SOCAR awards engineering contracts for the largest Turkey refinery to consortium comprised of Itochu and foreign firms

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A consortium comprised of Itochu and foreign firms won an order from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to build Turkey's largest oil refinery in the western city of Izmir, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Itochu will procure equipment from Japanese plant manufacturers for the roughly USD3.4 billion project, while the Japan Bank for International Cooperation will help SOCAR raise the necessary funds.

Other members of the consortium are Tecnicas Reunidas, Saipem and GS Engineering and Construction. They will sign the design, procurement and construction contract.

Itochu's portion of the project is worth about USD34 million. Construction will begin in autumn, and the refinery is slated to begin operating in 2017.

The refinery will be owned and operated by SOCAR. It will have a refining capacity of 214,000 bpd, lifting Turkey's refining capacity by more than 30%.

The addition of the plant to the area will create Turkey's largest chemical complex.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, Petkim together with its key owner, Socar plans to transform Aliaga into an industrial cluster. The transformation has several positive effects on Petkim. Besides, the construction of a new complex processing oil, gas and petrochemicals in Azerbaijan is the largest project to be implemented in the next few years, not only for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), but for the whole country.

SOCAR includes production association Azneft (companies producing oil and gas on land and sea) and Production Association Azerkimya (chemical industry), production association Azerigas (gas distribution).
The State Oil Company is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries on its balance sheet) and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Romania. SOCAR possesses a network of petrol stations in Switzerland and is the co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A consortium comprised of Itochu and foreign firms won an order from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to build Turkey's largest oil refinery in the western city of Izmir. Other members of the consortium are Tecnicas Reunidas, Saipem and GS Engineering and Construction. They will sign the design, procurement and construction contract, said Hydracarbonprocessing.

Itochu will procure equipment from Japanese plant manufacturers for the roughly USD3.4 billion project, while the Japan Bank for International Cooperation will help SOCAR raise the necessary funds.

Other members of the consortium are Tecnicas Reunidas, Saipem and GS Engineering and Construction. They will sign the design, procurement and construction contract.

Itochu's portion of the project is worth about USD34 million. Construction will begin in autumn, and the refinery is slated to begin operating in 2017.

The refinery will be owned and operated by SOCAR. It will have a refining capacity of 214000 bopd, lifting Turkey's refining capacity by more than 30%.

As MRC wrote earlier, SOCAR is going to build a new complex processing oil, gas and petrochemicals in Azerbaijan in the next few years. Head of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev spoke about projects implemented by the State Oil Company in Turkey, construction of a new shipyard and the Sumgayit plant for production of nitrogen fertilisers in Azerbaijan, construction of a new oil refinery in Turkey, expansion of the petrochemical complex Petkim's port, as well as a power plant to be built there.

SOCAR includes production association Azneft (companies producing oil and gas on land and sea) and Production Association Azerkimya (chemical industry), production association Azerigas (gas distribution).
The State Oil Company is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries on its balance sheet) and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Romania. SOCAR possesses a network of petrol stations in Switzerland and is the co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip was awarded by NOVA Chemicals Corporation the detail engineering, and procurement services contract for the Polyethylene 1 expansion project located at their Joffre site near Red Deer in Alberta, Canada, said Technip.

The project includes the installation of a world-scale 431-kiloton per annum (950 MM lbs/yr) single-train linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit. NOVA Chemicals will expand its total Joffre site polyethylene capacity by approximately 40% and will utilize existing site ethylene capacity.

Technip, in addition to detail engineering and procurement of the new reaction section, extrusion section, and railcar loading section, will modify the existing purifications systems. Technip will also design the plant off-sites, utilities, interconnections, and other supporting units for the facility.

Technip’s operating centers in Houston, Texas, Calgary, Canada and Chennai, India will execute the work under this contract. Work for this phase of the project began at the end of 2012, with completion of engineering in 2014, and systems start up in late 2015.

David Dickson, Technip’s Senior Vice President in North America, stated: "Technip welcomes this unique opportunity to continue its relationship with our key client NOVA Chemicals. We are delighted to have been awarded this contract after successfully completing the pre front-end engineering design (Pre-FEED) and FEED for this expansion project. This new contract solidifies the Group’s leadership in the execution of polyolefin projects as well as its privileged position as EPC contractor in North America and around the world."

As MRC wrote earlier, the last world-scale polyethylene plant in North America was built by Nova and that was in 2000. All the announcements of new projects and expansions means a 40% increase in PE production just by the end of this decade, CEO Randy Woelfel said.

NOVA Chemicals principal business is the production and selling of plastics and chemicals. Their Joffre facility near Red Deer, Alberta, Canada is one of the largest ethylene and polyethylene complexes in the world. The site consists of five manufacturing facilities owned by NOVA Chemicals; three for ethylene production and two for polyethylene production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Kuwaiti cabinet has decided to suspend several senior oil executives over a USD2.2bn penalty paid to Dow Chemical for scrapping a joint venture and ordered a judicial investigation into the matter, AFP has reported, said Ameinfo.

The cabinet also announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer for state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), and said it has taken "the necessary measures to suspend senior officials at (state-owned) Petrochemicals Industries Co (PIC)," which arranged the joint project with Dow Chemical before it was scrapped by the government in December 2008.

As MRC wrote earlier, a federal judge in Kansas City, Kansas, ordered Dow Chemical Co on Wednesday to pay USD1.2 billion in a price-fixing case involving chemicals used to make foam products in cars, furniture and packaging, according to court documents. Dow was one of several chemical company defendants named in a 2005 class action lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to fix urethane chemical prices, but it was the only defendant not to settle.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. As of 2007, it is the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue (after BASF) and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization (after BASF and DuPont). Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell announced that it will shut down a high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit in Wesseling, Germany in the third quarter of 2013, said the producer in its press-release.

The 100 KT per year unit is among the smallest and least efficient of the LyondellBasell HDPE units in Europe. The company has sufficient HDPE capacity to meet customer needs from its larger scale facilities.

"LyondellBasell continues to take definitive steps to reorganize our operations in Europe to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the competitiveness of our businesses," said Bob Patel, Senior Vice President, Olefins & Polyolefins, Europe, Asia and International. "The closure of under-competitive assets, along with the restructuring and efficiency-improvement initiatives in our business areas, manufacturing and R&D, will better position LyondellBasell to compete in today's economic environment."

LyondellBasell is the largest producer of both polyethylene and polypropylene in Europe. The company has shuttered about 2.5 billion pounds of capacity in Europe in recent years and reduced headcount in business areas by 30%.

As MRC wrote ealier, LyondellBasell will raise its ethylene capacity in North America by 18% in coming years through several debottlenecking projects. Locations where ethylene capacity will be expanded include crackers in Corpus Christi, La Porte and Channelview, Texas, according to the company. The projects are scheduled to be finished in 2014 and 2015.

LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500. LyondellBasell manufactures products at 58 sites in 18 countries. LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.
MRC