Prime Evolue Singapore starts building metallocene LLDPE production plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prime Evolue Singapore, a joint venture of Mitsui Chemical’s wholly-owned Prime Polymer subsidiary and Mitsui & Co., has broken ground for a new Evolue metallocene linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) production unit in Tembusu, Jurong Island, Singapore, according to GV.

Prime Evolue was established late last year for the sales and production of Mitsui Chemical’s Evolue LLDPE in Singapore. The venture, owned 80% by Prime Polymer and 20% by Mitsui, and with a capital of USD115-million, is building a 300,000-t/y Evolue production unit.

Construction is scheduled for completion in December 2014, with commercial operations expected during the second quarter of 2015.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, ExxonMobil’s chemical plant in Singapore is now producing ethylene from the facility’s second world-scale steam cracker. The company started operations at this ethylene steam crackers in Singapore in early 2013. The expansion is integrated with the existing petrochemical plant. Over the next few weeks, the petrochemical complex, powered by a 375-megawatt cogeneration plant, will increase production at its three polyethylene plants, two polypropylene plants, a specialty metallocene elastomers unit and the expanded oxo-alcohol and aromatics units.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical has awarded a contract to Wood Group Mustang for construction of 140 miles of ethane, ethylene, propane and propylene pipelines between Dow's site in Freeport, Texas, and facilities at Mont Belvieu, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The pipelines and station upgrades are part of construction for a world-class ethylene unit, previously announced as part of Dow's plan to further connect its US operations with cost-advantaged feedstocks.

Wood Group Mustang will provide engineering, field services and construction management on the project through its Houston and Angleton, Texas offices.

Wood Group Mustang has previously provided a full spectrum of services for Dow's pipeline assets, including support for the company's Texas pipeline integrity program.

Following completion of front-end loading in 2012, detailed design for the project began in February 2013. Completion is scheduled for late 2016.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in March 2013, Dow Chemical signed a long-term ethylene off-take agreement with a new Japanese joint venture that will allow the chemical producer to enhance its performance plastics franchise. The joint venture is being formed between Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui & Co. to construct and operate a Linear Alpha Olefins unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and synthetic rubber. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately USD57 billion. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A Canadian energy company has reached a deal with major German utility E.ON to export liquefied natural gas from a proposed plant on the Atlantic coast of Canada, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The multi-billion dollar project is one of several planned LNG terminal projects designed to export a glut of North American natural gas, which has depressed prices on the continent but made the gas more attractive to overseas buyers.

A handful of big and small energy producers are scrambling to line up approvals, financing and customers for a number of gas export projects in both Canada and the US.

In the deal announced Monday, Pieridae Energy (Canada) Ltd. said it plans to ship about 5 million tpy of LNG to Western Europe from a LNG plant it plans to build in Goldboro, Nova Scotia on Canada's Atlantic coast. The exact financial terms weren't disclosed, but E.ON said the contract is worth several billion euros per year.

It marks the first contract for a Canadian LNG export plant with a major end-user of gas, something that has so far eluded several proposed liquefaction facilities envisioned for Canada's Pacific coast, which are geared toward Asian markets.

Pieridae said LNG shipments would start by the first quarter of 2020, subject to clearing an environmental assessment in Nova Scotia. The plant will handle a yearly volume of around 10 million tons of LNG, which will be pumped onto ships for export.

E.ON's commitment is viewed as an anchor deal that may help Pieridae convince other buyers to contract for its still-untested supplies of LNG. For E.ON, LNG from North American allows it to diversify its gas supply, which is now concentrated on deliveries from Russia.

As MRC reported earlier, a small British Columbia natural gas export project has moved closer to selling Canadian energy to Asia after a pair of international investors agreed to help backstop the USD485 million project. Bermuda-based Golar LNG had already committed some of its LNG vessels to BCLNG, the pint-sized export facility backed in part by the Haisla First Nation near Kitimat, BC Now Golar, alongside an unnamed Asian firm, has agreed to partner in the project, with Golar taking a 25% ownership stake in a facility that stands to be the first in Canada to send natural gas across the Pacific. The partners have also agreed to assist with financing for the Haisla, who hold a 27.5% stake in the bid to export 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes per year of LNG.

Besides, in February, 2013, Canada's National Energy Board approved a liquefied natural gas export license for Royal Dutch Shell Plc's planned LNG export plant on British Columbia's Pacific Coast. The regulator approved exports of up to 670 million tonnes of LNG over the 25-year period covered by the license, or 3.23 billion cubic feet of gas per day. The license was given to LNG Canada Development Inc, a Shell-led consortium that includes Mitsubishi Corp, PetroChina and Korea Gas Corp.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wuhan Petrochemical, a major Chinese manufacturer of petrochemical products, has shut its polypropylene (PP) plant in Hubei province, China, reported Apic-Online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant with the nominal producion capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year was shut over late last weekend. It is likely to remain shut for 2-3 weeks.

The reason behind the closure could not be ascertained.

As MRC wrote earlier, Wuhan Petrochemical will be starting a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant. A source in China informed that the plant is scheduled to commence commercial production in June 2013. Located in Wuhan, China, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year.

Besides, the company started up its new naphtha cracker at Wuhan in Hubei province in late May. The naphtha cracker of the company can produce 800,000 tonnes per year of ethylene.

Wuhan Petrochemical Engineering Design Co., Ltd. offers engineering design, supervision, consultation, and related services for oil refinery, petrochemicals, distribution, and storage of oil and gas products. The company is based in China, its parent company is Sinopec.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- WACKER, the Munich-based chemical Group, has developed a modular system for pourable, addition-curing silicone rubber compounds, reported the company on its site.

With this system, available under the ELASTOSIL VARIO name, both the reactivity of the silicone rubber compound and the hardness of the elastomer can be adjusted as desired. Compounders and silicone processors can now produce tailor-made products in any desired quantity.

ELASTOSIL VARIO is suitable for encapsulating and coating, for making technical moulded parts, and for mould making.

Typical applications of ELASTOSIL VARIO are encapsulation of electronic devices and circuits and coating of technical textiles and metal or plastic surfaces. The modular system also lends itself to the production of gaskets and of silicone mould parts, such as those used for making prototypes in medical technology. It can also be used to make all kinds of reproductions and moulds.

ELASTOSIL VARIO is translucent and can be pigmented in any color. The two self-mixed components can be processed in pressureless casting systems, either by hand or with the aid of two-component mixing and metering lines.

As MRC informed earlier, Wacker Chemie AG stopped the short-time work schedule introduced at Burghausen’s polysilicon facilities back in early October 2012. The Munich-based chemical company is trying to meet growing demand from its solar-sector customers. To do so, the company is ramping up its current capacities - which are currently curbed to two-thirds of full utilisation - and is, thus, ending short-time work at Wacker Polysilicon.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.
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