Czech Unipetrol signs licence deal for new polyethylene unit

MOSCOW (MRC) - Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol has acquired technology and production rights for a new polyethylene unit and wants to pick a contractor for the project in the first half of 2014, said Reuters.

The company, after posting net losses in 2011 and 2012, laid out plans in June to invest almost USD1 billion over the next five years and make its petrochemical segment the biggest contributor to profit.

"The construction of a new polyethylene unit is a key investment project in our medium-term strategy," Chief Executive Marek Switajewski said in a statement.

"Our first task is to choose a general contractor. We hope to do it in the first half of 2014."

Unipetrol said it signed a licence agreement with chemicals group Ineos for the right to use a production process and technology for the new polyethylene unit, which will help increase utilisation of its petrochemical steam cracker.

As part of its strategy, Unipetrol wants to increase the capacity utilisation of its steam cracker unit by 13% points and increase sales of petrochemical products by 11%, to 1.4 million tonnes, by 2017.

As MRC wrote before, Unipetrol (PKN Orlen's affiliate) expects petrochemicals to become the largest source of revenue for the company in 2013-2017. Unipetrol wants to use the favourable market conditions to reinforce its position on the petrochemical market and optimise its operations.

Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell and Oiltanking Stolthaven Antwerp today announced that Lyondell Chemie Nederland BV and Oiltanking Stolthaven Antwerp NV have signed a 10-year agreement for the storage and handling of Glacial Acetic Acid (GAA) and Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) in Antwerp, said the company in its press-release.

Oiltanking Stolthaven will invest in new stainless steel storage capacity and rail loading infrastructure at Antwerp.

GAA is one of the world's most essential intermediate chemicals. It is used to manufacture VAM, purified terephthalic acid, acetic anhydride, monochloroacetic acid and acetate esters. VAM is a chemical building block used to manufacture a wide variety of industrial and consumer products such as polyvinyl acetate for paints, adhesives and coatings. Polyvinyl alcohol is also used to make adhesives, coatings and water soluble packaging films. Polyvinyl acetals are used to produce insulation for magnetic wire, interlayers for safety glass, wash primers and coatings. Other related applications of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers include flexible films, coatings, adhesives, moldings and insulation and packaging.

LyondellBasell is a global supplier of GAA and VAM. Its customers are served by a global storage and distribution network that spans North America, Europe and Asia.

As MRC wrote earlier, LyondellBasell has permanently shuttered one of its HDPE production lines at its German site in Wesseling – a step it said it would achieve in Q3. The line, which had a capacity of 100,000 t/y, was the smallest and least efficient at the production site.

LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500. 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.

Oiltanking Stolthaven Antwerp NV is a 50/50 joint venture company between Oiltanking GmbH and Stolthaven Terminals BV, a subsidiary of Stolt Nielsen Transportation Group. Oiltanking GmbH is a subsidiary of Marquard & Bahls AG, Germany, a leading petroleum company, privately owned. Oiltanking is the second largest independent tank storage provider for petroleum products, chemicals and gases worldwide.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The period of anti-dumping investigation regarding polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports to Ukraine from the United States was extended yesterday at a meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade, said MRC analysts.

The meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade, which examined issues regarding the protection of national producers in relation to unfair imports to Ukraine, was held yesterday, on 3 October. One of the issues was determining the fact of dumping by US suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) producers and introduction of anti-dumping duties.

It was decided at the meeting to investigate more thoroughly certain factors, with regard of which, the period of investigation was extended up to 16 months, starting from 3 October.

As reported earlier, Karpatneftekhim (part of Lukoil), the largest Ukrainian petrochemical plant and the only PVC producer in the country, turned to Department of Economic Development with a request to conduct an anti-dumping investigation concerning PVC imports from the USA.

According to MRC data, the overall PVC imports to Ukraine from the USA totalled 34,500 tonnes in 2012. This index rose to 44,100 tonnes in the first eight months of 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - European producers decreased prices of polypropylene (PP) for deliveries for the CIS markets on the back of falling feedstock costs. Thus, the price of European PP for October delivery was announced down by EUR40-80/tonne from the level of September, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

October contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed down by EUR40/tonne from the September level. Because of the price cuts of the feedstock European producers had to reduce PP prices for October.

The negotiation on October European PP prices for CIS markets began this week. Some market participants said that the deals for homopolymer PP were heard n the range of EUR1,180-1,280/tonne FCA.

Deals for block copolymers of propylene (PP-block) were at EUR1,280-1,320/tonne FCA. Market participants have been slow to contract PP, on the back of the September situation when some producers cut prices for homopolymer PP to EUR1 ,210-1, 240/tonne FCA, while in the beginning of the month prices were announced at EUR1,250-1,270/tonne FCA.

Current strengthening of the Euro against major world currencies (the growth of the euro partly offset the falling PP prices) also limits the number of deals for European PP by companies from the CIS countries.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UK supermajor BP has had a win in regards to certain settlement payments for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with a federal appeals court throwing out a judge’s ruling that could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses, said Upstreamonline.

BP has repeatedly said the terms of a multibillion-dollar settlement reached in 2012 had been misinterpreted by Judge Carl Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Paul Juneau, allowing unaffected businesses to receive money.

However, a ruling by a three-judge panel of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Wednesday reversed the denial of BP’s motion for a preliminary injunction, and instructed Barbier to "expeditiously craft a narrowly-tailored injunction that allows the time necessary for deliberate reconsideration of these significant issued on remand".

"The interests of individuals who may be reaping windfall recoveries because of an inappropriate interpretation of the settlement agreement, and those who could never have recovered in individual suits for failure to show causation, are not outweighed by the potential loss to a company and its public shareholders of hundreds of millions of dollars of unrecoverable awards," Judge Edith Clement of the Fifth Circuit stated.

In a statement on Wednesday, BP said the ruling affirmed what the company had been saying since the beginning: "claimants should not be paid for fictitious or wholly non-existent losses".

The ruling focused on complex accounting issues with the plaintiffs’ lawyers arguing that BP had undervalued the settlement and underestimated how many claimants would qualify for payments.

The settlement does not have a cap but according to media reports, BP had initially estimated it would pay USD7.8 billion to resolve the private claims. Later, the company said it could no longer give a reliable estimate for how much the deal would cost.

MRC