Saudi Aramco is said in talks with Sibur on Joint Plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is in talks with Sibur Holding, Russia’s largest petrochemical producer, about forming a joint venture to make synthetic rubber in the desert kingdom, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, said Bloomberg.

Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is known, and Sibur are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for the project next month when Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz visits Russia, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Talks are at an early stage, they said.

Aramco didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while Sibur’s press service declined to comment, referring to comments that the company’s Chairman Dmitry Konov made in June about general cooperation talks between the two entities.

The venture would be Saudi Aramco’s first project with a Russian company that didn’t involve energy exploration or production. It conforms with Aramco’s strategy of boosting investments in refining and petrochemicals to reduce its reliance on crude sales.

Aramco began earlier this year to fully operate Sadara Chemical Co, a USD20 billion venture with Dow Chemical Co, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. In 2015, Aramco invested in a venture with Germany’s Lanxess that makes elastomers, which are used to make golf balls bouncier and chewing gum softer.

King Salman is scheduled to visit Russia on October 4-7 and meet President Vladimir Putin, Prime news service reported last week, citing an unidentified official in Moscow. Saudi Arabia and Russia were instrumental in an agreement that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major suppliers reached in December to cut output to help drain a global oversupply.

Sibur has been expanding in other emerging markets since 2011, when the company reached an agreement with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, to set up two rubber joint ventures. Ties with China strengthened as Sinopec and Silk Road Fund bought 10 percent each in the Russian company amid the Kremlin’s energy pivot toward Asia, triggered by US energy sanctions.

While Sibur is not on the international sanctions list, its co-owner, Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, became a sanctions target in 2014 over his close ties to Putin.

Saudi Aramco’s other local venture with a Russian partner, called Luksar, was owned equally by Aramco and Lukoil and focused on searching for and developing natural gas in the Saudi Rub’ al-Khali desert, also known as the Empty Quarter.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Russia’s Lukoil has postponed maintenance of hydro-cracking unit at its Volgograd refinery to March or April 2018, three trading industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Lukoil had previously planned to hold maintenance works at the refinery from Oct. 1 to Nov. 9.

Reuters calculations showed that the market would see an influx of extra 400,000 t of vacuum gasoil if the maintenance works were held from Oct. 1, while diesel production would shrink by 200,000 t in such case.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following the completion of the acquisition of US chemical company Chemtura at the end of April 2017, specialty chemicals company Lanxess has subsequently adjusted its group structure. Lanxess is reporting on five segments comprising a total of twelve business units, as per GV.

According to the company, flame retardant and lubricant additives are the two main pillars of Chemtura’s business and they now complement the current Lanxess portfolio combined in a new “Additives” business unit. These two business activities are integrated with Lanxess’s 'Rhein Chemie” business unit to form a new segment - 'Specialty Additives'.

The Organometallics business of Chemtura is integrated in the segment "Advanced Intermediates" and will become part of the "Advanced Industrial Intermediates" business unit. The "Advanced Intermediates" segment covers the intermediates and agrochemicals businesses.

The Urethanes Systems business of Chemtura forms a new business unit within the "Engineering Materials" segment, which now comprises the businesses for plastics and urethanes.

The "Performance Chemicals" segment is made up of the business units responsible for colour pigments, leather chemicals, material protection products, and water treatment technologies. The Arlanxeo segment encompasses the synthetic rubbers business.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2016, Lanxess AG started up a second production line for high-performance plastics compounding at its facility in Gastonia, N.C. The new line represents an investment of about USD15 million and doubles the site’s annual production capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 metric tons. In the plant, the basic polymers nylon and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) are mixed and refined with special additives and glass fiber, according to client requirements, to make the high-performance plastic product lines Durethan and Pocan. They are used primarily in the auto industry to manufacture lighter-weight plastic components that can replace metal parts in vehicles.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 16,600 employees in 29 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Oxide announces that it is planning to build a 300 kt vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant to support its strong position as a supplier to a broad range of markets, including the coatings, films and adhesives markets, said the company on its website.

The business is completing an engineering study into the construction of the plant that will also support the decision for the plant location, likely to be one of INEOS Oxide's integrated sites at Saltend, Hull (UK), Koln (Germany) or Antwerp (Belgium).

Each of these locations benefits from pipeline or terminal supply of feedstock ethylene, and low cost logistics for the other key raw material, acetic acid. In addition, the locations are also well positioned to supply the VAM market efficiently.

"Our VAM project represents a further major investment for INEOS and will commit the business to a spend in the hundreds of millions of Euros, whether it is a new build, or a revamp of the former VAM production facility in Saltend, Hull" says Graham Beesley, CEO of INEOS Oxide.

This development dovetails with the recent announcement by INEOS of major ethylene debottlenecks at Grangemouth (UK) and Rafnes (Norway).

Graham Beesley adds, "We are pleased to be re-entering the European VAM market where our upstream strength in ethylene and an array of top-notch strategic locations to choose from will give us a competitive advantage. The market is at present heavily reliant on imports from deep sea locations, and our new capacity is designed to plug the gap and improve supply dependability to our customer base".
MRC

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, July 2017 PE imports to Belarus dropped to 10,600 tonnes from 11,700 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies decreased purchasing of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and LLDPE. Overall PE imports reached 72,400 tonnes in January-July 2017, compared to 70,600 tonnes a year earlier. LDPE accounted for the main increase in imports.

The structure of PE imports to Belarus by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

July LDPE imports decreased to 2,800 tonnes from 3,900 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies reduced their PE purchasing in Russia on the back of the resumption of production at Polymir after a scheduled maintenance. Overall imports of this PE grade into Belarus totalled 20,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2017, compared to 16,300 tonnes a year earlier. An accident at the local producer's ethylene unit and, as a result, a major fall in capacity utilisation at LDPE production since July 2016 was the main reason for such a great increase in imports.

July LLDPE imports were 3,800 tonnes versus 4,300 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall LLDPE imports to Belarus exceeded 25,500 tonnes in January-July 2017, whereas this figure was 29,500 tonnes a year earlier.

July imports of high density polyethylene (HDPE) grew to 4,000 tonnes from 3,500 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies almost doubled their purchasing of PE from Russian producers. Thus, HDPE imports totalled 26,100 tonnes in January-July 2017, up by 5.3% year on year.

MRC