Vopak, Greenergy, Shell completed purchase of Coryton refinery

(english.capital) -- Royal Dutch Shell, Royal Vopak NV and Greenergy Ltd. said Monday that they completed the acquisition of the Coryton refinery in England, which was previously owned bankrupt oil refiner Petroplus Holdings AG.

The transaction follows the earlier announcement by the consortium on 26 June 2012. The three companies plan to develop and invest in this facility - to be named Thames Oil Port - to create a state-of-the-art import and distribution terminal for oil products to be managed by Vopak.

The initial storage capacity will be around 500,000 cubic meters (cbm), with potential to expand to up to 1 million cbm in later stages. The transaction was completed on Friday Sept. 28 with PwC, the administrator of Petroplus Refining & Marketing Limited.

MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- BP on Friday agreed to sell all its interests in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production in Malaysia to India’s Reliance Industries, including its 610,000 tpy plant in Kuantan on the east coast of Malaysia.

Reliance has agreed to purchase BP’s interest in the plant for USD230 million in cash. Both parties anticipate completing the transaction in 2012.

"This is an efficient plant with a good market position in the region," said James Yim, head of BP's aromatics business in Asia.

Nick Elmslie, CEO of BP Petrochemicals, said: "BP has a major, global PTA business, with around one fifth of global PTA production capacity and a track record of leading technology."

"We are also building new revenue streams by licensing our PTA and paraxylene technologies."

All current plant staff members are expected to transfer to the new owners under equivalent terms and conditions, according to officials involved with the sale.

BP’s acetic acid manufacturing and marketing business in Malaysia is unaffected by this sale.
MRC

(Platts) -- Shell Chemicals informed customers Thursday that it will extend a force majeure for supply of ethylene oxide and glycol products after a malfunction during a turnaround restart at its Geismar, Louisiana, facility forced a prolonged shutdown.

Shell was uncertain how long the shutdown would last, according to the letter, which noted that products impacted include EO and all grades of monoethlyne glycol and diethylene glycol. The plant has a MEG capacity of 400,000 mt/year. It was unclear what type of problems occurred during the restart.

MEG prices spiked after Hurricane Isaac hit the US Gulf Coast in late August, causing production issues for producers that are still contributing to a tight supply.

Shell's force majeure at the Geismar facility was initially announced shortly after Hurricane Isaac hit, and was seen as the most significant factor to the decrease in MEG supply though supply was tight globally with production constraints heard in the Middle East and in Europe.

MRC

(reuters) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (Chevron Phillips Chemical) congratulates Saudi Polymers Company (SPCo) and its joint venture partner, National Petrochemical Company (Petrochem), as the joint venture’s manufacturing facility located in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, begins commercial production.

The integrated SPCo petrochemicals complex includes world-class operating units that are capable of producing Ethylene (1,220 kmta), Propylene (440 kmta), Polyethylene (1,100 kmta), Polypropylene (400 kmta), Polystyrene (200 kmta) and 1-Hexene (100 kmta). In addition to direct sales to serve local Saudi demand, SPCo will manufacture products to serve growing world demand outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through its exclusive distributor, Gulf Polymers Distribution Company, utilizing Chevron Phillips Chemical’s global marketing network.

SPCo, which began construction in January 2008, has created approximately 950 jobs, with a high percentage being occupied by Saudi nationals.

SPCo is a limited liability company incorporated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is owned 65 percent by Petrochem, a joint-stock company incorporated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and 35 percent by Arabian Chevron Phillips Petrochemical Company (ACP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC

(Platts) -- US polyethylene maker Dow Chemical announced Friday that it will hike its US polyethylene resin prices by 4 cents/lb in November.

The increase is effective November 1. The company noted that the November increase is on top of all previously announced price hikes.

Major polyethylene producers in the US are looking to increase polyethylene prices in October by 5 cents/lb as well. This comes on top of 3-5 cents/lb price increases seen in August and September.

Polyethylene supplies have been extremely tight since July when buying interest surged after the market had appeared to bottom out. Sellers were unable to meet the rash of inquiries and have yet to catch up. Sources said that inventory levels were were limited with sellers reporting being sold out for September.

Still there was some question as to whether the October increases would pass.

"There was a lot of product purchased in September in order to hedge against future increases like this," a market source said. "I am not sure if there is going to be enough demand out there right now to support the higher prices in October," one source said.

Spot demand continued to be suppressed by higher prices which left US values unprofitable. Sources anticipated that this could change, however, amid rising prices in both Asia and Latin America.
MRC