Ineos Oxide to double capacity of its new ethylene oxide and derivatives facility

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Oxide has recently announced that it is to double the size of its planned Ethylene Oxide (EO) and Ethylene Oxide Derivatives (EOD) facility to be built on the U.S. Gulf Coast, said the company.

The new plant will produce 1.2 billion pounds of EO (circa 520 kt). The plant is expected to be operational in 2023.

Ghislain Decadt, Operations Director, Ineos Oxide said, “Doubling the capacity of our planned Ethylene Oxide and Derivatives facility is a significant commitment in support of our customers and their growth ambitions in the US. This build allows us to address a fast growing EO merchant market as well as our own requirements. Combined with our upstream olefins capabilities this world class facility will secure our position as a reliable and competitive producer."

In addition to installing its own Ethoxylate derivative capacity on-site and infrastructure to supply customers by rail, the company plans to allow interested third-parties to co-locate on site and consume EO by pipeline.

The firm is considering several sites on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

As MRC informed earlier, Ineos Oxide announced that following a detailed study it is moving forward with the next stage of its project to construct an Ethylene Oxide (EO) and Ethylene Oxide Derivatives (EOD) facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It is planned that the asset will be operational in 2022.
MRC

Reliance Jio Acquires Haptik for 100 Million Dollars

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries has recently announced that its subsidiary Reliance Jio Digital Services has entered into a definitive business transfer agreement with Haptik Infotech, said Process-worldwide.

The transaction size, including investment for growth and expansion, is estimated at about 100 million dollars, with 33 million dollars as the consideration for the initial business transfer. The Haptik team will continue to drive growth of the business, including the enterprise platform as well as digital consumer assistants. On a fully diluted basis Reliance will hold about ~87 % of the business with the rest being held by Haptik founders and employees through stock option grants.

This transaction enables Reliance Jio to leverage Haptik’s capabilities across various devices and touch points in the consumer’s journey. The investment focus is on enhancement and expansion of the platform, with an addressable market opportunity of over 1 billion users in India. This partnership will also give a boost to Haptik’s existing enterprise grade business, with the company continuing to build innovative AI solutions for corporates globally.

Speaking on this strategic investment, Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said “This strategic investment underlines our commitment to further boost the digital ecosystem and provide Indian users conversational AI enabled devices with multi-lingual capabilities. We believe voice interactivity will be the primary mode of interaction for Digital India. We are delighted to announce this partnership, and look forward to working with the experienced team of Haptik in realising this vision for offering greater connectivity and rich communication experiences to the billion+ Indian consumers.”

As MRC informed earlier, Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, has turned to selling fuels to Venezuela from India and Europe to circumvent sanctions that bar US-based companies from dealing with state-run PDVSA.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

Volgograd Kaustik to shut PVC production for maintenance in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Volgograd Kaustik, Russia's fourth largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, intends to take off-stream its production capacities for a scheduled turnaround in May, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said the shutdown of PVC production for scheduled maintenance is planned from 10 May. The outage will be short and will last for three weeks. The plant's PVC production capacity is 90,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that next shutdowns for maintenance at Russian PVC plants are scheduled from mid-July. Thus, SayanskKhimPlast and Bashkir Soda Company, which annual capacities are 350,000 tonnes and 240,000 tonnes, respectively, will take off-stream their production capacities for maintenance.

PVC production at Volgograd Kaustik was launched in December 1972 with the assistance of the Japanese firm Kureh's specialists.

Nikokhim Group is one of the leaders of the Russian chemical industry, the main production assets of which are located in the southern industrial hub of Volgograd.

The holding company includes: JSC Kaustik is the principal plant of the group, manufactures basic products - caustic soda, chloroparaffins, synthetic hydrochloric acid, chlorine trademark, polyvinyl chloride, sodium hypochlorite, etc .; CJSC NikoMag - production of anti-icing materials, magnesium chloride, magnesium oxide and hydroxide; Zirax, Ltd. - production of high-purity reagents for various industries and JSC Poligran - the production of plastic compounds and rigid PVC compounds.
MRC

Crude oil intake suspension at Rosneft's Tuapse refinery to continue

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil intake suspension at Rosneft’s Tuapse refinery will continue until April 18, reported Reuters with reference to Russia’s transport monopoly Transneft.

"The Tuapse refinery, which was back from planned maintenance on April 3 and suspended crude oil intake on April 5 for 24 hours, decided to continue the suspension period until April 18," Transneft said in a statement.

Rosneft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-December 2018, oil loadings were resumed to the Afipsky refinery, Interfax news agency cited Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft. Russia’s Afipsky, a mid-sized private oil refiner, suspended oil refining to carry out maintenance of its two crude units from Oct. 6-17, 2018.
MRC

Fire breaks out at Rosneft Novokuibyshevsk refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian oil producer Rosneft said a fire that broke out earlier on Monday at a secondary facility at its Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the Russian region of Samara had been put out, reported Reuters.

It said no one had been hurt in the incident.

The refinery is part of the Samara group of refineries acquired by oil giant Rosneft in May 2007.

As MRC informed before, Russian oil giant Rosneft said its refinery plant in Ryazan stopped a primary crude processing unit to carry out planned maintenance on March 17. The plant remained closed until March 31, according to the energy ministry's statement.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC