Unipetrol to shut urea unit to improve EBIT

(euroinvestor) -- Czech petrochemical holding Unipetrol AS (BAAUNIPE.PR) Friday said it has decided to shut down its urea production unit in the Czech city of Litvinov as of January 2013, as the plant was a loss maker.

"Its impact on the profitability of the whole Unipetrol group has been negative in the last couple of years. No reverse of this trend is expected according to internal evaluation, and the evaluation of an independent external advisor," the company said in a statement.

Unipetrol also said the closure comes as future operations of the urea unit would require significant investments upwards of several hundred million koruna (CZK100 million = USD4.9 million).

The plant closure will have a positive impact on Unipetrol's pre-tax earnings as of 2013, with a further positive impact in following years, the company said.

Unipetrol, majority-owned by Poland's PKN Orlen SA (PKN.WA) said it will cut approximately 50 full time jobs as a result of the closure.
MRC

(sibur) -- Dmitry Konov, CEO of Russian petrochemical company SIBUR, and Wang Tianpu, President of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.), have signed a Cooperation Agreement during the state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China.

The agreement sets the framework for two cooperation projects to establish a joint venture, manufacturing nitrile rubber (NBR) and isoprene rubber (IR) in the Shanghai area of China. The Joint venture will use the patents and technologies of SIBUR. The NBR and IR plants are expected to have an annual capacity of 50,000 mt each, subject to finalisation based on the feasibility study. The cooperation will be a two-stage process, with the NBR launch followed by the IR plant.

The feasibility study for the NBR project has been successfully completed and will shortly be filed with local regulators. For the IR project, feasibility study is about to begin.

On 28 April 2012, the parties have signed a Cooperation Agreement allowing them to form a joint venture manufacturing nitrile rubber (NBR) in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The new JV will boost the existing NBR capacity of the Krasnoyarsk rubber plant from 41,000 to 56,000 tonnes per year.
MRC

(upstreamonline) -- Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft has said it will decide by the end of the year whether to ‘enter or exit’ Libya's giant Elephant oil field under a draft deal delayed by last year’s conflict.

Gazprom was set to acquire half of Eni's 33.3% stake in the project, which Eni valued at USD170 million, but the deal stalled due to the conflict.

At the time the Italian player said the option agreement had only halted "temporarily".Mellitah Oil & Gas, Eni's joint venture with Libya's National Oil Corporation, operates the massive field, which is the country's largest, producing 130,000 barrels per day before the war.

The venture began to revive Elephant's production in early November, months ahead of schedule and despite Eni fears the conflict had left it 'in ruins'.

Located in Libya’s south-western desert about 800 kilometres from Tripoli, the field has been producing since 2004.

Meanwhile, Dyukov has also said his company is not a potential bidder for BP’s stake in Anglo-Russian venture TNK-BP.

"We haven't received an offer to buy BP's stake, we haven't looked into possibility of acquiring BP's stake in TNK-BP, we haven't offered to acquire BP's stake in TNK-BP ourselves," he told reporters.

The British oil major said last week it would pursue a sale after receiving expressions of interest in its one-half stake inTNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil producer, amid a shareholders spat.
MRC

(chemmonitor) -- Production rates of ethylene in the world market is predicted to show a significant rise. The capacity is likely to go up by almost 28.5 million metric tons in about four years from 145 million metric tons in 2010.

The uptick of world throughput will result from increased consumption of polyethylene (PE) and monoethylene glycol (MEG).

Ethylene capacity in the Asian market was heard to escalate in 2016 by about 37% from almost 45.9 million metric tons in 2010 to 62.9 million metric tons.

MRC

(chemmoitor) -- In early June, ExxonMobil (Houston) has applied for permit applications with the United States Environmental Protection Agency & Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for 2 new polyethylene lines at its existing plant and a new ethane cracker construction in Texas.

The final decision on the permit should be given in 2013.
MRC