KBR to expand SABIC butadiene unit at Al Jubail

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) for the debottlenecking and expansion of its Petrokemya butadiene extraction plant in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya), a wholly-owned affiliate of SABIC, is one of the largest manufacturing sites in Al Jubail.

The site has an installed capacity of approximately 5.15 million tpy of petrochemicals including olefins, PVC/VCM, polystyrene and polyethylene plants, in addition to utilities and steam generation.

The butadiene extraction plant was built in 1993 with a capacity of 123,000 tpy. Petrokemya plans to significantly expand the capacity of the plant. This expansion is part of Petrokemya and SABIC’s vision and strategic business plan with a view of growing market demands in the downstream petrochemical market.

"This contract award for the Petrokemya Butadiene Debottleneck Project demonstrates KBR’s world-class petrochemical execution and delivery capabilities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Stuart Bradie, KBR’s president and CEO.

As MRC wrote previously, SABIC is modifying its Wilton cracker in the UK to enable it to use ethane feedstock imported from the US. The company is aiming to complete the project by 2016.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world’s top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Flint Hills Resources will close its polypropylene resin plant in Marysville, Mich., and transfer production to a site in Texas, said Plasticsnews.

The closing will take place over the next six months and will eliminate 75 jobs, officials with Wichita, Kan.-based Flint Hills said in a Nov. 7 news release. Affected employees can apply for other open positions with Flint Hills owner Koch Industries. Koch currently has 3,000 open positions.

Flint Hills also is open to offers to buy the plant, which is one of the smallest in North America, with annual capacity estimated at 185 million pounds.

Flint Hills president and CEO Brad Razook added that the firm "sees opportunities to improve integration of our Longview polypropylene plant with our propylene production facilities, which we believe will strengthen our current polypropylene business and allow for future growth."

The Longview plant has estimated annual PP capacity of 750 million pounds. Announced North American expansions of new propylene monomer capacity - via propane dehydrogenation (PDH) technology - has some market watchers expecting new PP capacity for the region as well, but few such moves have been announced so far.

Flint Hills acquired the Marysville plant in 2007 when it bought most of Huntsman Corp.’s polymers and olefins business in a deal valued at more than USD750 million. A PP/polyethylene plant in Odessa, Texas, acquired in that deal was closed in 2009.

As MRC wrote before, Flint Hills Resources, LLC announced it is moving forward with a significant expansion of its chemicals business with the completion of its acquisition of PetroLogistics LP and its general partner, PetroLogistics GP LLC. The USD2.1 billion transaction is the largest in the company’s history and the first chemical asset it has acquired since purchasing Huntsman Corporation’s U.S. commodity chemical business in 2007.

Flint Hills Resources, through its subsidiaries, is a leading refining, biofuels and chemicals company. Its subsidiaries market products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, biodiesel, olefins, polymers and intermediate chemicals, as well as base oils and asphalt.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical firm Braskem says construction work on its Etileno XXI complex in Mexico is 82% complete as it targets a 4Q15 startup for the USD4.5bn project, said Bnamericas.

In its third quarter earnings report, Braskem said over 50,000t of material and 660 pieces of equipment had been delivered to the site in the Coatzacoalcos region of Veracruz state.

Announcement came as Braskem reported a Q3 profit of 230mn reais (USD91mn), down 42% year-on-year. The company said plummeting global oil prices were beginning to impact the value of its petrochemicals.

A centerpiece of Braskem's project pipeline, Etileno XXI is a joint venture with Mexican industrial conglomerate Idesa, which owns a 30% stake.

The ethane cracker will have an annual polyethylene (PE) production capacity of 1.05Mt.

"The integrated project continues to advance and the completion of construction and the plant's startup are expected by end-2015," Braskem said.

As MRC wrote before, Braskem plans to build a new polyethylene (PE) plant at its existing complex in La Porte, Texas. The new plant will manufacture ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), making it the first time for Braskem to produce UHMWPE outside of its home base in Brazil. Construction on the plant will begin in the third quarter of 2014, with completion expected in the first half of 2016.

Braskem is Brazilian main producer of polyethylene and polypropylene. In addition with ongoing plants located in both petrochemical complexes, in April 2008 Braskem opened a
300,000 metric ton polypropylene plant in the city of Paulinia (Sao Paulo).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, a leading Japanese producer of performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials, has announced that its Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers Co. joint venture with Sinopec has launched commercial production of ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPT), as per Apic-online.

In 2012, the two companies created the equally-owned joint venture to build a 75,000-t/y EPT plant using metallocene catalyst technology in China's Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. Operations were scheduled to begin during the first quarter of this year.

A separate joint venture of Mitsui and Sinopec, Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Chemicals Co., is expected to begin production of phenol and acetone in December. The plant is designed to produce 250,000 t/y of phenol and 150,000 t/y of acetone.

Mitsui earlier said it planned to use production from this plant to supply its Tafmer alpha-olefin copolymer production in Jurong Island, Singapore.

In addition, Mitsui disclosed that its 60,000-t/y linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Chiba, Japan, is tentatively scheduled to close in December 2014.

As MRC informed before, last yeat, as part of a fundamental company's strategy Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer, dedicated Japanese maker of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), intensified an ongoing collaboration by increasing polypropylene (PP) production in the United States to meet growing demands of the automotive materials sector.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman Corporation inaugurated its new India corporate office, in Andheri, Mumbai, said the company in its press release.

The 220,000 square feet, seven story building will initially house some 300 Huntsman associates, including over 100 technical staff spread across three floors of state-of-the-art laboratory and research facilities.

Commenting on the importance of the new headquarters to Huntsman's ambitions in the Indian subcontinent, Peter R. Huntsman said "This opening is an important milestone in our continued growth and commitment to the Indian market. Our family and employees have been building a business in the Indian subcontinent for over 25 years and today enjoy a strong, profitable and growing organization in excess of USD500 million. Our continued success will depend on the quality and creativity of our local associates and this site will enable better technical, customer service, and development opportunities going forward. Many of our products and innovations are unique to the subcontinent's needs. We look forward to seeing continued growth as this market expands."

Paul Hulme, Huntsman Senior Corporate Officer for the region, said "We are looking forward to welcoming customers, suppliers and other business partners to the new premises. I am confident that the investment we have made in facilities and people will stand us in good stead for many years as we continue to develop strong strategic partnerships with our customers and continue to grow our business across all five of Huntsman's business divisions."

Huntsman has sales of approximately USD500 million in the subcontinent, and has more than 1,000 associates based in the region. It has manufacturing facilities in Baroda and Ankleshwar in Gujarat, manufacturing textile chemicals and dyes and surfactants, and in Pune, manufacturing polyurethane systems.

As MRC wrote before, Huntsman has commenced preliminary engineering to expand production of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) by investment in a new, world-scale MDI plant at its complex in Geismar, Louisiana.
The new capacity is expected to come on-stream in 2018 and will enable Huntsman to further support the global growth of its customers.

Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. Our operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging.
MRC