Solutia acquired 95.7% of the Southwall Technologies

(PlastEurope) -- Specialty chemicals company Solutia (St. Louis, Minnesota / USA) on 23 November 2011 announced that it had acquired 95.7% of the outstanding shares in energy-saving films company Southwall Technologies (Palo Alto, California / USA) by the time the offer expired the day before.

The St. Louis-based group paid USD 13.60 per share and said Southwall stockholders who had not yet tendered their shares would be able to receive the same price. Southwall will now become a wholly-owned Solutia subsidiary.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(Lukoil) -- LUKOIL has published consolidated US GAAP financial statements for the third quarter and 9 months of 2011. The Company's net income was $9,012 million in the 9 months of 2011, which is 32.1% higher y-o-y, including $2,244 million in the third quarter. EBITDA in the 9 months of 2011 was $15,316 million, which is 27.8% higher y-o-y. Sales revenues were $99,101 million (+29.9% y-o-y). Positive dynamics of our financial results was mainly due to an increase in hydrocarbon prices in the 9 months of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010.


Net income for the third quarter 2011 was negatively affected by losses in the amount near $570 million due to depreciation of Russian ruble, including near $340 million of tax on currency translation gain of Russian LUKOIL subsidiaries.

The Company's strict financial discipline and efficient costs management helped to generate record high free cash flow in the 9 months of 2011 compared to the same period of previous years. Free cash flow reached $7,712 million in the 9 months of 2011 compared to $6,964 million in the 9 months of 2010. Capital expenditures including non-cash transactions in the 9 months of 2011 were $5.6 billion, which is 19.7% higher y-o-y.


In the 9 months of 2011, lifting costs per boe of production were $4.74, which is 17.3% higher y-o-y. The growth was mainly due to the real ruble appreciation by 14.6%.

Among the speakers of The Polymers Summit-2011 to be held in Moscow on 30 November, 2011, in The Ritz-Carlton Moscow, there will be Head of KGD&PPNiG (Lukoil ) Alexander Rappoport. The reports will also be done by ICIS Price editor Linda Naylor, Polyplastic Group President Myron Gorilovsky, Centropolymer Director Alexey Zavyalov, Sabic Europe General Director Geert Drummen,Europlastic General director Sergey Arbuzov, Head of direction "Extrusion foam polystyrene" (Тechnnikol) Vasiliy Tkachev, MRC Managing Director Sergey Yaremenko, Biaxplen General director Anton Matvienko, Deputy head of directory of plastics and organic synthesis sales and marketing (Sibur) Paul Lyakhovich, Head of directorate of basic polymers (Sibur) Sergey Komishan. The Summit is organized by MRC (Market Report Company) and supported by ICIS.

Among others, the Summit participants will discuss the issues of pricing, PET and PVC market conditions, PP surplus, resources saving. The Summit program is formed on the basis of questions to speakers. The reports will be short and the speakers" time will be mainly devoted to negotiations with colleagues. The Summit site gives a possibility to ask questions to the speakers, invite for a cup of coffee and confirm or postpone a meeting. Registration on a site is free. For now there are 198 registered users of the Summit site - representatives of major Russian and foreign petrochemical companies.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Russian state-backed gas giant Gazprom has commenced drilling at the Badra field and will complete exploratory drilling by April 2012, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report. The company, which holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, won the contract at the three billion barrel Badra field in 2009, and awarded the contract for exploratory drilling to Schlumberger.

The first appraisal well reached 4,900 metres on 24 November. After the initial exploration programme a deep appraisal well is planned to be spudded in June 2012, which will reach 6,200 metres.

Gazprom Neft's share, as lead operator on this project, is 30 per cent, Kogas' share is 22.5 per cent, Petronas' share is 15 per cent and ТРАО's share is 7.5 per cent. The Iraqi Government, represented by the Iraqi Oil Exploration Company (OEC) retains 25 per cent.

Gazprom is slated to spend $2 billion developing the field to its expected capacity of 170,000 barrels per day.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Indorama has called on the Nigerian federal government to hinge its industrialisation drive on the petrochemical industry. Speaking at the recent Rivers Investors' Forum in Port Harcourt, the MD/CEO of Indorama EPCL, new owners of Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd. -Manish Mundra, called for the immediate setting up of what he called the Nigerian Petrochemicals Industry Authority (NPCIA) to drive the development of the sector and regulate the industry, now that many new entrants are itching to get into the sector.

Mundra observed that the recent wave of investments coming into the petrochemicals industry, including the proposed $6billion project said to be the largest in Africa, by both the NNPC and a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, Xenel, planned for 2015, has made it imperative for government to do the needed.

Furthermore, there are two proposed fertilizer plants by the federal government, through the NNPC to which US$4 billion is being invested, with Indian partners (Nararjuna) each with 1.3 mln tpa and five discrete blending plants to be located across the country. Mundra explained that, there was an urgent need for government to move fast in pushing its growth through the petrochemicals sub-sector of the hydrocarbon industry, as he said Nigeria had no reason to linger behind countries such as Singapore that had no raw petrochemical stock.

Currently, Indorama EPCL is building a US$2 bln fertilizer plant and ethanol plants at its present location, as part of an expansion project to exploit the industry further, in view of its conviction that the petrochemical industry in Nigeria was large enough to accommodate many more ventures to meet the rising global demand. The government has been urged to institute a framework to regulate the sector and drive the processes with an authority to act as a one-stop shop for all clearances.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Australia's Base Resources Ltd said on Friday that DuPont Titanium Technologies has signed a deal to offtake at least 72% of the expected rutile output from a mining project currently being developed in Kwale, Kenya.

The agreement will span six years from the start of production at Kwale, Base Resources said in statement late on Thursday, adding that the project can start production in 2013.
Rutile is a natural form of titanium dioxide (TiO2). The company has the option to sell up to a further 25,000 tonnes/year to DuPont over the same period.

The agreement provides DuPont the right, in the last four years of the deal, to reduce its offtake volume proportional to any cuts in its overall high-grade TiO2 feedstock requirements, with pricing to be derived from an agreed quarterly index of market prices, the company said.


Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC