Shell to shut its 800 KTa mixed-feed cracker at Bukom Island

(ICIS) -- Shell is expected to shut its 800 KTa mixed-feed cracker at Bukom Island in Singapore as soon as at the end of this week, when its inventory of feedstocks runs out, traders said on Wednesday. The company's 500,000 bbl/day Bukom refinery, which provides naphtha feedstock to the cracker, was forced shut last week by a blaze that took 30 hours to completely extinguish.
"It might be possible the cracker will sooner or later be down," said a trader. The cracker is currently running at low operating rates, according to market sources.

Shell produces an estimated 250,000 tonnes of naphtha per month from the Bukom refinery. A fifth of the naphtha output is supplied to feed into the Bukom cracker, while Petrochemical Corp of Singapore gets 100,000 tonnes, said a market source.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Chemical stocks continued to tumble on Tuesday as European markets fell further on fresh fears that Greece's debt problems will trigger a global economic downturn. Shares fell after eurozone finance ministers said they would delay releasing an EUR 8bn (USD 10.5bn) instalment of bailout cash to Greece to help it meet its debt obligations, following news that the country is likely to miss a budget deficit target.

The Greek government announced on Sunday that its deficit for 2011 is expected to be 8.5% of GDP, which although down from the 10.5% figure for 2010, is still above a 7.6% target set by the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ministers said Greece must show more progress to qualify for the next tranche of rescue funds.
At 09:40 GMT, the UK's FTSE 100 was trading 2.09% down on the previous day's close, Germany's DAX had fallen by 2.80% and the CAC 40 in France was down 2.53%.

The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Chemicals index was trading down by 3.05% at 09:48 GMT, as shares in many of Europe's major chemical companies fell.

Top European producers were hit hard - German major BASF's shares had dropped by 3.11%, Bayer had fallen by 2.44%, Dutch coatings firm AkzoNobel was down by 1.43%, and France's Arkema had fallen steeply by 8.90%.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Exxon Mobil Corporation's U.S. marine affiliate, SeaRiver Maritime has signed an agreement with Aker Philadelphia Shipyard for the construction of two new Liberty Class tankers valued at USD 400 million, which will create more than 1,000 direct jobs.

The double hull vessels will be used to transport Alaska North Slope crude oil to U.S. West Coast destinations and will be built to include the latest navigation and communications equipment and exceed current environmental and energy efficiency standards.

⌠This project is a reminder of the importance of America's energy industry during the current challenging economic times, Andrew P. Swiger, ExxonMobil senior vice president, said at a ceremony attended by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Mott MacDonald has completed an international environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and environmental and social management plan for the biggest gas and petrochemical project being developed by Uz-Kor Gas Chemical in the Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union). The Surgil Gas and Petrochemical Complex project in Karakalpakstan will include the development of the Surgil gas field and a state-of-the-art gas chemical complex that will produce natural gas and petrochemical products such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) and high density polypropylene (HDPP). The facilities will include new 115km pipelines for gas and condensate. Mott MacDonald has been instrumental in supporting Uz-Kor with meeting international environmental and social requirements as it seeks to obtain financing for this USD 4.1 bln project from the Asia Development Bank (ADB) and a group of commercial lenders being led by ING.

MRC

(MRC) -- Devaluation of the ruble (RUB) against dollar (USD) as well as suspension of production by the Russian producers resulted in increased prices of DOP plasticizers in October. Russian DOP went up, on average, by 3.000 - 4.000 RUB/t, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.
Limited offer of DOP in the Russian market along with RUB devaluation became the main reasons for price hike. Separate Russian producers of DOP announced price increase up to 74.000 - 78.000 RUB/t, including VAT, FCA. As pet market experts, this is a last price increase for the domestic market. In November the price decrease is possible under the pressure of seasonal reduction of demand and stable work of all Russian producers.

As per MRC analyst Sergey Karajchentsev, limited offer of DOP in the Russian market is caused by suspension of two enterprises: Gazprom neftehim Salavat and Plant of plasticizers in Roshal (Moscow region). The first suspended its DOP capacities yet in July, production resumption is planned for 15 October. According to unofficial information, Plant of plasticizers in Roshal also suspended its capacities for one week maintenance.

MRC