Reliance Industries Limited and BP announced a historic partnership

(BP) -- Reliance Industries Limited and BP today announced a historic partnership between the two companies. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, and Robert Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive, signed the relationship framework and transactional greements in London.

The partnership across the full value chain comprises BP taking a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the producing KG D6 block, and the formation of a 50:50 joint venture between the two companies for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India. The joint venture will also endeavour to accelerate the creation of infrastructure for receiving, transporting and marketing of natural gas in India.

The partnership will combine BP's world-class deepwater exploration and development capabilities with Reliance's project management and operations expertise.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Import supplies of polystyrene and styrene plastics to the Russian market in January reduced twice and made 7.8 KT, according to MRC DataScope.

The biggest recession fell at EPS. Low buying activity in winter period as well as increased cost of materials in the external markets resulted in lowered volumes of supplies by 2 KT compared to the previous month.

The imports of GPPS reduced by 52% compared to December. Import supplies of this material from Europe under the pressure of seasonal factor decreased by 1.2 KT.

At that the biggest recession of imports fell at GPPS, meant for injection-molding and extrusion.

In February considerable growth of polystyrene imports is not expected. By late February the growth of EPS supplies is expected in connection with the preparation of the Russian companies for a new season in 2011.

MRC

(Your Petrochemical News) -- BP today confirmed that it is proceeding with its project for a major increase in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production capacity at the BP Zhuhai Chemical Company Limited (BP Zhuhai) site in Guangdong Province, China, a JV between BP and Zhuhai Port Co., Ltd. and also announced that it is planning to build a new world-scale PTA plant at the same site.

The planned debottleneck at Zhuhai will increase capacity by more than 200,000 tonnes a year from its second unit (Z2), making the total PTA production capacity of the Zhuhai site some 1.7 million tonnes a year.

BP has completed engineering design work for the Z2 debottleneck and expects the expansion to be fully operational in 1Q2012.

A new third PTA plant in Zhuhai is under pre-engineering planning. With a capacity of 1,250,000 tonnes per year, it will be the first to employ BP's latest generation PTA technology and, subject to approval from its shareholders and relevant Chinese government agencies, is expected to come on stream earliest 2014 to meet PTA demand growth in China. This will make Zhuhai the largest PTA site in BP's global PTA system.

MRC

(Interfax) -- Fuel imports duties will be introduced only when Ukrainian oil refineries considerably improve the quality of the fuel they produce, First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Vadym Kopylov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday. He said that the ministry had proposed that Ukrainian oil refineries draw up a program on their upgrading to produce high-quality petrol.

"The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has proposed that oil refinery think up and draft a program on the upgrade of refineries to produce the required amount of high-quality petrol for our cars. We're ready to draw up and send the document on the introduction of the duty at once," Kopylov said.

He added that if the program is drawn up, the government is ready to announce the introduction of duties on imports of petrol to stimulate the upgrade of Ukrainian oil refineries. "Today the refineries are mulling the proposal," Kopylov added.

MRC

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Marine Well Containment Company announced the completion and availability of an initial well containment response system that will provide rapid containment response capabilities in the event of a potential future underwater well control incident in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The initial response system includes a subsea capping stack with the ability to shut in oil flow or to flow the oil via flexible pipes and risers to surface vessels. The system also includes subsea dispersant injection equipment, manifolds and, through mutual aid among members, capture vessels to provide surface processing and storage.

ExxonMobil, in partnership with Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell, continues to lead the development of additional system components to expand the initial system's capabilities, with completion of the expanded system set for 2012.

The interim system can operate in water depths up to 8,000 feet and has storage and processing capacity for up to 60,000 barrels per day of liquids. The capping stack has a maximum operating pressure of 15,000 pounds per square inch. The equipment is located on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

MRC