Iran cut sales for August to pressure Indian refiners

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Iran cut sales for August to pressure Indian refiners into settling USD 5 billion in debts for oil supplied, after New Delhi failed to find a way around US and UN sanctions that make financing deals with Tehran difficult, Reuters said. Saudi Arabia has struck a deal to sell three million barrels of oil to India, filling a void left by Iran after it cut supplies due to a payment dispute, according to a Reuters report.

A Saudi government advisor has told Reuters that the Kingdom was not looking to seize Iran's market share, but neither would it look the other way.

Opposition led by Iran at an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in June defeated a Saudi proposal for a coordinated supply.

Sources at Indian refiners Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Essar Oil said that state oil giant Aramco had confirmed it would supply each of them with an additional 1 million barrels of crude in August.

Indian buyers reached out to Saudi Aramco last week to request additional oil to plug the gap from Iran, giving Riyadh an opportunity to grab a bigger share of the market in Asia's third-largest oil consumer.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- BP today reported underlying replacement cost profit of USD 5.6 billion for the second quarter of 2011, an increase of 13% on the result for the same period last year. The headline figure is slightly under analysts' expectations, who in a Bloomberg survey gave an average profit expectation of USD 5.9 billion.

In a company statement, BP said the underlying profit primarily reflected higher oil and gas prices and refining margins, partially offset by lower production and higher costs. Rival supermajors - particularly Shell - are expected to outperform BP this year.

The quarterly dividend expected to be paid on 20 September 2011 is 7 cents per share (USD 0.42 per ADS). The company's share price has shown only modest rises recently, despite Brent prices kissing USD 120 a barrel.

In the same period last year BP posted a USD 17 billion loss, following the Macondo disaster and ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The US debt limit crisis could have serious consequences for domestic chemicals producers and other manufacturers if not quickly resolved, a top industry official said on Monday, and ultimately it could trigger a new recession.

Larry Sloan, president of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA), said that as long as the political logjam over raising the US government's borrowing authority persists, the greater the threat to the nation's credit rating and the overall economy.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress along with President Barack Obama have been struggling for weeks to come up with a mutually acceptable plan to raise the limit on the federal government's authority to borrow money - known as the debt limit or ceiling.

By law, the US Treasury Department may not issue bonds or otherwise borrow money in excess of the debt limit set by Congress. The current debt limit is set at USD 14.300bn (EUR 10.010bn). Because the US government's income from tax revenues and fees covers only about 60% of its daily USD 10bn in outlays, the Treasury Department must borrow money on international financial markets to cover the balance - some USD 4bn/day.

But Treasury's ability to borrow more money - to pay federal programmes and meet other debt payment obligations - is expected to reach the USD 14.300bn ceiling on or about 2 August.

MRC

(PlasticsToday) -- Vietnam's Thanh Tai Gas Co. has ordered a flake-to-flake recycling system that allows for bottle-to-bottle (BtB) production, and the ability to recycle up to 1.5 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Bepex International (Minneapolis, MN) will custom design, fabricate, and deliver the line, its first ever BePET system sold into South East Asia, this year, with the machine installed and fully operational by January 2012. A second parallel line will be plugged in afterwards.

FDA-approved, BePET's technology allows the processing plant operator to control both decontamination of the plastic and its intrinsic viscosity (IV) at the same time and in solid form. Different IV plastics can be used for different applications, with the ability to use high IV PET for tire cord applications, for example, while low IV plastic can be used for fiber applications. Bepex says the BePET's process design also allows lower operating and capital costs, with savings of up to 60% when compared to currently available recycling systems.

MRC

Shortly the market situation may change drastically. In July, the first volume of PVC from Karpatneftechem (Lukoil group, Ukraine) appeared in the Russian market - little more than 800 tons. According to some market participants, several major Russian converters have contracted Ukrainian resin for August supplies.

In August within enlargement of capacity utilization, Karpatneftechem is expected to increase resin supplies to the Russian market to 15 KT which may dislodge Chinese and American producers.

PVC import continues to exceed current PVC market needs. High competition between imported and Russian resin made prices go down in July. In June-July, Russian companies kept reducing the imports of additives for PVC processing. The biggest decrease of the imports was fixed for impact modifiers.

MRC