Saudi Aramco to sign a final deal with Sinopec to build a new oil refinery

(Arabian oil and gas) -- Saudi Aramco is set to sign a final deal with China's Sinopec Group on 14 January, to build a new 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery in Yanbu, according to a Reuters report.
Under the initial agreement, Aramco will hold a 62.5% stake in the joint venture formed to develop the project, now rebranded as Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co (YASREF), with Sinopec owning the rest. Construction of the refinery, located on the Red Sea, is now underway.

The refinery is slated to process heavy crude from Saudi Arabia's Manifa oilfield, which is currently under development to reach an output of 900,000 bpd by 2014.

Sinopec is partnered for a mammoth natural alcohol plant with Kayan under a USD130 million contract.

MRC

(arkema) -- Arkema announces an average price increase of EUR 70/mt on its oxygenated solvents portfolio effective on February 1st 2012. This rise is linked to propylene and derivatives price increase beginning of this year.

The main products concerned are Diacetone Alcohol (DA), MethylIsoButylKetone (MIBK), MethyIsoButylCarbinol (MIBC), Hexylene Glycol (HG) and Isophorone (IPHO).

These products are widely used in many industrial applications in fine chemistry as much as in formulation.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The European January styrene barge contract has been confirmed at EUR 1,214/tonne (EUR 1,577/tonne), up EUR120/tonne from the previous month, as the initial settlement received further support from players on Thursday.

One producer involved in the agreement said it had initially pushed for a larger increase this month in linewith raw material price rises, but conceded that the agreement was a compromise that reflected seasonally low demand in January.


Indeed, one downstream aromatics player had expected a much lower increase of around EUR 80-90/tonne this month.

Another seller said that the rise in raw material costs had to be passed on, but added that with demand not as high as expected this month, any larger increase might slow down consumption.
Wider economic uncertainty in the first quarter of 2012 also figured into discussions, said the seller.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- In January Maoming Petrochemical Company Ltd., (China) intends to reduce linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) supply by 40 percent due to reduced production of the grade.

The company's annual production capacity at its full density polyethylene facility accounts for 200,000 tonnes, while the average monthly production of LLDPE film comes to about 10,000 tonnes.

In January Maoming Petrochemical's facility would produce 6,000 tonnes of LLDPE film to deliver to the market.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- Formosa Plastics Corporation (Taiwan) schedules its polypropylene (PP) facility closure later in Jan 2012 due to weak PP demand. The facility is located in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China and has the annual production capacity of 450,000 tonnes.

Downstream demand is projected to fall down with the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays in Jan 22 - Jan 28 in China.

Formosa Plastics Corporation's 170,000 ton/year line at the facility is to be closed from Jan 19 to Jan 31.

MRC