Petronas in talks with oil majors to develop petrochem plants at its USD20 bln refinary

(plastemart) -- Petronas is considering development of petrochemical plants within its US$20 bln refinery complex in the south of Malaysia, for which it is in talks with several major oil companies, including Shell and Exxon Mobil Japan's Itochu Corp and Mitsubishi, as well as Dow Chemical Company.

The company is expected to make a decision on any partnerships in mid-2012. Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development project was announced by the oil major in May 2011, planned to be commissioned by the end of 2016.

Output from the projects will cater to rising demand from Asia and is in line with the company's plans to diversify operations. The company has initiated basic engineering and design which will be followed by the tendering process for building the complex.
Currently, Petronas is on track for timely commissioning of the project. The USD20 billion complex will feature a 300,000 bpd refinery, while the petrochemical developments will include a naphtha cracker capable of producing around 3 mln tpa of ethylene, propylene and C4 and C5 olefins and along with a complex that will produce "differentiated and highly specialised chemicals.

The complex will be located in Southern Johor, chosen for its strategic location, proximity to deepwater port facilities, international shipping lanes and regional demand centres.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Japan's Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture (JV) company for the production and distribution of ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPT), as per Japan Corporate News NetWork.

The new plant, scheduled for commercial operation in Q1-2014, is expected to be the world's largest state-of-the-art plant in EPT production.

MRC

(ICIS) -- China's Wudi Xinyue Chemical is planning to start up its new 100,000 tonne/year propylene oxide (PO) plant at Bingzhou in Shandong province in early February next year, a company source said on Monday.

⌠The construction of the new plant is close to completion, and we aim to start marketing material from the unit next Feburary, the source said in Mandarin.

Wudi Xinyue Chemical currently runs two PO units in Shandong, each with 100,000 tonnes/year of capacity.


⌠The current operating rate of these two plants is about 85%, and we offer the product at yuan (CNY) 12,200-12,300/tonne (USD1,924-$1,940/tonne) EXW (ex-works), the source added.
Wudi Xinyue Chemical, a subsidiary of Lubei Enterprise Group, produces epichlorohydrin (ECH) and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- INEOS has restarted acrylonitrile (ACN) production at its 280 metric ton/year facility at Seal Sands, the United Kingdom. The reasons for the delayed restart were labour and weather-related issues.

The plant was initially scheduled to come on stream in November 2011 right after a forty days maintenance, however the restart was suspended by 10 days due to labour problems.

Another 2 weeks delay was the result of high winds in the north of England, the weather issue prevented lifting operations.

The resuming of the plant has started in the mid December 2011, and the facility is now manufacturing acrylonitrile.

INEOS Seal Sands plant is located in Teeside, UK. It is one of the largest manufacturers of Acrylonitrile in Europe and it is the largest producer of purified acetonitrile in Europe. Seal Sands uses leading INEOS technology, which is also used at the Green Lake plant in Port Lavaca, Texas.
.
INEOS acquired Seal Sands from BASF in 2008.

MRC

(chemicals-technology) -- PetroFina, a 100% affiliate of Total Petrochemicals, has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical to transfer 35% shareholder interest in Fina Antwerp Olefins to Total.

On the completion of the transaction, Total will become the sole shareholder in Fina Antwerp Olefins.
The transaction is subject to the European competition authority approval.
Fina Antwerp Olefins, in which Total currently has a 65% interest, was set up in Antwerp in 1951, and manufactures base chemicals products, including ethylene, propylene and benzene.


Total's businesses include base petrochemicals from steam crackers and certain refinery processing plants such as olefins, C4 fractions and aromatics, as well as the commodity polymers derived from them.

The company engages in upstream and downstream operations in the petroleum industry. Its products are used in consumer and industrial markets, including packaging, construction and the automotive industry.


MRC