China's Dalian Petrochemical cuts operations after refinery fire

(ICIS) -- China's Dalian Petrochemical, a subsidiary of PetroChina, is running the downstream facilities of its 10m tonne/year (200,000 bbl/day) crude distillation unit (CDU) in Dalian at reduced rates of about 60% after a fire at the unit two days ago, a company source said on Monday.
The CDU was shut following the fire on Saturday afternoon and no date has been set for it to resume operations, the source said.

The downstream facilities that are running at reduced rates include a 3.8m tonne/year naphtha hydrogenation unit, a 6m tonne/year gasoline and diesel hydrogenation unit, a 3.6m tonne/year hydrogenation cracking unit and a 3m tonne/year residual hydrogenation unit, according to the source.
The fire was the fourth incident to hit China's petrochemical industry over the last six weeks.

The China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) halted operations at some units at its 240,000 bbl/day refinery at Daya Bay, Huizhou, in Guangdong province after a fire broke out at the complex on 11 July. The affected aromatic and reformer units are expected to be shut for months, while operations at other units have been resumed.

CNOOC also suspended production on 13 July at two platforms of the Peng Lai 19-3 (PL19-3) oilfield at Bohai Bay after oil leaks that occurred in early June.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Increased sales to the second half of 2011 has led gross profits of Saudi International Petrochemical Company ⌠Sipchem to jump 87% to USD 44mln compared to USD 23.3 mln by the same period in 2010, according to Ahmed al-Ohali, CEO of Sipchem.

The CEO said in an interview with Al Arabiya TV channel that methanol and butanediol prices have jumped 15% in the second quarter compared to first quarter as some plants were shutdown in addition to the soaring demand from European markets.

Al-Ohali expected demand to stabilise in the third quarter of this year due holiday season, in addition to negotiations for the next year's contracts which is generally take place in the third quarter of every year.

Al-Ohali said he expected Sipchem's ongoing projects, which include the LDPE project and the ethyl acetate project, to be completed by mid-2013.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- While the Iraqi government is sticking to its 12 mln barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) by 2017 production capacity target, it may choose not to produce the oil it can. ⌠Everybody knows the significance of Iraq's oil for the whole world and its importance to build and develop the Iraqi economy, along with raising the living standards of Iraqi citizens,⌠ Iraq's Deputy Prime-Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani - who has responsibility for energy affairs, is reported in Iraq Business News as saying at the 3rd Iraqi Ambassadors Conference in Baghdad on Saturday.

Shahristani said increased capacity ⌠does not necessarily mean that Iraq would produce such a large quantity of crude oil, because the Iraqi strategy depends on boosting revenues and not only increasing oil exports alone; so we shall watch the market and the level of the quantities of crude Iraq will produce, and then we shall decide Iraq's highest level of revenues during the forthcoming years.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Saudi Aramco started production of gas last week from Karan, its first non-associated gas field, two industry sources have told the Reuters news agency. The field will now gradually increase production over the coming weeks.

Reuters's sources did not say when Karan - which is a core component of the Kingdom's strategy of freeing up more oil for export by increasing gas production for electricity generation - would reach its summer 2011 target production of 400-450 million cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Engineering and construction company Fluor Corp. has been chosen to serve as BASF's engineering partner to serve as BASF's engineering partner in Asia and Europe. Fluor, which will work on chemicals and petrochemicals projects across both regions, received service agreements tied to its BASF selections. Terms were not disclosed.

BASF has awarded Fluor umbrella services agreements in these regions for undisclosed contract values. The partnering agreements will cover capital investment projects with separate service orders throughout Asia and Europe. Services provided on projects covered by the agreement will include front-end engineering and design (FEED), project management services and/or detailed engineering, procurement and construction management services.

Fluor Corp. designs, builds and maintains many of the world's most challenging and complex projects. Through its global network of offices on six continents, the company provides comprehensive capabilities and world-class expertise in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and project management.

MRC