or low conversion to PO -- creating a large amount of carbon dioxide. However, Vajda claims, nanoscale clusters of silver - consisting of three-atom clusters as well as larger clusters of 3.5 nanometers - are highly active and selective catalysts for the production of PO.

The study is a result of a collaborative team involving five Argonne divisions and collaborators from the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin and from the University of Illinois in Chicago, including collaboration between the experimental effort led by Vajda and the theoretical analysis led by Curtiss and Greeley.

MRC