Gazprom neftekhim Salavat to shut down HDPE production in March

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bashkir company "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat", one of the largest Russian petrochemical producers, plans to shut down its high density polyethylene (HDPE) production for maintenance in late March, according to ICIS-MRC Price report with reference to the company's customers.

The plant's representatives said Gazprom neftekhim Salavat intends to take off-stream its HDPE production for a turnaround in the third decade of March. The shutdown will not be long and will last about 7 days. The company's low density polyethylene (LDPE) production will be operating normally.

As MRC reported earlier, Russia's overall polymer output rose by 8.1% in 2015 year on year, according to Rosstat. Polyethylene (PE) production has grown to 1,786,000 tonnes since early 2016 (+ 11.6% compared to the figure of 2014), whereas production of styrene polymers (PS) decreased to 536,000 tonnes in 2015 (-0,6% from the figure of 2014).

JSC "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly JSC "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of Russia's major petrochemical complexes. The company was integrated into JSC "Gazprom" system. The concentration of the full cycle of hydrocarbon processing, petrochemistry and mineral fertilizer production on the one site is the main advantage of GNS. The company comprises oil refinery, chemical plant, gas&chemical plant and monomer plant. The list of manufactured commodity products now includes more than 140 items, including 76 items of the main products: motor gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrene, silica gel and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols, and amines, a wide range of plastic consumer goods, surfactants and others.). Subsidiary company "Gazprom" "Gazprom processing" owns 97.57% of "Gazprom Salavat neftekhim."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical (SSTPC) has shut its monoethylene glycol (MEG) production facility in Huadong unexpectedly due to a technical issue, industry sources told TPS.

The plant, which produces 420,000 mt of MEG per year, is expected to be offline for at least a week.

News of the shutdown was confirmed by multiple market participants, who told TPS that the news had already led to some deals for spot and bonded cargoes closing in the morning.

SSTPC is a joint venture between Saudi Basic Industies Corp (SABIC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). Its facility in Tianjin was completed in 2010, at a cost of USD2.7 billion.

Both SABIC and Sinopec each own a 50% stake in SSTPC.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF SE is working with advisers and financing banks to examine the merits of making a counter bid for DuPont Co., the USD55 billion chemical company that agreed to a merger with Dow Chemical Co. in December, said Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The Ludwigshafen, Germany-based chemical producer hasn’t made a decision yet about proceeding with an offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. No formal approach has been made to DuPont, the people said.

BASF, which has been working with advisers since last year to explore a bid for DuPont, held talks with the U.S. company before it agreed to merge with Dow, said the people. Those talks didn’t progress, the people said.

BASF is the world’s third-largest producer of weed-killers, insecticides and other pesticides, after Syngenta AG and Bayer AG, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Buying DuPont would add to its agricultural chemical portfolio and give it the second-biggest producer of crop seeds, such as corn genetically modified to withstand insects and herbicides. Monsanto Co. is the largest seed company.

BASF has no seed business, so DuPont would fill an important gap in its agriculture business, said James Sheehan, an Atlanta-based analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Inc.

BASF Chief Executive Officer Kurt Bock said last month that he considered a deal in the field of agricultural chemicals amid China’s takeover of Syngenta and the merger of Dow and DuPont, before deciding to stay put.

DuPont discussed potential deals with multiple companies ahead of the Dec. 11 agreement with Dow, according to a March 1 regulatory filing by DowDuPont Inc., the name of the merged company. DuPont may be obligated to pay Dow a termination fee of USD1.9 billion if it breaks the deal, the filing shows.

The largest seed and pesticide makers have been discussing deals since Monsanto offered to buy Switzerland’s Syngenta nearly a year ago. Syngenta rebuffed Monsanto and in February agreed to be acquired by China National Chemical Co.

Meanwhile, Dow and DuPont’s merger of equals is the largest deal ever in the chemical industry, creating a company with combined market values of USD111 billion and assembling the world’s largest agriculture business. DowDuPont would be the world’s second-biggest chemical company after BASF.

As MRC informed earlier, in the late December 2015 Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. announced a merger to create three new highly-focused businesses.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bakhtar Petrochemical Company to start a new low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Iran informed that the company is likelyto start-up the operations at a new LDPE plant by end March, 2016.

Located at Sanandaj in Iran, the LDPE plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, at the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.

Iran advantage on having easy and fully access to raw materials for producing main olefins would enable this country to have competitive edge among other producers which will result on increasing export capacities in coming years.
In this regard, all Iranian Petrochemical Companies opt to expand their market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco’s president and CEO, Amin H. Nasser, is calling for a new era of industrial diversification, anchored by specialty chemicals, according to a transcript of his remarks made this week at the fourth Saudi Downstream Forum, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This diversification would be underpinned by a widespread and rapid domestic expansion of small to medium enterprises that produce high-value finished and semi-finished products in the petrochemicals conversion sector, Nasser said.

This approach will unlock opportunities for Saudi Arabia's economic diversification, job creation and innovation potential, and create a world-leading downstream industry, the CEO said at the event in Jubail.

With most of the country's petrochemicals presently being exported as commodities, major opportunities exist to add value by turning them into high-value, semi-finished and finished products, the CEO said. Diversification into specialty chemicals is expected to increase returns from the current level of about $500/ton to about $2,000/ton by 2040, according to Aramco officials.

Nasser said that Saudi Aramco’s vision for the creation of a world-leading downstream sector in Saudi Arabia is built on four key drivers: maximizing value for the Kingdom’s crude oil production, including vertical and horizontal integration across the hydrocarbon chain; enabling the creation of conversion industries that produce semi-finished and finished goods to diversify the economy; developing advanced technologies and innovation; and, enabling the Kingdom’s sustainable development.

Saudi Aramco says its strategy is to strike a better balance between its unparalleled upstream capacity of 12 million bpd of crude oil and its current refining capacity of 5.4 million bpd of crude oil for in-Kingdom and worldwide. Saudi Aramco has a plan to raise its total global refining capacity throughput to between 8 to 10 million bpd in the future.

Saudi Aramco is also collaborating with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority to build value parks and locate service providers adjacent to petrochemical facilities, such as Rabigh PlusTech Park at Petro Rabigh on the west coast and the PlasChem Park adjoining Sadara in Jubail Industrial City 2.

As MRC informed earlier, SPIE Oil & Gas Services, the consortium of Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, has been awarded a contract for the Petro Rabigh II project. This contract, awarded to SPIE Oil & Gas Services Saudi LLC, a subsidiary of SPIE Oil & Gas Services, is a comprehensive offer for the commissioning and start-up of Units Naphtha, Aromatics and Cumene Phenol and utilities for of the Petro Rabigh refining and petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC