Total to sell its French gas pipeline network

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total has signed a final agreement to sell TIGF, a regional gas pipeline network, to a group comprising Italy's Snam, Singaporean sovereign fund GIC, and French state-controlled power utility Electricite de France, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Total had announced two months ago it had picked the Snam-led group to sell its natural gas transportation business in southwest France in a deal, valuing it at EUR2.4 billion (USD3.1 billion).

Snam, a gas transportation and storage company, holds 45% in the consortium, with GIC and EDF owning 35% and 20%, respectively.

TIGF was put up for sale last autumn as part of a wider strategy to sell EUR20 billion of assets by 2015 to help boost its cash flow and finance substantial investments.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, last autumn Total announced its plans to invest over EUR1 billion into its Belgian refining and petrochemical complex to boost its diesel-making capacity and create cost-cutting synergies. This investment could bring Europe's largest refiner extra cash of USD500 mln a year.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Degradable plastic bags are not the answer to the region's littering problem, said Dr. Abdulwahab Sadoun, Secretary General of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), said Saudigazette.

This recommendation came on the eve of the three-day GPCA's fourth annual PlastCon conference, which started Sunday at Dubai's InterContinental Hotel. The event is designed to foster innovation and create greater value across the Gulf region's plastics industry.

The term "degradable plastic" is misleading, according to Sadoun. "These materials contain special additives that break up the plastic into tiny particles, which remain in the environment and potentially cause greater long-term damage."

Recent estimates put global plastic bag usage at 500 billion per year. In the UAE, people consume 11 billion plastic bags annually, according to the Ministry of Environment. Effective January 1 of this year, only degradable plastic bags will be allowed at shops and supermarkets across the country, due to environmental concerns.

Recently, GPCA has launched a range of initiatives to raise awareness of responsible waste management. These programs include initiating and implementing the Clean Up the Gulf campaign, which recently saw over 2,500 people participate in cleanup activities at six different locations across the Gulf - Abu Dhabi and Dubai, along with Riyadh, Jubail and Rabigh in Saudi Arabia and in Kuwait.

As MRC wrote earlier, a number of Asian countries, including China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, are currently on the warpath against plastic shopping bags. The cities have passed local laws that ban such bags, on the basis that they clog sewers and drainage canals, cause street flooding, choke animals and are responsible for other forms of environmental damage.MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Uhde Inventa-Fischer has been awarded a contract by MICRO POLYPET PVT. LTD., an Indian joint venture comprising the chemical companies RLG Group and Action Petrochem Pvt. Ltd., to build a plant for the production of high-quality PET for bottling and packaging applications, said Uhde-inventa-fischer in its press-release.

The plant, which will be located in Panipat, India, will have a production capacity of 216,000 tonnes per year. The feedstock, terephthalic acid, will be supplied "over the fence" by the company IOCL following production at an adjacent plant.

Based on Uhde Inventa-Fischer's patented, state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Melt-To-Resin (MTR) technology, the plant will enable the start-up company to produce top-quality PET pellets that are established in the market. Importantly, the plant has also been designed for integration of a second identical line and can be retrofitted with the Flakes-To-Resin (FTR) recycling technology developed and patented by Uhde Inventa-Fischer at any time.

As MRC wrote earlier, Uhde Inventa-Fischer is to build a PET plant for its Indian customer JBF Industries Ltd., a leading producer of polyester granules. The plant with a total name plate capacity of 432,000 tonnes a year will be located in Geel, Belgium, and will produce high-quality PET for bottling and packaging applications.

Uhde Inventa-Fischer is a leading engineering company located in Berlin, Germany, and Domat/Ems, Switzerland. Its scope of services includes the development, engineering and construction of industrial plants for the production of polyester, polyamide and polylactic acid. The company has built and commissioned more than 400 production plants throughout the world. On joining the ThyssenKrupp Uhde group in 2004, the company also became part of the Business Area Industrial Solutions of ThyssenKrupp AG.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EQUATE Petrochemical Company said that Gulf petrochemical investments will exceed USD 250 billion by 2015, said Albawaba.

On the occasion of EQUATE’s sponsorship of the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) 4th International Conference for Plastics Conversion (PlastCon 2013), EQUATE Procurement Director Muayad Al-Faresi said, "Currently, most petrochemical downstream industries in the entire Gulf are somewhat basic and not that sizable due to these countries being mainly exporters of basic petrochemical products."

Al-Faresi, who is also the Vice Chairman of GPCA Plastics Committee, added, "Having an ambitious and productive downstream industry requires having a suitable local market to consume the output or ensuring that these exports will find sustainable markets."

As MRC wrote earlier, Equate Petrochemicals Co said its 2012 net profit rose by 3.8% to USD1.09 billion compared to USD1.05 billion the previous year. The company, a joint venture between state-owned Petrochemical Industries and US major Dow Chemicals, said the rise in profit reflected a strong global demand for petrochemicals that pushed 2012 the company's sales to a record USD2.6 billion.

Euate is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Equate is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products, such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene monomer, ethylene glycol and palaxylene, which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical has established Sumitomo Chemical (Asia Pacific) in Singapore as its business support regional headquarters for the Southeast Asia, India and Oceania region, said Apic-online.

Currently, 22 Sumitomo Chemical group companies are operating in eight countries in this region, which is positioned as an important stronghold for the company. The new company will secure emerging opportunities, accelerate new undertakings and serve to have various business operations implemented more efficiently, Sumitomo said.

Yoshio Kawai, an associate officer of Sumitomo Chemical, has been appointed president of the new company.

As MRC wrote earlier, faced with declining domestic demand and a structural market shift towards rising feedstock imports, Sumitomo Chemical (Tokyo / Japan) has said it will shut down its 415,000 t/y ethylene cracker in Chiba / Japan during the next scheduled maintenance turnaround in September 2015. The company said the current business environment in Japan is unlikely to change in the future, adding that the only way it can enhance and ensure the continued sustainable operations of its domestic petrochemical business is to curtail costs and raise its activities in the field of higher value-added products.

Sumitomo Chemical is a Japanese based manufacturer of a diverse range of products, including basic chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
MRC