Total to restart its onshore operation in Libya

(Arabian oil and gas) -- French supermajor Total is to restart its onshore operation ⌠in a few days, according to a Reuters report. Michel Seguin, special advisor to the president of Total Exploration & Production, Yves-Louis Darricarrere, told Reuters.

There are still some logistical issues that need to be sorted out" but Libyan onshore production ⌠will resume in a few days.

Seguin was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to Libya by French Trade Minister Pierre Lellouche.

Before the Libyan civil war Total produced a total of 55,000 barrels a day in Libya. It's main onshore asset is the 19,000 bpd Mabruk field. Production at Total's offshore Al Jurf field has been continuing since 25 September at a rate of 41,000 barrels per day.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Oman's PET producer and sheet extruder Octal Petrochemicals is planning an expansion at an outlay of over USD200 mln. Capacity will be increased at its Salalah, Oman, production plant by June 2012. Two more reactors and will be added in the expansion Octal has 880 mln lbs of PET capacity of which 770 mln lbs can be used for on-site sheet production.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation (GSFC) is setting up an integrated fertiliser and petrochemicals complex at Dahej, Gujarat, at an investment of Rs7,000 crore with an aim to consolidate its position in specialty chemicals. The detailed project report is ready and the process of land allocation and tendering is in progress. Project capacities will include: 1 mln of urea, 0.1 mtpa of caprolactum and 40,000 mtpa of melamine. Any major impact on the company's topline could be visible only after four years when the complex is ready.
⌠The advantage with GSFC is that it has an integrated complex which helps it in manufacturing caprolactum and melamine at highly cost-effective prices which helps in clocking higher margins. With yet another integrated facility coming up, GSFC's leadership in these two chemicals will be unchallenged, said Salil Garg, director at Fitch Ratings.

According to the company's presentation, GSFC currently holds 60% market share in caprolactum and 40% in melamine and experts say it enjoys virtual monopoly in these two chemicals.

MRC

(MRC) -- In November, Russian producers increased their output of polypropylene (PP) to 57.5 thousand tonnes. In general, over the 11 months, overall amount of PP production in Russia grew by 10% to 626 thousand tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.

In November, the total volume of PP production in Russia grew by 2% compared with October and made 57.5 thousand tonnes. However, despite the total increase of production volumes, Ufaorgsyntez (Bashneft) and Neftekhimia (Sibur managed company) last month reduced their PP production volume. In November, these companies reduced the output by 21% and 19% compared with October, correspondingly.

At the end of last month there was a slight decrease of raffia production in favour of injection molding grades of PP-homo. The total volume of copolymers of propylene made 10.4 thousand tonnes, that was by 13% more compared with the October index.

In general, over January-November, Russian producers made 626 thousand tonnes of PP and its copolymers, that was by 10% more year on year.

Actually all Russian producers work with capacities utilization close to 100%, and the current production growth was mainly due to reduced period of scheduled turnarounds, particularly at Neftekhimia and Ufaorgsyntez.

According to preliminary estimates, at 2011 year end, the total PP production in Russia made about 680 thousand tonnes, against 626 thousand tonnes in 2010. The results of 2011 were shadowed by an accident at Stavrolen. There are no official statements from Lukoil about the accident, but according to Minister of Industry, Energy and Transport of the Stavropol region, Dmitry Samatov, polymer production at the petrochemical plant will be resumed in February 2012.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- The Houston Ship Channel reopened to waterborne traffic late Thursday, but loading activities remained suspended due to fog, as per Dow Jones. The channel, the busiest U.S. petrochemical port and a major conduit for cargo entering and leaving the Gulf of Mexico, has been intermittently opening and closing since Tuesday, when a collision between two vessels caused a partial closure. Heavy fog has also led to activities being suspended along the waterway.

Last week, a tanker and a cargo vessel collided at about 8 a.m. CST near the Texas City Dike, which is in the lower end of the channel between Galveston and Texas City. This did not result in any oil or chemicals spill. Refineries along the ship channel are Lyondell Basell's 268,000 bpd refinery, Pasadena Refining's 100,000 bpd refinery, Valero Energy Corp's 83,000 bpd refinery and Royal Dutch Shell's 327,000 bpd JV refinery.

The refineries in Texas City supplied by the ship channel are BP Plc.'s 437,080 bpd refinery, Valero's 214,000 bpd refinery and Marathon Petroleum Corp.'s 76,000 bpd refinery.

MRC