French authorities break blockade at Total's Grandpuits refinery

(ICIS) -- French authorities forced demonstrators to clear the blockade at Total's Grandpuits refinery on Friday and ordered striking workers back to work as nationwide industrial action over pension reforms continued to cripple fuel supplies, reports said.

Total's Grandpuits 100,000 bbl/day refinery, the closest source of gasoline supplies to Paris, has been shut in protest over president Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform.

The industrial action, along with an unrelated strike at Marseille's Fos-Lavera oil port, has forced all the country's refineries to either operate at minimum levels or shut production altogether, causing massive supply disruptions and panic-buying at gasoline stations across France. As of Friday, about 20% of France's service stations were still empty.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Japan Butyl Co Ltd has completed the expansion of its butyl rubber production capacity in Kawasaki by 22.5% to 98,000 tonnes/year, according to its parent company ExxonMobil Yugen Kaisha (EMYK) on Friday.

EMYK added that the butyl rubber plant would showcase advances in ExxonMobil's proprietary process technology that should translate to energy and investment savings.

⌠Our goal is to continue being a reliable supplier of quality butyl polymers. This is particularly important for the Asia Pacific market, which is growing at a rapid rate, said John Lyon, vice president for global butyl polymers business unit at ExxonMobil Chemical.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Naphtha premiums in the Middle East have risen this week after cargoes were diverted to Europe. Currently, Europe is faced a widespread refinery and port strike in France that has exhausted supplies in the region. Nationwide strikes over pension reforms have spread to France's 12 oil refineries, adding to the impact of a multi-week strike at the country's largest oil port, Fos-Lavera.

Saudi Aramco sold 50,000 tons of A180 naphtha for early-November loading from Ras Tanura at US$16-17/ton above Middle East quotes, free-on-board (FOB) basis, pointing to a strong recovery on the export market to high premiums.

Two Saudi cargoes were shipped to Europe last week by Vitol.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Pakistan's Engro Polymer and Chemicals Limited (EPCL) is seeking permission to import ethylene at zero rate for production of Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM), Ethylene Dichloride (EDC). EPCL has recently undergone expansion/back integration at an investment outlay of US$260 mln, as per Business Recorder.

EPCL manufactures Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), VCM, EDC, Caustic Soda and Sodium Hypochlorite. The company's major stakeholders are Engro Corporation Ltd, Mitsubishi Corp. and International Finance Corporation.

MRC

(Platts) -- Iran's Mehr Petrochemical may start producing grades other than film-grade high density polyethylene at its plant due to a shortage of butane-1 feedstock, a source close to the company said Wednesday.

Mehr Petrochemical has a 300,000 mt/year HDPE plant at Assaluyeh. There are three major grades in HDPE -- HDPE film, HDPE injection and HDPE blow molding. The source explained Mehr was considering switching to HDPE injection or blow molding production as they consume less butane-1.

Mehr Petrochemical is a joint venture by National Petrochemical Co. (39%), Singapore Petrochemical Investment Ettehad Co. (58%) and other companies (3%).

MRC