Aramco and Dow schedule final bids of giant petrochemical project

(plastemart) -- Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical Co have extended a deadline for companies to qualify for bidding to build a giant petrochemical project. This is an indication of the certainty of the project despite earlier doubts about the cost.

Originally the plant was to be built at Ras Tanura and get integrated with an expansion of the refinery. Relocate of the project to Jubail is expected to save around US$5 bln.

Besides saving money for reclaiming land at Ras Tanura, the new location will benefit from existing infrastructure in place, and synergies with an existing refinery at Jubail and a new one under construction.

MRCMRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

(plastemart) -- Polypropylene producer Petroquim has restarted operations in Chile after being out of service since February 2010, following an earthquake. Production rates are very low at about 10,000 tons, at the 100,000 tpa plant as the testing phase is currently underway at the plant, until everything is normalized. The PP plant stopped operations due to feedstock constraints caused by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake damaged the refinery that provides the feedstock.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Polypropylene is Vietnam's first petrochemical product to be manufactured from propylene gas from the Dung Quat Oil Refinery. The polypropylene plant rolled out its first product in the Dung Quat Economic Zone in Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province on July 15. Construction of the 150,000 tpa plant started in December 2007 with a total investment outlay of US$234 mln.

It is planned that its investor (the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group) will take over the plant from contractors before August 31 this year.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company expects to begin trial runs at its integrated petrochemical steam cracker complex in the Jubail Industrial City in the third quarter of 2010, as pre-commissioning is on schedule.

Sabic holds a 35% stake, while the privately-owned Al Kayan Petrochemical Company owns 20%. The balance 45% is held by Saudi shareholders following an initial public offering in 2007. The complex centers around a steam cracker with a nameplate capacity of 1.35 mln tpa of ethylene, 550,000 tpa of propylene, 109,000 tpa of benzene, 680,000 tpa of polyethylene, 350,000 tpa of polypropylene, 535,000 tpa of ethylene glycols, 260,000 tpa of polycarbonate, and other petrochemicals from 16 plants.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Nova Chemicals has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hess Corporation and Mistral Energy to buy and transport all the ethane produced from Hess's Tioga Gas Plant in North Dakota via a pipeline to Alberta, Canada under a long-term arrangement. The pipeline is expected to start up in Q3-2012 and is subject to regulatory and other approvals.
Declining production of ethane in the province has driven the contract with Hess, wherein Mistral will design, construct, own and operate the proposed Vantage Pipeline. The initial pipeline capacity is planned to be approximately 45,000 bpd of ethane with the potential for expansion to about 60,000 bpd to handle future ethane supply from Williston Basin producers. This arrangement is one of several projects by Nova Chemicals to complement conventional ethane supply sources in Alberta for its Joffre petrochemical complex, with a capacity to produce 4.8 bln lbs/year of ethane-based ethylene and 860 million lbs/year of polyethylene at Joffre. Alberta ethane production, stripped from natural gas streams, has fallen to 222,000 bpd, down from 240,000 bpd.

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