Rosneft not planning to buy Lukoil - The Independent cites CEO

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft is not planning to buy rival Lukoil, Igor Sechin, Rosneft's chief executive, told The Independent newspaper in an interview, reported Reuters.

Last year Lukoil denied a report that Leonid Fedun, a major shareholder, planned to sell his 9.77 percent stake in the company. The report spurred rumours as to who could buy the stake, and Rosneft's name was mentioned.

Asked if he might consider more deals, such as a takeover of Lukoil, Sechin laughed, saying: "What does Lukoil have to do with that. In crisis there is always a good opportunity for mergers and acquisitions, but we are not looking at Lukoil."

As MRC wrote before, Rosneft and ExxonMobil signed documents establishing a joint venture to implement a pilot project for tight oil reserves development in Western Siberia as part of the implementation of the agreement on strategic cooperation. Rosneft will hold 51% interest and ExxonMobil will hold 49% interest in this project.

Rosneft swiftly followed this up with confirmation that it has reached an agreement with AAR to take the other half of TNK-BP in an all-cash deal worth USD28 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's largest refiner and oil marketing company Indian Oil to invest Rs7,812 crore for expansion IOC to invest Rs.1,843 crore in upgrading Koyali refinery in Gujarat to produce Euro-IV complaint fuel, Rs.1,327 crore to be spent on Barauni refinery in Bihar, as per Plastemart.

The board approved an investment of Rs.1,843 crore in upgrading the 13.7 mln tons Koyali refinery in Gujarat to produce Euro-IV complaint petrol an diesel. Another, Rs.1,327 crore will be spent on similar fuel quality upgradation project at Barauni refinery in Bihar.

The Borad approved setting up of ethylene glycol project along with associated facilities at Paradip (in Odisha) at an estimated project cost of Rs.3,752 crore.

The project would help in consolidating the glycol business of IOC by producing low cost mon-ethylene glycol based on refinery gas.

As MRC wrote before, Indian Oil Corporation's Rs 34,555-crore 15 million tonnes per annum Paradip Refinery will be commissioned in phases from March 2015 onwards. Indian Oil Corporation is conducting feasibility studies to set up a petrochemical complex at Paradip in Odisha for Rs 20,000 crore. The petrochemical complex would be built in the vicinity of the company’s to-be-commissioned 15-mln tpa greenfield refinery at Paradip. The petrochemical complex would be in addition to the already announced Rs 3,150-crore polypropylene project at the same location, the foundation stone for which was laid by MOS for petroleum and natural gas.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's calculated consumption of sheet extrusion polycarbonate (PC) decreased to 4,300 tonnes in January 2015, down 46% compared to January 2014, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Imports of extrusion PC in the country decreased to 617 tonnes in January 2015, down 61%. The only PC producer in Russia, Kazanorgsintez, produced 3,700 tonnes in January 2015, down 21% from month on month. The weakening of consumer activity went in line with the deteriorating economic situation in Russia. However, despite this, producers of PC sheets said that they increased sales in January 2015, compared with January 2014. They partly attributed this sales increase with the anticipation of the further price rise in the near future.

Prices for PC and PC sheets are expected to increase on a seasonally stronger demand. The peak of the season occurs for the beginning of May. However, because of the shortage of working capital and low payment capacity, market participants can not afford to build up significant stock inventories. Potential foreign currency risk also affected the purchases of imported material.

Buying interest to European and Asian PC has weakened. Converters are trying to get the PC from of Kazanorgsintez. This, however, is not always possible. In late January, some market players could not buy the needed volumes. This has led to disruptions in production and shipment of PC sheets.


Traders expect that demand will recover in line with the beginning of the season, when will be available free volumes of imported PC. In the case of the rouble strengthening price for imported PC will be close to the Russian PC. Market players said there are about 3,000 tonnes of European PC granulate for sheet extrusion in the warehouses. As for the Russian PC, some converters were afraid of the shortage of PC in a pre-season period.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- January imports of expandable polystyrene (EPS) to the Russian domestic market decreased by 23% year on year. Russian companies imported 2,100 tonnes of EPS during the said month, according to MRC DataScope report.

The Chinese plant Loyal is the main EPS supplier to the Russian market (such grades, as F-SA, F-MS, F-SB and BS were imported in January). The overall Loyal's EPS imports were about 740 tonnes. Styrochem, Jiangsu Sunchem and LG Chem remained among the major suppliers in January.

January is a traditionally weak season. Long New Year holidays in Russia contributed to seasonal factors. Therefore, converters build up the main stocks in December.
According to ICIS-MRC Price report, SIBUR increased its February EPS prices by Rb3,000/tonne FCA, including VAT,. At the same time, the company reduced its prices for export shipments to Ukraine, which are announced in US dollars.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- January imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into Russia fell by 7.6 times year on year to 3,640 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope report.

Lower purchasing of PET in foreign markets was registered monthly since May 2014. After the end of the season, in September, Russian converters cut import purchasing further. The slump in imports were caused by two factors: firstly, by the increased production capacity in Russia last year (the start-up of the second line at Polief, the plant's capacity rose by 90,000 tonnes per year); secondly, the two-fold rouble devaluation led to a substantial increase in import prices.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, prices of Chinese and Korean PET were much higher than prices of Russian PET chips producers in the Russian domestic market, despite lower export prices of PET in Asia throughout the last year.

The largest PET supplier to Russia remained Shanghai Hengyi Polyester. Shanghai Hengyi Polyester shipped 1,500 tonnes to the Russian market.

The Lithuanian plant Neo Group is the second largest supplier in January. At the same time, Zhejiang Wankai and China Resources Chemicals' PET grades, which used to be in the top 5 import suppliers, were not imported in January.

Shipments of Indorama Polymers and Jiangsu Sanfangxiang to Russia also fell significantly in January.

MRC