China Sinopec's 2009 profit more than doubled

March 29 (AP) -- Sinopec, Asia's biggest refiner by volume, said profit more than doubled in 2009 on lower crude oil costs and a revival in demand amid China's stimulus-fueled recovery.

Sinopec, also known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., said profit for 2009 rose to 61.3 billion yuan ($8.97 billion) or 0.7 yuan (10 cents) a share. Its profit in 2008 was 28.4 billion yuan.

The company has benefited from the government's decision to ease controls that battered Sinopec in previous years by preventing it from passing on record crude costs to consumers. Beijing raised state-set prices of gasoline and diesel several times last year to reflect higher global oil costs.

Sinopec said it paid an average of $61.50 per barrel for crude oil last year, down 36.6 percent from the year before.

But lower prices also took a bite out of Sinopec's revenue, which fell 10 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan ($197.7 billion) from 1.5 trillion yuan the year before.

MRC

March 29 (oilandgasonline.com) -- Emerson Process Management and LUKOIL Group, one of the world's largest private oil companies, have signed an agreement to modernize 13 refining and petrochemical facilities in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Under the agreement, which extends through 2014, Emerson will provide equipment, software, and services as part of LUKOIL's enterprise-wide strategy to modernize process automation at their oil and gas refineries, petrochemical plants, and related facilities. LUKOIL operations to be upgraded include Stavrolen and Saratovorgsintez in Russia, Neftochim Bourgas in Bulgaria, ZAO Lukor in Ukraine, and Vars in Latvia, as well as additional facilities in Romania; in Ukraine's Odessa; and in Russia's Perm, the Volgograd region, and the Komi Republic.

"Modernizing these facilities using Emerson's advanced technologies and services will enable us to improve product quality and reduce environmental impact right away ≈ and gain a significant advantage over our competitors in the future," said a LUKOIL representative. "The upgraded automation is also expected to help LUKOIL improve process performance, increase production of high-quality diesel fuel, and balance refining output with oil production."

LUKOIL chose Emerson because of the two companies' successful experience in cooperating on previous projects, as well as Emerson's technologies and full scope of design, training, installation supervision, start-up, and commissioning services. The LUKOIL facilities being modernized will be upgraded to Emerson's PlantWeb digital automation architecture with Smart Wireless technology. The architecture includes DeltaV digital automation systems, DeltaV SIS process safety systems, and AMS Suite predictive maintenance software, as well as Fisher control valves, Micro Motion Coriolis flow and density meters, and Rosemount measurement instruments.

"Our proven ability to implement comprehensive but easy-to-use automation solutions will enable us to help LUKOIL realize its strategic objectives," said Steven A. Sonnenberg, president of Emerson Process Management. "We have enjoyed a strong relationship with LUKOIL for several years and look forward to helping them further improve the performance of these facilities."

MRC

March 29 (prw) -- Equipolymers is selling its PTA and PET production facilities at its manufacturing site in Ottana, Italy, to a joint venture between Ottana Energia and Indorama for an undisclosed sum. Ottana Energia already operates a utilities plant on the site.

Equipolymers says it will instead focus on its manufacturing facilities in Schkopau, Germany.

⌠The decision to sell the Ottana assets was made to sustain the long-term value of the site while enabling our Equipolymers facilities in Schkopau, Germany, to focus on R&D and new technologies in markets that best serve our customers, said Ramesh Ramachandran, president and ceo of Equipolymers, in a statement. ⌠This move will allow us to maximise access to key raw materials and improve our cost structure over the longer term.

Equipolymers announced plans to sell the Italian operation earlier this year, citing "disappointing financial results".

The company manufactures and sells PET resins using PTA produced in-house. The PET plant at Ottana has a capacity of 160,000tpa but is currently running below capacity due to poor demand. It was completely off-stream between August and December last year for technical reasons.

The company did not say whether it will make any job cuts at the Ottana plant.

⌠Once the sale is finalised, the new owners will make decisions about the future structure of the new company, a spokesperson told European Plastics News.

Equipolymers is a joint venture between the Dow Chemical Company and the Petroleum Industries Company (PIC), based in Kuwait.

MRC

March 29 (Reuters) -- The Dow and the S&P 500 are at their highest in nearly 18 months and the expected repositioning before Wednesday's end of the quarter could provide further support. With the Dow closing at 10,850.36 on Friday, it would need to rise 1.4 percent -- a tad less than 150 points -- to reach 11,000.

But with benchmark U.S. Treasury yields approaching 4 percent, investors may prefer the relative safety of U.S. debt instead of continuing to throw money at a stock market that has risen steeply for more than a year.

Economists expect data on Friday to show the economy created about 190,000 jobs in March, but stock investors will have to be brave enough to bet on that confirmation ahead of the data, since the market will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.

MRCMRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

March 26 (plastemart) -- Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group is not in talks with China Petroleum Corp (Sinopec Group) on any joint investments in China.

Earlier in the week, Formosa was reported to be planning to collaborate with Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co. in a 50:50 investment. Formosa group is interested in investing in naphtha cracking operations in China to supplement its downstream petrochemical plants there, but prefers majority control. Taiwan's government also currently prohibits Taiwanese companies from investing in naphtha cracking operations in China. Since the Chinese market is the growing market, the group will have to shift, but will wait for an opportunity to further expand investment in China.

MRCMRC Reference

Formosa. The share in the Russian market in 2008:

PVC-S - 3.0%;

PP - 0.4%.

Annual growth sales in Russia :
PVC - 79 % (over the last year) ;

PP - 272 % (over the last 3 years).

Supply by processing technologies:
profile extrusion

film extrusion