Socar to secure USD3.9 billion loan to build refinery in Turkey

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, commonly known as Socar, is in the final stages of negotiations for a USD3.9 billion loan package to help build a refinery in Turkey, which aims to develop the biggest petrochemical complex in the country - Petkim (part of Socar), reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to two people familiar with the talks.

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan expects to sign the agreement by early June, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

Socar is building the USD5.5 billion Star refinery on the Aegean coast as it seeks to expand its naphtha output. The refinery, Turkey’s fifth, will process 10 million tpy of crude from 2017, producing 1.3 million tons of naphtha, as well as diesel and jet fuel.

About 95% of the borrowing will come from international lenders arranged by the Turkish unit of Unicredit SpA, Italy’s biggest lender, and will have a maturity of 18 years, the people said. The funds will be come with guaranteed coverage from eight export-credit agencies, including the US Ex-Im Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The remainder may come from commercial loans, the people said.

Kenan Yavuz, chief executive of Socar’s Turkish unit, is in London today to discuss the loan package with creditors, one of the people said.

The Azeri oil producer and processor, which pledged USD17 billion for projects in Turkey by 2018, including a pipeline to carry gas to Europe via Turkish soil, is increasing spending amid rising demand for fuel and chemicals.

Naphtha from the Star refinery will be used to make petrochemicals at Socar’s Turkish Petkim Petrokimya Holding division. Petkim will take 2 million tpy of fuel from the plant, to be built by Tecnicas Reunidas, Itochu, Saipem and GS Engineering & Construction.

The US Ex-Im Bank approved a USD641 million loan to finance the export of equipment to Turkey for the project, its chairman Fred Hochberg said in December.

SOCAR includes production association Azneft (companies producing oil and gas on land and sea) and Production Association Azerkimya (chemical industry), production association Azerigas (gas distribution).
The State Oil Company is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries on its balance sheet) and also owns petrol stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Romania. SOCAR possesses a network of petrol stations in Switzerland and is the co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major, is building a new world-scale plant for the production of specialty amines in Ludwigshafen (Germany), reported the company on its site.

Start-up of the facility with a total annual capacity of about 12,000 metric tons is scheduled for 2015. The product range of this flexible multi-product plant comprises 15 amines for different applications. The major applications are in the construction, automotive, crop protection and pharmaceutical industries. With this new facility, BASF is expanding its global production network of amines with plants in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide in Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Geismar, Louisiana; and Nanjing, China.

"With the new plant we are responding to our customers’ demand for specialty amines, particularly in Europe," said Sanjeev Gandhi, President, BASF Intermediates division. "We have decades of experience in developing and manufacturing amines, and with the new plant we are reinforcing our global leadership position in these versatile intermediates."

As MRC wrote before, BASF had announced in March that it is building another new multi-product plant for the production of specialty amines at the BASF Verbund site in Nanjing, China. The main products of this plant, which is due to start-up operations in 2015, will be dimethylaminopropylamine (DMAPA) and polyetheramine (PEA).

With about 200 different amines, BASF has the world’s most diverse portfolio of this type of chemical intermediates. Along with alkyl-, alkanol-, alkoxyalkylamines, the company offers heterocyclic and aromatic as well as specialty amines. The range is completed by an expanding portfolio of chiral amines of high optical and chemical purity. The versatile products are used mainly to manufacture process chemicals, pharmaceuticals and crop protection products, as well as cosmetic products and detergents. They also serve to produce coatings, special plastics, composites and special fibers.

The BASF Group’s Intermediates division develops, produces and markets a comprehensive portfolio of more than 700 intermediates around the world. Its most important product groups include amines, diols, polyalcohols, acids and specialties. Among other applications, intermediates are used as starting materials for coatings, plastics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, detergents and crop protectants. Around the globe the division generated sales to third parties of about EUR2.8 billion in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s has emphasizes its commitment to supporting the changing needs and future growth of China’s plastics industry, according to the companie's press release.

