Dow announced the close of PP business sale to Braskem

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Dow Chemical Company DOW announced the close of the sale of Dow's global Polypropylene business to Braskem S.A. In addition to the transaction, the two companies will continue to evaluate potential future collaborations on growth opportunities in connection to their strategies.


"The global polypropylene divestiture is another major step in Dow's transformation and a strong example of our disciplined approach to portfolio and business prioritization," said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This divestment is in line with our strategy to transform our Performance Plastics business to focus on downstream, technology-differentiated solutions. It also allows us to both reduce debt and liberate capital and resources for Dow's higher growth, higher margin businesses."


The assets involved in the transaction included Dow's polypropylene manufacturing facilities at Schkopau and Wesseling, Germany, and Freeport and Seadrift, Texas. Dow's Polypropylene Licensing & Catalyst business and related catalyst facilities were excluded from the scope of the transaction.


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Romanian PVC-maker Oltchim to reduce output in October

(Bloomberg) -- Romanian state-controlled PVC-maker Oltchim SA will temporarily reduce output for a third month in October because of a shortage of working capital and raw materials, the company said in a statement on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.


Since 1966 Oltchim has provided chemical products. Its products, either PVC, caustic soda, propylene oxide, propylene glycol and polyether polyols, chlorosodics or construction materials, are appreciated in more than 80 countries.


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Borealis to buy assets to complement its existing businesses

(Plastemart) -- Borealis AG wants to buy assets to complement its existing businesses, as per Bloomberg, but currently has no deals on the table. Borealis is 64% owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co., with the rest is held by OMV AG, an Austrian refiner and oil and gas producer. Borealis would like to acquire olefin and polyolefin assets or ammonia and urea businesses.


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BP to sell its entire 36.9% stake in Trinidad's Atlas methanol plant

(ICIS) -- BP wants to sell its entire 36.9% stake in Trinidad's Atlas methanol plant as part of the oil giant's ongoing asset divestment programme, the company said on Thursday. A spokesman said BP was marketing its stake in the 1.7m tonne/year plant, which is a joint venture between BP and Methanex. The spokesman did not elaborate as to possible buyers. Canadian-based Methanex is majority owner of the plant and is considered a logical buyer for BP's portion.


A research note issued by Dahlman Rose in New York said, ⌠We continue to believe that Methanex is the most likely buyer as it has 63.1% majority ownership interest and controls 100% of the distribution rights to the methanol.


The report estimated that BP's share of the Atlas plant is worth $125m-175m (┬93m-130m).
Methanex did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The US is a net importer of methanol. Plants at Trinidad's Point Lisas Industrial Estate provide more than 70% of America's imports.


BP has committed to sell up to $30bn of non-core assets to help cover the cleanup costs of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The blowout left 11 workers dead and created one of the largest ever oil spills.


The British oil company has been selling assets for most of this year. Earlier this month, BP said it had sold assets in Africa for $296m to oil trading major Trafigura.


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Shell to shut down its entire refinery at Pulau Bukom in Singapore

(ICIS) -- Shell is in the process of shutting down its entire 500,000 bbl/day refinery at Pulau Bukom in Singapore and may also close nearby petrochemical units in an attempt to control a fire that has been burning since Wednesday, a company official said on Thursday. The shutdown process at the refinery site has been initiated and could take two days to be completed, Martijn van Koten, vice president for Shell's manufacturing operations said.


The company's integrated complex at Bukom has a crude distillation capacity of 500,000 bbl/day. It is Shell's largest refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity.


Shell's nearby ethylene cracker complex could be forced to shut as attempts are made to control the fire, van Koten said, but declined to comment on a specific timeline.


The Bukom site houses a mixed-feed cracker, with an 800,000 tonne/year ethylene capacity. The cracker has a 155,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit.


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