Brunei Methanol Co shuts methanol plant for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brunei Methanol Co (BMC) has taken off-stream its methanol plant at the Sungai Liang industrial park, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Brunei informed that the company has started turnaround at the the plant over the weekend. The plant is likely remain under maintenance for around 8-10 days.

Located at Sungai Liang Industrial Park in Brunei, the plant has a production capacity of 850,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in early April 2018, Salalah Methanol Co (SMC) took off-stream its methanol plant for maintenance. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for around 6 weeks. Located in Salalah, Oman, the plant has a production capacity of 1.3 million mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Packaging manufacturer Coveris Holdings SA is selling its Americas business to Canadian packaging firm TC Transcontinental Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of USD1.320bn (EUR1.07bn), the company announced 2 April, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

The proceeds of the Americas Sale, said Coveris, will be used to pay the company’s existing debts. Post-transaction, Coveris’ remaining operations will consist of its Rigid, EMEA, and UK Food & Consumer businesses, and it will have 44 manufacturing facilities in 14 countries.

"This sale will enable us to focus on our operations in Europe, where we are one of the largest players in the flexibles and rigid packaging market," said Jakob A. Mosser, chief executive officer of Coveris.

The move, according to Mosser, supports the company’s recent strategic focus which envisages supplying high-performance and sustainable packaging to the food, pet food, medical and pharmaceutical markets.

Coveris Americas generated sales of USD966m and earnings (adjusted EBITDA) of USD128m for the year 2017.

TC Transcontinental is Canada’s largest printer and a key supplier of flexible packaging in North America. The Corporation is also a leader in its speciality media segments.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wood is delivering front-end engineering design (FEED) for Statoil’s Mongstad refinery near Bergen, Norway, as part of a new contract secured under an existing framework agreement, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Effective immediately, the scope of the contract includes the design, engineering and analysis for modifications to reduce sulphur content in gasoline produced at the refinery.

Wood’s in-country engineering teams will also focus on the design to upgrade the refinery’s naphtha hydrotreating and storage systems to meet new fuel specifications on the sulphur content of gasoline, drawing on the company’s experience in the onshore process market, globally.

Dave Stewart, CEO of Wood’s Asset Solutions business in Europe, Africa, Asia & Australia comments: "Wood has developed a strong relationship with Statoil over two decades and this award clearly demonstrates their confidence in our technical capabilities, experience in the onshore process industry and our ability to provide local support and engineering expertise.

"This new contract also supports Wood’s strategic focus on expanding our footprint in the onshore market in Norway and across Europe, providing engineering and technology for the refining process."

In 2015, Wood secured a six-year main contractor framework agreement worth approximately USD400 million to deliver maintenance and modification services to Statoil installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2017, Wood was awarded a new multi-million dollar contract by Total, supporting their Lindsey Oil Refinery located in North Killinghome, Lincolnshire, UK. The 5-yr contract is to provide onshore maintenance services and includes the option to be extended up to 2 yr.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco will sign eight deals worth USD10 billion with French firms, the chief executive of the state-run oil giant said- the main contracts expected to be sealed during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to France, as per ArabNews.

The powerful young prince who is behind modernizing reforms in Saudi Arabia is on a three-day trip at a time when relations between the two countries have become more complicated, including over how to address Iran's role in the region.

Amin Nasser told Saudi-run Al Arabiya TV on Monday that his company would finalize the accords on Tuesday. A Saudi-France economic forum is due to take place on Tuesday with an official signing ceremony in the afternoon.

Aramco and French oil major Total plan to sign an agreement to expand their joint venture refinery in Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on April 5.

Total declined to comment and Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The prince is not due to sign mega-contracts in France as he did in the United States and Britain in the past month. A French presidency statement said the two leaders would work on a strategic document that would lead to contracts by the year's end, when Macron travels to Saudi Arabia.

French officials dismiss suggestions that the lack of lucrative accords reflects a weakening in the relationship. They say a new "method" of working together does not depend on eye-catching new business.

As MRC wrote previously, in July 2017, Saudi Aramco and France's Total began considering building a mixed-feed cracker and derivatives in Jubail, near their joint refining complex. The cracker is expected to have a capacity of 1.5 MMtpy, said a source familiar with the plans, who described them as at an initial stage. The feedstock would partially come from SATORP, the existing Aramco-Total joint refining venture, and from Sadara, a joint venture between Aramco and Dow Chemical, also in Jubail. Sadara operates a mixed-feed cracker, the first in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia increased to 246,800 tonnes in the first three months of this year, up 10% compared to the same period of 2017. All producers increased PVC output, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Some Russian producers increased their capacity utilisation except SayanskKhimPlast, the total output of unmixed PVC was 81,500 tonnes versus 75,400 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production reached 246,800 tonnes in January-March 2018, compared to 224,700 tonnes a year earlier.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 30,800 tonnes of PVC in March, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,500 tonnes, compared to 22,600 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 84,600 tonnes in the first three months of 2018 versus 77,600 tonnes a year earlier. The producer will shut its capacities for two week turnaround in the second half of April.

SayanskKhimPlast decreased capacity utilisation last month, the plant's SPVC production reached 19,800 tonnes, whereas this figure was 25,000 tonnes in February. The Sayansk plant managed to produce only 71,900 tonnes of resin in the first theree months of the year, compared to 59,600 tonnes a year earlier.

Bashkir Soda Company (BSC) produced about 22,900 tonnes of SPVC in March, whereas 20,500 tonnes were produced in February. The Bashkir plant's overall production of resin was 66,800 tonnes in January-March 2018, up by 3% year on year.

Kaustik (Volgograd) in March slightly increased SPVC production, reaching about 8,000 tonnes, compared with 7,300 tonnes in February. The plant's overall production of resin reached 23,600 tonnes over the stated period versus 22,600 tonnes a year earlier.


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