Bulgaria investigates possible fixing of fuel prices

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bulgaria's anti-monopoly watchdog has launched an investigation into the country's only oil refinery and seven fuel retailers over possible cartel agreements to fix prices of petrol and diesel fuels, reported Reuters.

The Commission for Protection of Competition said in a statement it had started investigating the Bulgarian units of Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, Hellenic Petrolleum , Nis Petrol, Lukoil, Rompetrol and Bulgarian Petrol.

It has also launched a probe into Lukoil Neftochim Burgas oil refinery for possible breaches of competition rules while selling its fuels on the local market.

"We will not comment until we see the documents," a spokeswoman for Lukoil Bulgaria said. The other companies were not immediately available for comment.

The watchdog carried out an analysis on the fuel sector in the European Union country between 2013 and 2015 and found the retail price policy of the seven companies was very similar and too slow to reflect drops in wholesale fuel and production prices.

"This could have been a result of anti-competition practices - cartel agreements," the watchdog said.

It also said the prices at which the country's oil refinery Neftochim Burgas sold its fuels for automobiles on the local market were higher than prices for exports, with all other conditions being equal.

As MRC informed before, OAO Lukoil Holdings, Russia's No. 2 oil producer, will invest USD1 billion in the oil firm Samara-Nafta to increase production. Lukoil acquired Samara-Nafta from Hess Corp. in 2013 for USD2 billion as part of a strategy to stabilize and increase oil production. Lukoil has for years fought declining output at its main, Soviet-era fields in Western Siberia. The investment in Samara-Nafta will increase production by between 5% and 7% over the next five years from 2.5 million tonnes a year, Prime news agency cited the company as saying.

Lukoil, a Russian-based company, is one of the global leaders in the production and refining of crude oil and gas resources. The world's largest privately owned oil and gas company, measured by proven oil reserves, LUKoil has operations in over 40 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand's PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is launching "Map Ta Phut Retrofit," a program to utilize surplus naphtha from its refinery as feedstock to increase its production of ethylene and propylene, reported Apic-online with reference to Bangkok Post, which cited the company.

The program involves a new naphtha cracker to pro-duce 500,000 t/y of ethylene and 261,000 t/y of propylene, requiring 1.5-million t/y of naphtha feedstock, and increasing PTTGC's ethylene and propylene capacities to 2.8-million t/y and 800,000 t/y, respectively.

The company also plans to carry out a feasibility study for downstream production of such petrochemicals as acrylic acid, styrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polystyrene.

PTTGC intends to invite bids for the project and have a final list of contractors by the end of the year, with start of production anticipated in 2020.

As MRC wrote previously, PTT Global Chemical PCL is studying several options for supplying sufficient raw material to its petrochemical plants, including imports of oil feedstocks after declines in global crude prices. The move is part of a plan to cope with a potential drop in domestic natural gas supply after Thailand's government put bidding for new oil and gas concessions on hold, chief executive Supattanapong Punmeechaow told reporters in March 2015.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SP Olefins (Taixing) Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of SP Chemicals Pte. Ltd., Singapore, has let a contract to Technip SA, Paris, to provide technology licensing and process design for the company’s proposed grassroots ethylene plant to be built in Taixing in China’s Jiangsu Province, said Ogj.

In addition to the project’s process design package, Technip will supply a suite of ethylene technology, equipment, and technical services for the plant’s gas cracker, which will have an ethylene production capacity of 650,000 tonnes/year, the service provider said.

Specifically, Technip’s scope of delivery under the contract includes the following proprietary technology components:
• Ultra selective conversion coil technology and associated USC furnaces for cracking.
• Heat-integrated rectifier system for ethylene recovery.
• Wet-air oxidation technology for processing of spent caustic production.

The service company also will supply its proprietary ripple trays for liquid and vapor handling in the cracker towers.
Technip, which plans to execute the project out of its Houston office, did not disclose a value of the contract.
Part of SP Olefins’ 1.1 million-tpy light hydrocarbon utilization project (LHUP), the new plant—which will be China’s first gas-cracking ethylene unit—will process low-cost ethane and propane supplies delivered to the site from North America, Technip said.

According to its web site, SP Chemicals, one of the largest ion-membrane chlor-alkali and aniline producers in China, currently produces 750,000 tpy of caustic soda, 660,000 tpy of chlorine, 500,000 tpy of vinyl chloride monomer, 135,000 tpy of aniline, and 300,000 tpy of styrene monomer.

Further details regarding SP Olefins and its LHUP have yet to be disclosed.

SP Chemicals, itself a subsidiary of SP Chemicals Holdings Ltd., identifies its only two existing subsidiaries as SP Chemicals (Taixing) Co. Ltd. and Asia Chemicals Trading Pte. Ltd.

As MRC informed earlier, Technip has been awarded a contract by Westlake Chemical to provide detailed engineering and procurement services to expand the recovery section of Westlake’s Petro 1 ethylene plant at its complex in Sulphur, Louisiana.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. (MCHC) has unveiled plans for an absorption-type split-off of the existing operations of its wholly-owned Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC) and Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. (MPI) subsidiaries, reported Apic-online.

With effect from 28 Mar. 2016, the rights and obligations of MCC and MPI will be centralized as a unit of MCHC as the succeeding company to be led by Hitoshi Ochi as president and chief executive.

Since the split involves wholly-owned subsidiaries, there will be no compensation to MCC and MPI.

MCHC in December said it planned to integrate MCC, MPI and Mitsubishi Rayon through a merger in April 2017, with Mitsubishi Rayon as the merging company. No mention of Mitsubishi Rayon was made in MCHC's most recent announcement.

As MRC wrote before, in October 2014, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. told "PetroChemical News" (PCN) that it has decided to discontinue its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) business. Mitsubishi currently operates a 260,000-t/y PTA plant at Mizushima, Japan, through its Mizushima Aroma joint venture with Toyobo Co.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Hanbang Petrochemical has delayed the start-up of its second purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit to middle of March, a company source told TPS Friday.

This latest plan follows a series of delays - the company had plan to have the plant up and running after the Lunar New Year holidays in mid-February after pushing the start-up back several times from the original schedule of October 2015.

As MRC reported earlier, the startup of Hanbang's new 2.2 million/year PTA line will increase its total nominal PTA production capacity to 2.8 million mt/year. The company's existing 600,000 mt/year line will continue to be run at full capacity after the new plants starts up

Hanbang Petrochemical, also known as China Prosperity Jiangyin Petrochemical, is situated in Jiangyin city within China's Jiangsu province.
MRC