The company identifies latest supply- and service-related investments and solutions that respond to the megatrends affecting the region, and local needs for more innovative and sustainable products for end-markets such as packaging and Electrical & Electronics (E&E). Clariant’s established operations in more than 18 major cities across Greater China, include production facilities, sales offices and technical service centers.

In 2013, Clariant’s sales in the Greater China region increased by 7.3% compared to 2012, and reached CHF 646 million. With its strong presence in China, Clariant understands the needs of the local market and is committed to enhancing its capability to respond to the megatrends of China’s development and the evolving demand of local customers.

Planned investment to strengthen its on-the-ground support for customers will include new units at Clariant’s production site in Zhenjiang, making good use of logistics and proximity to markets. Here, Business Unit Additives is currently evaluating options for a new Ceridust production facility to provide micronized waxes for the domestic market, and the addition of new capacity for polymer additives preparations to serve strategic markets with Addworks solutions for the Fibers, Agriculture, Packaging, E&E and Automotive industries.

Following its acquisition of the Organic Pigment Business of Jiangsu Multicolor Fine Chemical Co., Ltd (JMC) in 2013, the Business Unit Pigments will construct a world scale PV 23 plant at Zhenjiang, planned to open in 2016. At its Guangzhou plant, Clariant’s Business Unit Masterbatches is in the process of doubling production capacity to better serve local market demand and special customer requests. The Business Unit Pigments is the first and only manufacturer in the world to provide customers with a portfolio of 15 non-halogenated pigments for electronic applications. BU Pigments also offers a broad range of high quality pigments and dyes with low halogen values. These products meet the most recognized environmental standards pertaining to the use of halogens in consumer goods.

Clariant Mining is a leading provider of flotation chemicals and explosion emulsifiers to the global mining industry. Clariant Mining's strong and growing team of technical experts operates around the globe and is dedicated to providing world-class specialty chemical solutions that add value to customers' mining operations.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia will give all the necessary support to Shell in the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s projects in the country, said Upstreamonline, citing President Vladimir Putin.

Putin, under pressure from international powers over continued destabilisation in Ukraine, met with Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden in Moscow on Friday.

"I am very pleased that your company plans to expand its area of activities in Russia," Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted the president as saying to van Beurden. The president’s office carried photographs of the meeting.

"Either along agreements with your partners or during the implementation of your own projects in Russia, we will render all the necessary administrative support or any other form of assistance," Putin continued.

Shell has a large presence in oil and gas-rich Russia, including at the Sakhalin-2 project off the country’s far eastern region.

"We are proud both about our Sakhalin-2 project and cooperation with Russia in general," van Beurden said. "During our latest meeting with (Gazprom chief executive) Alexei Miller, we came to a conclusion that we need to continue developing this project."

As MRC wrote before, Shell and Gazprom Neft have kicked off pilot shale oil exploration under their joint venture partnership in Siberia. The pair’s Russia-based joint venture Salym Petroleum Development said it had started drilling the first of five pilot horizontal wells this year and next year.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

Moscow (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) to Belarus increased by 5% in January and February 2014, with the main increase occurred for supplies of propylene copolymers, according to MRC analysts.

Total PP imports to Belarus were 10,800 tonnes in January and February 2014, compared with 10,300 tonnes in the same period a year earlier. Demand for homopolymer PP decreased by 8.1% over the reported period, while imports of propylene copolymers grew by of 58.2%.

Imports for homopolymer PP to Belarus decreased to 7,600 tonnes in the first two months of 2014, compared with 8,200 tonnes in the same period of 2013.

Russian producers increased their PP supplies because of lower price level (their shipments rose to 4,300 tonnes over the reported period, from 3,600 year on year), while European PP imports dropped.

Imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus increased to 3,200 tonnes in the first two months of the year, compared with 2,000 tonnes year on year.

All importers increased their supplies to the country over the reported period. The main suppliers over the reported period were producers from Germany (1,800 tonnes) and Czech Republic (over 500 tonnes).

MRC