BASF selecs Jacobs to provide engineering services for Belgian chemicals site

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jacobs Engineering Group received a frame agreement from BASF to provide engineering services at BASF’s integrated chemicals complex in Antwerp, Belgium, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs is providing process, piping and electrical/ instrumentation engineering services.

Officials did not disclose the contract value, but noted that the contract duration is three years.

BASF’s integrated approach to manufacturing, research, infrastructure, processes and management is known as Verbund, a German word meaning linked or integrated to the maximum degree. The Antwerp site is BASF’s second-largest Verbund site; it comprises more than 50 installations located on over two square miles.

"We look forward to continuing to support BASF’s Verbund principles at the site,” said Jacobs vice president Mark Bello.

As MRC wrote previously, Toyo Engineering had recently reached a comprehensive engineering partnership agreement with BASF for the Asia-Pacific region. The three-year agreement covers basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, construction management, and other project-related services in the region's petrochemical and chemical sectors.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s Sahara Petrochemicals plans to start up four joint venture plants over the next two years, completing the company’s initial expansion programme in Jubail, according to the company’s executive president, Mubasher reported.

The company, which started in 2004, will have ownership of 10 plants in the Eastern Province petrochemicals hub by the end of 2014, says Saleh Bahamdan.

Plants set to start up in 2013 include the USD500m chlor-alkali joint venture with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden), which will produce 300,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene di-chloride and 250,000 t/y of caustic soda.

Another project expected to be commissioned is an acrylic acid plant, which Sahara jointly owns with Saudi group Tasnee and the US’ Dow Chemical. The complex has proposed nameplate capacities of 145,000 t/y of acrylic acid and 160,000 t/y of butyl acrylate.

The super-absorbent polymer (Sap) plant – a joint venture of Sahara and Tasnee subsidiaries and Germany’s Evonik Industries – is also on track for commissioning by the end of 2013.

A fourth plant to produce 330,000 t/y of n-butanol is expected to come onstream by the end of 2014. The project is a joint venture of Sahara, Tasnee, Sabic, and Sadara Chemical, the latter a partnership of Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical.

Bahamdan said that Sahara is studying the possibility of starting further projects in 2015 after the current wave of construction is completed.

"There is no limit to the opportunities in expansion," says the executive president. "We are looking to do more improvement on cost – to do more with less cost."

As MRC wrote earlier, Sahara Petrochemicals's annual consolidated financial results for the period ended 31 Dec 2012, amounted: net profit - SR204.45 million compared to SR 411.58 million for the previous year with a decrease of 50%. Earnings per share (EPS) during 2012 amounted to SR.47, based on that total share count 438.8 million, compared to SR 1.35 for the period of the previous year, where average shares counted 305.8 million, as the current shares number has increased compared with the previous year due to capital increase that took place in the 4th quarter of the previous year.

Sahara Petrochemicals performs participation and supervises foundation and establishing several limited liability companies in Al Jubail Industrial City with the participation of Saudi and foreign companies that have the modern skills and technologies; to produce and market its chemical and petrochemical products such as propylene, polypropylene, ethylene and polyethylene.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Inter Pipeline Fund has entered into a binding agreement with NOVA Chemicals Corporation involving the long term sale of ethane production from its Cochrane extraction plant, said Plastemart.

Under the new agreement, NOVA will purchase the majority of ethane volumes produced from Inter Pipeline's extraction facilities at Cochrane, Alberta. The contract extends to the end of 2024 and will significantly increase cash flow within Inter Pipeline's ethane extraction business unit. In 2012, Inter Pipeline's Cochrane extraction plant produced approximately 52,000 bpd, making it the largest ethane production facility in Canada. NOVA currently purchases a significant portion of ethane production from the Cochrane facility under an agreement due to expire at the end of 2014.

"Inter Pipeline is pleased to announce a long term agreement with one of Canada's leading petrochemical producers," commented David Fesyk, President and CEO. "The new contract includes improved pricing and commercial terms when compared to historical ethane contracts in Alberta. This reflects continued strong market demand for ethane in the Province, particularly from large, stable sources of long term supply."

