Russia's Gazprom sells 80% stake in unused Baltic LNG site to Sibur petrochemical group

(chemnet) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has sold its 80% holding in the Baltic LNG project to the Sibur petrochemical group, Baltic LNG general director Alexander Krasnenkov said in an interview published in Gazprom's corporate magazine Wednesday.

Sibur is in talks to acquire the remaining 20% in the project from Russia's largest shipper, Sovcomflot, Krasnenkov added.

The petrochemical company plans to use Baltic LNG's 120 hectare property to build a methanol plant, he said, reiterating a statement made in March 2011 to Gazprom's corporate publication. "Other companies may join the methanol plant project," Kransenkov added, providing no further details.

Gazprom abandoned plans to build the Baltic LNG plant in February 2008.

Initially, Gazprom had planned to build a 5.0-7.2 million mt/year LNG plant near the Primorsk port on the Baltic coast, "but the project didn't seem effective enough to Gazprom, so the decision was made to reject it in favor of Shtokman," Krasnenkov said in March 2011, referring to the giant gas project in the Barents Sea.

MRC

(Fibre2fashion) -- Luxi Chemical will instead of setting up a organic silicon project as announced earlier, will
now set up a 200,000 tons per annum caprolactam (CPL) plant.

In a filing, Luxi announced plans to terminate the second phase of an organic silicon project, and will instead
spend 1.2 billion Yuan raised through an Initial Public Offer (IPO) on a CPL plant.

Luxi will spend around 2.5 billion Yuan on setting up the CPL unit and expects the plant to generate around 4
billion Yuan in annual revenue.

MRC

(textination) -- The engineering company Uhde Inventa-Fischer GmbH, Berlin/Germany, has successfully commissioned a plant for the production of polyamide 6.6 for its customer Huafon Group, Ruian/China.

The production plant has a capacity of 40,000 tons/year and is located at Huafon's company headquarters in Zhejiang Province.

Uhde Inventa-Fischer's energy-efficient, resource-saving and cost-reducing PA 6.6 technology enables Huafon to produce high-quality granulate, which can be used for all applications, such as textiles, tire cord, engineering plastics and also co-polymers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- This week three Russian producers announced the growth of LDPE prices. The quotations grew by ruble (Rb) 1,000-1,770/tonne, depending on a producer. The price hike is mostly stipulated by a seasonal factor, according to ICIS-MRC Price report. Tomskneftekhim was the first to announce the increase of LDPE contract prices for the domestic market. The prices for 158 and 153 PE grew by Rb1,000/tonne. The price for LDPE by Gazprom neftekhim Salavat grew nearly by Rb1,000/tonne. Yesterday Kazanorgsyntez announced Rb1,770/tonne growth of contract prices for 158 and 153 LDPE. The price hike was mainly caused by a seasonal factor as well as the growth of feedstock price.

In warm March a demand for LDPE grew in the Russian market. By mid-April, Kazanorgsyntez, the biggest Russian producer of LDPE, plans to suspend its capacities for one-month maintenance. In early May a scheduled suspension is expected at Ufaorgsyntez. Now because of ethylene deficit, LDPE capacities in Ufa have been loaded by half, also the operation at one of reactors was suspended. The market participants inform about limited supplies of 158 LDPE to the domestic market from Kazanorgsyntez.

A limited offer of LDPE from some Russian producers, coming scheduled maintenances and a seasonal growth of demand will affect spot prices. The market has just started reacting to the growth of contract prices and limited supplies of LDPE, as a result, the price range remains quite wide. The Russian 158 LDPE is offered on average for Rb56,000-59,000/tonne, VAT included, FCA. PE for production of shrinkable films is offered for Rb60,000-61,000/tonne VAT included, FCA.

MRC