Reliance plans to acquire a petrochemical unit

(Plastemart) -- India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is in talks with BP PLC about buying the British oil company’s petrochemical plant in Malaysia. RIL has expressed interest in BP’s 610,000 tpa purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Malaysia.

Both the companies have declined to comment.

Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Mexichem together with Occidental Chemical Corp (Oxychem) is going to build a cracker that would be fully operational in 2016. The cost of the venture is a USD1 bln. A feasibility study for the new cracker is expected to be ready in the second quarter of 2013.

Both the companies will invest equally in the project. It will comprise an ethane-based cracker to produce about 500,000 tons of ethylene to feed a Texas facility of Oxychem. Oxychem would use the ethylene to produce about 1 mln tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and sell it back to Mexichem under a long-term supply agreement. The agreements, along with a joint investment with Mexico's state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, would guarantee the supplies it needs for its PVC production at competitive rates.

Mexichem is a Mexican company and one of the largest leader in the Latin American chemical and petrochemical industry.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. Oxychem is Oxy's Texas-based subsidiary which manufacture polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins, chlorine and caustic soda used in plastics, pharmaceuticals and water treatment chemicals.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Williams Energy is going to invest over USD800 mln to build a facility near Redwater to convert propane into a higher value feedstock for the petrochemical industry - propylene.

The propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant will produce propylene to be sold into the US Gulf Coast market. The expected cost of the plant construction is between USD600-800 mln.

"Building a PDH facility would further build on the value and expertise that we’ve built in Canada and serve the booming North American petrochemical market," said David Chappell, president of Williams Energy Canada. "We’ve built a unique business in Canada and we’re continuing to explore ways to capture more of the off-gas available from existing and planned upgraders and add more value to the products we produce," he added.

The Redwater plant converts the extracted gases into five petrochemical feedstocks, which are sold throughout North America. The company expects the proposed Redwater expansion would see it produce about 500,000 tons of petrochemical feedstock each year.
MRC

(sabic) -- Sabic Innovative Plastics has launched a new line of Noryl SA90 and SA9000 resins that can be used as additives for epoxy and non-epoxy thermoset systems.

These advanced new materials address expanding requirements and regulations for printed circuit boards (PCBs), including the call for enhanced sustainability, and exceptional overall cost control. Noryl SA90 and SA9000 resins can also be used by makers of pre-pregs and copper-coated laminates, electrical adhesives, composites and coatings.

Noryl SA90 and SA9000 resins represent new materials that provide the property enhancement of PPE, but in a form compatible with many thermoset systems. These benefits can also provide value in other markets including adhesives, coatings, and composites.

Sabic is ranked among the world’s largest petrochemicals manufacturers. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia. The comany manufactures chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer. Among its products are propylene, paraxylene, styrene, vinyl chloride monomer.
MRC

(DOW) -- Dow Chemical announces it has voluntarily completed a program to replace mercury-based catalysts used in a product portfolio acquired from another company. The results of the 18-month, complex program enabled Dow Formulated Systems to remove all organo-mercury catalysts from its polyurethane elastomer products prior to the European Union’s formal recommendation to phase out these catalysts, and five years before such compliance is mandated.

"The success of the mercury catalyst replacement program sets a new standard for the polyurethane industry and puts our customers ahead of the competition for years to come," said David Kepler, Executive Vice President, Business Services, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chief Information Officer.

Dow Chemical is a provider of plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products with a presence in about 160 countries. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC