SABIC's second-quarter net profit increased 61.4%

(ICIS) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation's (SABIC's) second-quarter net profits have increased 61.4% to Saudi riyals (SR) 8.10bn ($2.16bn) compared with the same quarter last year and are up 5% from the first quarter of 2011, the petrochemicals giant said on Saturday.

The company's income from operations for the quarter ended 30 June 2011 amounted to SR13.28bn compared with SR9.14bn for the same quarter in 2010, representing an increase of 45.3%.
Gross operating profit for the second quarter grew 39.2% year on year to SR16.49bn, SABIC added.

⌠The increase in net income for the quarter and period ended June 30, 2011 compared to the same quarter and period in 2010 is attributable to the increase in production and sales volumes and improvement in sales prices for most of the products, and compared to the first quarter of 2011 is mainly due to the increase in sales volumes as well as improvement in prices for some of the products, the company said on the Saudi stock exchange.


MRC

(ICIS) -- US propylene contracts for July fell by 4 cents/lb (USD 88/tonne, EUR 62/tonne), market sources said on Friday, confirming an initial settlement reached earlier this week. The agreement puts polymer-grade propylene (PGP) at 78.00 cents/lb and chemical-grade propylene (CGP) contracts at 76.50 cents/lb, as assessed by ICIS.

The drop this month was driven by lower spot prices in recent weeks, which outweighed gains in gasoline prices and concerns among some producers that alkylation levels were on an upswing.
Alkylation levels can influence the price of refinery-grade propylene (RGP), which accounts for around 60% of the US propylene market.

Refineries can use RGP as an alkylate in gasoline or sell the product to the chemical market.
RGP traded at 68.00-68.75 cents/lb this week, steady with the previous week, but down from deals done at 73.00 cents/lb in the first week of June.

MRC

(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