UAE petrochem hubs open for investment up to USD80bn

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrochemical hubs of Jubail and Yanbu in the United Arab Emirates are seeking investment of more than 300 billion riyal (approx USD80 billion) from national and international investors, said Fibre2fashion.

The upcoming projects are open for foreign investments worth USD50 billion in Jubail Industrial City and USD25 billion in Yanbu Industrial City, said Dr. Alaa A Nassif, CEO of Royal Commission at Yanbu.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Annual Investors Meeting of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY), Dr. Nassif said the two industrial cities offer a large number of investment opportunities in the petrochemical sector of Saudi Arabia.

He added that the petrochemical hub of Yanbu has major scope for investors. So far, the industrial developers have invested over USD10 billion in Yanbu region.

The Jubail Industrial City has the world’s fourth largest petrochemical company. A refinery is being built in the region, which will have a capacity to process over 1 million tons of petrochemicals, including paraxylene, polymer-grade propylene and benzene, annually.

The parks will generate more employment (up to 6 times) than the upstream industry, making low investments, compared to upstream petrochemical investments. They will bridge the economic gap between petrochemicals and the key demand sectors (automotive, packaging, and construction), and provide easy access to European and Asian end markets.

The UAE has an overall petrochemical production capacity of 6.1 million tons, which is 4.8 percent of the Middle East region’s total capacity.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanxi Huojia Chemical will restart its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant following a maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-Online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant will be restarted in end-June 2013. It was shut on May 29, 2013.

Located in Shanxi province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 160,000 tonnes per year.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, Sinopec Qilu conducted a monthly maintenance at its PVC plant from 8 April to mid-May, 2013. Located at Zibo, Shandong province in China, the PVC plant has a production capacity of 120,000 tonnes per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian Alfa Group has created a new London-based investment vehicle named L1 Energy mandated to take on new exploration & production, oilfield services, infrastructure and other energy projects, said Upstreamonline.

The Alfa Group was a 50% shareholder in the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium that owned half of Anglo-Russian venture TNK-BP until it sold out to Rosneft for USD28 billion last year.

Former TNK-BP executive director and Alfa Group board member German Khan is to become chief executive of the new company and will hire the rest of the management team.

L1 Energy’s international advisory board is to include a number of well-known industry figures. AAR consortium chief executive Stan Polovets is to be the lead member of the board, based from New York.

Riverstone partner and former BP chief executive John Browne is also part of the lineup, as is fellow Riverstone partner and former Anadarko Petroleum chief executive Jim Hackett and BG Group chairman and former Schlumberger chief executive Andrew Gould.

Browne said that the new vehicle was well positioned to "capitalise on a wide variety of oil and gas opportunities throughout the world".

The former BP boss said that L1 Energy would benefit from a "unique combination of value creation track record, mergers & acquisitions expertise, permanent structure and access to capital".

The company will have access to a permanent capital fund that can be used for full acquisitions or strategic shareholdings.

L1 Energy is part of LetterOne Group, Alfa Group's new international corporate investment vehicle, which will also include the group's telecommunications assets as well as its financial assets resulting from the sale of its stake in TNK-BP.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Williams Olefins has declared force majeure on ethylene supplies out of its Geismar, Louisiana, olefins complex that was impacted by an explosion and fire, according to Plastemart.

As per the experts' estimates, only a 40% allocation of originally contracted ethylene volumes will be available for June under the force majeure.

Besides, spot ethylene prices rebounded on Friday after the blast and fire at Williams Olefins's ethane cracker. In the US ethylene prices at Friday noon jumped to 60 cent/lb, which is equivalent to USD1,323/tonne (EUR992/tonne). Ethylene traded at that level or higher for the first time since mid-May.

As MRC reported previously, Thursday’s explosion and fire at Williams Olefins' plant injured 77 and killed two persons. Williams president and CEO Alan Armstrong and Geismar plant manager Larry Bayer held a press conference Friday near the site of the explosion and said that they are still unsure what caused the deadly explosion and massive fire at the natural gas liquids processing facility.

The Geismar, La. plant is a natural gas liquids cracker that processes olefins used in the petrochemical industry. Williams Partners produces approximately 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of polymer grade prophylene from the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Ukrainian imports of polyethylene (PE) in May decreased by 13% compared to April and totalled 25,800 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Seasonal factors and excess volumes of imports in April were the main reason for the decline of imports of polyethylene to Ukraine in May.
Imports were reduced for all grades of polyethylene, with the largest decrease in linear polyethylene.

Last month, imports of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to Ukraine decreased by 3% compared to April and totalled 13,200 tonnes.
In May, on the back of weak demand and prolonged decline in prices Ukrainian companies reduced their purchases of pipe HDPE almost by one and a half times.
In other sectors of consumption (injection moulding, film extrusion, blow mouding) Imports, on the contrary, increased.

In January - May of this year, the imports of HDPE made 58,600 tonnes, up 28% compared with the same period a year ago.
This significant increase in imports resulted from the outage at Karpatneftekhim, which stopped operating in September 2012. As the main production of the plant accounted for film PE, the bulk of imports made film HDPE (72% compared to last year).

Imports of high-density polyethylene (LDPE) in May decreased by 17% compared to April and reached about 7,100 tonnes.

The May decline in the supply of LDPE resulted from the decline in demand for final film in the agricultural sector and the limited shipments from of the Russian producers.


In general, in January - May of this year, the imports of LDPE to Ukraine totalled about 41,000 tonnes, down 14% year on year.
Imports of linear polyethylene (LLDPE) in May decreased by 26% compared to April and made 4,600 tonnes. The decrease in supply resulted from the excessive imports in the previous month made by the producers of cast stretch films and large items produced by rotational moulding.

Over the first five months of this year, imports of linear polyethylene decreased by 18% and amounted to 24,700 tonnes.
Import of other polymers of ethylene, in May 2013 decreased by 17% and totalled about 845 tonnes.


MRC