Prices of Russian plasticizer DOP fell by Rb4,000/tonne

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan's Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co has abandoned plans to set up an integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Pengerang in the Malaysian state of Johor due to poor project economics, an official from Kuokang shareholder state-owned CPC Corp. as per Plastemart.

"It was meant to be using naphtha as a feedstock to produce ethylene, but because of the rise of shale gas as an alternative, the costs will be too high [to compete with other projects] and we won't be able to export the products," said the official, who declined to be named.

Kuokuang had submitted an environmental impact assessment report for the project to the Malaysian government in May, but the company's shareholders had already completed their feasibility study by then, deciding not to proceed with the project, she added.

This has nothing to do with Malaysia but is based solely on the fact that the project would not be economically feasible," she said. "Right now we are waiting for the results of the report and the EIA process to be concluded. We had not proceeded beyond that so our costs were limited to just the feasibility study. We did not secure any land." The results of the EIA report are expected in the coming days.

CPC is Kuokuang's largest stakeholder with 43%, with the rest held by other private Taiwanese companies. Titled KPTC Malaysia Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Development, or KPTC-MIRPD, the project was to have included a 150,000 bpd refinery, with development slated to begin by next year and startup scheduled for early 2018, the EIA report said. It was also expected to have the capacity to produce 800,000 m tpa of ethylene and 425,480 m tpa of propylene.

Kuokuang had originally announced a new petrochemical project in Changhua, Taiwan, but that plan was scrapped last year due to environmental concerns. Then, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced in May 2012 that Malaysia would work with Kuokuang to launch a project in the country.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq has shortlisted 12 international companies and consortiums to build the country's first oil export pipeline in decades, and will ask them to submit their bids by the end of this year for an USD18 billion project that will make the country less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, Hydrocarbonprocessing said.

Iraq's oil ministry has chosen these companies out of more than 80 international companies which submitted their credentials to build a section of the 1,680 km pipeline stretching from the oil hub of Basra in southern Iraq to Jordanian port of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

The short listed companies and consortiums are: LUKOIL, China National Petroleum Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Toyota Tsusho, Punj Lloyd (India) and Mass Global International (Iraq), Saipem, Daewoo International Corporation, Consolidated Contractors Company (Greece), Go Gas, L&T and Fuis Capital, Petrofac and Stroygazconsulting, or SGC, and Orascom and Petrojet (Egypt).

As MRC wrote before, LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd (West Qurna-2 project operator) has signed several major contracts for the West Qurna-2 field infrastructure development in Iraq based on the tender results. The contract with Samsung Engineering (Korea) sets out 29 months to construct 5 well pads with 67 development wells, 5 gathering lines, a central processing facility (CPF), a water intake on the Euphrates River and a water pipeline to the CPF, a power supply system and a field camp.

SCOP will invite the short listed companies to receive the tender package, the second person said. SCOP will also propose that companies need to submit their offers by November or December.

Iraq and Jordan signed a preliminary agreement in April to build the section of the pipeline that would stretch from an Iraqi oil pumping station in Haditha, west of Iraq, to Aqaba. The rest of the pipeline, which is 680 km long, linking a Basra pumping station with the one in Haditha would be built and financed by the Iraqi oil ministry.

Iraq hopes the pipeline will make it less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, providing the country with an alternative route if Iran closes the Strait of Hormus. Tehran has threatened on several occasions to close the strategic waterway through which 35% of the world's shipborne oil is exported, most recently in response to international sanctions over its suspect nuclear program.

Iraq sits on some of the world's largest oil reserves and was once a major exporter of crude. It's now trying to rebuild an industry that was devastated by years of war and sanctions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LG Yongxing Chemical has raised run rates at its acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plant, as per Apic-Online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that run rates at the plant were rasied early this week. The plant was earlier operating at lower rates owing to production issues.

Located in Ningbo, China, the plant has a production capacity of 700,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported, another Chinese polymer producer Keyuan Petrochemicals has previously announced plans for a new 400,000-t/y acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in China’s Guangxi Province. The company said it is currently going through the government approval process and design phase. Keyuan now expects the first phase of the project to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France, and to restore its competitiveness, according to Stockmarketwire.

Total plans indeed to develop new activities on the platform in the growing markets for hydrocarbon resins (Cray Valley) and for polymers, while shutting down the acutely loss-making steam cracker in the second half of 2015.

Total has already reduced European refining through the closing of its plant near Dunkirk in France, capacity reduction at Normandy and the sale of its 49 percent stake in Spain’s Cia. Espanola de Petroleos SA. Total has also tried and failed to sell its Lindsey plant in the U.K.

The Carling plant, which makes petrochemicals such as ethylene and propylene at the site near the German border, employs 350 Total workers as well as sub-contractors. These chemicals are used to make plastics.

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