PGNiG gets regulatory approval to raise Polish gas prices

(businessweek) -- Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA (PGN), Poland's biggest natural-gas distributor, got a regulatory approval to increase prices, a move that will allow it to speed up investments and improve earnings.

Gornictwo, known as PGNiG, may boost prices for the largest industrial customers by an average 16 percent, Agnieszka Glosniewska, a spokeswoman for the Warsaw-based watchdog, said by phone today. The regulator also approved a 7.2 percent increase in the rates for households with lowest consumption.

The company, which buys about two-thirds of its annual 14.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia's OAO Gazprom, is losing money on sales of the fuel as the price it charges its customers doesn't cover the cost of imports. The purchase price is in dollars and based on nine-month average prices of oil-related products, while PGNiG sells gas at a rate set by the regulator.

⌠The new tariff will allow the company to implement its very ambitious investment plan, which is focused on gas search and exploration on the domestic market, Joanna Zakrzewska, a PGNiG spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mailed statement today.

New prices will be introduced from March 31 and will be in effect until the end of 2012. Last year, the state-controlled company sold 75 percent of gas to industrial clients, including PKN Orlen SA, the country's largest refiner, as well as chemical producers Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy SA (ZAP) and Azoty Tarnow.
MRC

(plasteurope) -- A EUR 40m capital increase is supposed to complete PET producer La Seda de Barcelona's financial restructuring and simultaneously shift the company's focus to a completely integrated PET packaging production chain. The latest financial injection is to go towards raising the activities of processing subsidiary Artenius PET Packaging Europe. LSB is also mulling the installation of a new PET line.

Against this bacjdrop, it comes as no surprise that APPE has announced the construction of a new plant in Katowice / Poland. The EUR 15m facility, which will turn out the entire APPE portfolio, including preforms and bottles, is due to be completed by the end of 2012 and will predominantly cater to the north and east European markets with a special focus on Russia and Ukraine.

APPE is also planning to build a new facility in Italy - an important European PET market where it does not yet have a production unit. The former Schmalbach-Lubeca business currently operates production plants in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Morocco, Turkey and Greece. In the future, APPE plans to focus increasingly on delivering innovative solutions and "through the wall" services.
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(polykemi) -- Swedish compounder Polykemi has invested EUR 3m in four new twin-screw extruders, installed at its headquarters as well as its site in Kunshan / China. Aside from raising overall compounding capacity, the investment also raises the plastics recycling capacities of its Ystad-based subsidiary Rondo-Plast.

The group also announced that it had appointed Budapest-based HSH Chemie the new distributor for the Polykemi and Rondoplast portfolio in eastern Europe.

HSH Chemie is part of the Ter Hell group and has been operating as a distributor in Hungary since 2000. At the same time, Polykemi announced that TLP - Teconologicplast had been named the new distributor for its portfolio in Spain.
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(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Siemens Industry Automation Division is providing another Zimpro wet air oxidation (WAO) system to treat wastewater at Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co., Ltd.'s facility, near the Yangzi River in Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China.

Siemens Industry Automation Division is providing another Zimpro wet air oxidation (WAO) system to treat wastewater at Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co., Ltd.'s facility, near the Yangzi River in Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. The most recent of seven Zimpro WAO systems installed at Sinopec facilities will be used to treat sulfidic spent caustic wastewater streams.

The Yangzi system will treat approximately 4 m3/hr (17.6 gpm) of wastewater. The system is anticipated to be operational by the end of 2012.

The WAO process will oxidize odorous reduced sulfur species such as sulfides and mercaptides. The system will also break down complex organic contaminants, such as phenols, to either carbon dioxide and water, or biodegradable organics. It will generate a biodegradable effluent that can be discharged to conventional biological wastewater treatment.

The Yangzi facility includes both a refinery and a petrochemical plant where fuels and ethylene are produced. This Sinopec project marks the ninth Zimpro WAO system installed by Siemens Water Technologies in China for spent caustic treatment.

Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co. Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary under China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.
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(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Total signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and Petrochemicals Industries Co. (PIC) for the planned development of a 300,000 bpd full-conversion refinery integrated with petrochemicals complex with Sinopec.

Total signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and Petrochemicals Industries Co. (PIC), two wholly owned subsidiaries of the Kuwait Petroleum Corp. on March 13. The MOU relates to a targeted participation in the Zhanjiang project in China. This project consists of a planned development of a 300,000 bpd full-conversion refinery integrated with petrochemicals and marketing, in partnership with Sinopec.

The proposed refining and petrochemicals platform will be designed to process Kuwaiti crude as feedstock and to produce high-quality refined and petrochemicals products.

"KPC is pleased to expand its cooperation with Total" declares Mr. Farouk Al Zanki, KPC Chief Executive Officer, after the signing of the MOU. 'Total, with its long experience in the downstream business in China coupled with know how in refining and petrochemicals operations, will add value to the China project. Moreover, Total's and KPC's strategic objectives in Guangdong are highly aligned," he adds.

"Total is pleased to have been selected by Kuwait Petroleum Corp. as its preferred partner to participate in the project of a top-performing refining and petrochemicals platform with Sinopec in China. This agreement will be the keystone of a long-term relationship with KPC", declares Mr. Christophe de Margerie, Total Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The project is in line with our strategy of expanding in growth markets, based on a few highly competitive and integrated platforms," he adds.
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