Iraq shortlists firms to build USD18 billion oil export pipeline

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq has shortlisted 12 international companies and consortiums to build the country's first oil export pipeline in decades, and will ask them to submit their bids by the end of this year for an USD18 billion project that will make the country less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, Hydrocarbonprocessing said.

Iraq's oil ministry has chosen these companies out of more than 80 international companies which submitted their credentials to build a section of the 1,680 km pipeline stretching from the oil hub of Basra in southern Iraq to Jordanian port of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

The short listed companies and consortiums are: LUKOIL, China National Petroleum Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Toyota Tsusho, Punj Lloyd (India) and Mass Global International (Iraq), Saipem, Daewoo International Corporation, Consolidated Contractors Company (Greece), Go Gas, L&T and Fuis Capital, Petrofac and Stroygazconsulting, or SGC, and Orascom and Petrojet (Egypt).

As MRC wrote before, LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd (West Qurna-2 project operator) has signed several major contracts for the West Qurna-2 field infrastructure development in Iraq based on the tender results. The contract with Samsung Engineering (Korea) sets out 29 months to construct 5 well pads with 67 development wells, 5 gathering lines, a central processing facility (CPF), a water intake on the Euphrates River and a water pipeline to the CPF, a power supply system and a field camp.

SCOP will invite the short listed companies to receive the tender package, the second person said. SCOP will also propose that companies need to submit their offers by November or December.

Iraq and Jordan signed a preliminary agreement in April to build the section of the pipeline that would stretch from an Iraqi oil pumping station in Haditha, west of Iraq, to Aqaba. The rest of the pipeline, which is 680 km long, linking a Basra pumping station with the one in Haditha would be built and financed by the Iraqi oil ministry.

Iraq hopes the pipeline will make it less dependent on Persian Gulf export terminals, providing the country with an alternative route if Iran closes the Strait of Hormus. Tehran has threatened on several occasions to close the strategic waterway through which 35% of the world's shipborne oil is exported, most recently in response to international sanctions over its suspect nuclear program.

Iraq sits on some of the world's largest oil reserves and was once a major exporter of crude. It's now trying to rebuild an industry that was devastated by years of war and sanctions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LG Yongxing Chemical has raised run rates at its acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plant, as per Apic-Online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that run rates at the plant were rasied early this week. The plant was earlier operating at lower rates owing to production issues.

Located in Ningbo, China, the plant has a production capacity of 700,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported, another Chinese polymer producer Keyuan Petrochemicals has previously announced plans for a new 400,000-t/y acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in China’s Guangxi Province. The company said it is currently going through the government approval process and design phase. Keyuan now expects the first phase of the project to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France, and to restore its competitiveness, according to Stockmarketwire.

Total plans indeed to develop new activities on the platform in the growing markets for hydrocarbon resins (Cray Valley) and for polymers, while shutting down the acutely loss-making steam cracker in the second half of 2015.

Total has already reduced European refining through the closing of its plant near Dunkirk in France, capacity reduction at Normandy and the sale of its 49 percent stake in Spain’s Cia. Espanola de Petroleos SA. Total has also tried and failed to sell its Lindsey plant in the U.K.

The Carling plant, which makes petrochemicals such as ethylene and propylene at the site near the German border, employs 350 Total workers as well as sub-contractors. These chemicals are used to make plastics.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ningbo-based Keyuan Petrochemicals, an independent manufacturer and supplier of various petrochemical products in China, has disclosed its plans to build a new solution polymerized styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) production facility and expand its existing ethylene-styrene copolymer plant, reported GV.

Keyuan, citing increased demand for SSBR in the tire market, said it is building a 150,000-t/y facility that will utilize its own production technology. The project, for which a location and construction schedule were not given, is estimated to have a cost of USD99.5-million.

Additionally, Keyuan is expanding the capacity of its ethylene-styrene copolymer plant to 200,000 t/y from 80,000 t/y, allowing for the sale of 120,000 t/y to down-stream petrochemical producers.

"This facility can be considered the bridge between original products and high-value added products and will complete the integration of internal resources," the company noted.

As MRC wrote previously, Regarding Keyuan’s previously announced plans for a new 400,000-t/y acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in China’s Guangxi Province, the company said it is currently going through the government approval process and design phase. Keyuan now expects the first phase of the project to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.

Keyuan Petrochemicals, Inc., established in 2007 and operating through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Keyuan Plastics, Co. Ltd., is located in Ningbo, China and is a leading independent manufacturer and supplier of various petrochemical products. The company is located in Qingshi Industrial Park, Ningbo, China and has annual petrochemical manufacturing design capacity of 720,000 metric tons for a variety of petrochemical products, including BTX aromatics, propylene, styrene, MTBE and other chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam will increase import taxes on polypropylene (PP) from zero to 1% by 2014, 2% by 2015 and 3% by 2016, reported GV.

The tax adjustments are mentioned in Circular No 107 recently issued by the Ministry of Finance.

The circular contains changes to preferential import tax rates on certain commodities that have been in force since September 26, 2013.

According to the Vietnam Plastics Association (VPA), PP is one of three major raw materials used in producing plastic items, so households that make low-value utensils will suffer the most from the tax hike.

Domestic firms only turn out 150,000 tonnes of PP annually while local demand is 750,000 tonnes per year, forcing industry players to import 600,000 tonnes to make up for the shortfall, VPA reports.

As MRC informed earlier, in mid-summer 2010 the polypropylene plant rolled out its first product in the Dung Quat Economic Zone in Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province. Construction of the 150,000 tpa plant started in December 2007 with a total investment outlay of USD234 mln. Polypropylene wass Vietnam’s first petrochemical product to be manufactured from propylene gas from the Dung Quat Oil Refinery.
MRC