Gazprom Neft points to 4.3% production rise

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s Gazprom Neft has said it expects to end the year with production up 4.3% to around 435 million barrels of oil. The Moscow-headquartered state oil player said it expected to raise capital expenditure by 32% to 278 billion rubles (USD8.44 billion) next year, said Upstreamonline.

Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said that "modernisation of refineries, which will provide them with a leading position in the industry, as well as developing new regions, including the Arctic shelf, will be the key areas of the company’s further development".

The explorer’s capital outlay for this year came in less than expected at 210 billion rubles in an underspend put down by the company to the delay in auctions for the fields of the undistributed subsoil fund.

A third of next year’s capital spend will go to upstream projects in traditional areas of operation, with a focus on maintaining output at mature fields, unlocking hard-to-reach reserves and developing projects in the Orenburg region, Gazprom Neft said.

Major new production projects due for commissioning in the next three years include the Novoportovskoye and Messoyakha in the northern part of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, and international projects.

Exploration will concentrate on Eastern Siberia and Iraqi Kurdistan.

The company also predicted that oil production at its Prirazlomnoye field – the site of the so-called Arctic 30’s high-profile protest in September – would begin before the end of the month.

As MRC wrote before, Gazprom Neft has signed an agreement with France-based Total to form a joint venture to produce and sell modified bitumen and bitumen emulsions on the Russian market. Each partner will have a 50% stake in the joint venture, which will build a special production facility at Gazprom Neft's Moscow oil refinery.

Gazprom Neft, is the fourth largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about 96% of its shares. The company is registered and headquartered in St. Petersburg after central offices were relocated from Moscow in 2011.
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Hong Kong Petrochemical to shut PS plant for maintenance in Hong Kong

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hong Kong Petrochemical is likely to shut its polystyrene (PS) plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Hong Kong informed that the plant is likely to be shut in early February 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located in Yuen Long industrial estate, Hong Kong, the plant has a production capacity of 140,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Concern Stirol (Gorlovka), the only polystyrene producer in Ukraine, suspended its PS production in late October, having stopped its capacities for a month long maintenance works. The plant was shut down because of the shortage of styrene monomer (SM), the main feedstock. However, the plant has not resumed production of styrene polymers after an outage in October yet. Thus, PS was not produced in November in Ukraine.
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NOVA to expand Ontario ethylene cracker by 20%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- NOVA Chemicals plans to expand ethylene production capacity by 20% at its cracker in Corunna, Ontario, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Corunna cracker has a current capacity of about 839,000 tpy, according to media reports.

The expansion will occur between 2014 and 2018, according to the company. It will be part of a wave of expansions and upgrades to NOVA's existing facilities near Sarnia, Ontario.

Other upgrades in the plan include a debottlenecking of the Moore low-density polyethylene (LDPE) line and a retrofit of the Moore high-density polyethylene (HDPE) line.

"These projects are intended to build on the impact of the Corunna cracker conversion to utilize up to 100% natural gas liquids (NGLs) to enhance NOVA Chemicals’ capabilities to meet growing and more sophisticated customer demands," the company said in a statement.

The estimated cost of the projects, under the company's NOVA 2020 growth strategy, is USD300 million.

As MRC reported earlier, growth in the LDPE market is part of NOVA 2020, the company's long-term asset strategy to capitalize on emerging feedstock opportunities and growing North American demand. Restoring the Moore facility is the first step in NOVA Chemicals’ plan to strengthen its commitment to the LDPE market to better meet the needs of customers.

NOVA Chemicals Corporation is a plastics and chemical company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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Global ethylene market to grow by 6.2% CAGR through 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global ethylene market is expected to exhibit a 6.2% CAGR through 2017 and grow from USD 131.88 billion in 2012 to over USD 177.82 billion in 2017, reported Digital Journal.

In 2012, the North American ethylene market was worth more than USD 37.77 billion. The regional market is forecast to surpass the USD 46.6 billion mark in 2017, registering a 4.3% CAGR in the upcoming years.

The considerable growth in the North American ethylene market is likely to be spurred by the entrance of new companies attracted by the low-cost and abundant natural gas liquids (NGLs) feedstock. The US capacity additions are predicted to experience a 6.1% CAGR in the offing, likely to increase from 27.17 million metric tons per year (MMTY) in 2012 to almost 36.5 MMTY by 2017-end.

The Dow Chemical Company, LyondellBasell Industries N.V. and Exxon Mobil Corporation are among the leading companies engaged in the ethylene industry in North America.

As MRC wrote before, in late 2012, GlobalData predicted that the ongoing shale revolution wouldl guide the US ethylene industry surge in the near future, growing by more than a third by 2017.

Five years ago, the US was one of the most expensive places to produce ethylene, but the ethane-based US petrochemicals industry is now in a better position than the naphtha-based petrochemicals industries of Europe and Asia-Pacific, and second only to the Middle East in terms of production economy.
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Entergy Gulf States Louisiana to power Sasol ethane cracker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. signed a six-year commercial and contractual agreement with Sasol North America, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sasol Limited, to supply up to 200 megawatts of electric power to Sasol proposed ethane cracker and derivatives project in Westlake, La., beginning in mid-2015, said Plastemart.

Sasol announced in December 2012 that it would begin front end engineering and design (FEED) work for a world scale ethane cracker and derivatives facility to be located near the town of Westlake, La.

The estimated cost of the facility is between USD5-7 bln. It is currently envisioned that the final investment decision for the ethane cracker will be taken in 2014 with beneficial operation to be achieved in 2017. The ethane cracker is designed to produce 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene. Entergy Gulf States Louisiana plans to upgrade its electric transmission system to meet the increased demand the ethylene production facility is anticipated to generate.

"We are excited to have been selected to play an integral role in this significant project," said Phillip May, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. and Entergy Louisiana, LLC. "Working with Sasol to create the optimal solution to power the company's new Westlake facility is one of the ways we are proud to be a part of supporting the region – and Louisiana's – economic growth and vitality. Over the past several years in particular, Entergy has been working more closely than ever with public and private partners and key multinational companies like Sasol to custom-fit electric power solutions to business and industry needs.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company that began in Sasolburg, South Africa in 1950. It develops and commercialises technologies and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of product streams including liquid fuels, chemicals.
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