BP starts-up landmark Shah Deniz 2 development in Azerbaijan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP and its partners in the Shah Deniz consortium have announced the start-up of the landmark Shah Deniz 2 gas development in Azerbaijan, including its first commercial gas delivery to Turkey, as per BP's press release.

The BP-operated USD28 billion project is the first subsea development in the Caspian Sea and the largest subsea infrastructure operated by BP worldwide. It is also the starting point for the Southern Gas Corridor series of pipelines that will for the first time deliver natural gas from the Caspian Sea direct to European markets.

BP group chief executive Bob Dudley said: "Shah Deniz 2 is one of the biggest and most complex new energy projects anywhere in the world, comprising major offshore, onshore and pipeline developments. BP and our partners have safely and successfully delivered this multi-dimensional project as designed, on time and on budget. The new pipeline provides a gateway for new supplies of energy into Europe".

Together with the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system, Shah Deniz 2 will deliver significant new energy supplies to Europe, further diversifying its sources of energy and providing new supplies of natural gas which will be essential in the energy transition.

Offshore, the Shah Deniz 2 project includes 26 subsea wells, 500km of subsea pipelines and flowlines and two new bridge-linked platforms. Gas is transported onshore through a 85 km pipeline to the Sangachal terminal near Baku, which underwent a major expansion to accommodate the new increased gas output. The project also includes the new South Caucasus pipeline expansion - 428km of new pipeline in Azerbaijan and 59km in Georgia, including two new compressor stations - carrying Shah Deniz gas to Turkey.

Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, Upstream, said: "Bringing this huge project online within the schedule and budget we set out at sanction 4? years ago is further evidence of our focus on efficient and disciplined project execution. As our largest start-up for the year, Shah Deniz 2 is also a very important milestone in delivering our plans for growth, including from our pipeline of new higher-margin projects."

"As can be seen from our recent agreements, we expect to be operating in Azerbaijan for decades to come and we continue to see opportunities to work with the country to further explore and develop its significant resources," he added.

The development is a major milestone in the creation of the new Southern Gas Corridor which, once completed, will transport Caspian gas directly into the heart of European markets for the first time. From the South Caucasus pipeline, gas is transported across Turkey through the new Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), which was inaugurated earlier this month, and, when complete, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will then supply gas as far as Greece, Albania and Italy. Commercial deliveries to Europe are expected to commence in 2020.

As MRC wrote before, in April 2018, BP announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore areas of cooperation with Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras). Through this strategic alliance, Petrobras and BP have committed to exploring potential joint commercial agreements in areas of mutual interest in upstream, downstream, trading and across low carbon initiatives, inside and outside Brazil. The alliance is also expected to include the transfer of technology, as well as joint training and research.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huajin Chemical has brought on-stream its high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on July 9, 2018. The unit was taken off-line for maintenance on June 10, 2018.

Located in Liaoning province, China, the HDPE unit has a production capacity of 330,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 14 August 2017, Liaoning Huajin Chemical restarted its polypropylene (PP) unit following an unplanned outage. The unit was shut in end-July 2017 owing to shortage of feedstock. Located in Liaoning province, China, the PP unit has a production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

Liaoning Huajin Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. was founded in 2003 and is based in China. Liaoning Huajin Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of North Huajin Chemical Industries Co.,Ltd.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals officially broke ground for construction of a state-of-the-art organic peroxide production facility in Tianjin, China, as per CoatingsWorld.

Organic peroxides are essential in the manufacture of a wide range of polymers including PVC and thermoset resins.

The EUR90-million facility, located in the Tianjin Nangang Industrial Zone, will replace the company's existing organic peroxides plant in Tianjin, and supports efforts being made by Chinese authorities to optimize urban planning and produce an industrial upgrade in the country's chemical industry.

Scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2020, it will also provide capacity expansions of between 30 and 70 percent depending on product line, allowing the company to support the growth of its customers.

