Italian oil tanker was hijacked

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- A maritime security alert has been issued for the Indian Ocean following the hijack in the early hours of February 8 of an Italian-flagged oil tanker the MV Savina Caylyn, owned by Italian company Fratelli D'Amato Spa.

The vessel was seized around 670 nautical miles east of the Indian island of Socotra (closer to the Indian coast than the African coast) as it travelled from Bashayer, Sudan to Pasir Gudang, Malaysia.

Five suspected pirates are reported to have fired small arms and four rocket propelled grenades at the 104,225-tonne vessel in an attempt to intimidate the crew in advance of the boarding. According to the European Union's Anti-piracy task force there are reported to be 22 crew members on board, five Italian and 17 Indian. There is presently no communication with the vessel and no information regarding the condition.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Hertel OTC, the industrial painting and insulation specialist, has won a contract to paint 67,000 m2 of piping and equipment and 26,000 m2 of pipe supports and steel structure as part of the Package 2A of the Jubail export refinery project.

The $1.2 million painting contract has been awarded to Hertel OTC by Nesma & Partners, mechanical contractors at Jubail for Technip, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

The Jubail export refinery is expected to process 400,000 barrels of Saudi heavy crude per day to produce high quality transportation fuels and petrochemical for markets in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Robert Wakefield, Director Business Development at Hertel OTC, says: ⌠We have been working with Nesma for more than 15 years and are delighted to have this opportunity to work on this landmark project.

It is expected that the Jubail refinery in Saudi Arabia will process up to 400,000 barrels of oil per day when completed.

MRC

(LANXESS) -- Specialty chemicals company Lanxess AG is to increase its prices for Durethan Compounds (Polyamide Compounds, PA) and Pocan Compounds (Polybutylenterephthalate Compounds, PBT) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by at least EUR 0.30 per kilogram effective February 14, 2011. This price adjustment has become unavoidable because the costs have risen significantly.

The high-performance plastics Durethan and Pocan are used in numerous applications in the automotive, electrical/electronics and household industries.

The Semi-Crystalline Products business unit belongs to the Performance Polymers segment, which achieved sales of EUR 2.39 billion in 2009.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 5.06 billion in 2009 and currently around 14,700 employees in 24 countries. The company is represented at 45 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Asia methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) prices are likely to rise after the Lunar New Year holidays, on expectations of higher regional demand and lower supply because of plant turnarounds, traders said on Tuesday.

Spot values of the octane booster in gasoline were steady at $940-950/tonne (┬696-703/tonne) FOB (free on board) Singapore, supported by healthy demand within Asia despite the absence of the key Chinese market.

China is on a week-long holiday for Lunar New Year between 2-8 February.

Import requirements from China were expected to surge after the holidays, as driving demand in the world's top energy user as well as the number-one global auto market would peak in the next few months, traders said.

Car sales in China rose an annualised 33.2% in 2010 to 13.8m units, according to a Reuters report quoting China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Meanwhile, Indonesia would use even more gasoline after southeast Asia's biggest economy posted a 6.1% growth for last year, with its fourth-quarter GDP up at 6.9% - the strongest ever in six years.

Spot MTBE premiums in Singapore have been hovering near $30/tonne to market quotes on a delivered basis for the past couple of weeks, they said.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Caustic soda supply in northern Africa is returning to normal despite ongoing protests in Egypt, which is the predominant producer for the region, sources said on Tuesday. There are two major producers of caustic soda in Egypt, TCI Sanmar and Egyptian Petrochemical Company (EPC).

TCI Sanmar's 200,000 tonne/year caustic soda plant at South Port Said was in the restart process, and would be back to normal operations by the weekend of 12-13 February, a company source said. The company had shut the plant on 29 January after riots in the local area made it impossible to operate.

EPC has resumed deliveries of caustic soda following a relaxation of delivery restrictions, a company source said. Material is being booked for the next few days, the source added.

The Egyptian army had blocked transport links, preventing shipments of material from 2 February. Deliveries were now being allowed from 06:00 to 20:00 local time, which the source said was a return to normal operations.

The effective closure of the caustic soda market during the protests had caused a short-term spike in northern African caustic soda prices, as players looked to cover short-term volumes during the uncertainty.

However, prices had now returned to $380-440/tonne FOB (free on board) northern Africa, in line with prices prior to the supply disruption.

MRC