Formosa Petrochemical restarts operations of the 2nd unit at its only refinery in China

(plastemart) -- Formosa Petrochemical has resumed operations at its only refinery’s secondary unit in China. The 80,000 bpd residue desulphurizer unit (RDS) was closed for unscheduled maintenance on 12 October after a leak was reported.

The company's 540,000 bpd Mailiao plant will be operated at about 96.5% capacity in November following the RDS restart, which was being operated at less than 95% during the maintenance period.

The company is also operating its two 84,000 bpd residue fluid catalytic crackers (RFCCs) at around 80% of its capacity because of the unplanned maintenance closure of the secondary unit.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The Company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- A fire broke out in one section of the residual hydrotreater unit at BP's Texas City refinery, report Texas City officials and BP. The Texas City Department of Emergency Management described the fire as an oil fire and said through an automated emergency line that is was still in progress and that it was being monitored.

According to BP spokesman Scott Dean, all workers around the unit were safely evacuated and there have been no reports of injuries. The incident was a low-level emergency that had no impact in the community surrounding the facility, reported The Galveston Daily News.

As MRC informed earlier, BP announced an agreement to sell its refinery in Texas City, Texas, and a portion of its retail and logistics network in the southeast US to Marathon Petroleum for USD2.5 billion. The purchase is expected to close early next year. Oil major Marathon also agreed to pay BP up to USD700 million over the next six years based on future margins and throughput at the plant. Investors reacted positively to the news, with Marathon's share price rising 5% after the announcement was made.
MRC

(sibur) -- Sibur, a Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, and Sinopec International (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), signed an agreement that will see Sinopec purchase 25% + 1 share of Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubbers Plant JSC (KSRP).

The agreement was signed in presence of Sibur's CEO Dmitry Konov and President of China Petrochemical Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Wang Tianpu. The deal is to be approved by Russian and Chinese regulators.

Earlier the parties signed an agreement on cooperation to create a joint venture, which will produce nitrile rubbers (NBR) on the base of KSRP. Once the joint venture is established, the shareholders will also consider the possibility of increasing the plant’s annual NBR capacity from 42.5 to 56 thousand tonnes.

Sibur and Sinopec are also discussing projects on setting up a joint venture to produce nitrile and polyisoprene rubbers in Shanghai. Future operations’ annual capacity for each type of rubber is currently estimated at the level of 50 thousand tonnes, to be determined more precisely once the feasibility study is completed.

Sibur is the largest integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company in Russia and CIS as well as Central and Eastern Europe as measured by revenues.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

(Reuters) - Swiss speciality chemicals maker Clariant reported a larger-than-expected fall in net income for the third quarter, hit by fresh deterioration in the global economy.

Clariant, whose products put colour into plastics, said earnings fell to 49 million Swiss francs from 81 million a year ago and against an average analysts forecast of 53.6 million.

The chemical industry's dependence on highly cyclical machinery makers, car manufacturers and builders makes it especially vulnerable to economic downturns.

Clariant said that during the third quarter growth in the rest of the world, including in Asia, was unable to offset slackness in Europe where the euro zone debt crisis weighed.

For full-year 2012, Clariant expects flat sales growth in local currencies.It also expects raw material costs to be unchanged this year versus 2011, while exchange rates should remain at the levels of the start of the year.

As MRC wrote earlier, Clariant agreed to acquire the remaining 40 % share of a syngas catalysts joint venture between the Estonia-based holding company Alvigo and Sud-Chemie, which was recently acquired by Clariant. The Sud-Chemie Alvigo Catalysts GmbH (SCAC) venture is a leading producer of syngas catalysts, based in the Ukraine.

MRC

(upstreamonline) -- Strong downstream activity and good production figures in the US Gulf of Mexico sent BP to an increased profit in the third quarter.

The UK supermajor, which has just agreed a huge sale of its Russian joint venture stake to Rosneft, managed to weather the storm of Hurricane Isaac which somewhat negated positives in the upstream sector.

Net profit for the three months to the end of September was USD5.5 billion as against USD5.22 billion a year earlier and a loss of USD1.34 billion in the second quarter.

The rise came against the backdrop of a sizeable fall in revenues from USD97.73 billion a year ago to USD93.12 billion this time around, also down on USD94.89 billion in the second quarter.

Although the depreciation bill rose by some USD550 million, purchases were chopped by over USD5 billion which boosted operating profit.
MRC