Rhodia and SIBUR to create a joint venture

(SIBUR) -- Rhodia and SIBUR have signed a letter of intent to create a joint venture in specialty surfactants. This strategic alliance would be focused on creating a leader in the CIS market where specialty surfactants are used particularly in home & personal care, and oil & gas industries, with the surfactants sector growing at more than 6% per year.

Rhodia, as a worldwide leader in specialty surfactants, will provide its expertise in surfactant technologies, its knowledge of formulations and market applications and its customer network, including global key accounts with a strong presence in this region.

SIBUR, the leading petrochemical company in Russia, will contribute its raw materials, production and logistics capabilities. With its longstanding experience of the Russian petrochemicals market, SIBUR will also support the development of the surfactants business in oil and gas markets in Russia and the CIS.

It is expected that the new 50:50 joint venture will site a local production in Russia at Dzerzhinsk, near SIBUR's petrochemicals operations, 400km east of Moscow, and is expected to be operational in 2013.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US polyvinyl chloride (PVC) export prices could start to fall as global demand has weakened, snapping a three-month uptrend triggered by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March, sources said on Friday. ⌠[Export demand] has slowed some, but not considerably, one PVC producer said. US PVC export prices were at USD 1.180-1.250/tonne (EUR 814-863/tonne) FOB USG, as assessed by ICIS.

This week, US PVC export prices were widening further apart, as producers targeted prices in the USD 1.200s/tonne FOB USG, while buyers were aiming for prices into the low USD 1.100s/tonne FOB USG.

MRC

(Reuters) - Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, an oil refining unit of JX Holdings , said on Friday it plans to shut its Kawasaki naphtha cracker, with ethylene production capacity of 404 KTa, on June 18 for repair work. The company said the shutdown was to fix a problem and that the cracker would be restarted on June 22.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Crude oil prices should just hover at USD 75-80/bbl (EUR 51-54/bbl) given current market fundamentals and cost environment, said the top executive of Malaysia's state-owned oil and gas firm Petronas on Monday. At midday, light sweet crude for July delivery was trading at USD 100.11/bbl, while Brent crude was quoted at USD 115.46/bbl.

Although high crude prices generally benefit oil companies, they also mean hefty production costs, Petronas president and CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas told delegates at the opening ceremony of the 16th Asia Oil and Gas Conference (AOGC) in Kuala Lumpur.

While higher oil prices amid a recovery in demand have boosted capital expenditure in the industry, oil companies' production costs may hit new highs this year, he said.

Rising costs will test the industry's abilities to make its capital expenditure budgets ⌠go to their intended length, the Petronas chief said.

Meanwhile, Shamsul said that Asia must not be overlooked in upstream investments, citing that geology-based assessments have suggested that the region's mean undiscovered oil resources are in the order of about 50bn barrels.

MRC

(Reuters) -- South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals is seeking naphtha for August 2011 to June 2012 delivery as its current term contract is about to end, traders said on Friday. The buyer is seeking open-spec naphtha with a maximum mercury content of 10 parts per million (ppm) in a tender which closes on June 10.

Samsung Total has a total of about 600 KT of naphtha in its current contract which spans from September 2010 to August 2011.

The price of the existing contract, inked in July last year, was minus USD 4.00 a tonne to Japan spot quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.

Naphtha sentiment has slumped since May 12 after Asia's top naphtha buyer Formosa shut a cracker following a fire at its pipeline. The weak market will be favourable to buyers, as inter-month spreads, an indication of how much buyers will pay for spot cargoes, flipped into a discount for the first time in 7-1/2 months on May 31.

MRC