Rosneft, Petrovietnam eye refining collaborations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- OAO Rosneft head Igor Sechin met with the chairman of Vietnam Oil & Gas Group to discuss cooperation in refining as the Russian oil producer looks at adding fields off the Asian country’s southern coast, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sechin and Nguyen Xuan Son, the chairman at Vietnam Oil & Gas, met in Moscow and talked about possible joint exploration, output and refining projects, Rosneft said today in a statement on its website.

Rosneft has been building ties with Asia since its 2006 initial public offering, signing a USD270 billion, 25-year supply agreement with China in 2013. The Kremlin-controlled company, which gained Vietnamese natural gas producers with the purchase of TNK-BP last year, is seeking to reduce dependence on western markets as Russia’s ties with the US and the Europe Union sour over the conflict in Ukraine.

"PetroVietnam is a strategic partner for Rosneft," Sechin said in the statement.

Rosneft and PetroVietnam also discussed supplying Russian oil to PetroVietnam’s Dung Quat refinery and potential cooperation on modernizing the plant, according to the statement.

Rosneft is in talks to buy Chevron’s stake in gas fields off southern Vietnam for about USD200 million, PetroVietnam CEO Do Van Hau told Bloomberg in an interview on Aug 22.

As MRC wrote before, PetroVietnam, state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, announced that it is going to construct the second oil refinery in the country. The refinery could cost USD8-10 billion.

PetroVietnam, Japan’s Mitsui & Co. and Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production are partners in the Chevron project and have the first option on any stake up for sale, Hau said.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tasnee & Sahara Olefins Co. (TSOC) has shuttered its ethylene and propylene production plant in Al Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, for nearly a month of planned maintenance, reported Tadawul.

The scheduled maintenance shutdown of the plant, which is owned and operated by Saudi Ethylene & Polyethylene Co. (SEPC), began on 1 September and will last for 24 days, according to a release from Sahara Petrochemicals Co., who owns interest in both TSOC (32.55%) and SEPC (24.41%), as per OGJ editors.

While customer supply commitments will not be interrupted due to the planned maintenance shutdown, production losses stemming from the closure will result in a profit loss of about USD1 million for Sahara, the company said.

The Jubail plant produces 1 million tpa of ethylene, about 80% of which is used as the primary feedstock for about 800,000 tpa of high-density and low-density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE), according to Sahara’s 2013 annual report. The plant has a propylene production capacity of about 285,000 tpa.

As MRC informed before, on 17 August 2014, Sahara Petrochemical Company declared that its subsidiary Al Waha petrochemicals Company was affected by a technical fault in utilities unit, leading to the interruption of production processes in all operating units. The repairing process at the plants was expected to end in a period not exceeding 9 days starting of 17 August, which means missed opportunity for the profitability of nearly 9 millions SR of polypropylene (PP) prices currently prevailing in the third quarter which will affect the expected profits in the third quarter of this year.

Sahara Petrochemical is involved in building and operating petrochemical projects, especially propylene, polypropylene, ethylene and mixed polyethylene industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell has seen a 27% surge in its profit for second-quarter 2014, on gains across all segments, especially the Olefins & Polyolefins – Americas division, said the company in its press-release.

The company envisions its margins to be supported by strong production of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) in the U.S. The company continues to benefit from favorable North American natural gas environment and is executing its expansion projects to leverage the U.S. NGLs advantage.

Plans are underway to construct a world scale plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast for producing propylene oxide (PO) and tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA), leveraging the shale gas boom in the region. The plant, which is expected to go on stream in 2019, will have annual capacity of 900 million pounds of PO and 2 billion pounds of TBA and its derivatives.

The company also remains on track with its ethylene expansion projects. The company’s multi-plant ethylene expansion program, which started last year, represents a total investment of approx USD1.3 bln across its Channelview, La Porte and Corpus Christi facilities in Texas which benefit from shale gas production.

The expansion program, when in full swing, is expected to expand annual ethylene capacity by an estimated 1.85 bln pounds for an aggregate projected capacity of 11.8 bln pounds in North America. It's methanol plant at Channelview along with its other major debottleneck projects (including expansion at La Porte) are expected to bring in new capacity at considerably lower cost than building new facilities. LyondellBasell expects to start production from the La Porte ethylene expansion project in the third quarter.

LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The company produces chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands. LyondellBasell is also a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) said that an affiliate had suspended butanediol production for scheduled maintenance to improve the efficiency of operations, as per Gulfbusiness.

Sipchem said in a bourse filing that the shutdown of the International Diol Co plant, which has an annual capacity of 75,000 tonnes, had started on August 29 and would last four weeks.

It projected the losses which Sipchem would suffer due to the shutdown at SAR8 million (USD2.1 million), which would be reflected in third-quarter results.

Sipchem made a profit of SAR244.6 million in the three months to June 30, up from SAR174.0 million in the prior-year period.

As MRC wrote previously, on 26 July, 2014, Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) had commenced trial runs at a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/low density polyethylene (LDPE) swing plant. Located in Jubail Saudi Arabia, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

Established in 1999, Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) manufactures and markets methanol, butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate monomer. Besides, it has launched several down-stream projects to manufacture ethylene vinyl acetate, low density polyethylene, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, cross linkable polyethylene, and semi conductive compound that are scheduled to start in 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Great Wall Energy and Chemical Co has started its new vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant started on August 20, 2014.

Located in Yinchuan, China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in October 2013, top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai. China, the world's largest net importer of oil, is likely to add 3 million barrels per day, or a quarter of new refining capacity, between 2013 and 2015 to fuel economic growth, industry officials and Chinese media estimate.

Thus, Sinopec started formal planning for the 400,000 barrels-per-day refinery and a 1 million tonnes-per-year ethylene project in a plan to curb pollution by shifting an old plant to Shanghai's southern edge, the officials told Reuters this week.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC