BP sells Texas refinery to Marathon as a step forward in its divestment plans

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Earlier in the week, oil major BP announced an agreement to sell its refinery in Texas City, Texas, and a portion of its retail and logistics network in the southeast US to Marathon Petroleum for USD2.5 billion.

With this agreement, the total value of the divestments that BP has agreed since the beginning of 2010 is more than USD35 billion. BP expects this total to reach USD38 billion by the end of 2013.

BP will remain a significant retailer of fuels in the US, with 8,000 BP and ARCO-branded sites in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and along the East Coast. BP anticipates the transaction will close by early 2013. The company continues to invest heavily in its three northern US refineries. As MRC reported earlier, BP also eyes Russian petrochemical market, as a strategic one. Thus, in a move to expand its presence in Russia, BP is negotiating with Rosneft the possibility of acquisition of at least 12.5% of the Russian state oil firm.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- CB&I announced on Tuesday that it was awarded contracts from Oxychem for the technology license, basic engineering and front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for a proposed new ethane cracker.

The proposed cracker is anticipated to have a capacity of approximately 1.2 billion lb/year of ethylene, or just above 500,000 tpy, with operations to start up in 2016.

Earlier this year, OxyChem signed a memorandum of understanding with Mexico’s Mexichem to evaluate a joint venture for the cracker, which would be built at Occidental’s existing site in Ingleside, Texas, as MRC informed in August.

The scope of work for CB&I includes the basic engineering for the ethylene technology and five SRT (short residence time) cracking heaters from CB&I's Lummus Technology business unit. Feedstock for the proposed cracker is anticipated to be ethane derived from domestic shale gas.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. Oxychem is Oxy's Texas-based subsidiary which manufacture polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins, chlorine and caustic soda used in plastics, pharmaceuticals and water treatment chemicals.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) has expanded cracker capacity at Gandhar from 300,000 tonnes to 365,000 tonnes, which can be debottlenecked upto 400,000 tonnes.

Much of the capacity expansion will be based on use on imported propane, as per Economic Times. Gandhar gas cracker capacity expansion was made possible mainly due to expansion in gas processing capacity of its ethane and propane recovery unit (EPRU). However, this gas supply is not enough for the cracker and so IPCL has been importing propane for some time as additional feedstock for the cracker.

Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) is a petrochemicals company in India. It was established on March 22, 1969, with a view to promote and encourage the use of plastics in India. Its business consists of polymers (LDPE, LLDPE, copolymer sheets, PP, etc.), synthetic fibre, fibre intermediaries, solvents, surfactants, industrial chemicals, catalysts, adsorbents, and polyesters. The Company operates three petrochemical complexes, a naphtha based complex at Vadodara
MRC

(styron) -- Styron Europe has raised its polystyrene contract and spot prices for October by Eur50/mt (USD65/mt) effective immediately, the company said Friday.

The price increase applies to all its general purpose grade PS and high impact grade PS prices.

Styron did not provide details of its prices but cited rising costs associated with the manufacturing of PS grades in Europe.

The initial NWE styrene monomer CP for October was fully settled at Eur1,418/mt, up Eur8 from September. Swift on the heels of that conclusion, other PS producers in Europe nominated increases in their October prices.

On Thursday, Styrolution raised its October PS prices by Eur50/mt too.MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In September, imports of PVC to Russia amounted to about37,800 tonnes. Over the nine months, the import volumes of suspension to Russia made about 294,000 tonnes, as per MRC analysts.

According to preliminary data, PVC imports to Russia last month amounted to about 37,800 tonnes, which actually equals the figures in August. Expectedly, about 60% of total imports were provided by the resin from the U.S. Also it is worth noting the increase in imports of PVC from China.

The total volume of imports of PVC from the U.S. to Russia last month amounted to about 22,100 tonnes, which is comparable to the August figure. However, sufficiently large volumes of North American PVC were supplied by the July contracts. The imports of resin from North America are expected to be cut in November, on the back of the hike in export prices.

Due to the deficit the supplies of acetylene PVC from China grew in September by 60%, from August and reached about 6,000 tonnes. China’s imports of PVC are expected to increase further in October-November. Because of the shortages of material and railway wagons in China the August and September PVC volumes are expected to be delivered over at least two months.

The imports of suspension from Ukraine on two-month shutdown for turnaround of Karpatneftehim (Lukoil Group) in September decreased to 3,100 tonnes. Over the nine months, deliveries of Ukrainian PVC made about 65,600 tonnes.

In the whole, over the nine months of this year, the total volume of imported PVC to Russia amounted to about 294,000 tonnes, down which 25% year on year.

MRC