NOVA Chemicals announces three agreements which support the revamp of Corunna cracker

(Plastemart) -- NOVA Chemicals has entered into three core agreements which support the revamp of its Corunna cracker to utilize up to 100% NGL feedstock. The first one is a transportation service agreement with Sunoco Pipeline L.P. for the transportation of ethane feedstock from the Marcellus Shale Basin to the Sarnia, Ontario region. The second one being a definitive agreement for long-term ethane supply from the Marcellus Shale Basin with Caiman Energy, LLC and the third one is a definitive agreement for long-term ethane supply from the Marcellus Shale Basin with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Range Resources Corporation.

The company continues to work with other producers in the Marcellus region, including Statoil Marketing and Trading Inc., to secure additional ethane feedstock for its Corunna cracker.

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(LegalWeek) -- Mayer Brown and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have won roles on the planned $4.2bn merger of former BP chief executive Tony Hayward's investment vehicle Vallares with Turkish oil company Genel Energy International.

Mayer Brown's London office is advising Genel, the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, fielding a team led by global energy co-head Robert Hamill, working with partners including Kate Ball-Dodd and Richard Smith (corporate), James Hill (tax) and Mark Compton (financial services).

Mayer Brown worked alongside Turkish law firm Yazici, where senior partner and Genel GC Murat Yazici took the lead role. Freshfields is advising Vallares on the transaction, the first for the company since it was formed this summer by Hayward and financier Nathaniel Rothschild and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The deal will see Vallares issue new shares worth $2.1bn to acquire a 100% stake in Genel, which will retain a 50% stake in the renamed Genel Energy.


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(Arabian oil and gas) -- Halliburton has struck a deal to buy Multi-Chem Group, North America's fourth-largest production chemicals company, in a deal set to plug a gap in its oil and gas extraction services offering. Halliburton Chief Executive David Lesar says there is more demand for oilfield services companies to provide a broader range of services in-house, something the acquisition of Multi-Chem - for an undisclosed sum - will help achieve.

Multi-Chem has 900 customers worldwide and about 750 employees, and there are no plans for redundancies in the combination, according to a company statement from Multi-Chem, which is the fourth-largest production chemicals company.

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(Plastemart) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp has reported the largest drop in monthly revenue among the Formosa Plastics Group's four core companies, as per stock exchange filing. August revenues fell 56.8% sequentially to NT$33.27 bln (US$1.14 bln) on lower capacity utilization and oil product sales due to the recent partial shutdowns of its refining units in Mailiao.

Formosa Petrochemical runs 3 crude distillation units in Mailiao and the refinery accounts for nearly 70% of its total sales. It also operates 3 naphtha crackers there, accounting for about 25% of total sales.

Formosa Petrochemical's revenue dropped 29.6% on an annual basis as the plants stopped operating for 20 days in August because of several industrial safety mishaps, causing oil products sales to fall 76% from July. Sale of ethylene and propylene also witnessed a fall in August with the annual maintenance shutdown of the No. 3 naphtha cracker mid-month.

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(PlasticsToday) -- International Automotive Components (IAC) Group and Reyes Holdings LLP have formed a joint venture to supply injection and blowmolded interior trim components and sequence and assembly services for the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma built at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas Inc. (TMMTX). Reyes Automotive Group II (RAG II) is based in San Antonio, TX and will apply for Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certification, with Reyes holding 51% ownership and IAC having a 49% stake.

IAC, with 2010 sales of $3.7 billion, operates 75 manufacturing facilities in 16 countries, while employing approximately 22,000 people around the world. Toyota broke ground on its TMMTX site in October 2003, building a 2 million sq ft assembly plant on a 2000-acre site in San Antonio. Employees there total 1694 with investment to date of $1.5 billion. Fernando Reyes, president and owner of Reyes Industries Inc., runs a number of manufacturing businesses supplying the military as well as the automotive industry.

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