Repsol's cracker at Sines temporarily shut down

(ICIS) -- Repsol's cracker at Sines, Portugal, has been temporarily shut down because of weak demand, a company spokesperson said on Friday. Details about the duration of the shutdown or when it began were not disclosed. Previous reports suggested the cracker was running, albeit recently at low rates.

Repsol has two other European crackers at Tarragona and Puertollano, in Spain, which are both thought to be running at reduced operating rates. Of the three crackers, Sines is the only one not fully-integrated with derivative production and therefore is more likely to have been hit harder by the weak market conditions. Logistical problems and expensive freight costs are also understood to be contributory factors for the idling measures.

Both European propylene and ethylene demand has been lower than expected in the second half of the year because of the underlying economic sentiment, as well as stricter inventory control at year-end.

There is ongoing length in the European system because of low derivative demand, which is not likely to improve until at least the second half of January/February 2012.

Repsol has a nameplate capacity for ethylene of 415,000 tonnes/year at Sines, 660,000 tonnes/year at Tarragona and 250,000 tonnes/year at Puertollano.

For propylene, the company has the capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes/year at Sines, 125,000 tonnes/year at Puertollano and 290,000 tonnes/year at Tarragona, according to ICIS.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- The Supervisory Board of PKN ORLEN, during its meeting on 8 December 2011, has adopted a resolution in accordance to which Mr. Marek Serafin has been dismissed from the position of the Member of the PKN ORLEN Management Board.

At the same time the Company's Supervisory Board has delegated with effective date on 9 December 2011, Member of the PKN ORLEN Supervisory Board, Mr. Piotr Wielowieyski, to act temporary as the Member of the Company's Management Board, Petrochemical Operations. Delegation is valid till the moment of appointment of the Member of PKN ORLEN Management Board, Petrochemical Operations, but no longer than three months.

Earlier this week, Serafin was arrested along with two petrochemicals directors of the company and a businessman from the city of Plock in central Poland, on suspicion of corruption. Serafin had given preferential treatment to a businessman from Plock in awarding contracts in exchange for property benefits. The men were arrested following a request by the Appeal Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw.

MRC

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Khalid al-Falih, CEO of Aramco, affirmed the company's commitment to expanding its downstream assets, saying Saudi is currently slated to spend USD 90 billion on downstream development projects. Al-Falih, addressing the 20th World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar, said Aramco intends to become one of the top-tier petrochemicals companies in the world ⌠within the next decade.

Aramco is changing to meet burgeoning domestic demand for electricity generation feedstock, the tilt to non-OPEC and unconventional production, and the global enthusiasm for gas.

Upstream development will continue, with Al-Falih confirming that Aramco is ⌠undertaking a massive exploration campaign, which will include exploration of the Red Sea, shale oil, and spending USD17 billion to develop the offshore Manifa field, which is due to reach production capacity of 900,000barrels per day in 2014 under an accelerated timetable.

The Manifa project has involved building artificial islands in the shallow water of the Persian Gulf, in order to realize onshore-drilling recovery and logistical efficiencies. The project is central to providing feedstock for Saudi's new heavy crude refineries being built in conjunction with Total and Sinopec.

Saudi Aramco also in its annual review said that it will deliver the Karan offshore non-associated gas development onstream nest year, ahead of its 2013 schedule. When fully operational in 2012, the project will produce 1.8 billion cu ft a day of raw gas.

MRC

The total expenditure amounts to ┬3 mln. In time, this operation is anticipated to employ 13 staff. The recycling of post-industrial waste from Deceuninck window manufacturers is expected to become operational from Q2 2012. By the end of 2012, the recycling of end-of-life PVC windows from window and door installers will start.

MRC

(MRC) -- In November, production of volume polymers in Ukraine made 29.8 thousand tonnes. Over the 11 months, output of base polymers in Ukraine made 276.6 thousand tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.


Last month Ukrainian producer Karpatneftechem (Lukoil group) increased polyethylene (PE) production up to 9 thousand tonnes that was almost by 2 thousand tonnes more than in October. In January-November, total volume of HDPE production in Ukraine made 93.3 thousand tonnes.

In November, Linik (TNK-BP group) increased output of polypropylene (PP). Last month total PP production increased to 8.3 thousand tonnes. Over the 11 months, total PP production in Ukraine made 85.4 thousand tonnes that was by 23% more, year on year. Such a low last year volume of PP production resulted from a long turnaround of the whole complex of oil refineries.

In November, production volumes of suspension PVC by Karpatneftechem (Lukoil Group) made 10.8 thousand tonnes. The Ukrainian producer loaded its PVC facilities not more than by 50%. Over less than seven months, Karpatneftechem produced about 76.5 thousand tonnes of PVC-S.


In November, Ukrainian producer Stirol produced 1.6 thousand tonnes of polystyrene, which was almost two times lower compared to October figures. In January-November, the company's output of polystyrene made nearly 21.4 thousand tonnes, which was by 37% more, year on year.

In general, over the 11 months, total output of base polymers by Ukrainian producers made 276.6 thousand tonnes that was by 153% more, year on year. Such growth of production volumes was provided by the launch of new capacities (PVC at Karpatneftechem), as well as increased production volumes at existing production sites.

MRC