Royal Dutch Shell to develop a USD 6.4 bln petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan

(Reuters) - Qatar signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell on Sunday to develop a USD 6.4 billion (4.0 billion pounds) petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan industrial city in the Gulf Arab state. Qatar's energy minister, Mohammed al-Sada, and Shell chief executive Peter Voser signed the agreement in Doha. "We estimate the cost to be USD 6.4 billion but at this stage one should be cautious," Sada said.


Asked whether the agreement replaced a similar one signed with U.S. group Exxon Mobil, Sada said: "No, this is not a replacement. This is a continuation of our strategy. There will be other petrochemical plants in the pipeline."


While industry sources said last year they believed Exxon had pulled out of the agreement, chief executive Rex Tillerson denied that and told reporters the company was waiting for Qatar to make its decision.


The plant agreed with Shell will have the capacity to produce 1.5 million tonnes of mono-ethylene glycol per year and 300,000 tonnes of linear alpha olefin, mostly for export to Asian markets, an official statement said. State-run Qatar Petroleum will have an 80 percent equity interest in the project and Shell will hold the remaining 20 percent.


Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), gas chilled for export by ship


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French Total strengthened its commitment to the styrene chain

(PlastEurope) -- French oil and chemical group Total plans to invest about EUR1bn in expanding its chemical activities, with half the money earmarked for petrochemistry and the other half for special chemistry. In financial 2010, the group's petrochemical activities - including its plastics divisions - accounted for about EUR 10.7 bn in revenues, while special chemistry yielded EUR 6.8 bn. Speaking to Germany's Handelsblatt, Francois Cornelis, the group's deputy CEO and board member responsible for Total Chemicals, clarified that Total would hold on to its polystyrene business, which it plans to structurally improve in Europe and expand in Asia.


Following the October 2011 merger of the styrene activities of both BASF and Ineos in Styrolution, Total dropped down to the position of world's second largest styrene player. With global capacities of about 1.6m t/y, the French group continues to play a lead role, with the world's third largest styrene producer Styron trailing quite some distance behind.


Together, these three players account for about one third of the world's PS market. As for the direct feedstock VCM, Total occupies fourth spot in the global rankings, but its 2.2m t/y monomer capacity make it a fully integrated player.


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Kumho Asiana Group set to complete legal separation from Kumho Petrochemical

(Plastemart) -- Kumho Asiana Group, led by chairman Park Sam-koo, is set to complete on Wednesday its legal separation from Kumho Petrochemical Group headed by his brother Chan-koo. As per heraldm.com, Kumho Asiana Group, with Kumho Industrial, Asiana Airlines, Kumho Tire and others under its wing, will now be a separate conglomerate from Kumho Petrochemical Group, consisting of Kumho Petrochemical, Kumho Mitsui Chemicals and Kumho Polychem.

Park Sam-koo and his son Se-chang began the block sale of all of their shares in Kumho Petrochemical worth 409 billion won through Daewoo Securities and Nomura Securities. A 5.3% stake held by the senior Park, or 1.34 million shares, and a 5.15% stake (1.3 million shares) owned by his son were sold to around 100 institutional investors.


Chairman Park Sam-koo plans to use the money from the sale to increase paid-in capital of Kumho Industrial, the de facto holding company of Kumho Asiana Group, and Kumho Tire in an attempt to return as the major shareholder. The Park brothers have had a years-long feud over the management of Kumho affiliates.


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Haldia seeks to avoid falling into Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction

(Plastemart) -- Haldia Petrochemicals is working out an action plan to avoid falling into the BIFR (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) fold, as per the Hindu. Since a 50% erosion in peak net worth will push the company into BIFR, HPL is striving hard to check the loss-making trend. HPL had a peak net worth of Rs.2,844 crore in 2007-08 which got eroded to Rs.2,097 crore on March 31, 2010, and could dip to Rs.1,422 crore, reflecting a 50 per cent erosion in the peak net worth.
The company closed its first-half of 2011-12 with a net loss of Rs.418 crore, which is estimated to have mounted to around Rs.600 crore. If the company ends 2001-12 with a loss of Rs.675 crore, it will not be able to stave off the BIFR reporting.


The spectre of a mandatory reporting comes amid speculation surrounding the issue of the sale of residual shares by the State Government, which holds the key to the settlement of the ownership dispute between the Chatterjee Group and the West Bengal Government. Lenders are now expressing concern about taking further exposure as HPL's debt service ratio is now below 1, indicating that margins are inadequate to service debts.


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Sasol mulls USD 4.5 bln ethane cracker

(Plastemart) -- Sasol Ltd plans to invest US$4.5 bln to build a plant usin low-cost natural gas to make ethylene and related chemicals in Louisiana. The board of directors has approved a feasibility study on a possible ethane cracker and ethylene derivatives complex in Lake Charles.

The feasibility study is estimated to be completed by June 2013. The investment outlay is estimated at US$3.5-4.5 bln for ethylene capacity estimated between 1-1.4 mln tpa. ⌠The rapid development of the shale gas industry in North America and the resulting decoupling of the crude oil and natural gas prices have created several opportunities for growth for Sasol in both fuels and chemicals, the company said in a statement.


In particular, the availability of significant volumes of natural gas liquids, and specifically ethane, has opened up opportunities in the ethane feedstock area for cracker-based chemicals.


Sasol joins Dow Chemical Co, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, among others, who are studying whether to build ethane crackers in the US.


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