Braskem Idesa awards engineering deal on Mexico Ethylene XXI project

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Braskem Idesa awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on its Ethylene XXI project to a joint venture company comprised of Odebrecht (40%), Technip (40%) and ICA Fluor (20%).

ICA Fluor is an industrial construction joint venture of its own, including Fluor and Mexico’s Empresas ICA.

Together, the three companies will design and build the new Etileno XXI petrochemical complex in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The overall deal value was USD2.7 billion.

The new petrochemical complex will include a 1.05 million tpy ethane cracker and integrated polyethylene (PE) plants. The cracker will be based on Technip technology, while INEOS is providing the high-density (HDPE) technology and LyondellBasell the low-density (LDPE) technology.

The joint venture project team will utilize several operating centers around the world to execute the project.

The project, of which Braskem owns a 65% stake and Idesa the remaining 35%, is expected to start up operations in June 2015.
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- The fire at Anglo-Russian oil producer TNK-BP’s refinery at Saratov in southern Russia has been extinguished, news agency Interfax reported Thursday, citing a regional official.

"The plant is currently not working. All employees have been evacuated. The processing of oil at the plant has been temporarily halted. A special commission will decide on further plant operations," Saratov region's deputy minister for industry, Maksim Shikhalov, is quoted as saying.

Mr. Shikhalov said the unit affected by the fire could be repaired and restarted within 24 hours. TNK-BP earlier shut down the refinery, which processes about 7 million tpy of crude.

Mr. Shikhalov said the commission would also assess damage and investigate the cause of the fire.Earlier, Interfax cited the Russian Emergency Ministry as saying five people had been injured in the fire.
MRC

(reuters) -- Lubrizol is planning to build a new resin and compounding manufacturing facility in Deer Park, Texas, at an investment of USD125 million.

The additional capacity will serve Lubrizol building and construction customers on a global basis, according to the company.

Lubrizol says it projects continued strong global growth in its chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) business, with particularly strong demand in India and other developing economies.

To provide ongoing support to global customers, Lubrizol says it is launching a multi-phased CPVC capacity expansion plan, beginning with the new resin and compounding facility in Texas.

The facility, which Lubrizol described as world-class, is expected to be operational by the 2014 fourth quarter and is designed to complement the company's existing CPVC manufacturing facilities.

With headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, The Lubrizol Corporation makes specialty materials, including plastics technology and performance coatings in the form of specialty resins and additives.

MRC

(apic-online) -- Toray Plastics is likely to shut operations at its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant for maintenance.

Located at Butterworth in Malaysia, the ABS plant has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year. The plant, according to a local Polymerupdate source in Malaysia, will be taken off-stream in November 2012 and will remain shut for around one month.

Toray Industries is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered around technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, as well as plastics and chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen, the second largest HDPE producer in Russia, has begun the first deliveries after resuming production, report MRC analysts.

The second largest polyethylene maker in Russia, Stavrolen (Lukoil group) started the first shipments of HDPE at the end of last week. On 1 October, the plant produced the first lots of powdered HDPE and the first shipments already began on Friday.

HDPE production started with the blow moulding grades. Shipments of film and pipe HDPE are scheduled to begin starting from the current week.

The annual HDPE production capacity of Stavrolen (Lukoil group) makes 300,000 tonnes. The share of the plant in the total production volume of Russia in 2011 made about 35%.
MRC