INEOS is making hefty cutbacks on PE production in Europe

(ICIS) -- Major polyethylene (PE) producer INEOS is making hefty cutbacks on PE production in Europe for the remainder of 2011, company sources said on Wednesday. ⌠We will be running all low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) assets at minimum rates, said one source, estimating the average run rate of both PE grades at 50% of capacity.

Another INEOS company source, referring to the high density polyethylene (HDPE) sector where film grade demand has declined, said: ⌠We will be cutting production to meet the reality of demand.
Non-film HDPE grades, however, have not seen the drop in demand witnessed in the LDPE and LLDPE sectors.

Switzerland-headquartered INEOS has HDPE production in Europe amounting to around 1m tonnes, or 15-18% of installed capacity, with sites in Belgium, France and Italy. Its LDPE production is in Norway and Germany, and its LLDPE production is in the UK and Germany.

PE demand is well down on 2010, with some sources estimating volumes to be down well into double digits, and production throughout Europe is now being cut on a widespread basis. Dow announced that it was making hefty cutbacks in PE for the rest of 2011, and Borealis is running crackers at a technical minimum to accommodate weak demand.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Lamprell has announced it has been awarded two new construction contracts by Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited in relation to the Golden Eagle Development in the UK North Sea, with a total contract value in excess of $200 million.

The first contract comprises a two level Wellhead (W) Deck, measuring approximately 50 metres by 50 metres and weighing approximately 4,000 tonnes. The W Deck will be constructed at Lamprell's Jebel Ali yard, and is scheduled for completion in Q2 2013.

The second contract is for a three level Production, Utilities and Quarters (PUQ) Deck, measuring 85 metres by 40 metres, and weighing approximately 10,000 tonnes. The PUQ Deck will also be constructed at Lamprell's Jebel Ali facility and is scheduled for completion in Q2 2014.

MRC

(Reuters) -- Idemitsu Kosan Co , Japan's third-largest oil company, is to scrap its 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) Tokuyama refinery in western Japan by March 2014 rather than upgrade the plant to meet government regulations. The move will cut Idemitsu's refining capacity in Japan by nearly a fifth from the existing 640,000 bpd total from four plants.

The company would continue petrochemical operations at the plant and use the site as a fuel shipment hub. Idemitsu plans to import naphtha from international markets to feed the two petrochemical crackers at the plant with capacity to produce a total of 623,000 tonnes per year of ethylene.

MRC

(Trend) -- As for today, $33 billion has been invested within the framework of the projects at Shah Deniz and Azeri Chirag-Guneshli, as well as those at Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and the South Caucasus gas pipeline, BP Chief Financial Officer Ian Sutherland said at a conference ' Place and Role of the State Oil Fund in Azerbaijan's national oil strategy 'in Baku on Wednesday.

He said 1.8 billion barrels of oil had been extracted from the ACG fields since the project launch and gas production since the beginning of the Shah Deniz project is 26 billion cubic metres to date.

ACG participating interests are: BP (operator - 35.78 %), Chevron (11.27 %), AzACG (11.65 %), INPEX (10.96 %), Statoil (8.56 %), Exxonl (8 %), TPAO (6.75 %), ITOCHU (4.3 %) and Hess (2.72 %).

Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on June 4, 1996.

Participants in the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 per cent, Statoil Hydro - 25.5 per cent, NICO - 10 per cent, Total - 10 per cent, LukAgip - 10 per cent, TPAO - 9 per cent and SOCAR-10 per cent.

MRC

(Plasteurope) -- UK packaging manufacturer Linpac Packaging (Birmingham) has touted plans to invest EUR 10m in raising output at its plant in Noyal Pontivy / France. Most of the money is to go towards raising output of multilayered barrier film for foodstuffs, according to Roland Castellanos - vice president responsible for Linpac Packaging's activities in France, Spain and China. The capacity expansion will not see Linpac hire more staff, since the group will simultaneously cut down on the production of less popular PVC films and its derivative products. The new capacity is scheduled to come on stream in 2014. The EUR 10m investment is to go towards raising Linpac's output of multilayered film.

MRC