Ukraine signs USD10bn shale deal with Shell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine took its first major step away from dependency on Russian gas imports on Thursday when it signed a USD10 billion shale gas deal with Shell, said Upstreamonline.

The 50-year production sharing agreement, signed on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, marks the biggest contract yet to tap shale gas in Europe and the largest foreign investment in the former Soviet republic.

Ukraine chose Shell last May as a partner to develop the Yuzivska field in the east of the country and regional councils there approved the production-sharing deal last week, removing the last hurdle to signature.

Ukraine is said to have Europe's third-largest shale gas reserves at 42 trillion cubic feet (1.2 trillion cubic metres), according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The Yuzivska field could be producing 20 billion cubic metres of gas in 2018.

Ukrainian officials said earlier this month that Shell saw investment under the deal of at least USD10 billion "under the most likely scenario" and possibly as much as USD50 billion.

The government chose Chevron to develop the Olesska field in the western Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions bordering the EU.

Ukraine has also chosen an ExxonMobil-led consortium to explore for offshore gas in the Black Sea and is seeking foreign partners to help it build a liquefied natural gas terminal.

As MRC wrote earlier, Ukrainian government cut 99% of fees for the shale gas deals for the world's largest oil producer Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Qilu is likely to shut operations at its polypropylene (PP) plant, said Apic-online.

Located at Zibo, Shandong province in China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

The plant will be taken off-stream for a maintenance turnaround in April 2013 and will remain shut for around 40 days.

Sinopec Qilu Company, located in Zibo city, Shandong province, with 24.8 square kilometers area, is a super large scale refining, chemical, chemical fiber enterprise of petroleum,salt,coal,natural gas chemical.

Established in 1965 as state enterprise Sinopec Qilu produces petro-chemicals like PVC, PP, HDPE, LDPE, SBR, PA, DOP.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical severed ties Friday with one of Washington's most powerful groups representing the manufacturing industry, citing differing opinions over whether the US should export its newly abundant supplies of natural gas, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

As MRC wrote earlier, increasingly fierce battle over natural-gas exports made Dow split from the National Association of Manufacturers, demonstrating how divisive the issue has become for some of the nation's largest companies.

In a letter to NAM president Jay Timmons on Friday, and obtained by Dow Jones, Dow Chemical accuses the group of siding with member companies that are in the natural-gas industry, rather than adopt "a position of neutrality on an issue that clearly splits its membership."

Dow Chemical is responding to a statement NAM posted earlier this week in support of natural-gas exports. In it, NAM said sales of natural gas to foreign buyers would create opportunities for US businesses.

Dow Chemical, by contrast, is pushing for limits on natural-gas exports. Its chief executive, Andrew Liveris, has said unchecked exports will increase domestic prices and threaten investments in the US manufacturing sector.

"The unfettered export of natural gas is widely understood to have serious implications for the cost and volatility of manufacturing feedstock prices," Dow says in its letter to NAM. "NAM's decision therefore places the views of oil and gas producers above the interests of its manufacturing members."

ExxonMobil, another NAM member company, is proposing to build a natural-gas export terminal in Texas. It has accused Dow and other companies opposed to limitless exports of being "protectionist."

Dow Chemical spokeswoman Nancy Lamb declined to comment on the letter. But she said the company's membership in another influential group, the American Chemistry Council, "remains to be seen."

The fight between Dow, ExxonMobil and, now, the groups that represent their interests in Washington comes as US regulators consider more than a dozen proposals to ship US natural gas to countries that lack a free-trade agreement with the US.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest chemical producer, regards Indonesia as a key focus of its Asean strategy. PTT supplies 40% of total consumption to the Indonesian market, according to Plastemart.

In a move to expand its sales of crude and refined oil as well as plastic pellets in Indonesia, PTT has recently established two subsidiaries in Jakarta. The two new units were PTT international Trading Co and PTT Polymer Marketing Co. As it was informed previously, the company will invest in Indonesia and Vietnam, as both countries have growth potential and purchasing power in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

As MRC reported earlier, PTT is also in talks with Indonesia's state-run Pertamina Oil Co on investment in a petrochemical-refinery project, which the Thai energy giant expects to conclude in April or May. PTTGC has agreed to conduct a feasibility study on expanding a fully integrated petrochemical complex with Pertamina.

Incorporated in late 2011 through a merger of PTT Chemical PCL and PTT Aromatics and Refining PCL, PTT Global Chemical has petrochemical capacity of 8.2 million tpy of olefins and aromatics and refining capacity of 280,000 bpd.
The Polymer product business produce a wide range of plastic products for use in various industries. Among the main products are HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PS.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical mulls expansion of its normal alpha olefins (NAO) capacity by, at least, 20% at its Cedar Bayou Chemical Complex in Baytown, Texas, as per Houston Business Journal.

The company has filed the necessary environmental permit application with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The construction is scheduled to begin in early in 2014 and the project would be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015, the company said in a statement.

Mitch Eichelberger, general manager of normal alpha olefins and polyalphaolefins for Chevron Phillips Chemical, said that the proposed expansion has great synergy with the 1-hexene plant currently being built at our Cedar Bayou complex.

In mid-2012, Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical, Formosa Plastics, ExxonMobil and other companies across the Gulf Coast unveiled their expansion plans in North America, as MRC informed previously. They are rushing to invest billions of dollars in new ethylene plants, which use natural gas as feedstock. In 2012, the company began construction of the world's largest plant capable of producing more than 550 million pounds per year of on-purpose 1-hexene. The project is expected to come online in the first half of next year.
MRC