SOCAR to invest in a new refinery

(News.Az) -- Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR is to invest over USD 6bln in a new refinery and sea port for Turkish petrochemicals company Petkim. SOCAR holds the majority of shares in the Turkish petrochemicals company. The ground-breaking ceremony for the new refinery in Izmir will be held in September or October this year, Petkim representative Serkan Aksuyek told a press conference in Baku. He said that Turkish and Azerbaijani officials, including the Turkish prime minister and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, were expected to attend the ceremony.

Aksuyek said that SOCAR would spend USD 4.5-5bn on construction of the refinery which will have an annual capacity of 10m tonnes of oil.

SOCAR is planning to invest USD 350m in a sea port in the region and investments in all Petkim's structures will exceed USD 6bn, the representative said. ⌠After this, Petkim will become one of the biggest companies in Turkey and Europe in this sphere.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- As a part of Non-Agriculture Market Access Negotiations (NAMA), WTO members (which includes India), have agreed to reduce bound tariffs based on a non - linear Swiss Formula. What this in effect means is that India cannot raise the Basic Customs Duty in most plastic items beyond 13.3% (in some items this rate is 15%), under any circumstances. So, import of Plastics into India from any WTO member country will be allowed at a peak rate of Basic Customs duty of 13.3% or lower (The Basic Customs duty in Plastics, currently applicable is anyway below 13.3%, but it cannot be raised beyond this level as per the Agreement).

MRC

(Plastemart) -- PKN Orlen has launched Europe's most advanced petrochemical complex for paraxylene and terephthalic acid production (PX/PTA). The new complex, which is Poland's first and the most efficient complex of its kind in Europe, comprises facilities located at PKN Orlen's plant in Plock (paraxylene production) and in Wloclawek (terephthalic acid production). The project was completed in a record short time of three years and cost more than EUR 1 bln.

As the only company from our part of Europe, Orlen has joined the prestigious group of producers delivering high quality PTA - the key feedstock in the production of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), used to make packaging and polyester fibers. Demand for PTA is growing at the most robust rates in Central and Eastern Europe and - since a majority of PTA consumers are located in close proximity to PKN Orlen's plant - this means a convenient access to an extremely prospective market. Large amounts of PTA are also consumed by the Chinese, Indian and Western European markets.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Huntsman had no comment on Tuesday regarding its proposal to pay USD 33m (EUR 23m) to settle a US class-action lawsuit, which accused the company of fixing prices on isocyanates and other feedstock for polyurethane foam. In proposing the settlement, Huntsman denied the allegations made in the lawsuit, the isocyanate customers said in court documents. Instead, Huntsman chose to settle the lawsuit to avoid the expense of fighting the case in court. The court still needs to approve the settlement.

US-based Huntsman's proposed payment will represent 1.4% of its sales to the class-action customers during the time covered by the lawsuit, they said.

Netherlands-based LyondellBasell has also proposed settling the lawsuit, the customers said. However, it would pay nothing.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004, and it accused Huntsman, Bayer, BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell of fixing prices. The complaint covered propylene oxide (PO) based polyether polyols; methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI); and toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) that were purchased from 1 January 1999 through 31 December 2004.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Shell is on schedule to have its huge gas-to-liquid (GTL) project in Qatar fully operational by the middle of next year, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The Anglo-Dutch oil major has invested about USD18bn-19bn (EUR 12-13bn) in the project.

The Pearl GTL facility, at Ras Laffan, is the world's biggest with a production capacity of 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas a day when fully operational. This will be processed to generate 120,000 bbl/day of GTL gasoil, kerosene, base oils, n-paraffins and naphtha.

The project is expected to provide the ethane feedstock for a planned cracker project of the two companies in Qatar.

MRC