Rabigh Refining and Petrochemicals to complete maintenance works

(Bloomberg) -- Rabigh Refining and Petrochemicals Co., a joint venture between state-owned Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Co. of Japan, said maintenance works at its facilities will be completed by the middle of July. The utilities units were restarted May 31 after periodic maintenance, while the crude distillation unit will resume operations June 7, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse today. Units including the ethane cracker will start operating before the end of this month and the high olefins cracking unit by mid of July, it said. Polypropylene sales will decline in the first two weeks of the third quarter due to the maintenance, it said.

MRC

(Dow) -- The Dow Chemical Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Dow Europe GmbH, and Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii A.S. (Aksa) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the intent to form a joint venture to manufacture and globally commercialize carbon fiber and derivatives.

Through this agreement, both companies will work together to explore opportunities to create fully-integrated production facilities for the manufacture and global supply of carbon fibers and derivatives. The companies will examine opportunities to develop and market a broad range of products and technical service offerings in the carbon fiber-based composites industry.

⌠This new partnership with Aksa is another example of how Dow continues to advance its innovation agenda and broaden our down-stream, integrated solutions offering, said Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew N. Liveris. ⌠Together, Aksa and Dow will apply science, world-class manufacturing capabilities and technical expertise to deliver innovative solutions that address some of the world's most pressing challenges such as increasing the energy capture of wind turbines, improving the fuel economy of automobiles, and extending the life of roads and buildings.

Very strong and lightweight, carbon-fiber based materials are used in a variety of applications in many growth industries, such as wind energy, transportation, and infrastructure, where weight savings, durability and energy efficiency are key performance factors.

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(Plastemart) -- PT Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia, a subsidiary of PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical is to start construction on the country's first butadiene plant next week in Cilegon, Banten, with an anticipated investment outlay of USD 110 mln. Toyo Engineering Korea Ltd has been awarded the tender to build the plant. Construction of the 100 KTpa plant, to begin in May 2013, is expected to take around 23 months. Half the output, set to be licensed by the world's largest chemical company, Germany-based BASF, will be sold domestically.

220 KT of crude butadiene will be supplied by Chandra Asri, while 30 KT will be imported. The company currently exports its entire production of crude C4 mainly to Japan, Korea and Thailand.

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(China Post) -- The Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) finally shut down yesterday the manufacturing operations of an isononyl alcohol plant at the group's petrochemical complex in Mailiao area of Yunlin County in southwestern Taiwan in accordance with industrial plant safety procedures. The isononyl alcohol plant is among the five petrochemical plants of Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, an affiliate of the FPG, ordered to close for inspection following successive fires on May 12 and 18.

Top administrators at Yunlin County Government were on hand to see the machinery equipment eventually grind to a halt at the plant, almost two months after the latest fire at the sprawling Mailiao petrochemical complex, also known as Taiwan's No. 6 naphtha cracking complex.

The high-profile presence of the officials was aimed at demonstrating the county government's determination to force the FPG to improve its industrial and manufacturing operations to prevent similar industrial hazards from occurring in the future.

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(ICIS) -- Shell is developing plans for a worldscale ethylene plant with integrated derivative units in the Appalachian region of the US, to take advantage of the area's Marcellus shale gas reserves, the Anglo-Dutch oil major said on Monday. A location for the plant has not yet been decided, the company said.

⌠Building an ethane-fed cracker in Appalachia would unlock significant gas production in the Marcellus region by providing a local outlet for the ethane, Shell Executive Vice President Chemicals, Ben van Beurden, said.

Shell said it is evaluating derivative choices, with polyethylene (PE) as the leading option but it did not identify a partner for development. Most of the PE production would be used by northeastern US industries, it said.

⌠Demand for PE in North America is expected to grow, so the economic and efficiency benefits of a regional cracker make this configuration attractive, the company added in a statement.

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