Sumitomo to start Russian petrochemical project

Last year, Marubeni, another Japanese company, announced plans to build a petrochemical complex in the
Russian city of Nakhodka, in cooperation with the Russian oil producer Rosneft.

In addition to the Far East project, in January this year Marubeni announced its intention to build a plant to
produce aromatic hydrocarbons, polyethyleneterephthalate and terephthalic acid in Tatarstan, one of the most
economically developed regions of Russia.

MRC

(plastemart) -- China plans to invest in 20 petrochemical projects in Iran lauding the country's advancement in petrochemical fields, as per FNA. China is Iran's top trade partner.

Iranian oil minister said. "Based on the latest agreements, Chinese investors intend to use such credit line for investing in 20 petrochemical projects in Iran," Qassemi said, expressing the hope that the projects would yield result sooner than the declared timeline. Beijing has also significantly increased its presence in Iran's oil and gas sector by signing a series of contracts worth up to 40 billion dollars in the past few years.

China boosted its oil imports from Iran by 30% in 2011 despite the West's pressure on the world's second largest economy to lower economic ties with Iran. China's crude oil imports from Iran have amounted to 27.76 million metric tons in 2011, Chinese General Administration of Customs announced in February. The figure shows that the country traded in nearly 557,000 barrels of oil from Iran on a daily basis last year.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Sadara Chemical Co., a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), will award all major contracts by Q3-2012 to build its USD20 bln petrochemical complex.

Two thirds of the engineering, procurement and construction contracts have already been awarded. Sadara will produce polyeurethanes, propylene oxide, propylene glycol, elastomers, linear low-density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, glycol ethers and amines. First production units are expected to come on line in the second half of 2015, while all units are expected to be up and running in 2016.

MRC

(Reuters) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) and Hainan province aim to win final approvals from the central government this year to expand the 160,000 bpd Hainan refinery .

The provincial government and Sinopec inked a cooperation agreement in December to add 100,000 bpd of crude refining capacity and 1 mln tpa of ethylene production capacity. The expansion project is estimated to cost 39 billion yuan (USD6.2 bln) and take 32 months to complete.

MRC

⌠This investment directly supports Dow's transformational strategy to enhance its feedstock flexibility and integration strength, and positions the Company for growth in attractive markets and geographies. Basic engineering work for the new on-purpose propylene production facility at Dow Texas Operations has commenced, and the project is on track for production start-up in 2015.

MRC