Europe to wait at least five years before reaching significant production rates of unconventional gas

(ICIS) -- Europe will have to wait at least five years before any significant production rates of unconventional gas are achieved, Erste Group Bank said on Tuesday. ⌠We believe that unconventional gas (such as shale gas and tight gas) will be tapped in Europe, but cannot currently imagine that it could reach the size of US natural gas production, Erste Group Bank said in an analysis.

Environmental concerns regarding potential water and soil contamination were heightened by Europe's heavily populated landscape. This is in contrast to the population densities that explorers and producers in the US have had to deal with, Erste said.

The US also had the advantage of landowners being entitled to royalties from produced natural gas, which is not the case in Europe, the report said.

The latest estimates showed that the EU and Norway had 4,400bn cubic metres (cbm) of proved unconventional gas reserves and anywhere from 3,600-173,000bn cbm - representing around 72-346 years of European natural gas consumption - of potential unconventional gas resources, Erste said.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- PolyOne Corporation will open a new polymer distribution warehouse and sales facility on July 1 in Shanghai, China. This marks the first entry point for PolyOne Distribution into Asia. ⌠PolyOne Distribution is the market leader in less than truckload thermoplastics distribution in North America, and we have a backlog of customer requests to expand our distribution services globally, said Stephen D. Newlin, chairman, president and chief executive officer. ⌠With our most recent investment in Asia, PolyOne Distribution is accelerating the globalization and customer service offerings of this very important platform.

PolyOne has emerged as a leading supplier of polymer materials, services and solutions in the healthcare industry and is recognized for its expertise in serving this market. Since 2006, healthcare sales have expanded 95% and now represent over USD 250 million in annualized sales.

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(SABIC) -- SABIC has won the Responsible Care award for 2011. The announcement was made on Wednesday June 15 during the annual meeting of the Dutch Chemical Industry Federation (Vereniging van de Nederlandse Chemische Industrie (VNCI)) in The Hague. The company was chosen to receive the award because of its efforts to render the transportation of hazardous substances as safe as possible. SABIC has implemented a number of safety policies which go above and beyond the statutory and regulatory provisions. In addition, SABIC also actively involves its suppliers in safety improvements throughout the logistics chain.

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(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Following the abortive deal with BP over development of arctic oilfields, Rosneft may become a majority private comany in 2012, a year earlier than initially planned. In an interview with the London Guardian newspaper, Arkady Dvorkovich, chief economic policy adviser to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said "we want Rosneft to be a normal commercial public company".

Dvorkovich's statements build on those previously made by Medvedev, which the Russian President said dominated by state-backed firms "poses a danger for the country's future. This is not my choice". "The original government proposals were to start [the share sale] in 2013 but maybe now it will be brought forward to 2012," added Dvorkovich. "It's not up to me to say what the best timing would be. That is up to the company itself and investment banks working on this."

The Russian state currently holds an 85% stake in Rosneft and is expected to retain a sizeable minority share.

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(Lanxess) -- Owing to continued steep rises in energy and raw material costs, from July 1, 2011, Perlon-Monofil GmbH is to raise its prices worldwide for synthetic monofilaments by at least EUR 0.40 per kilogram depending on the field of application and grade.

Perlon-Monofil GmbH is one of five sections belonging to the Semi-Crystalline Products (SCP) business unit of specialty chemicals group Lanxess. It manufactures an extensive range of polyamide and polyester monofilament products for a wide variety of applications, and markets them worldwide under the brand names Perlon, Atlas and Bayco. The plastic wires are used for the production of durable technical fabrics, cords and ropes with outstanding dimensional stability and high strength.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.1 billion in 2010 and currently around 15,500 employees in 30 countries. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.

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