(Bloomberg) -- Petrobras, the state-run oil company in Brazil, announced Tuesday it has made another discovery in what is proving to be one of the country's most productive offshore regions.
The new well is in the Santos Basin, where large pockets of oil are being found under a layer of salt deep beneath the ocean floor.
Located 144 miles off the coast of Sao Paulo state, the new well is more than 18,000 feet deep and holds "good quality" oil, Petrobras said. The well is in a region of the South Atlantic where seven of Brazil's 18 oil discoveries this year have been made. The well has still to be declared commercially viable.
"The well is still being drilled, with the aim of determining the lower limit of the reservoirs and identifying other possible zones of interest," said the company in a statement.
The U.S. Geological Survey assesses there could be as much as 100 billion barrels of offshore oil yet to be discovered in Brazil. The Santos Basin could hold as much as 46 billion barrels.
MRC
(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- A federal prosecutor in Brazil will file criminal charges Wednesday against executives from US oil major Chevron and drilling-rig operator Transocean, charging the employees with environmental crimes related to an offshore spill in November. A federal judge will decide whether to bring the charges to trial.
A federal prosecutor in Brazil will file criminal charges Wednesday against executives from US oil major Chevron and drilling-rig operator Transocean, charging the employees with environmental crimes related to an offshore oil spill in November.
The prosecutor, Eduardo Santos de Oliveira, said in a telephone interview Monday that after an extensive investigation "there exists information and evidence that criminal conduct occurred" by employees at the two companies before, during and after the November drilling accident that caused an estimated 2,400 to 3,000 bbl of oil to seep from the seabed at Chevron's Frade field.
Transocean was operating the rig responsible for the well where the accident took place.
Some 12 Chevron and five Transocean employees will be charged with environmental crimes that carry potential prison terms of between two and five years, Oliveira said.
A federal judge will then decide whether to bring the charges to trial.
MRC
(chemweek) -- Styrolution has announced a program to streamline its operations in Europe and add capacity in emerging markets. Roberto Gualdoni, Styrolution CEO said that the company will terminate its agreement with Ineos to offtake styrene and polystyrene (PS) from Ineos's Marl, Germany site. This will lead to the closure of the complex after the agreement runs out at the end of this year. The complex is designed to produce 350,000 m.t./year of styrene and 180,000 m.t./year of PS.
Styrolution, meanwhile, will upgrade its styrene copolymers capacity at Ludwigshafen. ⌠We will have an independent state-of-the-art logistics center within our complex at Ludwigshafen, Gualdoni says. That will result in separating, and making independent, the production and logistics processes. The plants, producing Styrolution's Luran styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN), Luran S acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) copolymers, Terluran acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and Terlux methyl methacrylate ABS copolymers, will be expanded in the process. The company does not disclose its copolymers capacity but says that capacity will increase overall by 20%-30%.
Separately, Styrolution is in the process of selling its Tarragona, Spain acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant under a previously announced plan. The facility, operating under the name Elix Polymers, will be acquired in the next few weeks by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, Gualdoni says.
The program involves two separate capacity expansions in Asia. Styrolution is building a 40,000-m.t./year ASA plant at Ulsan, Korea that is due to start up at the beginning of July this year. The facility will complement similar plants in Europe and North America. ⌠We are trying to focus on emerging markets and out of Korea we are supplying practically all of Asia, mainly focusing on China and on specialty areas of our portfolio, Gualdoni says. ASA copolymers are used in the automotive and construction industries.
Styrolution, meanwhile, is increasing capacity at its ABS specialties plant at Vadodara, India. Capacity will rise from 80,000 m.t./year, to 110,000 m.t./year by 2014. The project will be achieved through debottlenecking, which involves the installation of a styrene acrylonitrile resins facility and expansion of compounding capacity.