Oil spill at Bashneft-Lukoil Arctic venture

(refinerynews) -- An oil spill in the Russian Arctic affected an area of up to 8,000 square meters after workers tried to open an old well, causing oil to gush uncontrollably for 37 hours, officials said.

The spill at the Trebs field started Friday and continued through the weekend, spurting out up to 500 metric tons of oil a day, the Nenets autonomous district administration said.
The oil well was in the area operated by a joint venture between Russian companies Lukoil Holdings and Bashneft, which received the license to work on the northern Trebs field last year.

The accident was most likely caused by breakage of an old well's corroded plug when workers attempted to operate it, said Viktor Ivkin, head of the Nenetsky autonomous district emergency ministry branch.

Workers managed to stop the fountain of oil Sunday morning, and work was under way to construct a storage facility for the spilled oil, he said.

MRC

(polyestertime) -- EuPR, the Brussels-based organisation representing Europe's plastics recyclers, has developed new guidelines for HDPE bottles with the aim of increasing HDPE recycling.

According to Christian-Yves Crepet, EuPR HDPE working group chairman: "HDPE is a very easily recyclable material. But only 300,000 tonnes of HDPE bottles are being recycled annually in Europe - just 10% to 15% of the total HDPE waste stream. "

However, according to Crepet this situation can be rectified by addressing various areas such as "an increase in the collection rates, the design of HDPE products put on the market and the technological improvements made by recyclers".

"The various actors of the HDPE value chain must now cooperate in order to get HDPE on the path to sustainability," explained Crepet. And in order to help facilitate this that the organisation has produced its HDPE recycling guidelines.

MRC

(polyestertime) -- Faurecia, the world's biggest maker of car interiors and exhaust systems, confirmed its full-year outlook but warned that its operating income could be at the lower end of its previous forecasts if weakness in the European market persists.

Faurecia, which also makes seats and plastic car body parts for clients including Volkswagen's Audi brand, posted an 8.4 percent gain in quarterly sales, as strong demand in North America and Asia offset a slight decline in Europe.

"The general idea is that we're quite in line with our guidance but that if Europe continues to develop at a substantially lower level than last year, we would be more at the low end of the guidance," Chief Financial Officer Frank Imbert told analysts in a conference call.

"We have no reason to modify the range, the key is still to know where we stand within the range and that depends largely on Europe," he added.

Faurecia said in February that it forecast full-year operating income of between Eur 610-670 million. The higher end of the range would mean an increase of 3 percent from last year's EUR651 million, while the lower end would signify a 6 percent drop.


MRC

(Reuters) -- Celanese Corp (CE.N) expects weakness in Europe and much of Asia to linger longer than initially anticipated this year, news that sent the chemical maker's stock down more than 3 %.

The company, which reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, is the world's largest producer of acetyl intermediate chemicals, which are used to make paints and glues. Celanese also is a large producer of acetate tow, used to make cigarette filters.

"We expect the current challenging market conditions in Europe and Asia outside of China to continue further into 2012 than originally anticipated," Chief Executive Mark Rohr said in a press release.Celanese shut an acetic acid plant in Singapore during the first quarter because of tough market conditions in Asia, the top executive for the US-based acetyls producer said on Tuesday.

New Celanese chief Mark Rohr said the 600,000 tonne/year acetic acid plant was taken down at the end of the quarter because of declining margins and demand there.
MRC

(en.rian) -- Hungary's oil and gas firm MOL and other project participants have not confirmed their withdrawal from the Western-backed Nabucco gas pipeline project, European Commission energy spokesperson Marlene Holzner said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said earlier on Monday that MOL was leaving the Nabucco project.

MOL has not confirmed the report of its withdrawal from Nabucco, Holzner told reporters. "The Nabucco shareholder in Hungary is FGSZ, a MOL subsidiary, and we have not had any indication that this will change," the Nabucco Consortium said on Tuesday afternoon.

Nabucco, which is intended to pump 31 bcm of natural gas, is part of the EU's effort to diversify its natural gas supplies and reduce the region's dependence on Russian gas.

MRC