Shell's Syria unit sold to CNPC

(BusinessWeek) -- Qatar has signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell and China National Petroleum Corp. to jointly explore for and produce natural gas onshore and offshore Qatar, Shell said Monday.

The 30-year agreement calls for Shell and CNPC's PetroChina International to worth together in exploring for natural gas. Shell will hold a 75 percent share of the project, with CNPC holding the remaining 25 percent, Shell said in a statement.

The 8,089 square kilometer (3,123.17 sq. mile) "Block D" includes both offshore and onshore areas near Qatar's northern city of Ras Laffan.

If exploration succeeds, Shell and PetroChina will produce the natural gas under the supervision of Qatar Petroleum, the statement said.

MRC

LONDON (ICIS news)-- BP Refining and Petrochemicals (BPRP) has declared force majeure on propylene (C3) supplies from its PCK Schwedt, Germany, and Nerefco Rotterdam, Netherlands refineries, a company source said on Tuesday.

⌠The forces majeures were declared on Monday (17 May) the source said.

In a letter to its customers, BPRP said that a gas leak and resulting fire on 15 May had forced it to declare force majeure for the rest of May 2010 to its customers supplied from its PCK Schwedt fluid catalytic cracker (FCC).

The FCC had been down for planned maintenance since 7 April and had been due to restart around 6 May.

MRC

(prw) -- Ineos has lifted the force majeure declared on 5 May for its deliveries of General Purpose Polystyrene (GPPS) and EPS packaging grades from its plant in Wingles, France.

The blockade of the canals by French barge owners has now been cleared. The regular supply of styrene monomer to the Wingles site has been resumed and all production lines have been restarted and are now operating smoothly.

MRCMRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.

(prw) -- One of Europe's leading producers of breathable film for hygienic applications plans to slash its workforce of close to 850 by over 500 as it attempts to stem substantial losses.

Nuova Pansac, headquartered in Mantua, northern Italy, and with factories in Marghera, Mira, Portogruaro, Ravenna and Zingonia, appears to have been hard hit by a combination of the global economic crisis and some poor decisions at board level. It says job cuts will see its Portogruaro and Ravenna plants close completely, while the 484-strong workforce in Mira will be cut to 269, and at Marghera 23 of 69 jobs will go.

The plant in Mira was opened as recently as 2004, to satisfy global demand for breathable film, bucking a trend that saw many film makers ship out of Western Europe for lower-cost countries.

The effect of the cuts will be to almost halve production capacity, which is currently understood to be over 130,000 tonnes/yr. Turnover at its height reached somewhere near ┬275m.

MRC

(Sabic) -- SABIC Innovative Plastics' expansive portfolio of high-performance, lightweight resins is helping airline industry customers soar. The company's ability to provide "one-stop shopping" enabled LSG Sky Chefs and Norduyn to create a new line of ultra-light in-flight trolleys that can help reduce aircraft fuel consumption and emissions. LSG Sky Chefs is the world's largest provider of in-flight services. Norduyn is a designer and manufacturer of innovative galley and cabin product solutions for commercial aviation.

The trolleys, launched at the Aircraft Interiors Expo held from May 18 to 20 in Hamburg, Germany, will be on display at SABIC Innovative Plastics' stand and also at Norduyn's and LSG Sky Chefs' stands - feature UV-resistant Ultem resin for the extrusion profiles and door latch, and tough Noryl resin for the frame and other components.

Jointly designed by LSG Sky Chefs and Norduyn, the new full- and half-size trolleys utilize Noryl resin in the frame and critical components to replace metal, thereby slashing weight by up to 40% and reducing the number of parts by a third. This high-tech engineered plastic also provides outstanding non-halogenated flame retardance and enhanced safety with industry-leading flame/smoke/toxicity (FST) performance meeting Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 25.853 requirements. Noryl resin was also selected for its good hydrostability and low density and for its proven track record in a wide and growing range of important aircraft applications.

MRCMRC Reference

Sabic. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 0.2%;
PP - 0.4%;
PS - 0.2%.

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
PE - 33%;
PP - 62%.