Rosneft brings BP to one of largest untapped reserves

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc's deal with Russia's state- controlled OAO Rosneft may give the U.K. driller access to one of the largest untapped oil troves left on earth.

Seismic work indicates the three Arctic blocks BP will explore with Rosneft may have as much as 50 billion barrels of oil in place and between 12 billion and 15 billion barrels of recoverable crude, said a person with knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified because the data are confidential. By comparison, about 23 billion barrels have been pumped from the U.K. sector of the North Sea in the last four decades.

BP agreed last week to exchange $7.8 billion of its equity for a 9.5 percent holding in Russia's largest oil producer. As part of the accord, the two companies will explore a 125,000 square-kilometer (48,000 square-mile) area of the Kara Sea, north from Russia's largest developed fields in West Siberia.

BP shares rose as much as 2.5 percent in London and were up 0.2 percent at 500.7 pence at the 4:30 p.m. close. Rosneft rose 5.4 percent in Moscow to the highest since April.

MRC

(Bloomberg) -- LyondellBasell Industries NV said a fire at its La Porte, Texas, plant was in a non-operating part of the facility and has been contained by staff.

The fire occurred in a part of the chemical complex that is being demolished, spokesman David Harpole said in a telephone interview. The fire was unrelated to an earlier flaring incident that was reported on the community hotline, Harpole said, while declining to comment on operations at the plant.

The La Porte complex produces ethylene, propylene, linear low-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene, according to the company website.

MRC

(PRW) -- Global chemical distributor Univar has signed an agreement to acquire leading Turkish chemical distributor, Eral-Protek. The deal is expected to close in February.

Istanbul-based Eral-Protek is one of the leading players in the region's mid-size chemical distribution sector and has a strong reputation with more than 25 years' experience in the Turkish market.

The acquisition, together with the Istanbul and Izmir operations of Basic Chemical Solutions, whose global business was purchased by Univar in December, will give Univar a solid local presence in the region.

Eral-Protek distributes a wide range of products, including a number of exclusive lines, and has a strong focus on specialty chemicals, which aligns with Univar's own specialty chemical offering. In particular it distributes into the rubber, coating, construction, plastic and composite industries.

MRC

(PRW) -- Silvergate Plastics of Wrexham North Wales has completed a 50,000 pounds programme of improvements that will increase the company's manufacturing capacity by 33% to a sales value of 9 mln pounds.

The improvements include a reduction of rework by 65%, sophisticated overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) monitoring and new mixing procedures. Raw material storekeeping has also been greatly improved.

The changes have been driven by operations executive Joe Dourneen who joined Silvergate almost a year ago. ⌠The people here knew what to do. I have merely helped to transplant and translate that for the benefit of the whole business, he explained.

MRC

(prw) -- Scotland's John McGavigan, a producer of in-mould decoration (IMD) and technical plastic components for the global automotive and domestic appliance markets, has attracted a multi-million pound investment from Maven Capital Partners. The cash will be used to expand the firm's UK R&D and production operation in support of a planned expansion into the Asian market.

McGavigan was acquired by management in 2009 following the restructuring of its then US parent company ADS. The company now exports more than 90% of its products into Eastern Europe, Mexico and China.

Steve Mathers, the group commercial director, said: ⌠The Group is now well positioned to execute our growth and expansion strategy designed to serve our customers and stakeholders alike, with expansion into Asia and the continued development of our manufacturing and product development operations in Scotland. The industries we serve look for long term partnerships and our relationship with Maven is very much in line with this.

MRC