Bayer names Adrian Percy as new Head of R&D

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effective August 1, 2014 Dr. Adrian Percy, currently Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs within Bayer CropScience will take over the position as Global Head of Research & Development (R&D), said the producer in its press release.

In his new role, Dr. Percy will also become member of the Bayer CropScience Excecutive Committee. Currently Adrian Percy (49) has responsibility for regulatory activities across the Bayer CropScience technology platforms, including Seeds & Traits, Crop Protection and Environmental Science globally. He began his career in 1991 as a Toxicologist with Rhone-Poulenc in France. Since then, he has held numerous positions in the Research and Development departments of Bayer CropScience and its legacy companies in France, Germany and the USA.

Dr. David Nicholson, currently Head of R&D has decided to leave the company to pursue other career opportunities outside of Bayer, effective July 31, 2014. “We thank Dr. Nicholson for his valuable contributions to the company and wish him all the best for the future”, says Bayer CropScience CEO Liam Condon.

As MRC wrote before, following a successful test phase and promising market analysis, Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) plans to invest EUR 15 million in the construction of a production line at its Dormagen site, which will use CO2 to produce a precursor for premium polyurethane foam. The line will have an annual production capacity of 5,000 metric tons.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,819 million (2013) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 22,400 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler has signed an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services agreement with BOC, a member of The Linde Group, for the installation of replacement heat exchangers at BOC’s Teesport facility in northeast England, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Foster Wheeler contract value was not disclosed and was included in the company’s first-quarter 2014 bookings.

Under this agreement, Foster Wheeler will provide project management, front-end engineering design, detailed engineering design, procurement services, construction supervision and quality assurance for the replacement of existing aluminium plate fin exchangers in the 1,300 tpd air separation plant.

Installation is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The Teesport facility provides oxygen and other gases to industrial facilities in the region.

As MRC reported earlier, last summer, Foster Wheeler announced that a subsidiary of its global engineering and construction (E&C) group was awarded a contract by Dow Chemical to provide services for the LA-3 crack more ethane (CME) project at Dow’s Plaquemine petrochemical complex in Louisiana. The services include detailed engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) work. The objective of the project is to improve the plant's ethane flexibility to take advantage of low-cost feedstock.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petainer, the leading supplier of plastic packaging, has launched the petainerJar, a PET jar that offers significant cost and sustainability benefits over jars made from other materials, reported the company on its site.

The new petainerJar can be supplied with short lead times either as a fully blown jar or as a PET wide mouth preform, ready to be blown by food manufacturers on their own premises as and when needed. This two stage process offers inbound freight savings of up to 90%, and, significantly reduces costs.

The petainerJar is more cost effective and sustainable than jars made from other materials because it weighs much less, which means more can be carried on a truck without breaching weight restrictions whilst making maximum use of the load space. In turn, this saves dramatically on freight costs and fuel consumption. Transporting jars in preform format improves environmental performance since many more can be transported in fewer shipments, further cutting down on road miles. Preforms additionally offer operational benefits because they require less storage space.

Petainer manufactures the petainerJar creating a highly engineered preform made from our PET blend that offers significant benefits over standard PET, including superior barrier technology for extended shelf life (if required), and maximised weight reduction in design saving materials, thus reducing costs. The PET petainerJar is also made from material that is fully recyclable.

The petainerJar is available in sizes ranging from 300ml to 7.6 litres, with standard neck sizes from 63 to 120mm, with the most prominent current sizes of 100mm, 110mm and 120mm. Petainer offers a portfolio of jars and is able to work with individual customers to create a range that meet their exact requirements.

Petainer is a supplier of PET preform bottles, kegs and water coolers to the beverage industry. The addition of the petainerJar to its packaging portfolio means the multiple advantages of PET can now also be enjoyed by companies in the food industry.

As MRC informed before, in February 2014, England's Petainer opened a new site in Russia producing recyclable PET beer kegs and water cooler bottles for the local market. The factory, which is located 40 miles from Moscow in Klin, is equipped with a state-of-the-art SIDE blowing machine capable of manufacturing 700 kegs per hour, up to a maximum keg size of 50kg. The facility is currently supplying 20 and 30-litre PetainerKegs to customers in Russia, as well as Belarus and the Ukraine.

Petainer is a specialist engineering and technology business, an industry leader in the development, design and manufacture of PET (polyEthylene terephthalate) plastic containers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Total production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) in Russia increased by 1% in the first five months of this year.
The greatest increase in capacity utilisation was seen at Angarsk Polymer Plant, as per MRC ScanPlast.

Russia's LDPE production was 48,600 tonnes in May, compared with 48,900 tonnes in April. Total LDPE production in Russia exceeded 273,000 tonnes in January - May of this year, compared to 270,200 tonnes in the same time a year earlier. Capacity utilisation over the reported period grew only at Angarsk Polymer Plant and Tomskneftekhim.

The structure of the Russian LDPE production during the period was as follows. Angarsk Polymer Plant produced 6,100 tonnes of LDPE in May, compared with 5,300 tonnes in April. The company managed to increase LDPE output to 26,800 tonnes in the first five months, compared with 18,800 tonnes year on year.

Tomskneftekhim last month produced 22,600 tonnes of LDPE, while in April the figure was 21,900 tonnes. The producer's LDPE output totalled 110,100 tonnes in January - May of this year, compared with 108,600 tonnes year on year.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat this year has kept its capacity utilisation at the level of last year, the five months' LDPE production at the plant was 16,200 tonnes.

Kazanorgsintez and Ufaorgsintez reduced LDPE production volumes in the first five months to 83,000 tonnes and 37,000 tonnes respectively, down 4% and 7% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US oil firm ExxonMobil is in talks with state-run Turkish Petroleum Corporation over a venture to explore for shale gas in the country's southeast and northwest regions, reported Reuters with reference to a Turkish energy official's statement.

Exxon held talks with TPAO in 2012 to over a partnership in shale, but the negotiations were inconclusive. Turkish officials say talks have since advanced and are likely to result in an agreement.

"ExxonMobil is coming to Turkey to partner up with TPAO," Selami Incedalci, the head of the energy ministry's General Directorate of Petroleum Affairs, said late on Sunday.

He said ExxonMobil was interested in onshore opportunities in the southeast and Thrace, in northwestern Turkey.

Turkey wants to reduce its annual energy bill of around $60 billion and is developing domestic resources including nuclear, coal, solar and wind energy.

Investors from the United States, Europe and Canada are also interested in Turkey's shale gas and oil, Incedalci said, adding that the Ministry was planning to hold talks with potential investors in October.

As MRC informed previously, Royal Dutch Shell is also drilling for shale gas in the region around the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, while Canadian firm TransAtlantic Petroleum is also active in the region.

Estimates of how big Turkey's shale gas reserves are vary wildly. One energy official said data from some international bodies suggested Turkey could have a massive 20 trillion cubic metres (cbm) of total reserves. Another industry expert said proven reserves so far stood at just 6-7 billion cbm.
MRC