IEA is considering whether to add it's oil stocks in a bid to reduce oil prices

(Arabain Oil and Gas) -- The International Energy Agency (IEA) is considering whether to add it's oil stocks to the market in a bid to reduce oil prices, according to Reuters. "The IEA can do what it wants, there is no shortage in the market. If they want to release stocks it will be as a mechanism to bring down prices not to fill any supply shortage," an IEA official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

The agency, which represents 28 oil-consumer nations, is considering a rare release of emergency reserves if leading Opec member Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough to fill the gap left by the stoppage of Libya supplies.

In its 37-year history the IEA has released stocks only twice to fill lost supplies - in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait and in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina when it released mostly refined products from Europe for the United States.

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(ICIS) -- Newly independent US-based chemical distributor Nexeo Solutions will first focus on developing its business model and proposition rather than on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), its chief executive said on Thursday.

⌠We are very excited to be a stand-alone company focused exclusively on distribution and will spend 100% of our time, talent and resources on getting our value proposition right - using service as a differentiator, said CEO David Bradley. ⌠We will first focus on developing this differentiated model before undertaking major M&A, he added.

Nexeo Solutions launched on 1 April after the former Ashland Distribution business was acquired by global private equity firm TPG Capital for USD 979m (EUR 685m). While M&A will initially be on the back burner in terms of focus, Bradley did not rule out deals altogether.


Nexeo had 2010 sales of USD 3.4bn, and it operates in three markets - chemicals, plastics and composites. A key element of its business model will be differentiating its service offering, Bradley said.

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(ICIS) -- China's polycarbonate (PC) market is expected to be oversupplied in the fourth quarter of the year because of additional capacities from international producers, which will lead to a fall in prices, market sources said on Friday.

Saudi Arabia major SABIC's 260 KTa PC unit at Al Jubail came on stream in the middle of March. Half of the plant's output of PC is expected to be exported to the Chinese market in the third quarter, market sources said.

Meanwhile, Sinopec-Mitsubishi Polycarbonate (SMP) plans to complete the construction of its 60 KTa PC unit at Beijing by the end of the third quarter and begin operations in the fourth quarter, a source at SMP said. SMP's output will be mostly supplied to the Chinese market, market sources said.

China consumed around 1.1m tonnes of PC in 2010. Of this, 969 KT came from imported cargoes, according to Chemease, an ICIS service in China.

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(ICIS) -- Europe is not expected to fully convert to membrane-cell method for its chlor-alkali capacity by 2020 given the high costs involved in the process, an executive at French-based producer Arkema said on Friday. Clarifying comments made in a speech at the 15th world chlor-alkali conference in Singapore, Pascal Maureta, business manager for caustic soda, said on the sidelines of the conference that ⌠we don't have a crystal ball. These predictions are not firm and only made based on today's data, and for a worst-case possible scenario.

European chlor-alkali producers said that the costly conversion to membrane-cell technology came could not have come at a worse time. European regulations require all plants to switch to the more energy efficient membrane-cell method of production by 2020.

Margins for downstream polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which account for the majority of European chlorine use, have remained in negative territory since 2008, they said.

Demand for suspension PVC (SPVC) in 2008 slumped by 25% from record 2007 levels, in line with the global economic downturn. Soaring feedstock prices also squeezed margins, they said.

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(Borealis) -- Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions that create value for society, led the Nordic Film and Extrusion Conference 2011 held from 19-20 May in Gothenburg, Sweden.

This special conference used the theme "Creating New Horizons for the film and extrusion coating industry" and included keynote presentations by leading Borealis personnel as well as a visit to the Borealis Stenungsund site, where the company recently completed an investment of over EUR 400 million in a new 350 KTa high pressure low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, enhancing its capability to provide advanced materials for the Nordic LDPE film market.

Highlights of the presentations included an introduction to BorShape, a new generation of film materials with unparalleled performance, and BorLite linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

BorShape offers the polyolefins (PO) film market new opportunities for developing innovative packaging films with less material, greater efficiency and improved environmental and lifecycle performance.

BorLite sets new standards in the performance of Machine Direction Orientation (MDO) films.

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