Construction work on a refinery project in Turkey to start in mid-2012

(ICIS) -- Construction work on a major new joint venture refinery project in Turkey costing an estimated USD 5bn (EUR 3.5bn) is likely to start in mid-2012, sources close to the scheme said on Friday. The 214,000 bbl/day refinery is being developed by SOCAR & Turcas Energy, a joint venture involving Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR and Turkish state firm Turcas Petrol, at Aliaga on the Aegean coast.

The two partners are also major shareholders in Turkish petrochemical firm Petkim Petrokimya. The new refinery will be built at Petkim's existing Aliaga petrochemical production complex. Petkim plans to double its petrochemicals capacity to 6.3m tonnes/year before 2018, and the refinery will be a key source of feedstocks for the planned expansion.

Construction work on the refinery is scheduled to start by the end of 2011 and the plant will be commissioned in 2015, SOCAR & Turcas Energy CEO Kenan Yavuz said in an interview with local media on Thursday.


MRC

(ICIS) -- European polypropylene (PP) buyers and sellers are watching the volatile crude market with interest to gain an idea of where PP prices will land in September, several said on Monday.
⌠Everybody is just watching everybody else to see what will happen, said one producer.
August business is now over and European prices have mostly fallen by EUR 15/tonne (USD 21/tonne), in line with the drop in the propylene contract price.

Freely-negotiated PP accounts, as well as those with links to propylene, fell in line but some buyers reported more substantial drops by the middle of the month.

PP prices suffered far less turmoil in August than in June and July, when some fell by as much as EUR 250/tonne over both months as imports made their way to Europe and demand waned on news of economic woes.

The focus of the PP market is now September, and more precisely, where the new European propylene contract will settle.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Prices of polystyrene (PS) in the Middle East are expected to weaken in the coming weeks on the back of poor demand and weakness in values of feedstock styrene monomer (SM) and polybutadiene rubber (BR), market sources said on Monday.

Spot prices of general purpose PS (GPPS) in the region were assessed at USD 1.650-1.700/tonne CFR (cost and freight) East Mediterranean (East Med)/GCC, while high impact PS (HIPS) were at USD 1.860-1.950/tonne CFR East Med/GCC on 19 August, unchanged from the previous week, according to ICIS.

SM prices, meanwhile, were at USD 1.490-1.520/tonne CFR China on 19 August, ICIS data showed. PS trades in the Middle East remained few as buyers shun current market offers coming from Asia, deeming them too high.


MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Somali pirates have seized a petrochemical tanker at Salalah, a major port in Oman, holding the 21-strong Indian crew hostage. The Indian Directorate General of Shipping has confirmed that the vessel - the Fairchem Bogey, a chemical-oil tanker - was hijacked while anchored six miles off the coast within Omani waters. Sources cited by Reuters state the tanker was being filled with methanol at the time it was hijacked.

The hijacked vessel is managed by Mumbai-based Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, the Directorate said, confirming that the pirates are in negotiations with the Omani government.

Somali pirates behind similar vessel hijackings usually operate in Indian Ocean waters, but in January, a 20,586-tonne Algerian-flagged bulk carrier was seized about 150 miles southeast of Salalah.

The ship, with 27 crew from Algeria, Ukraine and the Philippines, was heading to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from Salalah with a cargo of clinker.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Petroquimico do Rio de Janeiro (Comperj), reflecting the addition of a second refinery and the use of feedstock ethane, the company said on Friday. The company also revealed proposed capacity figures for several petrochemicals to be produced at the complex. Under the previous plans, Comperj would rely on one refinery to produce feedstock naphtha for its downstream chemicals. In addition, Comperj would use the resulting feedstock to produce 600 KTa of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Under the new plans, Comperj will have two refineries and a natural-gas treatment plant, which will provide the complex with feedstock ethane, Petrobras said. Petrobras made the changes so it could meet rising demand in Brazil.


MRC