SOCAR awarded PMC contract to Foster Wheeler for Star refinery in Turkey

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler AG has announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group has been awarded a contract by STAR Rafineri A.S., a subsidiary of SOCAR Turkey, for project management consultancy (PMC) services for its grassroots Aegean Refinery to be built within the Petkim Petrokimya A.S. (PETKIM) facilities at Aliaga, Turkey, as per Foster Wheeler's statement.

Foster Wheeler's contract value was not disclosed and was included in the company's third-quarter 2013 bookings.

As MRC informed previously, the new refinery is designed to process a range of different crude oils with a processing capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per year. It is expected to start operations in 2017 and to produce a range of products including jet fuel, diesel, naphtha, petroleum coke and liquid petroleum gases.

Foster Wheeler executed the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the entire refinery and also provided the license and basic design package for the delayed coker, which will use Foster Wheeler’s leading SYDEC(SM) delayed coking technology.

"Having successfully delivered a high quality FEED, we are very pleased to continue to play a key role in this strategic investment in Turkey," said Roberto Penno, Chief Executive Officer of Foster Wheeler’s Global E&C Group.

Foster Wheeler AG is a global engineering and construction company and power equipment supplier delivering technically advanced, reliable facilities and equipment. The company’s Global Engineering and Construction Group designs and constructs leading-edge processing facilities for the upstream oil and gas, LNG and gas-to-liquids, refining, chemicals and petrochemicals, power, minerals and metals, environmental, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare industries.

SOCAR Turkey Energy Co. is a joint venture of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Petkim Petrokimya Holding A.S. of Turkey.

Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay has announces that it has won two rare earth mixed oxides patent cases against China-based HySci (Tianjin) Specialty Materials Co., Ltd., as per Reuters.

Solvay was awarded 5.6 million RMB (EUR0.67 million) in damages and HySci was ordered to immediately stop the production and the sale of certain rare earth mixed oxides used in automotive catalysts.

The court of first instance, the Tianjin High Court, ruled on December 11th, 2013 that HySci's production and sale of certain rare earths mixed oxides infringed Solvay's patents, starting in 2004.The Court ordered HySci to immediately discontinue the production and sale of 7 mixed oxides grades that were found to be infringing Solvay patents. In addition, the Court awarded Solvay 5.6 million RMB in damages. That amount is based on the profits that HySci made from the 189 tonnes of mixed oxides it unlawfully sold from 2004 onwards. The Court also ordered HySci to cover most of Solvay's legal expenses.

Separately and in a final decision, the Beijing High Court ruled in favor of Solvay by confirming the validity of its patent number ZL96196505.3. The case had been brought by HySci which claimed that the patent was invalid. The Court's ruling confirms the earlier decision by China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) to reject HySci's patent invalidation request.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2012, Solvay Specialty Polymers and Rhodia Engineering Plastics launched a new EUR 21 million compounding plant in Changshu, Jiangsu province. It will serve the Chinese markets for electrical and electronics, wire and cable, automotive, consumer, and industrial applications.

In addition, Solvay is building a new EUR 120 million production plant for fluorinated polymers at its industrial site in Changshu, to meet growing demand in Asia in end-use markets such as automotive, photovoltaic, Li ion batteries, membranes for water purification, and oil and gas applications. The new plant is scheduled to be operational early 2014.

Solvay is an international chemicals and plastics company. In 2011, Solvay acquired Rhodia for approximately EUR 3.4 billion. Rhodia is one of the three sectors of activities of Solvay. Rhodia is a world leader in the development and production of specialty chemicals, and partner of major players in the automotive, electronics, flavors and fragrances, health, personal and home care markets, consumer goods and industrial markets.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanghai BASF Polyurethane Co (SBFC) is in plans to expand the production capacity of its toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) plant, said Apic-Online.

A source in China informed that the production capacity of the plant is planned to be expanded to 220,000 mt/year. The company has not worked out a definite schedule for the expansion. Located in Shanghai, China, the plant has a production capacity of 160,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, BASF announced plans to build a Polyurethane Systems House in Geismar, Louisiana, in which polyurethane raw materials will be blended to deliver customized products to customers in the transportation, furniture, and construction industries. The USD42 million facility will create 22 new jobs and more than 160 construction jobs.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - British engineering firm Amec said on Monday it had provisionally agreed to buy Foster Wheeler in a cash and share deal that values the Swiss-based engineer at 1.9 billion pounds (USD3.13 billion), said Reuters.

Amec said the deal would improve its geographical footprint by more than doubling its revenues in faster-growing regions, and would add mid and downstream capabilities to its existing upstream focus.

Under the offer terms, Amec said Foster Wheeler shareholders would receive approximately 0.9 Amec shares and USD16 in cash, representing USD32 for each Foster Wheeler share. Shares in Foster Wheeler closed at USD31.46 on Friday.

Should the deal complete, Foster Wheeler will hold shares in Amec representing 23% of the enlarged company, and Amec would seek a U.S. listing in connection with the transaction, the companies said.

Foster Wheeler said it had agreed with Amec not to solicit alternative proposals up to Feb. 22, and would pay out a one-time dividend of USD0.40 per share prior to closing should the companies close the deal. Amec said the cash component of the offer, USD1.595 billion, will be financed by its existing cash resources and new debt financing.

Amec, which has a market capitalisation of 3.21 billion pounds and provides services and equipment for the oil, gas and mining sectors, has been on the hunt for acquisitions, and media reports last year suggested that it was interested in Foster Wheeler.

As MRC wrote before, Foster Wheeler has been selected by Rosneft and ExxonMobil to undertake the initial phase of the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a proposed Russian Far East liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Foster Wheeler is one of two companies to be awarded separate contracts for the initial FEED work prior to selection of a single contractor for the second FEED phase.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero Energy’s Memphis refinery is operating at normal rates after a system shutdown on January 6 because of low temperatures, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The plant ran some equipment at lower rates after instruments froze, water lines on process units burst and units tripped off because of the weather, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

A filing dated January 6 with the National Response Center said low temperatures caused a system shutdown. The company said in a voicemail January 6 that the refinery’s flare gas recovery compressors were tripping off, Bob Rogers, manager of pollution control for the Shelby County health department, said in a phone interview on January 7.

Bill Day, a Valero spokesman in San Antonio, said in a telephone interview that he has no comment on the refinery’s status. The Memphis plant, which can process 195,000 bpd of crude and other feedstocks, uses primarily light and sweet crude oil delivered by the Capline pipeline, according to Valero’s website. Capline runs from St. James, Louisiana, to Patoka, Illinois.

As MRC wrote before, Foster Wheeler signed an evergreen agreement with Valero Energy for the provision of home office engineering and project support services to Valero’s Pembroke refinery and other facilities in the UK. Foster Wheeler will provide home office front-end engineering design and detailed engineering design services to support new development and modification projects at the Pembroke refinery and other facilities.

Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and a marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The company owns and operates 16 refineries throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and the Caribbean with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3 million barrels (480,000 m3) per day, 10 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.2 billion US gallons (4,500,000 m3) per year,
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