PetroChina and INEOS complete transaction to form trading and refining joint ventures

July 04/2011

(INEOS) -- PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) and INEOS Group (INEOS) have completed the deal to form trading and refining Joint Ventures between PetroChina International (London) Company Limited, and INEOS Investments (Jersey) Limited on July 1st.

The joint ventures include trading and refining activities at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and the Lavera refinery in France. The business employs approximately 1,000 people and has a turnover of $15bn. PetroChina has paid US$ 1.015 billion cash for the shares in the joint ventures.

The completion of the joint ventures are of great importance for PetroChina's global allocation of resources and market portfolio, as it explores the high-end European market, and begins to establish PetroChina's European oil and gas operation centre. ⌠The Joint Ventures with INEOS are consistent with PetroChina's strategy to build its broader business platform in Europe as a leading international energy company, said Si Bingjun, General Manager of PetroChina International London.

MRC

(the Daily news Egypt) -- Amid heightened optimism about Egypt's economic prospects at the ⌠Egypt: Forward Forum, an MOU for a multi-billion dollar petrochemicals project was signed by prominent US and Egyptian companies Tuesday.

Basil El-Baz, founder and CEO of Egypt Basic Industries Corporation (EBIC), as well as Chairman and CEO of Carbon Holdings, inked the first of a series of agreements for the development of a USD 3.5 billion naphtha cracker and olefins complex project that will be jointly developed with US companies. Financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the mega project is expected to create some 3.000 jobs.

The signing of the MOU crowned what most delegates described as a successful forum, which, above all, aimed to boost the confidence of US businesses in Egypt as well as emphasize partnerships and trade as the way forward, setting the scene for the rise of a new generation of entrepreneurs in the ⌠new Egypt following the fall of the previous regime.

According to the United States Trade and Development Agency, which hosted the forum and oversaw the signing of the MOU, the first phase of an ambitious 20-year plan to develop Egypt's petrochemical industry at an overall cost of USD 10 billion was completed in 2008 at a cost of USD 3.8 billion.

The majority of the existing petrochemical plants are producing under-license from US companies, which have a market share of approximately 26%. Market demand for petrochemicals in Egypt is estimated at 6% annually.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Spot ethylene and propylene prices have fallen significantly over the past two months on poor demand from key derivatives polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) that has been weighing on supply, and there is further downside potential, market sources said on Friday.

Ethylene spot pipeline prices have dropped by around 33% since early May, when prices peaked at around EUR 1.230/tonne (USD 1.783/tonne). Prices this week are recorded below EUR 850/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe).

Polymer grade propylene prices on the inland market have fallen by almost 18%. Prices peaked at EUR 1.265/tonne FD NWE at the end of April, but are now in the mid-to-high EUR 1.000s/tonne FD NWE.

Lengthening supplies due to a general reluctance to cut cracker operating rates too significantly because of healthy margins has meant that local suppliers have been forced to cut spot offers. Sellers said that they have been discounting heavily from contract prices, which recently settled at reductions of EUR 95/tonne and EUR 75/tonne for ethylene and propylene respectively.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- As scheduled, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp has restarted the 375 KTa No.1 naphtha cracker at its Kashima plant, as per Reuters. The cracker had been shut after the Kashima complex was damaged in a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11. The 453 KTa No.2 cracker at the facility resumed operations last month.

mrcplast.com

(Plastemart) -- Samsung Engineering has been awarded a contract worth USD 229 mln for a high-density polyethylene plant (HDPE) by OPaL (ONGC Petro Additions Ltd.), a subsidiary of ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd).

The plant will be built in the special economic zone of Dahej, Gujarat, to produce 340,000 tpa of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Samsung Engineering was initially notified in May that it would handle the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning work on a lump-sum turn-key basis with mechanical completion set for August 2013.

mrcplast.com