The term of the new ethane sales agreement begins on January 1, 2015 and extends for a 10 year period. Inter Pipeline and NOVA have also agreed to amend certain terms of the existing ethane contract at Cochrane for the interim period through December 31, 2014. Under the terms of the new agreement, Inter Pipeline will receive a combination of fixed and variable revenue payments which include the recovery of operating costs. Inter Pipeline expects that over 50% of cash flow under the new contract will be derived from fixed payments which are not dependent on natural gas throughput levels at the Cochrane plant.

This will result in more stable and predictable cash flow. Under the current agreement, Inter Pipeline's cash flow is dependent on variable ethane production levels at the Cochrane plant. Structuring the new contract with a significantly higher fixed payment component also creates a stronger alignment of incentives for both parties to maximize natural gas flow rates through the Cochrane plant.

As MRC wrote earlier, the last world-scale polyethylene plant in North America was built by Nova and that was in 2000. All the announcements of new projects and expansions means a 40% increase in PE production just by the end of this decade. Nova Chemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company, had said it planned to take advantage of emerging feedstock supply from Marcellus and expand its ethylene and polyethylene capacities.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A new petrochemical hub will be set up in the southeastern port city of Chabahar at an investment of USD20 bln in investment, and will add 15 million tons to the country’s petrochemical production, said Plastemart.

"Reducing the cost of petrochemical exports to India and China will be the most important achievement of this new petrochemical hub," as per the managing director of National Petrochemical Company (NPC). "Industrial and economic development in the east and southeast [of Iran] is the main reason behind the establishment and inauguration of the country’s third petrochemical hub," Bayat added.

As MRC wrote earlier, Mr Abdolhossein Bayat head of the National Petrochemical Company said that the annual output of Iran's petrochemical plants has reached 57 million tonnes after commissioning Mehre Mandegar projects in the petrochemical sector. He noted that Kermanshah polymer plant has increased Iran's annual polymer output to 6.3 million tonnes adding that the country's overall petrochemical production capacity now stands at 57 million tonnes per year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- M&G Group, announces it has signed a Licensee Agreement with Alpek, S.A.B. de C.V. (Alpek) for IntegRex PTA technology, said the producer in its statement.

The technology will be used in the construction of M&G's previously announced 1,200,000 MT per annum PTA plant at Corpus Christi, Texas. M&G also announces today, Alpek has purchased for a price of USD350,000,000, a multiyear sourcing agreement covering rights to 400,000 MT of PET (made with 336,000 MT of integrated PTA) per year.

M&G will fully own and independently construct and operate both the PET and PTA plants, will use the vast majority of the plants' output - 600,000 MT of PET and 864,000 of PTA - to grow with its PET clients in North America and to captively source part of its other PTA requirements in North America.

Both the PTA plant and M&G's proprietary 1,000,000 MT per annum PET plant are expected to begin production in 2016.

Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G stated, "Thanks to the unique and experienced world class engineering of Chemtex and Sinopec we will be the first to scale up IntegRex PTA technology to this level. It is through the combination of the up-scaled IntegRex PTA technology and the innovative M&G Easy-up PET Technology that we will be introducing at Corpus Christi the most efficient, state of art, PTA-PET plants in the Americas."

Alpek is the largest petrochemical company in Mexico and the second largest in Latin America. The company operates through two business segments: Polyester chain products (PTA, PET and polyester fibers), and Plastics and Chemicals products (PP, EPS, caprolactam, polyurethanes and other specialty and industrial chemicals). Alpek is a leading producer of PTA and PET worldwide, operates the largest expandable polystyrene plant in America and one of the largest polypropylene plants in North America. It is also the only producer of caprolactam in Mexico. In 2012, Alpek reported revenues of USD7,277 million and EBITDA of U.S. USD728 million. The company operates 20 plants in Mexico, USA and Argentina, and employs 4,700 people. Alpek is a publicly traded company listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange.

M&G Group is a family owned chemical engineering and manufacturing group headquartered in Tortona, Italy. M&G Group operates in the PET resin industry in the Americas through its wholly-owned holding company, Mossi & Ghisolfi International S.A. (M&G International). M&G International is presently a leading producer of PET resin for packaging applications in the Americas, with a production capacity in 2012 of approximately 1.6 million tons per year. Thanks to its proprietary Easy-up PET Technology M&G International currently owns the world's largest single line PET plants in Altamira, Mexico (single line of 490,000 MT/year nominal capacity) and Suape, Brazil (single line of 650,000 MT/year nominal capacity).
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