Linde receives engineering contract for ethylene plant from Sibur in Russia

(yourpetrochemicalnews) -- Technology company The Linde Group has received an engineering contract for the licensing and front end engineering design (FEED) of one of the world's largest ethylene plants in Tobolsk, Western Siberia. The contract was awarded by Russia's largest petrochemical company, Sibur LLC. The two companies signed an agreement today in St. Petersburg.

"We are delighted to be working on this project and continuing our successful collaboration with Russia's most important petrochemical company," said Professor Dr Aldo Belloni, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG. "We also hope that this agreement will lead to further key contracts for our engineering business in this Eastern European growth market."

The ethylene plant is to be built at the petrochemical complex "ZapSibNeftekhim" in Tobolsk, which is being planned by the company ZapsibNeftekhim, a subsidiary of Sibur. Once finished, the new plant will produce around 1.5 million tons per annum (tpa) of ethylene, 500,000 tpa of propene and 100,000 tpa of butadiene from the feedstocks ethane, propane and n-butane. The products produced by the plant are important building blocks for the plastics manufacturing industry.

The FEED services provided by Linde are the first step in the project to realise the new plant. The Group's work will provide a foundation for the detailed engineering and construction phase. Linde's services also include a cost estimate, which will be used by Sibur to inform the final investment decision.

Linde is currently constructing a polypropylene plant for Sibur at its Tobolsk site. The unit has an annual capacity of 500,000 tons and is set to go on stream next year. This project is currently one of the key investments in Russia's petrochemical industry.

Sibur is the leading petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe. It covers the entire process chain from gas treatment through the production of upstream products for the plastics industry (monomers), plastics and synthetic rubber to the finishing of plastics.
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Oil and gas producers preparing for the likelihood of a tropical storm or hurricane in the US Gulf of Mexico have shut in 8% of total oil and gas production in the region, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Saturday.

BP, BHP Billiton and others have evacuated personnel from nine production platforms and one rig in the Gulf as Tropical Storm Debby makes its way north through the Gulf.

BP, by far the largest oil and gas producer in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, operates four of the seven largest oil and gas platforms in the Gulf and said it had started shutting in production at its oil and gas platforms.

The company is also "taking precautions" at its 406,000 bpd refinery in Texas City, Texas, Clanton added. The refinery is the second largest in the state after ExxonMobil’s 560,000 bpd refinery in Baytown, Texas.

Anadarko said Saturday it shut in production at its Neptune, Independence Hub, Constitution and Marco Polo facilities in the eastern and central portions of the Gulf and will evacuate all employees from them once the work is complete.

The Independence Hub is a group of 11 gas fields located 123 miles southeast of Biloxi, Miss., and the largest natural-gas processing facility in the Gulf. In 2010 it processed 550 million cubic feet per day, or about 9% of total Gulf of Mexico natural gas output.

Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Apache Corp. also started evacuating nonessential personnel from their Gulf production platforms Saturday, following in the footsteps of Anadarko Petroleum, Marathon Oil, Murphy Oil and Royal Dutch Shell, which all started similar precautions on Friday.
MRC

(dsm) -- Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, announces that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Kensey Nash, through the merger of its subsidiary Biomedical Acquisition Corporation with and into Kensey Nash.

As a result of the merger, Kensey Nash is now an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of DSM. The acquisition, announced on 3 May 2012, will strengthen and complement DSM’s biomedical business, one of the three Emerging Business Areas of DSM. The acquisition, for a total enterprise value of approximately USD 360 million, positions DSM Biomedical as a profitable growth platform for DSM.

The acquisition strengthens DSM's existing position in the market for bio-passive (medical coatings and polymers) and the emerging market for bio-active (resorbable polymers and drug delivery) materials. It also provides DSM with a strong position and pipeline of new technologies in the developing field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering (bio-interactive materials).
MRC

(plastemart) -- Enterprise Products will build a world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit on the Texas Gulf coast, with the capacity to consume up to 35,000 bpd of propane to produce up to 1.65 bln lb/year (750,000 tpa or 25,000 bpd) of polymer-grade propylene (PGP).

Operations are slated to commence in Q3-2015. The facility would integrate with Enterprise’s existing natural gas liquids (NGL) and propylene facilities.

For propane feedstock supply, the PDH unit will utilize Enterprise’s NGL fractionation and storage system on the Texas coast. By 2015, with completion of previously-announced expansions, Enterprise plans to have 708,000 bpd of NGL fractionation capacity, which would provide up to 177,000 bpd of propane supply.

In addition, the facility will be supported by its 100 million bbl of NGL and petrochemical storage facilities in the Texas Gulf coast region.In 2015, the PDH unit will also be complemented by Enterprise’s 5.3 bln lb/year (2.4 mln tpa or 80,000 bpd) of propylene fractionation capacity, which fractionates refinery-grade propylene to produce PGP.

Enterprise also has PGP storage facilities and a 102-mile pipeline system, capable of delivering PGP to 18 downstream customers and to international markets through the partnership’s propylene export terminal in Seabrook, Texas.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Price of all grades of RIL Polypropylene remain unchanged. RIL has offered price protection with effect from 21st June 2012 till 1st July 2012 or the next price change whichever is early. Reliance has reduced prices of HDPE Raffia and monofilament by Re 1.

Prices remain unchanged for other grades of HDPE. Prices of LDPE Extrusion Coating grade is down by Rs 1.50 while other grades of LDPE are down by Re 1.

PVC prices have seen no change. All EVA grades are down by Rs 2.Roll over in prices of all LLDPE /UHMWPE grades.

MRC