PetroRabigh shut ethane cracker for 21 days from Monday

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh) has shut its ethane cracker for 21 days effective from Nov. 14 for maintenance, the company said in a bourse filing on Sunday, reported Reuters.

The suspension, which aims to improve the plant's safety and efficiency, will impact the firm's fourth-quarter earnings by around 375 million riyals (USD100 million), the statement added.

It is the second time in recent months that the firm, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco IPO-ARMO.SE and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has shut the unit.

PetroRabigh shut the cracker down as a precaution on June 23 to work on damage to one of the unit's turbines, restarting it on July 14.

As MRC informed earlier, in late May 2016, PetroRabigh brought on-stream its cracker and polyethylene (PE) units following an unplanned outage. The complex was taken off-stream on May 19, 2016 owing to a power failure.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, the complex has an ethylene production capacity of 1.6 million mt/year, HDPE production capacity of 300,000 mt/year and LLDPE production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.
MRC

Idemitsu to delay Showa Shell stake purchase from Shell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan will again delay its planned purchase of Showa Shell Sekiyu shares from Royal Dutch Shell because a review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission is still under way, reported Reuters.

Idemitsu said in a statement on Monday it will postpone the purchase to either December or January, from its originally planned closure by this month. The delay is another setback for Idemitsu in its attempt to take over Showa Shell, delayed after stiff opposition from Idemitsu's founding family.

Idemitsu's management last month put a full takeover on hold indefinitely although it had planned to press ahead with a signed agreement to acquire a 33 percent of Showa Shell for about USD1.6 billion from Royal Dutch Shell.

The setbacks raise questions over whether the two firms will ever be able to combine businesses, given that the Idemitsu founding family, which owns just over a third of the company, could either block a full deal outright, or veto board decisions even if the deal itself was not blocked.

The family, led by 89-year-old patriarch Shosuke Idemitsu, has said the two companies are too different for any merger to work.

Idemitsu's general manager of public relations, Soichi Kobayashi, said at a news conference on Monday that the Fair Trade Commission may be reviewing the matter carefully, but declined to comment on detailed exchanges with the regulator.

Kobayashi said Idemitsu was still experiencing difficulty in communications with the founding family. "We would continue to call for talks using various channels," he said.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2015, Idemitsu signed an agreement to acquire Shell’s 33.24% stake in its Japanese venture Showa Shell Sekiyu KK for JPY 169 billion (approximately USD1.4 billion).

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.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC

ExxonMobil to increase Beaumont PE capacity in Texas by 65%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has announced its plans to add a new production unit at its Beaumont polyethylene (PE) plant that will increase capacity by 65% or approximately 650,000 tonnes per year to meet growing demand for high performance plastics, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Construction of the new unit has begun at the plant, where current PE production capacity is 1 million tonnes per year. Startup is expected in 2019.

"The availability of vast new supplies of U.S. shale gas and associated liquids for feedstock and energy is a significant advantage that enables expansion to meet strong global demand growth in polyethylene," said Cindy Shulman, vice president of ExxonMobil’s plastics and resins business.

The Beaumont project builds on supply advantages created by ExxonMobil’s expansion of its Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant in Texas, where two similar PE units are being added. Combined, this multi-billion dollar investment will increase the company’s U.S. polyethylene production by 40%, or nearly 2 million tonnes per year, making Texas the largest PE supply point for ExxonMobil.

The Beaumont expansion project will employ 1,400 construction workers and create 40 permanent jobs upon completion, as well as generate USD20 billion in economic activity in the first 13 years of operation based on 2015 Impact Data Source estimates.

"We’re part of the growth in an area that is primed for new business," said Jason Duncan, manager of the Beaumont polyethylene plant. "The expansion of the polyethylene plant is now ExxonMobil’s third significant investment in the Beaumont area over the past 18 months, the impact of which will benefit the local economy in the years to come."

ExxonMobil’s previously announced investments at Beaumont include expansion of the refinery’s crude refining capacity in 2015 and, earlier this year, construction of a new unit to increase domestic supply of ultra-low sulfur gasoline and diesel.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2016, ExxonMobil Chemical completed the start up process of its 820,000 m tpa ethylene complex in Beaumont, Texas. The Beaumont complex has two equal-sized steam cracking units with total combined ethylene capacity of 820,000 mtpa.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

BASF invests in McIntosh site, expands plastic additives business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, German chemical major, has announced its plans to invest more than USD200 million in its plastic additives business worldwide, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Part of this investment will focus on strengthening its manufacturing footprint in North America by investing in its McIntosh, Ala., site to support market growth.

BASF’s investment aligns with announced expansions by existing and new polyolefin producers in North America, which significantly increases production capacity in the market.

"To us, this is a clear signal of our customers' commitment to growth in the region," said Anup Kothari, Senior Vice President, BASF Performance Chemicals. "The close proximity of our McIntosh site to our customers’ plants places us in an ideal position to fuel their growth."

BASF"s investment in McIntosh will expand the production capacity of light stabilizers, namely the Tinuvin product line. In addition to its US locations, BASF’s Plastic Additives business has manufacturing sites in Mexico, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Bahrain, China and Singapore.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2015, SIBUR, Russian integrated gas processing and petrochemical company, and BASF extended their long-term agreement on supply of additives used for polymer manufacturing at SIBUR production facilities. The agreement provides for supply of additives improving the quality of finished products for production of polypropylene, polyethylene, synthetic rubber, thermoplastic elastomers by BASF to SIBUR. Apart from that, the parties will continue to implement their joint projects related to development of new grades of polypropylene, polymer stabilization optimization, and introduction of customer specific blends (CSB), ensuring higher production efficiency and stable high quality of products. SIBUR and BASF signed the long-term cooperation memorandum on supply of additives used for polymer manufacturing at SIBUR production facilities in 2013.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of more than EUR70 billion in 2015.
MRC

HMEL shuts PP plant in India on technical issues

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A domestic industry source informed a Polymerupdate team member that HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) has shut its PP plant, as per Apic-online.

The source said, "the company has undertaken an emergency shutdown at the plant on November 14, 2016 owing to a technical glitch. The plant is expected to restart by end-November/early December 2016.

The source added, located at Bhatinda, Punjab in India, the PP plant has a production capacity of 440,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in 2012, HMEL commissioned a new 440,000 t/y PP plant at its headquarters in Bathinda.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore - a Lakshmi N Mittal Group Company. Both the JV partners hold a stake of 49% each in the company, the rest 2% is held by financial institutions. The land mark public-private partnership company has built the 9 MMTPA Guru Gobind Singh Refinery.
MRC