Chevron to stop its shale gas exploration in Poland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US energy major Chevron Corp said it will stop exploring for shale gas in Poland, a sector that has failed to live up to its early promise of transforming eastern Europe's energy supplies, reported Reuters.

Chevron's Polish unit "has decided to discontinue shale gas operations in Poland as the opportunities here no longer compete favorably with other opportunities in Chevron's global portfolio", the company said in a statement.

Exxon Mobil, Total and Marathon Oil have also stopped shale gas exploration in Poland.

As MRC wrote before, according to 2012 report from business intelligence group GlobalData, the ongoing shale revolution will guide the US ethylene industry surge in the near future, growing by more than a third by 2017.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Kayan Petrochemical plans to shut several units at its petrochemicals complex in Jubail for scheduled maintenance in February and October, said Tradearabia.

The company, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), will shut its olefins plant from February 1 for almost five weeks, it said.

Production rates at some plants that depend on olefins will be cut but the impact will be offset by Kayan's inventories and other affiliates of Sabic, it said, predicting the financial impact would be SR 62 million (USD16.5 million), which would be reflected in first-quarter earnings.

In addition, an ethylene gylcol and ethylene oxide plant will be shut from October 1 for 60 days for maintenance and repairs.

Kayan will shut plants that use ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide; a polycarbonate plant will stop for 75 days, an amines plant for 65 days, and an ethoxylate plant for 61 days. All will undergo maintenance during that period.

The company said it would incur losses of SR 340 million from those shutdowns, which would be reflected in fourth-quarter earnings.

As MRC wrote earlier, Saudi Kayan, Sadara Chemical and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) have joined forces to establish a new company, which will build the first butanol plant in the Middle East and the largest in the world. The Saudi Butanol Company, which will produce butanol to support the growth of the paints and coatings industry in Saudi Arabia, will be located at Tasnee Petrochemicals Complex in Jubail Industrial City and operated by Tasnee.

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company is a manufacturing affiliate of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), the showpiece industrial project of industry-starved West Bengal, after being shut for over six months, is trying to hobble back to normalcy aided by lenders’ confidence and fall in naphtha price in world market, as per Business-standard.

Price of naphtha, the main feedstock of the petrochemical plant, is at USD400 a tonne as compared to USD1,000 in July, when the plant was shut due to lack of working capital.

According to company sources, the trial run for the captive power plant and the naphtha cracker unit has already begun. The plant has placed order for fresh naphtha and technicians are joining back.

Following the lender’s meet last week and the private promoter, The Chatterjee Group’s (TCG) promise to bring in margin amount of Rs 100 crore, the banks agreed to infuse fresh funds of Rs 800 crore in to the plant. TCG is one of the principal promoters of HPL, along with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and now in management control after WBIDC had agreed to transfer its stake to the group.

Their approval is critical before any of the proposals to revive the firm is accepted. HPL management had asked for Rs 1,000 crore to buy naphtha. The plant, when running at full capacity requires around 2.2 million metric tonne (mmt) in a year.

Officials of HPL also said that the fall in prices of raw materials gave them the confidence that even if the working capital is given in small tranches, they can restart operation. Industry experts say that currently the market for injection-moulded products such as syringes, crates, buckets, filaments is showing an uptrend.

But there is caveat. During the long closure of the plant, many longtime customers of the plant, especially the downstream units have started buying products from abroad. At its prime, HPL had a market share of 12.8 percent and a near monopoly in the eastern region.

As MRC wrote before, IndianOil Corporation (IOC) is likely to call off its planned acquisition of the West Bengal government’s 40% in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) if The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chief Purnendu Chatterjee is appointed HPL chairman.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese chemical producer Kuraray has completed the sale of its European polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film business to GVC Holdings subsidiary GVC, said Chemicals-technology.

The sale of the former DuPont business forms part of the company's efforts to comply with the European Commission's conditional approval for its acquisition of DuPont's glass-laminating solutions / vinyls (GLSV) business.
"The sale consists of PVB film assets, including a production facility in Uentrop, Germany, and a research and development centre in Mechelen, Belgium."

Effective from 31 January 2015, the sale consists of PVB film assets, which will be transferred to GVC, including a production facility in Uentrop, Germany, and a research and development centre in Mechelen, Belgium.
Kuraray earlier said that the transaction with GVC will result in a loss of around JPY6bn (USD51m).

The company signed an agreement with GVC for the transaction in October 2014. The EC issued conditional approval for the Kuraray-DuPont deal in April last year, subject to certain conditions to avoid competition concerns.

GLSV, a part of DuPont packaging and industrial polymers, offers polyvinyl butyral and ionomer sheets for safety glass and vinyl acetate monomer and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) products for architectural, automotive and industrial uses. The business operates six manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Asia.

Kuraray produces specialty chemicals, fibres and other materials, including functional resins and films, synthetic isoprene chemical products, synthetic leather, vinylon fibre and polyester fibre.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Advanced Petrochemical Company is pleased to announce the signing of long-term off-take agreements on January 29, 2015 for the sale of Polypropylene with Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan (150,000 metric ton per annum) and Domo Investment Group of Belgium (100,000 metric ton per annum), to be effective from January 1, 2019 for a period of ten years after the expiry of existing off-take agreements, said Mubasher.

The company also signed on the same date short-term off-take agreements with Mitsubishi Corporation and Domo Chemicals Asia Ltd. (subsidiary of Domo Investment Group) for the sale of additional 50,000 metric ton per annum of Polypropylene for each, to be effective from February 1, 2015 for a period of four years. Such additional Polypropylene will be produced from outsourced Propylene (intermediate product) purchased from a local supplier.

The signing of these off-take agreements will impact the financial results for these years based on prevailing market prices.

Advanced Chairman, Mr. Khalifa Al-Mulhem, commented that securing a long-term off-take commitment from these renowned and experienced off-takers will help to achieve the Company's long term strategic plans and will also improve the profitability of the Company due to improved marketing fee and better terms and conditions.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Arabia's Advanced Petrochemical Company will raise the production capacity of its polypropylene plant in Jubail to more than 500,000 mt/year, from the current 450,000 mt/year, by mid-2105.

Advanced Petrochemical Company (before Advanced Polypropylene) is a Saudi Joint Stock Company, established in October 2005. The company was initially launched by National Polypropylene Limited, jointly owned by Mr. Khalifa Al Mulhim, the chief executive officer of Advanced, and Mr. Monther Laheeq, who negotiated all the main deals related to the project, either before or after the establishment of Advanced Petrochemical. Currently, National Polypropylene Limited controls 7.9% of Advanced Petrochemical. Advanced Petrochemical started the construction of its plants in May 2005. The company produces 455,000 tons per year of propylene and 450,000 tons per year of polypropylene from its production facility located in Jubail Industrial City, in the Eastern coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
MRC