"Demand for organic peroxide continues to increase in Asia and around the world," said Jack Li, regional sales director, Polymer Chemistry.

Li says end use markets for organic peroxides are growing annually between five and six percent in China, outpacing growth in the rest of the world.

Johan Landfors, executive committee member responsible for Polymer Chemistry, said the company is focusing on improving sustainability at the new site to meet the Chinese government's stringent requirements.

"We are installing an innovative technology to minimize discharge of waste water. New equipment will also streamline our production processes, helping us to reduce our water and energy consumption while removing volatile organic compounds," he added.

Said AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals CEO Werner Fuhrmann: "We have partnered closely with the Tianjin Economic - Technological Development Area to construct a site that not ony meets the needs of the city, but also those of our business, customers and employees. Our company is committed to China and has received strong support from its government agencies to ensure success on this project."

AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals has invested more than EUR180 million over the last three years to better serve its customers in the polymer industry, upgrading technologies, increasing capacity, and repositioning its global manufacturing footprint at sites in Mexico, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Italy, Brazil and the U.S.

As MRC wrote before, in December 2016, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BW LPG, a Singaporean liquefied petroleum gas shipping (LPG) transportation fleet owner, has upped its all-stock proposal to merge with US LPG shipping company Dorian LPG in a move to engage with the latter following an initial refusal, said Compello.

As per the new proposal, BW LPG said that it will issue 2.12 of its shares for each share in the US LPG shipping company. The previous offer was 2.05 shares of BW LPG in exchange of a Dorian share.

The transaction value, like in the earlier offer made in late May, remains to be USD1.1bn.

BW LPG said that the revised proposal, which has been approved unanimously by the company’s board of directors, represents a value of USD8.67 per share of Dorian common stock. On the other hand, the total equity value of the all-stock deal is nearly USD479m.

BW LPG CEO Martin Ackermann said: “By increasing our offer at this time, we are reaffirming BW LPG’s belief that this transaction will deliver significant value to both companies’ stakeholders and that the time to act is now.

“It is evident from our discussions with Dorian shareholders that there is strong support for the companies to engage immediately regarding our proposed combination and capitalize on this compelling opportunity."

BW LPG revealed that it had made several attempts to get into a dialogue with the management team and advisors of Dorian for more than a month over its proposal, but in vain.

In a letter addressing the board of directors of Dorian, Ackermann, wrote that the Singaporean firm is “surprised and disappointed” by the US LPG shipping company’s refusal to engage with it.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - China's ambitious push to use biofuel in cars nationwide by 2020 is in doubt amid concerns about supplies of raw material such as corn, complicated by an escalating trade dispute with Washington, producers and analysts say, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In September last year, the government outlined radical plans to roll out the use of ethanol in gasoline nationally by 2020, in part to digest its huge corn stocks.

State-controlled producers, like China's State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC), agribusiness COFCO and Jilin Fuel, rushed to draw up plans to invest billions of yuan to double output in the world's largest car market.

But since then, only one major project - SDIC's 300,000 tonnes per year plant in Liaoning province in China's northeast - has received the go-ahead to start construction.

Three big expansion plans by major producers are stalled because the companies haven't got approval from the government, three sources with direct knowledge of the situation say. They declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The government has not revised its timeline or commented publicly on a change in policy.

But executives at two producers, three policy experts and market analysts say the drawn-out approval process and project delays suggest Beijing is quietly rethinking its initial plans.

The slowdown comes as a brewing trade dispute with the United States intensifies, raising the threat of further tariffs that could make imports of U.S. corn or ethanol to meet any shortfall in domestic supplies uneconomic.

"The plan was too ambitious and will have a huge impact on the whole industry chain. It was too big a step forward. There might be change to the policy," said Michael Mao, analyst with Zhuochuang, a consultancy based in Shandong province.

The Commerce Ministry, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development & Reform Commission did not respond to requests for comment.
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